Kids

Not much is happening right now.  We have had a couple of rainy days here, which is actually fine by us.  We need it desperately. 

Arlington and Finley wrapped up a week of American Girl camp.  They really enjoyed it.  They made wooden skateboards for their dolls (they had to build and paint them), shoes, and teddy bears.  They also came home with cute projects they worked on.  Finley really loved it, even more than Arlington.  She is such a doll girl.

We are now camp free for a week, then Finley and Cainan go to one more camp each.  Arlington is done for the summer.  She had three weeks of camp in a row, so I think she is ready to just play with her friends now.  Before we know it, school will be here.  I cannot believe it is almost August.

Cainan has been doing a weekly Lego building class at the library.  Our library has some amazing programs.  All of them are free for the summer, but we had to sign up.  I am glad we did, because the free classes filled up quickly.  Every Tuesday from 3-4:30 he goes to Lego class, and a lot of his little friends are there too.  It is cool.

Arlington is doing a writing class this summer every Wednesday.  This class is ALSO free and through the library.  She is really loving it.  She writes a bit every day, and has been working on a little bit of her story each day.  She and Mat are still working on their little book, but she is working on a story called "The Bald People".  She is so funny.  She said it is about a monster who eats everyone's hair, and the heroine has the longest hair of all, and she plans on keeping it. 

Finley has been working hard this summer on reading, math and braille.  I am proud of how far she has come with all three.  She has gotten very proficient with her Ipad as well.  Now that we have Bookshare (an online library FREE for blind and vision impaired people) she has been listening to tons and tons of books.  And today we decided to try reading a simple one together.  Using the Ipad for reading for her is about the only way she can read.  She can make the print as big as she likes, and she makes it bigger than I expected her to.  It kind of hurt my heart to see how big her comfort print was.  But whatever works to help her.

Cainan has been working hard on reading and math as well this summer.  He struggles much more with math, believe it or not.  Reading - he seems to be able to decode words fairly well, which is surprising.  He is making great strides, and I feel like he is going to have a good start to the year.

Finley said something funny last night while watching the Olympics.  She said when she grows up, she wants to be a gymnast.  I told her "then you have to take gymnastics lessons".  Her response?  "Oh.......never mind".  Weirdo.

We let the kids stay up late last night and watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.  Cainan only made it to about 8:30 before he was too tired.  That boy needs his sleep.  Finley made it to 9:30 until she faded (even though she swears she was fine).  And Arlington made it to 11:00, and probably would have stayed up to the end, but Mat and I were tired and shooed her to bed.  Arlington has always needed very little sleep.  She was up bright and early at 8am this morning even after that late night.  The kids all enjoyed the ceremonies, and Arlington was very interested in the parade of countries.  It was fun to talk about it with her.

Finley and I went to a playdate today with kids who will be in her first grade class.  This was an idea of one of the other moms in the class, and it was a great one.  It was nice for Finley to be able to meet a lot of her future classmates, and I met a lot of wonderful moms.  Finley has a few kids in her class that were there last year, and that helps. 

 Finley had a great time, and the BEST part?  She made a new friend ALL.BY.HERSELF.  This was quite a feat for Finley.  She doesn't really branch out at playdates with a lot of kids because it is overwhelming for her visually.  But today - she came away with a new buddy.  I was pretty excited.

Tomorrow we are attending a fundraiser for a local family whose little daughter is in remission from Cancer.  Every year they raise money for the Jimmy Fund in honor of their daughter's good health.  I am excited to be able to go to this fundraiser, and the mom and I have recently become friends.  It feels good to be able to support another local family for such an important cause.

That about wraps us up.  We are enjoying the summer and looking forward to a few more weeks of relaxation before school begins.