Hardy Highlights : First Week of Summer

     One week down, only 10 to go! We survived the first week of summer with less fighting than I had anticipated. The girls even seem to be enjoying playing with each other. It is nice that they like a lot of the same things.
     This week Natalee did her riding camp. She went from 6-8pm Monday-Friday and of course she was in heaven. All she can think about again is how great it would be to have her own horse. She said the thing she liked most about riding camp was....wait for it....Riding! :) They did have part of the camp be things like learning the names of the parts of the saddle, learning the parts of a horse and colors of a horse. During those learning times they were not on a horse. So I can see what she means about riding being her favorite part. They did do a couple of trail rides. For the last day they all went on a trail ride and then had a BBQ.
     On Tuesday, June 8, the library started their summer reading program with a magician named Michael Kennedy. The girls and I went to the library to watch the magic show and sign up for the library's summer reading program. They get some fun things if they each read at least 10 books. They've been reading a lot (Natalee has already finished 2 of next year's Battle of the Books books) so I think they might already have 10 each. We'll keep going though.
     On Wednesday the 9th, Natalee had her orthodontist consultation. She thinks it's really great that she's getting braces. I'm glad that's the attitude these days instead of it being a horrible, nerdy thing. We were a little worried about her having to have head gear, but luckily it didn't turn out that she needed that. She does need some appliance to space her teeth further apart to make some room for some adult teeth that haven't come in yet and don't have any place to come in right now. She was excited about the cute colors she was going to pick for her braces, but she's got to do the spacing first, so the braces will have to wait for now.  My immaturity got the better of me and I told her that her orthodontic work was going to cost as much as a horse shelter. But I did repent and I apologized and told her I wasn't ever planning to spend the money on a horse shelter. She's still excited to get braces.
     We ended the week with a primary activity water party. Considering it's June 12, it was a little chilly outside. The weather has been unusually cool this summer and it was a tad breezy. But other than the wind freezing the kids a little bit, it was very comfortable. We had 3 groups and the groups rotated every 20 minutes. We brought our water slide and blow up pool for the first area. The second area was relay games. We did the sponge relay and a dress up relay. We were going to make them soak sweatpants in water and then run in them for the dress up relay, but since it was kind of chilly, we just added some extra clothes and let them stay dry. The third area was games. We played some different games based on which age group was at the game area at the time. The one that they really seemed to like (except for the youngest group, 5 and under) was the hot potato/water balloon game. They had to pass around a balloon full of water after we poked a pin in it. The idea was to not be the person holding the balloon when the water ran out. All in all, the kids seemed to have a great time and that was what mattered most.
     Here are some pictures of our first week of summer. Next week, basketball camp!