Skating Dolphin

Bode is doing great.  He's enrolled in skating lessons and swimming lessons.  Today, he had his third (or fourth...not sure which, and I'm too lazy to look at a calendar) lesson, and he's doing quite well.  We started off in the beginner-beginner class, but Bode picked things up fast.  The teacher, Miss Jane, said Bode could come to the advanced-beginner class, which we did today.  He's quite adept on skates--well, maybe not adept, but he actually glides around from time to time.  Here are some pictures.  At the first lesson, they made the kids practice falling on the mats before they got on the ice.  They were taught to fall on the meaty parts of their legs and sides rather than falling backwards and smacking their heads. Sound advice.

Here is a shot from today's lesson--you can't tell much, other than the fact Bode is up on the ice without any help.  He is the one with the white stripe across his back.

Next are a couple movies.

Bode is also excelling in swimming.  This weekend, he graduated from being a Sea Otter and is now a Dolphin.  We don't have any pictures, but I do have this picture of his progress card.

Note all the filled white circles on the left.  Once Bode successfully demonstrates each task in each division, he gets a sticker.  These stickers are hard to earn, and on Saturday, he got his last sticker in the Sea Otter category.  Hence, he is now a Dolphin and is on the right side of the page.  The individual tasks are getting harder and harder.  The first sticker in Dolphin is to go the length of the pool floating and swimming without any help.  Bode has gotten close to getting all the way, but he needs a little more practice.  We are very proud of our little water boy :-)

This weekend, Ashley decided it was time for manual labor.  We are kicking around the idea of putting in a nice flagstone patio with a fireplace.  Step one was the demolition of our deck-structure.  We took this apart, piece by piece.  Not a lot of fun, but nothing like dragging around a few hundred tons of rock (maybe we'll contract that out).  Here is a picture of where the deck used to be.  Now, all you have are the posts.  Hopefully Harley can dig those out.

The weather has been great--high of 80 today.  Sadly, there is snow--SNOW!--in the forecast for Wednesday.  Maybe we need to move to Florida.  Pleasant week to all.