Busy day today!

Our day was full to the brim. These kids will sleep well for SURE tonight!

We started off by heading to a park. It's a park we have never been to before. It is an old, but very large, park. The leaves were falling in the breeze and it was so beautiful!!!!

 I wanted to go for a walk in this gorgeous wooded area but I decided against it. You never know who could be lurking in there!

Unfortunately we left after 30 minutes because it started to rain. We headed over to the library to kill time before swim class. Cait was pretty cranky (can you tell by her face?) so she read by herself. Jayden read a book to me and surprised me with how well he is reading!

 We borrowed some books to help us learn more about the history of Thanksgiving,

 and some books that were just for plain old reading!

 We also borrowed a few DVDs.

After the library we had a quick lunch. Two women stopped by our table and asked why the boys weren't in school. I told her that we homeschool our children and they seemed pleasantly surprised. Then they told the kids that a benefit to being homeschooled was getting to do fun things at all times of the day because they aren't stuck in a classroom! I couldn't agree more!

Afterward was the dreaded swim class. It started out well, too well in fact. They started their warm up beautifully! We had spent the last week talking to Cait, reminding her she couldn't scream and cry and had to listen to the teacher at all times.

Two minutes later, all hell broke loose! About halfway into the first exercise (going around the pool holding on to the side) Cait flipped. She spent the next 15 minutes alternating between crying and screaming (although in her defense, maybe it was the echo of the room that made her sound so loud- or maybe not!) that she wanted to get out of the pool. She clung SO hard to Joel's neck. The poor guy could not teach this way. He was seriously a trooper, listening to that hollering right in his ear for so long. After 15 minutes he brought her to me and said he feels she is not ready for this class. I am actually very glad he feels this way because I definitely agree. We will be getting a voucher to apply to a class when she is ready.

 When she got out I warned her that this was it and there would be no more swim class with the boys because she wasn't listening to the teacher and she kept screaming so that meant she wasn't ready. I know that I will have to continue to remind her of this for the next week to avoid a tantrum at next weeks class. She got really mad at me and refused to talk to me, except for asking me if she could get back in the pool every few minutes. Each time I reminded her that she was done with swimming until she could handle it and each time she got furious with me. She scowled for the remainder of the class (an additional 30 minutes!)

 Meanwhile, without Cait in the pool, Joel was able to really focus on the other children. I freaked out many more times than I care to admit but by the end of today's swim class Jayden was swimming the entire 3ft deep to 9ft deep length of the pool with his bubbles on! Last week he did not want to be anywhere his feet couldn't touch unless Joel was holding his hand. Check him out today!

 Then Joel really tried to kill me by taking Jayden to the 6ft deep section without wearing the floating bubbles around his waist. Jayden went under the water 2x. My heart was pounding in my throat and I wasn't breathing. But both times he came up fine and wasn't coughing so he must have held his breath right. He was so scared though and it broke my heart to hear him asking the teacher to please help him.

 

 Now that todays class is over I have to give Joel his credit. He instills confidence in Jayden. Every time Jayden says he can't do something, Joel pushes him (verbally, of course) and tells him he can! 

After class Joel spoke with both May and I to try and calm our fears. I am proud to say that today I wasn't "that mom" although May was for a few minutes! LOL! I sat in my seat the whole time, as difficult as that was. But I did feel a lot better with just Jayden in the pool instead of him and Cait.

Once we got home we decided to do a Thanksgiving craft. May found a great activity here. May showed them pictures of Indians from the books we borrowed at the library. She also told them a little bit about them while I folded laundry (see: snuck Halloween candy and watched tv in my room for 5 minutes before I got caught!). Soon after, the kids got to work making Native American Indians which were promptly named Sacajawea (the girl) and Squanto (the boys).

 

Idk why she is sticking a crayon up her nose here. *sigh*

 Once the coloring part was done, May and I cut and assembled the craft for the kids since they all disappeared and "kindly" let us know they were done.

Excuse Cait's crazy hair! She just had a bath.

Today ended up being a fabulous day! The kids knocked out within 10 minutes of being put to bed! Tomorrow we have a play date in the evening at our local play place! Can't wait!