Fun Times

"That pool is certainly worth the money," said Bob as he came in through the back door last evening. Just as it was growing dark, he surprised us by announcing we were going out for a swim with the lights on. We had the pool put in last fall in time for the new boys, and now they yell and splash out there with Rob, making up games and races, and leaping to the center of the pool to land inside an innertube. They summersault and wintersault to see who can make the biggest splash, and when Bob and I accompanied them, Peter danced with delight and did all his tricks with a shout, "Luke at me, Ded! Luke at me, Mum!"

With swimming as an incentive they are getting their oral reading done more quickly. In fact both of them completed their grade 3 level written questions with very little help from me today. Another first. Then all three raced back and forth to the fridge door checking off their After School Job List. I still needed to stop making supper and go "inspect" rather than "expect" the finished tasks, but beds are being tucked in to a more military tautness these days, and more dog hair fuzzies than ever are being routed from under the couch.

Another addition to the Halpert family fun is pingpong. One Saturday afternoon we took down my girlie decorations in the diningroom, pulled out the extensions on my grandmother's diningroom table and had a pingpong tournament. I think my grandma would understand because she had six boys. Maybe we'll get a real table, since the boys liked playing in Ukraine, and Rob and I are pretty good too.

Last week was field day at school. On his lunch hour Bob surprised the boys by coming to see them run races. After all afternoon they were tanned a nice brown.

That evening we watched Charlotte's Web, and Peter set up the model farm with all the animals, especially the pigs. The guy type westerns and historical movies are ok, but the boys do like kids' stories. Their music teacher introduced them to selections from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. So while we do dishes, I am hearing a lot of "Chim, Chiminey" and "Do a Deer".

Bob reads Uncle Wiggly - stories about the Bunny Rabbit gentleman with the red, white and blue rheumatism crutch. Even at age almost 12 and 13 (and Rob...shh...at 14), they love those tales and speculate together about what will happen in the next story.

As our cute, now mid-20's, daughter used to say when she was a cute, little thing, "Happy Days, Happy Ways!...So much to be thankful for.