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Becky

Mini 2 Class at Goldfish Swim School

Posted on August 31, 2018

This post is brought to you by Goldfish Swim School. While I was provided lessons in exchange for this review, all opinions are 100% my own.

Can you believe summer is almost over? The weather says otherwise, but I’m seeing back to school and Halloween (!) items everywhere in stores…so I know fall is coming.

I don’t want to name drop, but yes. ELMO is in our class!

This summer has been a whirlwind of fun. Our little lady is learning so quickly, is super curious about everything, and always on the go. We’ve really just been trying to keep up, and wear her out with fun outside activities, trips to the splash pad on the weekends, and our favorite: swim class at Goldfish Swim School of Ann Arbor!

Not having any fun at all.

Yep, we’re back and having so much fun! Last year Isla completed her Mini 1 classes, which got her comfortable in the water. At 16 months, the little ones move into the Mini 2 class, where we start focusing on the mechanics of swimming unassisted.

High fives with her teacher!

Classes have a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio, with more focus on unassisted kicking with a barbell, pulling paddle, underwater dips, unassisted gliding, wall holds, jumping in the water, rollover breathing, back floats, – plus more water safety skills.

I’ve talked about water safety before in previous Goldfish posts (you can read them here, here, and here), but after reading about Bode & Morgan Miller’s daughter last month I’m even more vigilant about water safety.

In the 4 weeks that we’ve been back in the Mini 2 class, Isla has progressed to kicking and pulling on her own, almost reflexively which is so impressive! We’ve noticed her practicing these skills in the shallow pool at the local splash pad pool here, she knows to keep her mouth closed and head above water. Obviously none of these things replace close, constant supervision…but it’s a step in the right direction.

Jeremy and I are still switching off who gets to get in the water with her each class, since it is a lot of fun. On top of the safety skills we’re learning, we often end up laughing a lot – it is great bonding time.

We’re enjoying watching her continue to progress, and have fun!

If you’re looking for swim lessons for your water babies (or big kids), you can find a local Goldfish Swim School at their center locator, and more information below:

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Have you had an awesome experience at Goldfish Swim School? Would love to hear your stories in the comments!

Family

Sunday Funday at the BIG HOUSE

Posted on August 28, 2018

Hail yes, friends. It’s that time of year…we are huge Michigan football fans in this house. I know I’ve mentioned that before here. So on Sunday, when the team had an open practice we couldn’t resist heading down to check it out!

It was so much fun. After practice, they open up the field to the families to run around. We weren’t able to get Isla onto the field because it was pushing bedtime and she was super grumpy. We did get some cute shots of her in the stadium though, she was so curious about the field!

We also got to take a peek at the Jack Roth Stadium Club! It is a bucket list item to watch a game from here one day.

Our little lady had a great time, and a few epic meltdowns. Regardless, we’re not-so-secretly hoping that someday she’ll be a student here.

It is looking like it will be a great season, and we can’t wait until kickoff on Saturday. Happy college football season, friends! GO BLUE!

Organization

Farmhouse Pantry Produce Wall Storage

Posted on June 12, 2018

My little house is completely organized and labeled, with everything always in it’s place.

Just kidding, my organizational style right now is “toddler tornado”. This freakishly organized place only exists in my head, and on Pinterest.

Our 1900 “we don’t own many things so we don’t need places for stuff” farmhouse doesn’t leave us with many places to put anything. I’m a firm believer that this has led to a lot of the frustration we’ve experienced with our house – we feel like we’re tripping over each other, and all of the “stuff”.

One of the many lacking areas is counter space in the kitchen. There were so many things just hanging out there. We go through a lot of produce in our house, and half of it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, so we’ve always kept it on the counter in a wire basket.

It was cute at first, I thought. That didn’t last long before I realized that we were just consolidating the clutter into one bigger basket of clutter, so we had to find another solution.

Source: Target

We have a blank wall in our pantry, so I wanted to use that vertical space by hanging storage baskets. I searched online and in stores for a few months before running across the perfect one: the Threshold 3-slot wire basket with hooks.

I needed more than three baskets, so I bought two of these with the intention of hanging one on top of the other. I only wanted hooks on the bottom baskets, so we removed the hooks on one of the two. They were surprisingly easy to twist and snap off of the bottom, without damaging the baskets themselves. Super easy! I love having the hooks there to hang our reusable shopping bags.

I’ve been playing around with the idea of chalkboard labels for each of the bins, but haven’t committed yet because we tend to buy different kinds of produce depending on the season.

The farm fresh sign was something I painted at a pallet party that my sister-in-law hosted last Mother’s Day – we were able to pick the design we wanted, and I chose this one with the pantry in mind. It was a blast to make, and fits the space perfectly.

Hanging them was simple, and now we have the perfect storage solution.

Have a great week!

Family

The Big House 5k Run

Posted on April 23, 2018

Spring finally showed up – which means it’s running season.

I took the entire winter off of running. I get bored on treadmills, so I used to run outside through the winter – that ended about two years ago when I went for a run one snowy January morning, slipped on some ice and fell. I should have broken something, but luckily I was just bruised. That was the end of winter running for me.

This Michigan winter has been a long one, and after about 10 weeks without running I was starting to get really stir crazy (and grumpy!), so I signed us up to run the Trail to the Victors Big House 5K.

We are huge Michigan fans, my husband works for the University, and thought it would be a really run event to run as a family.

credit: mgoblue.com

You run the course through downtown Ann Arbor, and finish on the 50 yard line in the Big House – how fun is that?! Plus, 30% of the registration fee is donated to 6 local non-profits to benefit the community. Not a bad reason to get some exercise.

photo credit: mgoblue.com

We ran it a few Sundays ago. We had to leave the house at about 7:15 and we were all tired, but excited! My brother Eric met us there. It was 22* when we left the house…soooo cold, probably the coldest “fun run” I’ve ever done.

So cold. So early. Jeremy was PUMPED.

Jeremy was nice enough to let me run ahead so I could get in a good run, and he pushed Isla in the running stroller. It was a little slower than normal because I was weaving in and out of people – there were over 7,000 runners, but I had a great run!

It was one of those rare unicorn runs where you feel the sun and wind on your face, enjoy your surroundings, and feel like you can run forever. I caught a view of the stadium about 2.5 miles in and thought “whoa, it’s almost over already!?”.

It was so incredible to run down the tunnel with “Hail to the Victors” blasting, and onto the field to finish on the 50 and jump to touch the iconic M GO BLUE banner. My brother finished just a few seconds behind me.

Poor Isla though, she gave Jeremy a hard time. She was cold, and tired, and just wasn’t feeling it, so he had to carry her and push the running stroller for the last mile and a half.

over it.

Once they crossed the finish, he immediately handed her off to me and she was screaming. I don’t think she’s a runner – and I don’t think I’ll ever hear the end of it from either of them. Sorry, guys.

She was fine once we got her warmed up and fed. She’s also mildly obsessed with her finisher’s medal, and keeps putting it on so she can wear it around the house.

Overall it was a really fun time, one of the most fun running environments I’ve ever been in! If you’re in Ann Arbor next April and have a chance to sign up for this one, do it. Check here for more details on next year’s run.

Have a great week!

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