Swim Team Awards

Last night was the end of the year party and awards presentation for Nicholas' swim team.   Each child was given a little trophy for participation.  Then one boy and one girl were presented with the "Most Improved Swimmer" award and guess who won.......Nicholas!  His face, when they called his name, was priceless!  He was so excited and proud and rightfully so.  He really did make enormous improvement in his swimming and worked very hard at it!  We are so very proud of him!!!

Way to go Nicholas!

Here he is with 6 and Under coach, Brandon.

Happy 4th of July!!

We had a fun July 4th here in Roswell.  We spent the day hanging out having family time at home and then that evening went to Sweet Apple Park for a picnic with a few other families from church and enjoyed a great fireworks show!  Now that's a holiday!

Our man with the biggest sweet tooth in the family enjoying a cupcake treat!

Enjoying a fried chicken picnic

Calin and Nicholas...one of his good buddies from Sunday school, who will be going to kindergarten with him too

The Art Barn

A couple weeks ago we visited The Art Barn.  What a cool place!  Only about 20 minutes from us, it's a working farm that welcomes group visits.  We went with two families with whom we are good friends and the kids are all buddies at preschool.  We spent time visiting with the barnyard animals (sheep, goats, PINTO ponies, chickens, pigs, etc.), went on a hayride to see the grounds and gardens, learned all about honey bees from the bee keeper, had a little lesson on chickens and eggs, and spent time painting in the barn to create lovely farm masterpieces :-)  It was super fun!

Petting a very docile sheep

Petting one of the Pinto ponies

Henry was most interested in the chickens

Nicholas was really affectionate with the animals

Grace preferred brushing this goat, I think because unlike many of the other animals, he was smaller than her, and not quite as intimidating.

Here's most of the crew...minus the two little guys, Henry and Abigail, who weren't interested in having their pictures taken at this moment.

Here's Nicholas with 2 of his closest friends from preschool, Caroline E. and Caroline S.  We are so glad they will all be going to the same kindergarten this fall.

The bees were fascinating!

A very cool feature of this farm is how they incorporate a little art lesson into the visit.  Their barn is dedicated to the painting projects for the kids.

Gently holding the freshly gathered eggs

They each got a chance to hold a baby chick...once again, Nicholas is so sweet and affectionate with the animals!

Henry wasn't too sure about holding the chick, he ended up choosing to pet it with one finger :-)

Her face says it all !!!!

Nicholas on the Swim Team

This summer Nicholas swam for our town swim team, the Roswell Rapids, for the first time.  Being just 5, he was one of the youngest on the team, a team of about 200 kids ages 5 to 18.  He started the season just barely able to swim freestyle one length of the pool.  He practiced every day at 5:30, Monday through Friday for 45 minutes for the whole month of May and June, and he made great progress!  His stroke style and strength improved dramatically, while his endurance and confidence also increased significantly!  He swam in 4 meets, each time swimming the Boys 6 & under 25M Freestyle and the 100M Relay.  He even earned a 3rd place ribbon for his 25 free at one meet.  He concluded his season by swimming in the 1996 Olympic pool (at Georgia Tech) for the ASA Divisional Championships, where his team won for the third year in a row.  Way to go buddy!

He is the one in the green swim cap, getting ready for his 25M Free

Go Nicholas go!