Princess Ball!

This was the 2nd best day of Anna's life (maybe Brett's too). Her school had a princess ball for dad's and daughters. Brett gave her the option of going to the ball or going to dinner and a movie (hmmm, I wonder why?). Anna's first question after she stopped jumping up and down was, "Which one would give me more good time with dad?" I stayed neutral on this one.

I curled her hair with a curling iron and it took about 15 minutes. She was NOT thrilled about having to stand there for 15 minutes until she saw the final look in the mirror (see below) It was so cute seeing her so excited and happy.

Afterwards, Anna said they danced the whole time and that dad was swinging her up and over and all around! Brett told me that when they first got there he asked if she wanted to dance or get their pictures taken. She thought for a second and then said pictures so her hair wouldn't be messed up. Brett said it most definitely was a fundraiser based on the decorations and dessert :)

Prop 8 from a child's perspective.....

Anna told me that a girl at school and her were talking about Prop 8 (marriage defined as between a man and a woman. She said that the girl's thought was that it should be equal for everyone to get married so it is fair. I asked her how old this girl was (surprised that she would have that kind of response. I was curious now about how this came up. (In my mind I was thinking “WHAT? Are they teaching you about this already in school???!!!!!)

(Side Note: Yesterday Brett overheard Josh talking to his friend about how some people think boys should marry boys and girls should marry girls. Then both boys just cracked up! That's the way it should be!)

I then asked Anna how this subject came up. Anna said that she'd asked thegirl if she knew about it…:) Trying not to smile, I asked Anna what she told the girl. These were here exact words, “Well, mom, to make it simple, I just said that I thought that the children needed a mom and a dad because if you have two dads than the child would never know about a mom’s love and if you had two moms then you wouldn’t know about how proud your dad gets of you.” Those really were her own words – whatever she has gleaned/overheard and churned around in her little mind – I’m glad this is her perspective.

……and even though I am the mom, I was so proud of her!

Swim Team

Well, we are happy to report that Anna and Josh are having a great time with swim team. It turns out that I worried needlessly (what???!!) about them having a good experience at their first meet. Their coaches signed up Josh for 5 races and Anna for 4. The most you could have was 5 and they both were wishing they had more. We can't believe how much they have improved. In just a short time they've gone from not being able to swim the length of the pool period (let alone any sort of swim stroke) to swimming the length many times with at least an imitation of the 4 strokes: freestyle, butterfly, breast stroke, or back stroke. Both of them like back stroke the best because "they can breathe". Don't blame them.

The best part about this is that they love it. Not once have they not wanted to go to practice or the meets. The coaches are really, really nice too.

The coaches have started to let Josh practice with the 7-8 year olds instead of right after. I didn't know about this until Anna and Josh told me about it. I think the coaches noticed that it was a long 2 hours for mom chasing the little ones while waiting for both practices to be over. Very nice of them! On some days Anna and Josh just ride their bikes over and Josh watches Anna practice and then Anna watches Josh practice. (So that was great of them to condense it for us!)

Every Friday night before the meet they have a team meeting and the kids get certificates for improving their times and medals for being the "Swimmer of the Meet" or the "Swimmer of the Week". Anna already earned a medal "Swimmer of the Week" for they way she helped Josh out when he did his work out with her age group. They said she was very caring to her brother which makes us so darn proud of her!
They get a ribbon for every race they swim in - how about that!?!! What kid wouldn't love that! We have a lot of white (3rd), green (4th), and mostly pink (6th)ribbons so far.

Here are some clips of them doing the butterfly. Something I never could even start to do. We are so proud of them. I remember seeing Amy doing the butterfly beautifully in either Becky's pool or at Heritage Pool last summer. One day maybe they will look more like that!

Fort Anna! No boys allowed!

Anna was much more interested in fort building than sledding.
She was also excited about having curly hair for the day :)
She said, "This was my best day ever!"