Comet

Through binoculars eyepiece, taken with phone camera. 

Diving Week #3

While both girls enjoyed their dive course, Jenna liked the experience so much that she signed up for a second course the very next week with the same instructor so she could continue practising what she'd learned.  It turned out that she was the only student in this second class so the instructor tailored the course for her. This week Jenna learned some backward dives.

Diving Week #2

Here are some highlights from the second (and last week) of diving class, which ran for 8 sessions over two weeks. In this second week, Jenna and Kate learned pike and tuck techniques, executing them first in vertical jumps, then actual dives. Kate is in the blue swimsuit and Jenna is in green.

Diving Day #4

Day #4 of diving class. The girls learned what is called "The Approach".  Which I mistakenly called "The Parade" because it looked somewhat catwalk-y. Now the girls think their mother is absolutely daft.

Diving Day #3

The girls learned to stand on one leg today. And then launch. It took a while learning to balance on a bouncy board, but they had a lot of fun. 

Diving Day #2

Launching off the board today. Kate and Jenna are in different swimsuits, thankfully, so I (and their instructors, and everyone else, really) can tell them apart).

Diving Day #1

The girls started an intro course on springboard diving on Monday. 

On this first day, they both turned up in matching swimsuits. Not because they like dressing alike (they actually don't like to do this) but because their other suits were in the wash. The diving instructors, upon seeing them, exclaimed, "Twins! Oh, this will be hard."

To which Jenna and Kate replied in unison, "We're not twins. We're 17 months apart."

Probably didn't help their case, I don't think!

Funky introduction aside, they are enjoying diving. Jumping off the blocks during swim training has certainly helped them be unafraid of entering the water head-first, and the ease with which they perform this pool-side entry belies the months of bellyflopping during swim training in the past when they were first learning this. 

Still, launching vertically off a springboard is very different from leaping for distance off a starting block, so they've had to unlearn and relearn some techniques. 

We are all excited to see how they progress through the next two weeks!

Incidentally, if you're having as much trouble as I am telling the girls apart in their identical swimsuits, look for a brown wristband on Jenna's left wrist.

Blueberry Picking

We picked blueberries last weekend! 

We love picking fruit - we've picked strawberries and raspberries in the past, as well as apples and citrus fruit, but this was our first time at a blueberry farm.

The cousins came, too.

Also grandma Karen

and Grandpa Arne.

I hadn't seen a blueberry plant in person till that morning. 

The berries were exquisite. So flavorful.

After, we stopped at our regular strawberry farm to buy some ready-picked strawberries. We were sad to have missed the strawberry U-pick season but glad there were still farm berries to take home and turn into jam!

Swim Meet 2

A fortnight ago, the girls swam in another swim meet. All did well - they were put in mostly longer-distance events than the previous meet, and everyone swam the maximum number of events (four) allowed. I volunteered for a job on deck, so when I had some down time, I got to take some close-up shots and videotape some of the races. 

Here is Emily winning her 100 yd backstroke heat.

And here is Emily again, winning her 100 yd freestyle heat.

These Little Piggies

These little piggies

Were once just like peas;

Oh, to always hold precious

The days such as these.

Swim Meet

On January 6th, the girls swam in their first meet. Actually, this was Emily's second meet - her first was earlier in the summer - but this was her first in which she swam in all four stroke events. All three girls were very excited (and Kate and Jenna were also a little nervous, understandably). 

Jenna's events

Emily's events

Kate's events

Everyone had fun, nobody got disqualified, and - as a bonus - they also swam really well. Emily swam in the 11-12 age category and Kate and Jenna both swam in the 10-and-under category.

Emily won her 50yd backstroke heat and Kate won both her 50yd backstroke and freestyle heats. Jenna was 4th in her 50yd backstroke heat. Here are some photos from the day, with captions. Lane 1 is closest to the camera and Lane 8 is farthest.

50 Yard Backstroke - 10 and under: Jenna in lane 5 and Kate in lane 1

50 Yard Backstroke - 10 and under: Jenna in lane 5 and Kate in lane 1

50 Yard Backstroke - 10 and under: Kate in lane 1 winning her heat.
Jenna finished 4th.

50 Yard Backstroke - 11-12: Emily is in lane 8.

50 Yard Backstroke - 11-12: Emily is in lane 8, leading after the turn.

50 Yard Backstroke - 11-12: Emily is in lane 8, winning her heat.

50 Yard Breaststroke - 11-12: Emily is in lane 4 -
that's her head above the water!

50 Yard Breaststroke - 11-12: Emily is in lane 4. She finished 3rd in this heat.

50 Yard Freestyle - 10 and under: Kate is in lane 3. She finished first in this heat.

50 Yard Freestyle- 10 and under: Jenna is in lane 4. She finished 7th in this heat.

100 yd IM - 10 and under: breaststroke lap. Kate is in lane 3 (that's her head!).

100 yd IM - 10 and under: final lap (freestyle). Kate is in lane 3.

100 yd IM - 10 and under: Kate is the swimmer closer to the camera. It was very exciting to watch the two lead swimmers streaking home in such a close race.

So proud to watch the girls swim their events. This being Emily's second meet, she was excited to swim in events she hadn't before, and to see if she could improve on her times from the last meet. For Jenna and Kate, this first meet was all about trying out something new and swimming as well and as fast as they could in water that was (reportedly) frigid. We didn't care about who beat whom or who won or didn't win; just the thrill of writing on our own arms with a permanent marker was enough to make our day.

There are videos, too, but if I waited to upload them, this post would never get published. Saving them for another post, then!

Bunnies at the Farm

In early October 2016, we spent a day at Nelson Farm. Here are a couple of shots of the girls in the rabbit enclosure, where they spent a large chunk of their time holding (and naming the rabbits).

Happy New Year!

Some random winter shots from late December.

We had a lot of snow, and a lot of rain. Which made for poor driving, but the upside was a white Christmas and some nice sledding.

Here is a shot on one of the precious few sunny days. We had (what felt to me like) a record number of sunless, grey winter days in all memory, and everyone was in a bit of a funk which even the endorphins from exercise and chocolate could not cure.

But then the sun came out at last.

We also spent Christmas in our own house for the very first time since moving into it 11 years ago. We missed the extended family up north with whom we usually spend the Christmas weekend, but it was nice to wake up on Christmas morning to stockings hanging from our banister and home-cooked breakfast. 

But - the cold. Too much of it. We can't wait for spring!

Patriotic Kateism

Under the category 'Famous Sayings', Kate suggested this as a possible phrase for charades for an upcoming birthday party:

"The Indeclarance of Dependence". 

In a strangely reverse-psychology-ish way, it's kind of the same thing.

Etiquette Kateism

ignore: [noun] a non-reaction.

Kate, after holding the door open for us at a restaurant:

"I held the door open for three people and I got two ignores and one hi. And nobody said thanks."

Kateism

Two new Kateisms that I want to record here before I forget them:

1 Row up [verb]: to arrange in a neat line
e.g. "I rowed up my bunnies at the foot of my bed."

2 Bellyflopness [noun]: the condition associated with landing on one's belly on the water in a dive
e.g. "My stomach hurts. I think it's a bit because of the bellyflopness at swimming today."

Orchids

A bit poor on the photo updates, but it's hard to take photos of kids who are in school or in the pool most hours of the day. Instead, here is a photo of my orchids, which remind me of Singapore. Five of the six bloomed this year, beginning in March, with the last one opening on Mother's Day, even. The sixth plant is either dormant or dying. Sad.

Pampering

I have to show you this:

It's Bunny at the spa, some weekends ago in January, with cucumber slices on her eyes, and her ears in rollers.

Also a mud mask

She also got a manicure.

Behold:

Before                              After

All comfortable and relaxed.

Here's more: goggles

for a dip in the pool.

Then some stretching (or yoga, or whatever is fashionable among rabbits these days),

and creative expression.

We also captured this on video, because it was too good not to, but the pictures were better.

Kateism

Readative: [adj] of having a great interest in reading.

e.g. "Whenever I bring books to school, the kids in my class who are readative always take them to read."

Lefse!

Made lefse this week.

First time ever. And it took ALL day.

The children helped, and we had a blast. 
There was flour everywhere.

The Saturday before, I attended a lefse-making class. That was a blast, too. But I was the only non I-Grew-Up-Inhaling-Lefse-Like-Oxygen-Because-My-Norwegian-Grandmother-Made-It-All-The-Time participant. When we were introducing ourselves and explaining how much we couldn't live without lefse, I said that I was there for the husband, who, unlike me, is Norwegian, and whose grandmother did indeed make it.

Then came home and whipped up (in a manner of speaking) a batch while the instruction was still fresh in my mind. Needs some tweaking, I think - our lefse is more like flatbread than the popiah skin  I'm used to seeing on the dinner table when the in-laws get together for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Emily says our crispy version is reminiscent of roti tisu. 

I suppose there's a lefse for every culture. And starch.

My favorite is the sweet potato kind, with brown sugar and butter. Which we also made. Yum.