More Swim Lesson Goodness

 Kate jumped off the diving board all by herself holding a noodle at her last swim lesson! She was so excited to get to jump off the board again and could hardly wait through the lesson to the fun part. She jumped off to Elisabeth first and went under and then decided she could do it all by herself with a noodle. She did! She jumped off, became fully submerged, came up for air and then swam to the side with her noodle. She is doing so good! She also swam about 15 feet all by herself today! Wow! She earned herself a 'pink' milkshake from her daddy when she did that. : ) 

Tutu Sillies

 Yep. Sometimes you just have to run around with tutu's on your head and act all crazy.  : )

Friendship Bracelets

 The friendship bracelet craze has hit the Hornback house.... There was a girl selling bracelets at swim practice this morning. She was selling them to raise money for a good cause and I got one for each of the kids to help her reach her goal. While I was telling the kids how I used to make these bracelets when I was young and on the swim team, Rachel begged me to teach them how. Luckily Mom had several skeins of embroidery thread in the garage that she pulled out and I set to teaching the kids the easiest bracelet. They were thrilled. And hooked. And now we have lots of friendship bracelets at our house. The anklet above is the very first one Rachel made - she did a good job! Noah made a very cool one too, out of 'boy colors'. He also made a Maryville Rebels one to wear. So funny that they enjoyed making them so much. It was a very rainy day today, so it was a great project for the kids. Rachel made some for herself, a friend and matching ones for her American Girl doll. Even Doug got in on the action and actually taught me to make a new bracelet. Very cool.

Green Meadow Swim Team: Team Photo 2012

Kate Jumps Off The Diving Board

Kate has been doing so good at her swim lessons! We have been asking her all summer if she would like to jump off the diving board and have Miss Elisabeth catch her and her answer has always been "I'm afraid to do that." Today her improvements were so obvious with her swimming. She is actually getting her little tush and feet up behind her in the water and is kicking and coming up for breaths of air. She is learning to tread water and although it has felt like it is slow going, she has come a very long way since the beginning of summer. Today she agreed to try jumping off the diving board into Miss Elisabeth's arms. She did great and once she did it, she didn't want to stop. She must have jumped off about 5 or 6 times. There's no looking back now! We are so proud of her!

4th of July 2012

 We had a simple and fun Fourth of July this year. We spent the morning at home while I finished up a cake order and then headed over to Mom's for the afternoon of swimming and grilling up some dinner. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, sweet corn on the cob and lots of yummy deserts. We finished the night at home with the kids piled up with Doug and I on the couch watching the Knoxville fireworks show to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. It was really nice. Kate was dying to go outside and try to catch more fireflies, but by the time we got out there, they must have gone to sleep. We couldn't find any. Probably a good thing though, because we had three tired little people to put to bed. : ) Happy Independence Day!!

Noah Caught His First Bass!

While Noah was staying over at a friends house this weekend they went fishing at the duck pond in Alcoa. He was the only one who caught a fish and he was so excited!! Way to go, Noah!!

Baby Bird

 The kids found this poor little guy on our driveway this afternoon. The high today was 105 degrees and I knew if we didn't get him out of the sun and off the hot concrete, he was a goner. He doesn't appear to be very old, and we weren't sure if he fell and was injured, or if he hopped onto the driveway. I don't think he can fly and doesn't seem to have all of his feathers yet. I scooped him up and placed him in the shade, very near to where the kids found him, just in case his nest is nearby. He was trembly and you could see that his little heart was crazy, so I went and found an old spoon rest and got some water for him. I eased it up next to him and sprinkled a little of it on him. He hopped right in. He sat there for about an hour and later when I checked on him, he was gone. We are hoping we helped, even just a little bit and he makes it.

Big Bro & A Letter

 Noah is such a good big brother. The girls are so blessed that he will basically play anything with them. I smiled so big when I happened upon Noah helping Kate play 'Princess' on the computer this morning. He is so good with her and it was just cute that he cared so much to help her through each process and would answer her questions. Rachel wrote a letter to Mrs. Johnson today to mail. She was so excited and worked so hard on the letter. I think it literally took her 35 minutes to write the letter. She had me write it first, writing exactly what she wanted and then she carefully copied the letter so that it was just right with the right spelling and punctuation. Then she decorated it just right before she put it in the envelope. So sweet.