Swim Team Stuff

Swim team sure is keeping us busy! 

Alexander started in the "Future Barracudas" program the week we got back from the beach. He said he felt "the urge to excel" in swimming...and he did! He graduated from the "Future Barracudas" program by the end of the week and practiced with the competitive team this week. 

That means he missed the kids' first swim meet (on June 6), but he was an excellent spectator and learned how swim meets work.

Here's Zoë (dead center...and dead last) swimming last week:

And here's Benjamin (once again in the center of the photograph):

Here's Phoebe feeling hot and bored at the swim meet:

Alexander also got to attend "Fun Friday" with the kids, where they got doughnuts and ribbons and played games and had a lot of fun. Alexander was recognized as the Future Barracuda Swimmer of the Week and we got to keep this snazzy sign in our yard all week.

Benjamin's relay team took third place. And I believe he got fifth on his 100 yard freestyle. He DQ'd in a number of events and got best times in other events. 

Zoë's relay team took seventh place...or eighth place...and she got best times in many other events.

Here she is with a doughnut:

After "Fun Friday" (which is not held at our pool), we headed over to our pool, which we had all to ourselves:

This Thursday we had another swim meet. Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander were asked to sing the national anthem before the meet started. I was told they'd have accompaniment but, as it turned out, they didn't...so I sang with them because they don't actually know the national anthem all that well. Zoë is practicing so that she can sing it alone next week (evidently it's not an assignment people are jumping to take).

Alexander lost one of his front teeth shortly before we had to leave for the swim meet (his other front tooth is hanging on a thread) so was lisping rather a lot. It was quite a day for him to thing the Thtar Thpangled Banner: "Oh, thay can you thee..."

Alexander raced backstroke and freestyle. His backstroke is still developing; he tends to swim rather crookedly, ping-ponging down the lane. His freestyle was amazing! He ended up being first in his heat (absolutely not overall—he was 8th overall) and when he was finished swimming he told me, "I did not know I could thwim that fathst!"

The other team we swam against (they seem to only ever do two-team meets) had many more swimmers than we did, which made it harder for our swimmers to place, but we still had fun! Benjamin and Zoë both beat their "best time" by several seconds in several events and both competed in breaststroke for the first time. 

Andrew took Phoebe and Alexander home after the 6-and-under events were over. I worked the first half of the meet, so got to watch the second half of the meet (from the sidelines, rather than from the end of the pool where I was judging). It was pretty dark so I didn't take many pictures, but as the evening progressed frogs started popping up all over the deck and plopping into the pool. It was hilarious how many frogs there were! A good half dozen were scooped out of the pool, and kids were chasing frogs all around the deck. 

At one point there was a boy finishing up his swim when a frog hopped into the pool and started swimming alongside him. Kids thought that was hilarious and the deck broke out in chants of "Go frog, go! Go frog, go!"

These meets can go so late! And Benjamin's freestyle relay is one of the very last events of the evening so we stick around to the bitter end. There seem to be a lot of "scratches" in the second half of the meet (when swimmers don't show up for their events) so at one point Zoë was swimming all alone in the pool while everyone cheered for her! 

Fun Friday was this morning. Andrew took the kids there while I took Phoebe to her well-child check. 

Zoë was chosen as the swimmer of the week, so we get to have this snazzy sign in our yard for the next week:

And the kids got all sorts of ribbons for cutting time on their events:

They were pretty pleased with themselves! And we're proud of them, too! They are improving a lot and seem to be enjoying being on a team. 

After Fun Friday (at pool #1), I took the kids (and one of Zoë's friends) to play at our pool (pool #2), and when that friend went home we got ready to drive to Grandpa and Darla's house where we went swimming with them and some of Darla's kids and grandkids (pool #3). It was a long day of swimming today! 

We're all looking forward to tomorrow—a morning with no alarms!