Beach Vacation
Another June week in Bethany Beach, Delaware, with Grandma, Grandpa, and the aunts and uncle.

Lots of swimming, pizza, playing with the aunts, sand crabs, starfish, frolicking beyond the waves, and sand castles.

Maddie's project for the week was to write and direct a play about Noah's Ark, which we all performed.

up to six and one quarter
       years

size
      -  47 inches
      -  46 pounds

activities
     
- beach week
      - pool
      - trip to
New York city

interests
     - swimming
      - bike
      - friends


maddie diary   summer 2003
  
Pool
By July 4, Maddie has made the almost-final leap in swimming.  She's very comfortable in the water, jumping off the side into the deep end, swimming down to the bottom, etc.   The next step is swimming the crawl while breathing, and diving off the board.

She has a few friends at the pool this year, notably Theresa and Matias.
Summer School
Summer's not like when I was a kid.  Then we'd head off into the woods or the field and play all day, eventually getting bored but PLEASE no school.  Maddie has a bunch of activities lined up.  First was a week of art class, where she learned about aboriginal art and made some new friends, including Jens up the street.

Next up was the Summer Laureate program, where she was back with her buddies Matias, Nora, and Jesse.  Activities included square dancing (see picture),

Finally, YMCA camps, which were pretty much playing all day.
Two-Wheeler
For the 4th of July parade, Maddie wanted to ride her new bicycle.  It took a lot of doing-- first the new bike was too small, then a replacement couldn't take training wheels, finally a month later we had a bike with training wheels.

Since she's pretty tall, the bike's pretty big, and fairly daunting.  After a week of getting used to it, she was able to ride in the parade.

We got an adapter to connect her bike with Mike's, and it disconnects quickly (and training wheels flip down) to allow free riding.  One of the training wheels came off twice lately, and she had to (sort of) two-wheel herself to a stop.  She could ride a 2-wheeler now, but there's a confidence issue.
Friends
Maddie has turned into an amazingly nice kid.  Her kindergarten certificate said that her gift to the class was kindness.   Her YMCA certificate said she was the "Most Respectful."  We're VERY proud of those.  I think she just wants to get along with everybody, and at this age I guess that's a pretty valuable asset.  We never have to worry about whether she'll be left out when we go somewhere-- even if she doesn't know anybody, she'll be great friends with somebody in no time. 
County Fair
Maddie won several ribbons at the County Fair.  Of course, she kinda had to load up now, as it's the last year in the K class.  Next year, she's competing with the big boys.

That said, she outdid herself by winning Reserve Grand Champion in the writing category for her short story about Jake, a pet store owner, and his dog Jake.  Jake gets his hands and feet glued together, and the dog, after trying various approaches, drools on the glue to free him.

She also won first prize for photography and third prize for art.
Quotes
"Hey, you don't even know what a hemi is!"  To Mike, when I saw an auto parts commercial talking about hemis, and I said I had no idea what a hemi was.

"My fish wants to eat, and I intend to grant that wish."