Swim Season has ended

I guess all good things have to come to an end. Last Saturday we said farewell to our swim season.
On the superstars night of swimming Annie Kate swam 3 strokes and ended the year on a good note by beating or matching her last best time. She was going for the color of ribbons and wanted to win one of the big fluffy ribbons in a yellow for Sally Jane (4th place) Pink for Caroline (6th place) and a blue (1st place) her favorite color. I tried to explain to her to do her best and not shoot for 6th place. The night ended with a yellow, pink and blue in her hand - i am not sure how that happened but it did. Breast stroke is her stroke and she wanted that blue ribbon so bad. It was the first time in her sporting events that I have ever seen that fire in her eyes to push it. I stood at the end of the lane and just looked her in the eyes each time her head popped up. It was the first stroke all season I didn't photograph her doing but just was the supportive mom. She said she could see me the whole time. I don't think she cared that she was first but just knew what she had to do to get that blue color. I thought that was kind of funny.
This year she learned to do the flip turn and I just could not believe that she caught on. This was her last flip turn of the season and I loved how this photo turned out with her little toe and the water splashing.

Sally Jane even got into the spirit and let me color all over her back with
permanent sharpies. It only took 4 days to come off.

Annie Kate and her cute distant cousin who is also on the team

While I love this photo of Jeff and Caroline at her last meet, I was sad I never got one of me and the girls. I must remember the power of self portraits

We brought markers in the kingfish colors for anyone else who wanted a little 3 day tattoo.

Caroline at her last practice with one of her favorite coaches. She loves this guy

He is so cute with them and after practice does the team cheer.

"What time is it?"
then they all scream "Go Time" and then they grunt.

Sally Jane while content at the other end of the pool in her shallow beach slope now is calling herself a Kingfish for next year and wants a trophy. She is going to have to do some serious private winter lessons to get ready to be on pre-team.
The last practice they had a fun pancake breakfast for the kids and the week before one of the moms donated t-shirts for all the kids and they got to tie dye them all. This is some serious parental support on this team. I think it helps because everyone on the team lives in the same neighborhood together and since our houses are all on top of each other, we all know each other pretty well.
Caroline pretty much had blue lips half of the summer thanks to the icee's they sold each meet.Annie Kate was constantly making gifts for the coaches all season. (hmm wonder where that comes from? what a sick curse)
these were wood chips left over from camp that she hand stamped "Kingfish 2008" on each one and then colored over and sanded with the team colors.
I wish I had taken a photo of all the friendship bracelets she made over the summer for each of the coaches.
The funny story of her Pre-team follies (a meet only for preteam). the other team didn't show so is was more of an exhibition meet if you will. She was going to swim just the kick board race and the freestyle. I had asked her before if she would swim backstroke, but she was scared and said she didn't know how. (since she never gets to nervous I knew to take her serious)
then at the meet-exhibition they were missing one kid in one of the lanes. One of her favorite boy coaches (photo above) said, "Caroline, come over here you are swimming backstroke" He motioned her to the end of the pool and sat her down in the lane. I, the over protective mother, told him she doesn't know how- i had never seen her do backstroke without sinking after 10 seconds. He said, "who cares she can flip over and swim free, what is she going to do get disqualified"
then that little fireball grabbed the wall ready to push off and zoomed down her land not missing a beat and even had great form. I could not believe it. Our swim team closing social was one of my favorite things we did last year. It brought back great memories of such an unexpected activity for our girls. Last year the next day we left for Europe and had not packed one thing. We were laughing at how relaxed we were about hanging out until 10:00 pm and then hopping a flight the next day.
It was fun to soak in the beauty of this neighborhood where anyone could walk (of course we drove the 3 blocks) to the park to enjoy the evening. Many people had their wicker picnic baskets and bottles of wine eating dinner before the award ceremony. We of course tried to feed the kids before and they didn't eat anything and then were hungry when we got there.
I snapped this photo of Annie Kate before we moved to the basketball courts for the slide show (the word slide show does not even do justice to the academy award movie that one of the parents made to recap the season)
I don't think I like it because it was one of those aha moments as a parent when you say, "my kid is growing up"
This is the photo of the girls and the most amazing swim coach ever. He is tough with the kids. He expects their best in the pool but I think cares more about how they are out of the pool and how they treat each other and their parents. He is gentle with the kids and any time he saw Sally Jane he would say , "can't wait to have you on the team next year!"
My girls love this guy. After I took the photo Caroline turned around and hugged his guts out with a choke hold around his neck. His face looked shocked. I was enjoying the moment too much to take another photo, although now the look on his face would be priceless.
This was the scene as we were all setting our lawn chairs on the basketball court. The Dad who did concessions all year came and threw out the rest of the candy for all the kids. It was the highlight of their summer i am sure.
Caroline had been talking about this night all year. "oh I hope I get a trophy." I don't think she realized everyone got one. When she stood up there with 20 kids it was like she was the only one up there getting her trophy.

After she got it she ran over and showed it to Jeff who then says, "look it is a bum trophy" And the rest of the night she held it up saying, "hey look at my bum!"

So, another swim season comes to a close. It is bitter sweet and that was all, I mean all we have done for 8 weeks. we have been at the pool twice a day (many days we never left) and meets twice a week. We have very tan legs, Sally Jane's hair is a little green and we can't wait for next year.

blessed day

Coming home from the commissary today Jeff and I stopped and had lunch in Frederick - this town is so charming and has not seen my face or my wallet enough these past two years. That must change. This doorknob was just one of many details on a store front.
the chocolate brown parking meters add charm to the main street. The one next to us was full or I would have snuck some money in as usual.

all the colored houses are shops are just great!

I am not sure what this building was, it said Professional Building, but I could not figure out what it was - but it was eye pleasing.

the gazebo by the baby pool

Swim Team tryouts were today and Caroline was so excited. Ever since last summer she has been hoping to get on the pre-team.

I don't think there are many 4 year olds on the pre-team but this kid was determined to try out.
This is her first anything to be apart of. She has not taken any lessons, classes or been on any team and she was just beside herself with joy! (by this age Annie Kate had been in gymnastics, and two soccer teams - what was I thinking?) She has cheered for her older sister for a few years and it will be good for her to be cheered for this summer.
to make the pre-team she had to swim half the length of the lap pool. But we had told her since last summer she had to swim the full length. She jumped in and one of the youth coaches was there to motivate her to swim to the end. I think he was surprised at how fast she swam and couldn't walk back fast enough. They got to the middle of the pool and the coach came over and said "Pre-Team she is in!" She was so excited but had in her mind that she was to swim at the end of the pool. So she just kept swimming all the way to the end.
It was a proud mom moment for sure. At the time I was sad I was not taking a photo from the end of her swimming to me, but this photo is so much better. She is a go getter and one determined little girl.
Here is our little swimmer with two of the youth coaches were were so supportive in this little girl trying out - they kept saying, "she is 4?"

Sally Jane is just happy being in the baby pool floating on her noodle!

we found a turtle in front of our house this week and he will be staying with us until our weekend visitors come (can't wait!) and then will get moved back to the lake.
and I am sure this will not be the last photo booth photos you will see. our family is having a blast with this thing. I think this may be my new guest book, instead of having people sign in an actual book they can just sit in our photo booth! (photo booth feature on Apple Computers)

the power of a team

OK this swim team thing is just so much more than we expected. We want our kids to grow up being apart of teams to learn to respect and follow a coach and to understand supporting and working as a team. Our swim team totally provides that. There are 4 of the cutest assistant coaches who are teenagers. (two of them go to our church which is great because we knew them) They are like youth camp counselors who are just constantly patting them on the back and supporting them. The have the most awesome chants and cheers. Every week they have a theme for the meet. Today was Mission Impossible. So when our team came out they were in all black with the theme playing and they came out of no where scaling the walls. Last week was Rocky. It really builds team spirit and gets the kids excited. The Swim coach is like something out of a Disney movie. He is cute, wears his Boston visor backwards, energetic, runs along side the pool during every meet, jumps in the pool during practice to give high fives when they do something great, is just a total motivator, teaches the kids the importance of being on time, demands respect and deserves every bit of it.
so, this is what we were hoping for by having her join the team, but the fact she could swim and do well, this is just a bonus and total shock!

She got to swim again in the Saturday meet and swim three events. Freestyle, Breast stroke & back stroke. She placed in each one and won the breast stroke. She was part of a three man sweep for back stroke which does not happen very often so that was so great!I can't believe I got a shot of the reach

When she swam the breast stoke it was down the wire and she was even behind, but at the very end she reached as far as she could and touched the end of the pool a tenth of a second before the girl who got second.this was her looking up at the timer to see her time ( I don't know why but the coach always says "get your time!" when they are done. She has no idea what is a good time but always looks up to find out.

What is so fun about this whole thing is that she doesn't even really care about winning and is almost surprised every time she gets out of the pool.

Jeff, who I often say does not show his emotions, surprised even me and was all emotion. He was like a cricket jumping all around the edge of the pool and smiling from ear to ear! Sporting events is his arena and cheering for his kids comes so natural to him. This is his dream to cheer for his kids and watch them compete. Today really almost seemed too good to be true!

There is a new Kingfish
team name Kentlands Kingfish

Today was Annie Kate's first day of racing on the swim team. It was time trials to see where to place everyone for the first meet.

Two weeks ago we told her she was going to try out for the swim team. She has never had swim lessons or swam on a team but said OK. I don't think there is anyone who doesn't make the team but she was still real excited. For the past two weeks she has gone to practice and every day come home sore and exhausted.
I am really amazed because this is something I don't think I would have ever done as a kid. She is pretty fearless and seems willing to try most things. One of the first days of practice the little girls were still asleep for their naps and I realized there was no way she would get there on time even if I could get them up immediately. She said, "I will just get on my bike and ride down to the pool, I'll figure it out mom." Those words were music to my ears!

She really did great today. She swam Freestyle, Breast Stroke, Back Stroke and Butterfly. She won each of her heats and got second place over all for freestyle. She was disqualified for Butterfly and Breast stroke and said to me before she swam, "I have no idea what I am doing" I just giggled. Dang I was one proud mom today to see her just get out there and try! It will be fun to see her improve this summer.
One of the best scenes in the pool was Caroline at the other end after watching her sister. She would say "get ready, start, go" and then jump in just like her sister was in the team pool.

We spent the whole day at the pool and then all came home and napped. We are got lots of kisses from the sun, maybe a little too much.

This will be a whole new world for us actually have some commitments during the week and the weekends. We purposely have not signed the kids up for anything for a year, to get adjusted to moving here and having a little family time. It has been a great year, but I wonder how we will handle this new responsibility. I am afraid we will have to work harder to make time to see this great part of the country. So much to see, so little time!

123 photos of the day