Ring Bearer!

We attended my cousin's wedding this past weekend in West Virginia.

Jonathan was the ring bearer. He is often unpredictable in what he will and won't do… and will and won't wear…. and so my best guess was that it was 50/50 whether he would actually do the job or not. (my cousin was warned about this and she said whatever happened was okay, thankfully!) I'm happy to report that he came through!

 LOL. And he looked darn cute in the tux, if I do say so myself.

This was right after I had gotten him dressed. 

Hamming it up with my Aunt Debbie, the mother of the bride. 

With Elizabeth

With second cousin, Ellie, the flower girl

Photo op with great grandma Weezee before the processional

Three handsome dudes

Being silly with mommy!

He did a great job and it was a really long day. :) We all had fun on our little getaway, which lasted from Thursday to Sunday. My kids think hotels with indoor pools are the best adventure, though there was constant fighting over who would get to open the door to the room with the keycard. (face palm)

He Did It!

Ben finally got the first place finish he has wanted so badly. :) He got his shot last night when he swam an AWESOME heat of fly. He came from behind for what looked like a great second place finish, but the kid who was in first DQ'ed (and pretty horribly so… like, actually STOPPED and stood up in the lane… ?! in 11/12?!?)  so first place was all his.  Suffice to say, he was ecstatic.

He also had a third place finish in back, which he wasn't thrilled about, but I think he will be when he sees his time on Friday. I'm pretty sure he beat his record.

Simon was put in free and back (ARGH) and finished 7th and 11th. Have I mentioned he's basically over swim team? LOL. I just signed him up for a robotics camp in two weeks, so I'm excited for him to start something this summer that will give him a self-esteem boost… because swimming kind of knocks it out of him. :(

Three more meets to go, two home and one away. Coming down the homestretch of swim season!

Swim Meet #3!

This guy had his best showing EVER in butterfly last night. He finished a SOLID third. The 4th, 5th,  and 6th place boys ate his bubbles!

This pictures was taken right after he exited the pol. He was so pumped up!  I'm shocked he even had the energy to swim because after the one-hour practice in the morning, we went back to the pool and he spent the entire afternoon swimming every boys event just to see if he could do it. He swam every age group and stroke combination. LOL.  Suffice to say, swim team passion has once again kicked in. 

Simon did great last night despite a stomachache all evening (he ate too much right before he swam). He swam heat 3 of freestyle (lots and lots and LOTS of heats last night because the other team was enormous) and he finished third in his heat. He also swam fly and I don't think he DQ'ed, which is HUGE. He may have even gotten fourth or fifth out of six because even though he came in last, I'm pretty sure at least one of the other boys did DQ.  We'll see when the ribbons come in! I know he'd be excited to get one of those! 

This team we swam last night offered Ritas Italian Ice at their bake table which was quite popular. LOL. 

First home meet coming up tomorrow!

In other excitement, we have a four-day wedding extravaganza for my cousin coming up from Thursday-Sunday. Jonathan is a ring bearer, which should be interesting, if nothing else! LOL. 

Last Day of Second Grade!

The last of them is finally free from school! :)

Another Day, Another Meet….

Meet 2! Another away meet… one more after this and then we finally get to be at home for a few in a row!

Ben did not swim his best in freestyle, mostly because he froze and jumped instead of diving to start.  WTH? Not sure what happened there. He did swim fast after that, but it was too little too late. I think he finished 6th.  On the positive side, he did his first ever flip-turn during a race.  He does them in practices all the time, but hadn't worked up the confidence to try it in a race, so this was big! :)

He swam fly later on. It was a bit of a confusing combined event. (boys/girls/11-12/13-14), so I wasn't entirely sure who his competition was. I THINK he either came in 2nd or 3rd. We'll see on Friday when they give out the ribbons.

Simon swam heat 2 of freestyle and did AMAZING! He was on fire! :) He ended up finishing sixth overall, I think…  he swam fly too and finished 4th, his highest place ever! I'm hoping he didn't get DQed for his feet, but we'll see…  ribbon Fridays are always exciting. :)

My clerk of course job was a little on the crazy side last night. We have a set of seven-year-old twins on the team this year who are new and they won't tell anyone which is which --  they also disappear and don't show up for their events. One missed his freestyle swim, which was annoying. I had to chase down a lot of kids and I'm still learning who some of the new ones are, so it was rough at times.

I leave you with this photo of Simon right before his butterfly race. ;)  He is convinced the speed button actually worked!

First Swim Meet….

We had our first meet on Monday night.

We started the season off away, which I don't love… but, whatever. It was at a nice pool that we enjoy going to and everyone had fun. It's also a historically quick and efficient meet, which I always appreciate! ;)

 Anyway, Ben swam 50m freestyle. I believe he took 4th. He was happy with his race. It was his first 11/12 race and given the size differential (it's huge), 4th was pretty amazing. If he could really nail his flip turn, he could pick up a couple seconds and maybe place higher next time.

 Simon swam 25m free. It was actually one of his best races. He hung with the middle of the pack the whole race. He was in heat 2, but finished 6th overall out of 10!

 I worked clerk of course the whole first half and it was chaos! We couldn't hear the announcer and so there was lots of shuffling around of lanes and they combined a lot of events which made it ultra confusing.

 After freestyle, we had a LOT of downtime because BOTH boys weren't swimming again until fly. Yes, Simon too! We discovered just a few days ago that Simon can swim butterfly! He had no idea he was doing it. He calls it "two arm freestyle". LOL. I had sent an email to the coach because he ALWAYS puts Simon in backstroke and honestly, it's a lost cause. He just can't do it. But butterfly, he can! I wanted the coach to see him do it in practice to make sure it was passable, but instead, he just stuck him in it for the meet. (face palm) Whatever. Simon was unfazed. I reminded him over and over again what he was swimming. Then it came to his turn and…. he swam freestyle.

 Sigh. On the bright side, it may have been his FASTEST freestyle time ever. But… obviously, DQ. ;) 

Ben was the only one in his age group swimming fly for our team. He had been worried about it because it's the first year he has to swim two lengths. He did great though. He came in third and was thrilled with that. I'll be interested to see his time when they give out the ribbons on Friday.

 We have another meet tonight. Forgot how exhausting swim season is. Fun, but exhausting! Not sure Simon will do it next year… I think he's kind of over it. :( We'll see.

Last Day of Fifth Grade….

Ben's last day of school was Friday. It was anti-climactic. They got out at like 10:30. LOL.

He's excited to be free earlier than everyone else, though I'm not sure why. With Jonathan still at camp for another week and Simon still in school for two more, there's really not much we can do.

I really can't get over how quickly elementary school flew by. :(

Blue shirt picture is the first day of fifth grade, red shirt is the last day.

Last pic is his first day of kindergarten. (cry)

I asked him to rate his fifth grade year on a scale of 1-10, 1 being awful, 10 being perfect. He said "From the time I switched schools to now, I'd give it  a 9.5, before that, I'd give it a 5.5." LOL.

I'm glad we made the move. It's nice to know he's staying where he is next year rather than starting at a huge middle school. We definitely made the right choice for him. I'm not sure what the future holds school-wise after 8th grade for him or what it holds for the other two as they head to middle school, but for Ben, right now, this was the right decision. He has made some nice friends and is getting more involved next year. He plans on playing basketball and tennis, neither of which he would have been able to do at the school level if we hadn't moved him. I think this will be fantastic for him.

He finished the year, I think, with four As and two Bs. (the report card gets mailed in a week or two, but that's what the online gradebook says) Overall, a successful year with lots of growth and maturing.

Onward to middle school! (!!!!???!!!)

Still Here!

Crazy two weeks here... working on a massive project in the school library, coupled with Ben's last two weeks of school, and all the activities associated with that, Jonathan's camp (only half day), plus car trouble (gahhhhh!) = no time.

My house is a disaster and we have eaten takeout almost every night for a week.

Yesterday and today, Ben has been home sick with a horrible headcold. This has actually been a blessing in disguise. I didn't have to figure out how to deal with his field day and a noon pickup in the middle of everything else (and car trouble!! GAH!!! Stupid Odyssey!).

Today, not having to run all over God's creation for school stuff meant I actually got some laundry done and picked up some dinner ingredients at the store. Break is over though... off to get J at camp and then spend an hour or so in the library, run back to check on Ben, go back to school to get Simon, then off to get the car.
(sigh)