Summer Time's in Full Swing!

The boys have been out of school for one full week, and we are already in full swing with all our summertime activities!  We went on our first trip out of town as a family of 5 to Atlanta to visit our college friends over Memorial Day Weekend.  The boys had a blast playing with water guns with their friend, Ben.

Oh yes, and I also celebrated my 33rd (can't believe I'm that old!) birthday over the weekend too, and Alaina gave me a sweet birthday smile!

We've been enjoying the weather outside, when it's not too hot!  Most days it has been around 95-100 degrees.

 And yes, that is a recovering black eye of Caleb's.  He ran into a door knob and a counter within an hour of each other.  :-(

We've also been taking swim lessons for the 4th year in a row for Ethan and a 3rd year in a row for Caleb.  They are both doing very well!  We have one more week of lessons left next week.  To see some videos of their swimming, go to dropshots.com/briskenfamily

We also visited the eye doctor after a 10 month break from wearing eye patches, only to find out that both boys' vision in their right eyes has worsened a little over the break.  They are still better than when we began the patch wearing 3 years ago (can't believe it's been that long), but not as good as they were 10 months ago.  So . . . we are back to wearing them 6 hrs a day again.  Not the news I wanted to hear, but we are hopeful that the patch wearing in the next 2 months will correct their vision quickly.  Unfortunately, it seems like a never ending process.  We patched consistently for 2 years before the break, but it seems like their brains just won't use that eye unless made to.  The eye doctor says that it is best to correct this when they are young, and that when they are 10 - 12 years old, their eyes shouldn't go back to seeing poorly after not wearing the patch . . . so does that mean we could have 5 - 7 more years of patch wearing?  It is just frustrating to me.  They both get around fine, are not cross eyed, read fine without the patch, school work fine, etc.  It just seems like a lot of work, with no promise of their brains ever using that eye without a patch.  But we will see.  I am not the doctor, so I will trust her for now.  Praying that Alaina doesn't have this same condition . . .

Scott worked outside today in the heat, putting in another drain up against our house (we had flooding AGAIN a few weeks ago, I can't even keep up with how many times this has happened, it is so many), and making a planter up around one of our trees in the backyard.  I held down the fort inside with the kids while he was working outside.  With three kids we are finding we have to split the work up more and more.  There's always another project to be done!

After swim lessons, in the afternoons the boys have been working on Summer Bridge Activities workbooks for their grade level, reading for 30 minutes, having a devotion time, and will soon start handwriting practice with Mama Brisken a couple times a week.  The days seem so busy, but it is good to have time to work on things, such as handwriting, that we don't have time to work on during the school year.  Thanks to both Mama Bailey and Mama Brisken for helping me to implement these learning activities, since I am also still working during the week, although thankful for a flexible schedule to allow me time to attend things, like swim lessons in the morning, and work in the afternoons.

And if you're still reading this LONG summer time post, I'll leave you with a pic of Alaina playing in her exersaucer.  She is such a happy baby and already 4 months old!