Swimming

Sure, we didn't get to stay in Florida long enough to see the space shuttle launch (and nope, we're not going back for it, either, else we'd miss our theater date for "A Year with Frog and Toad").

We did see the shuttle on the launch pad, however, which is at least one dream come true.

We built sandcastles.

We spent hours listening to books together in the car (that reminds me that, now that we're back at our home public library, Willow needs the rest of those Kingdom Keepers books!).

We learned a LOT about seashells.

We learned that we do NOT like outlet malls.

We ate authentic key lime pie (dream come true!).

And somehow, in the hours every single day that we spent at beaches on both sides of the peninsula and at pools in every single hotel and motel we stayed at on our trip, both of my girls became pretty good swimmers. Considering that Willow only learned to swim with struggling strokes in the middle of last summer, and Sydney only taught herself those same struggling strokes this winter, this is no mean feat.

Sydney can swim with her face in the water (I cannot do this):


She can tread water (I CAN do this, but not so fancy):


She can swim on her back (nope, not me), and Willow, who I watched practice this over and over and over again day after day after day on our vacation, can perform the unimaginable-to-me act of diving underwater and TOUCHING THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL:


Thank goodness we're homeschoolers. Thank goodness that in the two weeks that we were gone, we didn't "miss" school, but instead did some of the best learning that we've done all year.

Thank goodness for audiobooks.

Thank goodness for ocean documentaries and Bill Nye and Space Buddies.

Thank goodness for sand, and buckets and shovels to dig and carry and sculpt with.

Thank goodness for swimming.

But most of all, thank goodness for being home! We've jumped right back in again, with gardening and painting and the baking of sweet cornbread. We have a birthday party coming up, which means rainbow cake, and an international fair next month, and just this afternoon I bought the girls a beginner's chemistry set.

Thank goodness for chemistry sets is what I HOPE I'll be saying soon!