Ben Can Swim!

Every weekday morning this summer that we've been in town, Ben has had a 10 minute swim lesson. I am thrilled to say that this past Friday was his final swim lesson! Ben finally mastered his swim/float/swim skills and was awarded his first trophy. Ben has taken these Infant Survival Swimming lessons to assure all of us that if he fell into some water, he could survive until help found him. What does this mean? He is taught to swim, then to turn over and float when he needs to breathe or rest, and then swim again once he's ready. Hopefully, with enough cycles of this swim/float/swim, he'd find a step or a wall to hang on to. He was tested in summer clothes and winter clothes this past week, and it is truly amazing to watch.

Here he is before his final lesson. He always has this less-than-thrilled look on his face before he gets in the pool. Here is Ben swimming! He loves to swim and would swim all day without breathing if you gave him the option. His float position cracks me up. Eleanor and Hayes both floated with their arms straight out. Ben prefers to look like he's swinging in a hammock, just chillin'.

We loved Ms. Gina, and look forward to seeing her again in the spring when Ben does a two-week refresher before he'll be swimming like a fish next summer. Here he is with Gina saying, "Lollipop!" since that is what he got after every lesson. On a side note, his favorite lollipop was any yellow lollipop. All that mattered was the color, not the flavor. Funny that I note this though, because on this last day, he did not select a yellow. He went all out with three lollipops, all different colors, in celebration of being done. And, yes, he did try to eat them all at one time!

Hayes's Basketball Award

Hayes has spent this past week in a morning basketball camp. Though he was one of the youngest kids there, he LOVED it. The highlight for me was watching him pick out his outfits each morning. He was very particular about what he would wear. He would NOT wear superhero shirts because they had nothing to do with sports. (I was thrilled that these were finally shelved for the week after seeing them ALL summer.) He wore a basketball t-shirt he got for his birthday (thanks Mimi) two times. He also wore his Georgia Tech football jersey. The outfit in the picture below was his special outfit for the last day. He has a Carolina t-shirt underneath his Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks jersey. The camp held a brief awards ceremony during the last 15 minutes on Friday. Wouldn't you know that Hayes won a trophy for having one of the best attitudes of all of the campers?! If you know Hayes, this is a no-brainer (or at least his biased mom thinks so!)

Queen Bee

"Everyone! Everyone! Pay attention!" Can't you just hear Eleanor saying these words in the photo below as she tries to instruct her cousins on how to play Witch Tag?
I'd like to title this group of two pictures "Queen Bee and her Court." This gathering of the youngest Slack generation took place on the Sunday night after our first full day at Jekyll. All of these kids are either second or third cousins. Most of these children only see each other yearly at Jekyll, though we are lucky to see a few of them here in Atlanta at our annual Christmas get-together. Why do I share these details? Because I think it is interesting that Eleanor tries to take charge even though she is rarely around these other children and therefore barely knows them. I do love this take-charge quality of hers because every group, especially one with this many little people, needs a leader.

The Art Show/Sale

Eleanor constantly pitches to have another art sale in our front yard (I say no) so while at Jekyll, she got away with having one since she held it in Mimi and Papa's house.

The kids spent an amazing amount of time playing outside considering the average 94 degree temperature. When they decided they had had enough of the hot sun, Eleanor, Hayes and any other cousin they could coerce would come inside to color. Once they were done with a drawing, they would tape it up to the wall and display it for all to see. Eleanor even came up with a rather complicated pricing structure for her art. I'm not clear on what constituted a $1.00 painting versus a $0.25 one, but I'm sure she had a thorough explanation. Over the week about half of the art was eventually purchased which is amazing considering the volume produced. :-)

Well done, artists!

Seining

Another tradition at Jekyll is for the family to venture out to the southwestern side of the island to seine. All of the kids look forward to our seining adventures because they love to see what is brought up to the beach in the net. Eleanor really gets into it and has helped her dad pull the net for the past two years. The kids all roam the beach while the net is in the water. This year, Ben did not take too well the idea of "my Daddy" and "my Elle" going out into the water and leaving him on shore. Once I captured this shot of him, I instantly recalled his big sister in the same spot nearly 5 years ago. Look how she has grown!This year, we had a little excitement when they pulled up a shark in the net. Joseph let all of the kids take a good look, and then he quickly let the shark back into the water.

The gang made one more seining run after we left the beach. What did they end up finding in their net? Would you believe a manatee? I really wish we were there to see it. Luckily, while dragging the net through the water, the manatee's weight made a huge hole in Uncle Harry's net, and the manatee was able to escape.

I wonder what stories will be added to the Slack Family seining lore next summer?

The Sandbar on Jekyll

I have always been fascinated by an enormous sandbar on Jekyll's east side that shows up each and every low tide. It is one of those that allows you to literally walk from the beach out far into the ocean. This sandbar has existed for as long as I can remember, but I had never walked out onto it before. This year, I decided that it was time to visit the sandbar and teach the kids a thing or two about the ocean and its tides.

Jekyll's tides have huge swings. At high tide, you might not have any beach to walk on, while at low tide, the beach is enormously wide and flat. I am betting that over the years, this sandbar has grown in size as the island has gradually moved southward, and eroded away from its northern neighbor St. Simons Island.

As you can see from the pictures, the sandbar is larger than a football field. What I did not expect was its texture. I thought it would be smooth, like the beach at low tide, but instead it was ridged and ruffled as I expect the ocean floor to be.
Ben kept calling the little pools "baby pools," and he loved them. Stories have been told about family members getting stuck out on the sandbar many years ago and refusing rescue from the coast guard. This sign is now there to warn current visitors not to tempt that same fate. We actually ended up making two trips out to the sandbar this week. The first did not include Eleanor, as she was too busy weaving. The boys had such a fun time that E decided she did not want to miss our second visit. Thomas used the jaunts out far into the water to teach Hayes how to feel for sand dollars in the sand. Hayes ended up being a quick learner and found his very first sand dollar on his own. He was so proud. Dad helped him feel and find the others. On our second trip, E wanted to join in on the sand dollar fun so the three of them went out to successfully hunt for some more. I'm thinking that we'll have to make annual pilgrimages to the sandbar now that the kids have seen the fun they can have out on it.

Watermelon

One of our family's traditions at Jekyll is for the extended family to gather every other afternoon around 4:00 for "Watermelon." It is a great opportunity for the young, the old, and those in-between to come together for a social hour.

I'm not sure of the origination of the congregating for this afternoon treat, but I fondly remember my great-grandfather, Boppa, slicing watermelon for all of his younger generations. I think I picked up my taste for salt on my slices from him. There was always a shaker of salt on the watermelon-cutting table, and all it took was a good shake or two, and you would have quite a tasty piece of fruit.

Luckily for us, we have some major watermelon eaters in our immediate family, especially the boys. I think both Ben and Hayes averaged 5 pieces at each gathering. (Ben would usually take a bite out of one piece and turn it back in for a new piece, but I think he still consumed about 5 slices worth each day.) Eleanor ate her fair share, but she was rather stealth about it. She would eat one piece and immediately hop back on her bike to ride around the street. (Riding bikes with the cousins has become a favorite thing-to-do while at Jekyll over the last two years. I'll have to revisit the fun in another post.)

As you can see from these pictures, the watermelon was juicy good and a great tradition to uphold.

Weaving Project

This year at Jekyll, Aunt Julie M. felt very ambitious as she dreamed of weaving on her front porch. She got Eleanor's attention by asking her to help rip up large pieces of fabric. Then, using the porch railings, she and Eleanor built a loom. Once the "loom" was created and altered a bit, Eleanor and her second cousin Peyton decided to try the loom out by weaving in the colorful strips of fabric. Here are E and Peyton as they make progress in their weaving. Doesn't it look great? E was so interested in this project that we could not pull her away to go to the pool or beach with us. I think she was captivated by the newness of the weaving concept, as she has never woven before. Thanks Aunt Julie, for exposing Eleanor to a new art form! I think the artists were quite happy with their finished product.

Getting Ready . ..

As we all packed for a week at Jekyll Island with the extended Slack Family for our 55th summer, both boys tried to help "pack" their things. Hayes actually picked out all of his outfits. He laid out t-shirts, coordinating shorts AND matching bathing suits. I had to take a picture because his outfits really were color-coordinated quite impressively!

Ben has his own, unique way of packing for our trip. He found a Ziploc bag and loaded it up with junk toys he found around the house. He made sure the bag made it into the car where he proceeded to dump it out and re-pack it over and over throughout the week.

Thanks for the help, boys!

Riding Bikes

As they did last summer at Jekyll, the E and H biked/scooted until they could move no more.

For the past two years, our houses have been on the same street as Helen's extended family. I tried to capture Patrick and Gabe

riding their bikes but the moment I walked outside, I had a near head-on collision on my hands and I quickly forgot about taking pictures.

And the Winner is . . .

And the winner of our family's World Cup Bracket Tournament is . . . DAD! (wish I had a good picture of just him but I don't!)

Can you believe that he actually picked the two correct teams in the Finals, Spain and the Netherlands? Do you believe him when he says he knows nothing about soccer? I generally do, but find it hard to fathom that he could have guessed and gotten these two teams right. I like to think that I do know something about soccer, and I only got one out of the four Semifinal teams correct. (Spain) Congratulations, Dad! We look forward to challenging your reign in four years and having Ben join in on the fun!

Face Painting

Another Fourth of July tradition at the beach is for Eleanor to get her face painted. This year, she decided on a butterfly design which I think turned out amazingly.

World Cup Fever

Hayes has caught World Cup Fever since he and I have watched bits and pieces, if not all, of each televised World Cup game this summer. When the heat is not so oven-like, he'll go out in the front yard and mimic his favorite American players like Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore. He even has figured out a goal celebration routine.

Gooooaaaallll!Oh yeah!That's what I'm talkin' about . . .How good am I?