Inventor Extraordinaire….

Simon has been going to Camp Invention all week and LOVING every minute of it. I'm thrilled he loves it, because Ben hated it. I had a feeling it would be right up Simon's alley though. He has come home every day inspired to create things, which has been both super cool and rather annoying.

For two days, he has been searching the house for wheels or something to use as wheels and we was asking me every five minutes. He wanted to attach them to a board to make the beginnings of a skateboard/hoverboard. (he also wants a "wind dispenser for it… but anyway…) I was at the hardware store yesterday for some other things and walked by the aisle with the wheels and casters and whatnot… I grabbed a set, a nice-sized board and some screws. He found them on the table when he got home and was SO excited. I helped him with my drill and he put it all together. :)

It has inspired me to find some more little projects we can do together that involve real tools. (in the past, we've gotten kits that involve little nails and wood glue… but he's ready to like *actually* build things now, I think)

I've been saying it since he was two… and I think I was right. He is definitely our little builder/ engineer!

Contacts.....

At Ben's eye doctor appointment earlier in the month, he told the doctor he was interested in getting contacts. I was surprised by this... like a LOT. But, Tom had apparently told him contacts would make playing sports so much easier, and he had latched on to that idea and was determined. So she sent us to another doctor for contacts fitting. I was still doubtful he would go through with it... and he was definitely nervous yesterday when we got there.

She put the first one in and he said, "Whoa... everything is in high definition!" when it popped into place, but then he immediately wanted it out. At that point I thought there was no way this was going to work. LOL.

Clearly, I underestimated his determination. After she checked positioning and fit whatnot, she took it out and then took him to a special area of the office to practice putting them in and taking him out.  By the time we were done, he was a pro and completely sold. He was annoyed he could only wear them for four hours yesterday. HA!

So  contacts were a success. Who'd a thought it?! The kid I had to sit on to administer eye drops when he was little! Sticking his finger into his eyeball?!

"This Was the Best Night of My LIFE!"

Those words were spoken by Ben on the way home from the swim awards banquet last night. You see, he won the BIG award.

He talked about this all season and would often wonder aloud if he could win it. We kept telling him it was unlikely, because we honestly thought that was true.

This award, called "Screamingest Eagle", in the two past years we have gone to this banquet, has always gone to the older girls who wrangle the younger kids and lead the cheers, or to the boy who always has an Eagle drawn on his back and paints his hair green during the meets.

This year, the coach prefaced it by saying when they decide this every year, they take a whole bunch of things into consideration... how much the swimmer has improved, how they performed in meets throughout the season, general attitude, how hard they work, how they cheer on their team... etc.

Then he went on to say that this year's winner "Loves swimming.... BURNS for it, lives and breathes it.... he's at practice every day and gives it everything he has. He does everything he's asked during practice, swims extra laps just because and pushes himself as hard as he can during every single one....

(at this point, I started to think he might actually be talking about Ben because yeah... of all the kids on the team, Ben is definitely the most passionate.... that's just his nature... he's ALL in on his favorite things... LOL)

Then when he said, "And this kid starting winning races this year... crushing some of them! Did an amazing job at the trophy meet yesterday....  And he does all this while facing the unfortunate obstacle of swimming as an 11/12 in a 7/8 body...." (then I was kicking myself for not turning my camera on because at that point, the entire room knew it was Ben. LOL.)

"When he hits his growth spurt, he'll be one heck of a swimmer!!! He's also one of the loudest on the pool deck cheering on his friends!  Ben Graff!"

Ben practically FLOATED to the front of the room, I kid you not. He was SO excited. The last time I saw him THIS excited, was when he won the most improved award at the same banquet two years ago.

Anyway, it was a huge honor and we were all so surprised.  Two years ago, the first award sparked the passion.... this one will fuel it for hopefully a long time to come.  :)

Simon has been inspired too. He says he wants to do the trophy meet next year and also that he wants to win most improved next year. (he is a actually prime candidate. LOL) He has asked to do the stroke clinic over the winter, so we'll see where that goes. His little award was adorable. We knew who the coach was describing right out of the gate. ;) 

Anyway, so another swim season in the books. It was our best one yet! 

Trophy Meet 2015

The league trophy meet was this morning. Ben, having moved up to 11-12 this year, had to be there for the morning session. We were up and out of the house by 6:30 this morning. (yawn) Warm-ups started at 7 and the events started at 8.

It ended up being really nice though. WAY less crowded in the older kids' session. We were done by 9:50!

He did well this year! 8th in fly and 10th in back… doesn't sound impressive, but he beat his seed times by 8 and 5 seconds respectively. Pretty cool! He was also competing among a group of mostly 12-year-olds. (eerrrrrg….. as if other 11-year-olds aren't big enough!!)  They give trophies up to 10th place so he walked away with two, and was pretty pleased with himself!

His 4th grade science teacher who does the announcing at one of the pools in our league was the announcer for the trophy meet and he made a big deal out of Ben's name when he announced it both times and when he announced the results. Ben LOVES that. Mr. H is awesome! :)

As always the trophy meet was nerve-wracking for him, but when all said and done, a great experience that he was glad he participated in. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

50m backstroke results

50-fly results

Two trophies = awesome day! 

With Coach Doug. This guy is awesome. He's tough on them, for sure, but the kids love him. He has pushed Ben hard and gotten great results!

With Doug and Asst. Coach Lindsay. Lindsay actually played field hockey in college, but got drafted to be Doug's assistant last summer and returned for another year. It was nice to have a familiar face as his assistant this year instead of someone new! She's super sweet! :)

Final Meet...

Our last regular season meet was Monday.

Not the Graff boys' best showing, although Ben was involved in an "almost too close to call" freestyle race. It came down to the backup timers. I was standing right at the finish line with the timers since I was clerking and it truly looked as if they touched the wall at the EXACT same time. I couldn't have called it! At any rate, after some comparing of times amongst the timers and backups and officials, and it was finally determined he got third. He was disappointed, but happy it was so close. He took third in back too, which he wasn't happy about… he spent too much time picking his head up to see where he was relative to the other swimmers. The coach talked to him about this at practice the next morning and spent some time showing him how doing this impacts his time, so I don't think he'll do this any more! LOL.

Simon did free and back and came in second to last both races.  :( BUT… he used arms and legs the WHOLE time in back, which was great. (there's always something good that comes out of races!)

Tonight we have the pep rally and Saturday is the championship. Only Ben is competing and he is swimming back and fly. He found out yesterday he is seeded 10th of 12th in back and 9th of 9 in fly. LOL. At first he was annoyed at this…. but eventually agreed with me that it's better to be underestimated than overestimated though. ;) (he only has to place 10th or higher… so  he'll get one in fly no matter what!) Regardless of the outcome, he has had an amazing season and has held his own in a new age bracket with swimmers who are almost universally MUCH bigger than he is. He should be proud of himself!

Jonathan is determined to do swim team next year… so I have to get him swimming across the pool over the winter.  I hope he can do it. I think he'll love it!

Swim Meet #7!

Coming down the home stretch!

I was flying solo on Wednesday at what is truly the most challenging pool all season. Challenging in so many ways. First off, it's crazy long. (33 yards… the rest of the pools are in the 25m/20yd range) Also, there were bees literally EVERYWHERE. It was truly awful. The kiddie pool was on the opposite side of where they put our team, and there was a small playground, but it was behind the bathrooms out of my sight line. Not particularly useful for entertaining Jonathan. ARGH.

Anyway... Ben was SO nervous about this meet. And when Ben gets anxious, he gets angry. As the time got closer and it was clear that thunderstorms weren't going to cancel it, he got more and more worked up. He threw a shoe at his wall and broke a poster frame. Then, he came down and told me had had ripped his team suit in half. (!!!!!)

I threw everyone in the car and ran to the sporting goods store an hour before the stinkin' meet to track down a suit. Of course, it being July, not much is left, so we settled on one that was the wrong color and size smaller. So annoyed.... at least Ben apologized later and admitted he didn't know what he was thinking. ARGH.

The meet though. Not enough people on our team were there to cover all the events we usually swim, so everyone was shuffled around. No one swam fly or IM. It was weird. Ben swam free and back... first time not to swim fly in two years! Simon swam free and back too. This ended up working out well for Ben, who got TWO second places. (against the second toughest team in the league!) AND Simon,  who managed to win his heat, which thrilled him. :) It luckily happened at a pool that gives out blue first place ribbons for heat winners. WHEW!

All in all, a good night... glad we ended up going!

Disney Planning….

We are just a few weeks away from our Disney trip. Haven't been since August 2013, which I have decided is just the right amount of time for us…. at least right now. I swear, I need that much time just to recover from packing for five people, plus the flying, which I will always dislike.

We're so excited my parents and one of our best family friends are going with us. It will be so fun to show Disney to people who haven't been in a very long time. The last time my mom was there was the year it opened and the last time our friend Joan was there was when her oldest daughter and I were 13 years old. Lots has changed! ;)

I've meticulously planned out our park days so as to avoid the huge crowds and make sure everyone sees all the neat things I think they'll really enjoy. :) We've also built in lots of down time because lord knows you need that when visiting Orlando in AUGUST. Wondering if the cool summer trend we are having here will translate to down there.. that'd be nice!

We have some fun dinners planned including the Hoop Dee Doo Review, which I know my dad is just going to love. :) We also chose Be Our Guest, which my mom will love, Rose and Crown in Epcot's UK, and the Fantasmic dinner show at the Brown Derby, which will be new for all of us!

As much as I hate flying, I will admit I'm getting really excited. It's always so much fun to share "our" Disney!

Swim Meet #6…. First Place!

Last night was an awesome meet! We swam against the only other country club in the league. The rest are dedicated swim clubs and attract WAY more swimmers and, in general, much better swimmers than we have. Usually our 40 or so swimmers are swimming against clubs with 100+. Last night was much more evenly matched and the score was actually tied halfway through. Exciting stuff! :)   The other team ended up winning, but not by a landslide. :)

Anyway, exciting stuff. Ben got a legit (no one DQed) FIRST PLACE in backstroke!  Then he got second with on one DQing in fly.  Man was he excited.

Simon swam really well too! He won his heat and then he swam fly and actually would have taken 2nd place except he only touched the wall with one hand. He was SO angry all the way home. :( I felt sorry for him… but… rules are rules and that's the only way to learn.

Simon started this trend last night. He calls them "Power Gauntlets". Even the older boys caught onto it and started running around with cups on their wrists. LOL. I'm sure the concessions people were thrilled. 

Coach Doug kept wandering around writing random things on the kids with sharpies…. he got Ben during relays…. the result is below…. cracked me up!

Boom Shaka Laka….
Also, please note, off in the distance waiting to swim…. the guy in the far right lane. He was as big as Michael Phelps and he swam in the relay against a kid Ben's size. I swear, the guy swam the length of the pool in ten strokes. RIDICULOUS!