Merry Christmas

First 'real' meet

{r} had her first swim meet this weekend (this summer was a just for fun league, this is real swim team now). She swam the 25 free, 25 back, 50 free, the free leg of the 200 medley (so another 50 free) and a leg of the 200 free relay (another 50 free). She didn't win any of the races but she was pretty close in all which i hear is pretty good for her first time. When watching the videos, i realized her starts were awesome. . . now she just needs to perfect the stroke and she would zoooom to victory.

Proof of the good starts:
huge lead popping up to start the 50 free. . . came in last.
slight lead to start the 25 free (closest lane), came in 3rd out of 3.

another good lead to start the 25 back. the girl in the closest lane had already taken two strokes before {r} popped up. the other girl went on to win, {r} was 2nd (out of 3).

here she is going in on the medley relay.

and going in on the free relay.

Again, if she could just get that stroke down she'd be golden! I'll post videos soon. video in post below

video of meet

technically, i know nothing about swimming. here is {r}s 25 free--in my untechnical opinion, she needs to not twist her body so much while swimming. there are times you can see the side of her leg, when you should only be able to see her butt, i think. she is in the closest lane, aside from the boy in the closest, closest lane. they don't swim against boys, he was just the only boy for that event so they combined the events to make the meet go more quickly.

and on to her backstroke. in my uneducated opinion, she needs to get her legs up and out of the water more.

is this thing on?

ahh, the old stomping grounds. how i have (sort of) missed you. i am far too busy nowadays to come up with blog posts.

tug travels A LOT (out of 18 days, starting 11/30, he will be home for 3) so i have a lot of kids i have to watch.

and i work a lot (type, type, type).

and there's facebook which lets me check on everyone and i only have to come up with a sentence every once in a while, not a whole post. so, if you want to find me, facebook friend me.

on a funner note (no, funner ain't a word), my younger sister-in-law (the only one younger, the other two are older. WAY older) who has a cutsie lil' 3 month old challenged {c} to a 'biggest cheeks in the family' contest. We took that challenge.

How could we not?

You don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

My sil conceded, {c} wins! (all 3 pictures are of {c} since I didn't get my sil permission to post pics of her lil' one)

See y'all in about 2 months (unless you are my friend on FB)

7 nov 10 gymnastics meet

Lucky for you guys there isn't another meet until next year. {l} went up in score on each event except vault, but she was doing a harder vault (with an extra 8" mat, so we can't really compare those scores). On floor, her coach asked {l} if she wanted her to go out on the mat during the back handspring. {l} said sure, but didn't realize it was a 0.5 point deduction. Had she actually touched {l} and given her a spot it would have been a full point.

vault: 8.75

bars: 8.25

beam: 8.20

floor: 7.90

first level four meet

{l} had her first meet yesterday and aside from a bobble on her bars (back hip circle connecting to and including the dismount) and losing her balance on beam (and jumping off) she did really well!!! oh, and she is still working on that back handspring--despite the look, she assures me she did not hit her head. I forgot her scores but I think it was 7.8 on floor and bars, 8.0 on beam and 8.8 on vault.

and, just to not play favorites, here is {r} from the last swim meet during the summer

while daddy was sleeping in denver

away on business, daddy is sleeping in denver

the kids decided to build a fort in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy is sleeping in denver

the kids decided to sleep in the forth

they built in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy is sleeping in denver

at midnight, {s} got a stuffy nose

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

{s} started crying

from her stuffy nose at midnight

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

{j} woke up because

{s} started crying

from her stuffy nose at midnight

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

{j} then went pee because

he woke up due to

{s}'s crying

from her stuffy nose at midnight

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

{c} started crying from being awoken by

{j} going pee because

he woke up due to

{s}'s crying

from her stuffy nose at midnight

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

mom then got up to check on {c}

who was crying from being awoken by

{j} going pee because

he woke up due to

{s}'s crying

from her stuffy nose at midnight

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

and so here mom types

with {c} on her lap

and {j} and {s} in her bed

thanks to a stuffy nose

while sleeping in the fort

they build in {j} and {c}'s room

while daddy was sleeping in denver

Where've you been?

Long time no type.

Actually, I've been typing a lot, just not here.

Here's a video of {l} doing a round-off back handspring. She is still working on perfecting it. She also informed me that she did not hit her head while doing it, though I thought she had.

Pretty in pink

isn't she. . .

well, most the time.

oh yeah, ijealous no more, cuz i gots my own itoy!!

ijealous

with tug's new job -- hmm, did i ever mention tug got a new job? i think i did. didn't i?? if not, tug got a new job -- came a new car. a company provided car. a car we don't have to pay squat for. AWESOME. not so awesome, tug already had a car. a car we had to pay squat for. a car we were paying too much squat for. so, we got it paid off and offered it to those in our homeschool group for pretty cheap. we also listed it on craigslist for $1000 more than we did to the homeschool group. we got an email inquiry from craigslist and one from someone in the homeschool group. we ended up selling to the homeschool group family which we were really happy about.

tug got a new toy with some of the money.

it'll come in handy for all the plane rides he is/will be taking. hmm, a brand new car AND a new toy. i think he likes the new job!

it's a family tradition

If at first you don't succeed
try
try
again

bubbles under water

the girls' last swim meet (possibly, might be one more) was this past weekend.
and nothing says swim meet at the end of july like a blanket.
it was cold.
i digress. {r} worked up the nerve to go off the blocks.
she pretty much went straight down though so there was a lot of underwater swimming just to try and resurface.
based on her age she should only be swimming 25 meters, but she likes to swim up a level to do 50s. on saturday she threw in her version of a flip turn. tug and i had a good laugh about that.
she is now saying she wants to drop gymnastics to try and be on the swim team at the Y.

and she wants to do tennis.

and dance.

and soccer.

and. . .

here's {j}.

and {r}
and {l}. that {l}, she doesn't want to do any sport besides gymnastics. i did get her to admit tonight though that swim team has been fun.
she even worked up the nerve to go off the blocks.

so what if i coaxed her.

coaxed means bribed.
all it took was telling her they could pick up food for lunch (ie: fast food) and she could get a movie to put on to her ipod. oh, and all it really took was a fellow friend saying she'd go off the blocks if {l} did.
that friend is the one still sitting on the blocks while {l} is already diving in, catlike reactions that one. the other girl still beat her in the actual swim.

and, here's a wink from {s}.
do you smell what the {j} is cooking??
and cute little chicharone as we usually call her.
WOW, two posts in two days. dont call it a comeback.

Tennis

i don't think i ever said here that regan got dropped (AGAIN) from her gymnastics. as part of a 'clearing out, let's try some new stuff' campaign (how i got her to drop baton) i said she could try some new sports. she decided on tennis. then she started gymnastics at a different YMCA (so she could still try the competitive route). tennis never happened. now she says she wants to drop gymnastics altogether and try something else. i said no dice. i will let her drop gymnastics but she has to finish out the month so she isn't making the decision on a whim.
i did finally let her start tennis though. When we were ready to leave {l} decided she wanted to give it a try.
that's {j}, then {l}, then {r}, then some random little girl. i should stop forgetting my zoom-ish lens.

unfortunately another coach came and took {l}, {r} and two other kids who showed up late outside therefore i have no photos of them. so, you only get a shot of {j} with a swing and a miss. . . notice the ball behind him.
i think one of {j}s favorite things was picking up the balls.
{r} and {j} gave tennis big thumbs up. {j} just yelled, "I LOVE TENNIS. i want to do it forever. . . except the nights i am doing hip hop." oh, he starts hip hop dancing next week.

not surprisingly, {l} gave it a big thumbs down. she is the type who if she isn't good at something, she doesn't want to do it. i've already paid for three additional lessons so she has to give those a go, then she can quit if she wants.

hope i can get some pictures of that hip hop!

Baby books

I am not a baby book type person. The eldest four do have baby books and first year calendars, but they are rather lackluster. Lots of blank pages.

tangent--I tried to be a scrapbooker, too. I bought lots of supplies. I have maybe 15 pages total, 10 of {l}, 5 of {r}, a big goose egg for {j} and {s}.

I didn't have a baby book growing up and didn't need counseling for it, so I never really thought they were a big deal. For each of her four kids my sister-in-law (the rancher one) would write in their baby calendar daily. DAILY. Something written in each day.

"Sucked on my boob again today, good boy."

I don't think she ever actually wrote that.

The kids, though, like looking through their mostly blank baby books and first year calendars so I figured I should at least buy them for {c} -- because it is totally apropos to pay $64 for something you will leave mostly blank.

Here's what I got (minus the baby on the front):

Advice please

oh wise ones who have kids older than mine and have gone through this before, what advice do you give to a child when people she considered friends decide not to really be her friend anymore??

i did the usual, "be nice no matter what, don't exclude people, try to branch out to make new friends." easy for an adult to comprehend, hard for a heart broken kid to.

any advice??

How many licks does it take

to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
A ONE. . .
A TWO. . .
A THREE. . .
Happy 3rd birthday to our tootsie pop loving little {s}.

replace tootsie pop with the word gum in that last sentence.

and just for fun, here she is with her sisters.

Racer

Decidedly not speed racer though. {r} decided she wanted to be on our pool's swim team this year. She has never been on a swim team. She doesn't even know how to do the required strokes (aside from freestyle) but, luckily, this is an entirely 'for fun' league. Her first swim meet was this past Saturday. She came in last (including relays) in all but one race (finished 3rd out of 4) but she had a great time (she swam 25m free, 25m butterfly, 25m backstroke for the medley relay--no one wanted to swim backstroke so she said she would--, and 50m free for the 4x50 free relay). She was afraid to go off the blocks but Tug worked with her later on dives and I think this weekend she might give the blocks a go. She is in lane 4.

{l} didn't want to do swim team but I made her sign up so she could get the workouts in (I make her go to the half hour daily practices, but told her she didn't have to do the meets if she didn't want to). After seeing this meet, she has decided to give it a try next weekend (I think she was nervous she wouldn't do well but after seeing people cheer on even the last place straggler, she now realizes it is just for fun).

And, just to give you some pool relief, here is {c} sleeping. . .
Back to the pool we go.



This is where we are spending most of our days (in between breaks to go to gymnastics--and breaks due to rain). Hope you are all having a great summer!

Fourth fun

Happy 4th of July! Here is {c} in her bouncy seat while the others were outside (too cold to take her out there). . .
having lots of fun with sparklers . . .
pretending to play the guitar (notice the flag that she drew and taped on her shirt). . .
or fly rocket ships. . .
and imaging herself playing drums. . .
and it was all great fun. . .
until daddy lit a firecracker that made noise. . .
and then two decided to watch from indoors.