Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

This week marked the last week of Elle's swimming lessons and I must say she has come such a long way since starting her lessons this summer with Betsy in NM.  At that time she didn't want to put her face in the water or even let go of Betsy.  Now she is swimming a good 5 yards on her own and is even getting her freestyle arms out of the water while kicking.  She loves being in the water and getting her face wet.  It has been wonderful watching her develop her swimming skills.  

This weekend included Sarah's birthday.  It's hard to belive that another year has passed.  After Patrick finished his morning practice he brought home some lovely Gladyolas.  We then had a yummy breakfast of fruit, eggs, turkey bacon, and bagels.  Afterwards we spent time outdoors as the weather was beautiful with a high hovering at no more than 80.  Can you believe we had such great weather in the middle of the summer?  It was nice enough for us to turn off the air conditioner and open our windows for a couple of days?  

We went to Home Depot and purchased some materials to hang up a clothes line outside.  Now when the weather is so nice we don't have to use the dryer.  After Jay napped we took the kids over to the babysitter and Patrick and Sarah went to go see the new Harry Potter movie- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  This was Sarah's favorite Harry Potter book and we both agreed that movie was quite good.  Following the movie we picked up the kids and headed to Old Chicago for dinner for some pizza and beer.  All in all, it was a lovely birthday.

Unfortunately, it seems as though summer is already starting to wind down.  Sarah only has two more class sessions to attend.  Patrick has a string of meets coming up and then will be done for the summer.  It always go by much too quickly!   We did spend quite a bit of the day today outside.  Both of the dogs had baths and we cleaned the porch.  Our lawnmower broke, so we had to borrow the neighbor's mower to finish mowing.  Either that or the kids would get lost out in the tall grass!

One other thing to note for the week is that both Jay and Guinness had check-ups this week.  Guinness is doing well.  He lost 8 lbs, which was good as last summer the vet said he needed to trim down a bit.  At Jay's appointment he was 32 inches (63rd percentile) and 26.4 lbs (53rd percentile).  He loved the flavored stick the doctor used to she could see into his mouth.  Jay had to get a couple of immunizations while he was there.  He is a healthy boy, though, and there aren't any problems to report.