Tonight Cole, Ella and I took Accalia to her swimming lesson since Cory had to see a client at the same time. Other than saying the water was too cold, Accalia had fun. She seems to have a really nice instructor who takes the time to be with each child and help when he sees them struggling. Accalia is probably one of the weakest swimmers in her class - weak as in having the stamina to swim, not weak in being able to do the different strokes - but she doesn't seem discouraged by that, which I'm so happy to see. Accalia has always loved going to different lessons or classes, and so far she's really had a great time with all of it because the instructors are so great about just making sure the kids are enjoying themselves and exploring the subject matter.

We actually had Cory home with us for much of the day. His meeting in Sioux Falls was over right away this morning, and he was home by 11:30 a.m. We went to McDonald's for lunch so the kids could run around and we could sit and talk. Poor Ella was injured by another little girl, though. Ella and this girl were standing by each other, and Ella leans over to give her a hug. When Ella stepped back, though, the little girl stepped forward and scratched her cheek. Ouch!

After that, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies to actually get our vegetable garden started for the year. We even planted everything this afternoon while Ella took a two hour nap. Since we've gotten a late start, we did buy a few plants rather than starting everything from seed. We bought green, yellow and red pepper plants, a few tomato plants, and a cucumber plant. Accalia and Cole asked for the cucumber plant, although I'm not sure why since I'm the only one in the family who likes them. Then we planted radishes, carrots, the rainbow variety of swiss chard, pumpkins and watermelon.

Our various flowers are starting to pop up. We have 4 o'clocks in the front and back, and Accalia's garden of butterfly and hummingbird friendly flowers such as bee balm and lavender hyssop (something else, too) are starting to spring up.

Cole had fun this morning using his Thing hands as feet.


Someone gave me an amazing compliment yesterday. You know how someone will tell you something that just makes you feel in awe that they think you're capable of a task? It was one of those compliments, and it was especially nice because the entire event that started it out was something I felt completely incapable of taking on. How's that for incredibly vague?

Accalia, Cole and I were hoping to do a little sky watching tonight since it's a blue moon and Jupiter is right up there by the moon, but it's too cloudy to see anything.

Tomorrow Chloe and Alexia will be coming over to spend the evening. I think the kids are looking forward to that. We haven't seen them for a couple weeks. As for the rest of the weekend, I do believe we'll spend time at the rec center in the pool. Cory and I want to catch up on a bunch of season finales of our favorite tv shows that we taped, too.