Swimming, Horses and Sleeping Sisters

We have been trying to swim as much as possible this summer. Our playgroup meets at a pool every other week and we also go to another friend's house when we have time. The pools are the best, according to Ellen, when they have a diving board and a slide. Arianna likes them when they are shallow enough that she can touch (3 ft.). As soon as I take Arianna into a part of the pool that is too deep for her she gets tense and doesn't want to let go of me--which makes it pretty difficult to learn to swim! As you can see from the 2nd picture she is very comfortable in the water and is swimming all around. She even jumps off the side and swims now. Here she is showing how to float on her back (in the shallow end of course).




I got an email from one of my homeschooling lists about a teenager who wanted to invite anyone out to help with or learn about her miniature horse. So, knowing that the girls would absolutely love this, I called the mother the other day and set up a time to meet them. The girls were so excited when they emailed us pictures of the horse. We spent several hours over at the barn this morning. The girls learned about grooming with the comb and 2 brushes. They got to pet her (Star) a lot. Star is expecting a foal any day. I could see the baby moving in the horse's belly. We can't wait to go back out there and see the newborn. The horse is still being trained so no one rides her yet.


This is how Daniel found the girls the other morning. Arianna is sideways and Ellen is on top of her legs. They thought it was really funny when they woke up and I showed them this picture.