I've been hesitating to write this blog for fear my little crew of new Beach Moms will disband but we're growing and I'm so excited! For a long time I have wanted to get a Moms Swim Club organized where we have enough Moms to divide into two groups one to swim and one to watch kids play on the beach. Up until recently I haven't met a whole lot of swimming moms looking for this kind of arrangement. Last year I had Kelley (sniff, sniff) who had the same childcare restraints I did, a surfing husband, loved to chase turtles and we were the same speed!! And then she moved away (more sniffing) but I know she'll come back to visit me soon (hint, hint!). So this summer Hubby did the Mountain Man Triathlon and I bumped into an old running partner, from when Hannah was a baby, and she was interested in swimming! We are currently up to 4 members but at least 4 more have expressed interest and its awesome! We even saw a turtle at Lanikai last week, which has never happened to me before! We also saw dolphins at the start of the Splash and Dash race on Saturday before we got in the water, another first for Kaneohe Bay! In other news:
I love this picture of Hannah and her ballerina buddies. This is their costume for an upcoming performance. They were allowed to try it on to make sure it fit and then ordered to put it away until show time. We of course put it on at home to show Dad and immediately got something on it, Hannah is convinced the audience will be far enough away not to see it. She clearly has learned laundry skills from her Mom, if no one sees it, its not really there.
Ella is an awesome Mom, she has four kids, 2 girls and 2 boys (although I've only ever seen one of the boys- maybe the other is away at college or something). And she tucks them all in at night and dresses the one that has a change of clothes every morning. When we go to a pool or water slide she strips baby down and takes her on the water slide naked, neatly seated between her own little legs. She has "Brand New Baby" on in the above picture. This is the one that goes with her everywhere. "Big Sister" generally naps in the car while we do errands or stays home. And the boy I have seen (Peter Pan doll) usually stays home. I don't know how she manages them all but she's doing a great job.
The Artist. Hannah has recently decided that she is an artist and it is so fun to watch her create. Mind you, we are personally responsible for great destruction of rain forests with all the paper she is going through but sometimes we head outside and use our awesome driveway canvass. We have the sweetest Tutu neighbor who has adopted the girls and keeps them supplied with sidewalk chalk and pads of paper. Thankfully our neighbors that share our driveway don't seem to mind all the fairy villages and mermaid scenes we create!