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!