First 3 Swim Meets

First meet of the year was at home!  A few jitters, but nothing like last year's nerves.  Killing time with a lacrosse magazine. This kid will read it cover to cover!  

6-under freestyle relay ready "to walk"!

This was his first race as the 2nd position swimmer...

waiting for his cue to hop in.

"Where are those timers???"

Andrew and Linus - 2nd and 4th swimmers ready to race!

Priceless, if only he'd had a swim card in his hand.....

Always a climber, if it's in view and it can be climbed, it will be climbed.

JJ starts ém young!  Ready to race!

Smiles weren't as easy to come by last year:)  We have grown and matured!

Commonly called "The 6 & under backstroke yawn", I was able to capture a few classics here.  He's not the only one yawning by the time backstroke comes along!  

Quick pep talk from coach...

"Swimmers take your mark..."

Our first meet was interrupted 45 minutes in by the closest thing to a tornado than I've ever lived through.  The remainder of the meet was rescheduled for the following night---common practice.  Our opponents, Crozet, did not show up.  Given the 30 min drive, they choose to forfeit siting that it wouldn't have been a good experience for new swimmers.  SO, our swimmers swam anything and everything they could and JJ invited all other league teams to make it a time trial.  What was awesome about the almost "inner-squad" meet was how fast it went, how the kids got to try new things, and how FEW people there were there, which opened up the away team's camp ground to be a football field for the boys in between events.  

I figured out that if I scream loud enough in public, Mommy will cave and give me my binky back (which she now only allows me in the car and crib)...Grandma hooked me up with shades:)

The Fry's Spring's pool is 50m, which means a much different meet for 25m swimmers.  No relays (b/c there's no wall for the 2nd and 4th position swimmers to wait by and push off of) and they lower a rope at 25m where you are to stop.  The coaches in the water help direct you out since you can't stand up there.  

Smiles!  Our swim meet nerves have melted into nothing but smiles:) Andrew's excited to be there and enjoys lining up with his relay partners (sweet Emily this week). 

Matthew lined up on the benches again this week, but got his hands on a race card this card.  Ready to go! 

Backstroke heat winner.  Woo-hoo!  Sweet thing was elated.  

June - Officially Summer!

And so it begins..."homeschooling" (by request), swim team (even for Margaret!), diving boards and slides, VBS, lax camp (hosted by Coach Killian), trips to the river, the mountains, and the beach...how to fit it all in!  

But first, dinner date with Daddy:)  Apparently there were some compliments at Chick-fil-A!  

Teaching Matthew about dress-up...

Oh, Shit...to be blunt!

Story time in Children's Church

Lighting the Christ candle for prayer time.

The last week of school was BUSY for Andrew.  He had lax camp every night from 6:30-8:00pm and his first swim meet Wednesday (which, thanks to a tornado, turned into round 2 on Thursday night!). I gotta say, I don't miss lugging everyone 5 houses daily at 7:15am, but I do miss the biking outfits chosen and Matthew's sweet, silent, unsolicited waves goodbye to Mr. Rose and the bus.  

First bloody nose in lax!  Some other kid needs to learn how to get a ground ball and not come up into Andrew's face with an empty net!  He handled it calmly, but apparently there was quite a lot of blood...which would continue to be problematic in the pool the rest of the week!

And the once beautiful garden (thanks to Mom's advice, counsel, and transplanting!) is now a ground cover of weeds and grass again...still a work in progress!  The colors of my garden...green (with weeds), then brown (soil reappears), and finally white (with preen).  

My weeding buddy caught four TINY frogs in a matter of minutes!  We were wishing Anne was around for some good ole fashioned fun.

A beautiful Starry Nights at Veritas Vineyard....

why don't we do this more often???

Waiting for their Dental appointments.  It is AWESOME having a reader...and a pink phone.  They LOVE our family dentist.

Our first experience with a pediatric dentist was not a good one, but now they go to ours and love it so much they ask when we get to go next.  

Since April, Andrew has been planning lax camp---specifically for June 17---at our house, with Coach Killian.  Invitations were hand written and sent by school cubbies.  Thankfully, Margaret was content inside with me doing her "home school summer workbook" and Matthew took a long nap.  It was only 95 that day, but the boys did great and Michael was in his element, to say the least.    

Bitty Baby has made reappeared lately and has her own sleeping formation on the floor.  Evidently, she needed to be smothered this day.  And yes, Margaret does dress up for nap and bedtime every day:)

United Way Family Volunteer Day - it's not fun taking Matthew anywhere these days, but Margaret enjoyed this (though she wouldn't let me take a picture of her drawing pictures for troops or for the soup kitchen).  

The advantage to having Daddy volunteer for Children's Church is that he's right there to take a picture of little Miss Margaret in her favorite white dress as she sings "Jesus Loves Me", waiting for her buddies to come join her on the steps.