Swim, swam, swum.

Yesterday was the last day our neighborhood pool will be open. And thank goodness, because the temperature dipped down to 101 degrees Farenheit today, which is, of course, much too chilly to think about going swimming.

 Helena decided, on Saturday, to start swimming without her beloved floatie. She just stuck her head under the water and started kicking and swimming like it was no big deal. Hopefully she will remember this newfound confidence when the pool opens again in eight months.

This means that all three of my kids have learned to swim (or maybe "not drown" is more accurate) in their own time without swim lessons or swim team or any other swim activity which costs us lots of money and also necessitates waking up at some crazy early hour every morning in the summertime. Nope, none of that. Unless you count the two weeks Harper and Hudson had of 30 minutes a day swim classes at the Houston Swim Club back in the spring of 2011, after which neither of them could actually swim at all, and during which both of them became addicted to goggles (an addiction which is still entrenched today).

We started a homeschool gymnastics class today and it was terrific, mostly because all 3 kids will be meaningfully engaged in physical fitness for FOUR hours a week while I get to sit there and talk to friends or maybe read a book. The gym is 35 minutes from our house and I don't even mind. Because ALL THREE KIDS sweating and somersaulting and trampolining and having fun with other sweet kids for many hours under the same roof and I am not in charge. WINNING. Hudson's coach reminds me of Marta Karolyi. He is going to be doing a nice cartwheel within a couple of weeks out of sheer terror. Helena even gets to take a ballet class during the first hour. You can imagine that she put a great amount of thought and planning into which of her costumes she was going to wear. I was pleased that she chose an actual ballet practice leotard so that I did not have to crush her dreams before they even began to take flight.

The husband made a delicious tuna casserole for dinner last night. With actual tuna. Because we are nothing if not always surprising. And with that, good evening.