Summer Swim Team

This summer, Nicholas, Grace and Henry all swam summer swim team for Edenwilde again.  They had a blast!  Each of the kids made great advances on their swim skills, Henry learning the breast stroke for the first time, Nicholas doing an IM for the first time, and Grace basically learned the breast stroke and butterfly this summer and was so good at them that she swam the IM and qualified for finals in it!  They each have made good friends on the team and so really enjoy their time with friends as well as the swimming.  It's a big time commitment with every day practices most of May and all of June but well work it for our family! 

Grace met a friend, also named Grace, last summer on the swim team.  They become even closer friends this summer - and they were neck and neck in all their races as well - both very strong swimmers - they pushed one another to be better, all while having lots of giggles and fun together - that's what summer swim is all about!!

Our good friends, Julianne and Sean Romine swam on the team this summer which was great to be able to spend time with them!

The swim team held a Cardboard Regatta this summer - teams get 2 cardboard boxes, a role of duct tape and 1 hour to construct a boat that will float and can hold at least 1 captain to row it across the pool.  Nicholas' good buddy Caleb asked our kids to team up with him - the boat looks pretty good, floated OK (sank about half way down the pool) but they had a blast!

They were awarded the team spirit award :-)

During morning practice, the kids swam in different age groups so while they were waiting for their siblings practice to finish, the kids, along with several others, would often try fishing at the dock on the lake right near the pool - never had much luck but still had fun trying.

All 3 of the kids swam at the GA Tech meet this year and did very well.  Grace, however, qualified to come back for finals in all 4 of her events (25 free, 100IM, Free relay and Medley relay)!!!  She need up placing in the top 10 in the State for both relays and the IM and in the top 20 for freestyle!  So proud of her!  

This is the crew from our swim team that made it to finals - notice Grace with her good friend Grace - they had so much fun!  Her friend beat her in the IM by less than 1 second!

We've made it our tradition these last few years to head to Antico Pizza and the Gelato shop nearby after the GA Tech swim meet.  The kids love sharing this fun tradition with Megan too!

The end of the year swim banquet - we are so proud of each of the kids!  They learned a lot and had a  ton of fun!!!

Great job Nicholas, Grace and Henry.  Grace was awarded the Most Improved Swimmer Award - out of about 250 kids on the team!!  And this was certainly well deserved.....2 years ago she was too scared to swim in a single meet and was sitting on the blocks crying.  This year she grew leaps and bounds in her stroke development and when her coaches suggested she swim the IM, she was very scared and didn't want to, but with much encouragement she faced her fears and did it - and she learned that she loved it and then proceeded to ask for that event the rest of the meets and at the GA Tech meet - then she qualified for finals in that event and even placed in the top 10 in the state in it....all in 1 season!  What growth this summer - certainly the most improved swimmer!!!!  So very proud of you Grace!!

We were so blessed to have Megan nanny for us again this summer for the second summer in a row.  I worked a lot of extra hours his summer so it was her who brought the kids to practices most days and she was there cheering them on at all the meets.  She also took the kids to the neighborhood pool a lot and worked with Samuel on his swimming.  We signed Samuel up for swim lessons in July and it only took few days and he was swimming across the pool!  Again, thanks to Megan for taking him most of the days to his lesson and working with him at the neighborhood pool.  We hope he will now be joining the big kids on the summer swim team next year!!