Blackberries

Today, we skipped church to hang out. We picked our brains to figure out what we could do and Jim came up with blackberries. We piled in the car pretty quickly and headed down to see Aunt Brenda. She and her husband have a blackberry farm and winery. I'd never been. It was fantastic.

We all got to ride on the golf carts, pick berries and just hang out. Such a nice way to spend the day. Maddy rode on Jim's shoulders carrying a bucket. Every time Jim would drop a blackberry into her bucket, she'd pick it up almost immediately and eat it up. She was covered in juice quickly.

Reagan would pick berries for a while, but then go back into the store and hang out with Brenda and Jimmy. She got to eat popsicles and chill out. Anytime there was an opportunity to get into the gold cart, she was all over it. She wanted to do anything to climb and drive. She had a great time.

By the time we left, the girls were tired. Maddy fell asleep on the way home and then took another nap. I had to lay down for a bit because of my bee-bo. Reagan chilled out watching Bugs Bunny for a bit before ramping up for the evening again.

Awesome day to reconnect!

Bless you

Maddy's language is just getting better and better. She literally says just about anything we say. Today, someone sneezed and she actually said "bless you". So not only can she say it, she knows the right timing as well.

Fruit

Maddy loves fruit. Actually both she and Reagan do. Jim started grabbing a piece of fruit as a snack. He's done that for weeks. And every time, both girls curl up with him on the couch and eat it with him. With the new summer season, we've had lots of different fruits. We have discovered that Maddy and Reagan both LOVE apricots, nectarines, peaches and all sorts of berries. Maddy tonight chomped down on a nectarine. She ate it like nothing. Super fast. Yum.

Reagan took her time. So I grabbed a bite. It was super sour. Wow. Reagan and I puckered up a bit. I was amazed. Maddy didn't seemed phase by the taste. Wow.

Karate chop

Tonight was karate. She's starting to get a tad busy isn't she? She is getting confidence and starting to look forward to the class. I love it. We had Sensei Halvin tonight. He is really good with kids. Once Reagan got out onto the floor, she became the one that made him laugh, a lot.

He had them doing kick and punch drills. I was actually impressed with her load on her front kick and equally impressed with her fist. :) Her "noise" was extra loud and every time she kicked she yelled. Halvin liked that.

After three classes, she is definitely getting the hang of it. Plus, she looks totally cute in her gi. :)

Little Swimmer Girl

Tonight Reagan swam. Simple as that. She pushed off from the side of the pool and swam to her teacher. Dog paddle and kicking. Face in the water. Only one breath to get about a quarter way across. I didn't actually get to see it - Jim did. But I am still oh so proud of my little girl.

I'm impressed with the fact that she has made such huge improvements in 10 lessons. That's it. She started with a crazy fear of water. She hate putting her face in or getting her hair wet. Now she is willingly swimming to her teacher. How cool is that?

Little Musician

Maddy may be a budding musician. Anytime I put the Suzuki music in the CD player, she starts to dance and wiggle. She will actually come over to me if we are at home to listen. Today in the car, I had the Mozart Einsteins DVD playing. When the piano part started, she started "playing" a pretend piano. It was adorable. I asked her "are you playing a piano" and she giggled.

Testing?

Should we or should we not send her to kindergarten early? That is the question. So far, she's had two days of testing and she is going back for her final set of tests tomorrow. This is, quite frankly, ridiculous to me. I know she's smart, but I'm not really caring at this point if she does. She is very smart and I know it. She knows it.

The tests that they have them go through are just crazy. It's interesting to see how they test. It's reading, writing, recognition of words, sounds, pictures. It's sequence and memory. It's crazy.  Most of the testing was K-6 or K-Adult. So where is her mark?

She got so restless the psychologist called it a day and asked for us to bring her back tomorrow. She did say "I'd like to see what she can do". It set me back some. I found myself getting really frustrated because I wasn't sure what the real expectation was at all.

So tomorrow, Jim is taking her. I'm going to work. He wants to see how she does. I'm curious and will pray. I don't know the best answer.