One of the reasons I carry a camera with me most every where I go...

...You never know what you may capture for posterity! Today was the last day of swimming lessons (more on that later) and afterwards, while Lindsay was at her 2 hour gymnastics class, Molly and I went with the other kids to Chandler Mall to take more advantage of the Monster Sale at Children's Place. The kids were of course hungry and this was not a planned field trip so we did not have a lot of snacks or a sack lunch so a trip to the food court was in order. Well, the kids sat on one side and Molly and I and the babies sat on the other. The baby cousins were in our laps laying around admiring each other and Molly and I were chatting about our Father's Day plans. We then looked up to see this:

Caroline & Hayden, a cup of ranch, a cup of ketchup and two straws...

"My straw is all stuck with ketchup!" (blow it out...not anymore!)

Caroline got totally sprayed with ketchup! From her hair to her toes to everywhere in between, she got bamboozled with ketchup! Amazing how many small spots a straw full of ketchup can hit. Molly grabbed the camera after I had already cleaned her speckled face. I was working on her hair.

You know how you have those "kid moments" when they really should be in trouble, you should keep s straight face, but you cannot help but bust a gut? Case in point. We could not stop laughing, the whole time telling the kids through gasps, "It's not funny!" "Caroline is covered in Ketchup!" "It is a good thing her mom just bought her new shorts so she can take off her soaked with ketchup skirt!"

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OK, back to swimming lessons. Molly has a friend who teaches lessons at her home ($30 for 8 days - can't be beat!) and we just finished our one session of lessons. The pool temp. fluctuated with our crazy weather the first week (brrrrr....the water was only 76 degrees!) but was back to 82 this week. I am so proud of the girls - Caroline loves the water - this is such a far cry from her first year of lessons 2 years ago where she cried the whole time and spent the entire session trying to escape from the pool. Now, she is mad we are only doing one session. Crud, I cannot afford the gas for the 19 mile round trip! As long as we go swimming a lot, they will keep up their skills, I have no doubt. She can jump in and swim unassisted...not too far but far enough to have fun and find the wall and feel comfortable. Lindsay can swim the length of her backyard pool with a really nice arm/crawl stroke. Side breathing - still needs to work on that - but she loves to swim and prefers without goggles so she is quite secure under water.

Caroline the Fish!

Lindsay (and Ellie) the Mermaids!