Most Improved

We have had an amazing and super FAST summer!! The kids have grown so much in appearance as well as abilities! Just today I watched Kyle glide across the monkey bars all by himself!

The Tidal Waves took up a good 2 months of our summer - and no matter how hot it was, we still had FUN!
Most of our meets had themes - this one was hawaiian! and then it stormed... so we got kicked to the car! It stormed 5 out of 6 of our meets - that doesn't mean make up meets, it just means VERY late meets since the storms always pass!
This is Riley in clerk of courts! She loved free style and also had a good back stroke but was terrified of swimming the back stroke during the meet (more to follow on this below)....

Ri with one of her AWESOME coaches!

Ri finishing up the 25 free style!

And she won her HEAT!! She also ended up placing 2nd out of all 6 and unders!

And then there is Kyle and CarrieLyn! Sooo cute!! Kyle will be on swim team next year.

Earlier, I mentioned that Ri has had a fear of swimming the back stroke in the meet. In fact, for three meets, she breaks down in tears while in the Clerk of Courts and refuses to get in the water. I was petrified that she would fester over this fear all winter long so Coach Brandon met with her to try to get her over her fear. The fear was based on hurting her self on the lane lines.

So the last meet of the year is at hand and Ri is getting ready to swim the back stroke and startes to lost it again... Brandon to the rescue and somehow he get her to give it a shot (Eric and I tried at all the other meets with no success!) She get in, give it her all (straight as an arrow down that lane - never hitting her arm on the lane line!) and WINS her heat!! and not only that, she WINS the ENTIRE event!! It was soooo crazy exciting!

And because of that, Riley won "Most Improved Swimmer" for the 6 & under at the year end banquet!!

This is Ri accepting some of her ribbons the morning after one of the meets at "Ribbons and Donuts"

We also celebrated Lexa's 7th birthday last week. She had her party at the Y and everyone had a blast! The kids had to swim the length of the pool and then tred water for 30 sec in order to go down the slide and guess who jumped in line and succeded?? Little Man Kyle!!

Summer Fun!

The week after the 4th of july, the girls stayed in NC with Grandma and Papa. It is their most favorite week of the year and next year they are excited about Kyle staying too! When we were all there, the kids had pix taken with Grandma and Papa.... soooo cute!

Once home, Riley got to go to her very first kid neighborhood pool party and swim from 8-10pm! After one of her friends spent the night and then next day she and I worked hard at a local under privileged child care center to spruce it up for the new year!

New hair cuts!

The Tomato Festival - yummo!

While Ri was away, Kyle got to play the role of 'only child'. This one particular day, we dressed like cows and had free chick-fil-a....

And bowled for the very 1st time!

Kyle also got to have a sleep over, kind of! The weather was horrible this one night - which happens (as always!) to be swim team night. Since Ri was away, we weren't going to the meet, so Ivy came over and played and slept over till about 11ish when the meet ended.

Can you tell that they are having a good time together!?!

More on Swim Team to come soon!

4th of July Fun!

For the 4th year in a row, we spent 4th of July weekend with Grandma and Papa in NC and what a beautiful weekend! Lots of fun on the boat, pool, and hanging with family! The fireworks were beautiful - quite the production for little Washington!

Waiting the fireworks on the boat!

playing in the water before the fireworks

They played hard and rested Harder! (look close, all 3 are in this pix!)

Everyone rested hard! LOL This is mom & dads new room - beautiful!

Fishies

Everyone is now swimming and swimming well! It is amazing, I can even sit and relax while both kids are in the water! Yippee!!

Riley joined the swim team this year and is doing Great! She has place in the top 5 in the 25 Free each week and last week swam and placed in the 50 free! The backstroke has not gone so well, since she refuses to get in the water! We make it a little further each week, so we are hoping that this week will be the one where she gets over her fear! No matter what, even with storms each week (which makes for very late/long meets) she is having a blast!!

This is Ri coloring late into the evening waiting to swim her first race. Riley with Ashley and Abby

Riley with Leigh - Riley adores Leigh!

Now that we go to the 'swim team pool', the kids have discovered the diving board.
This pix is Kyles 1st time jumping off! As soon as he did it, Ri ran into line and did it as well!
A friend turned to me and said, "Kyle is Riley's test crash dummy!!"
And there goes Ri!

Kyle swimming to the stairs! Whew, he made it!

The end of Kindergarten!

It is amazing, Riley's first year of Kindergarten is over!! What a year! She has loved every minute and learned soooo much! She is an excellent student and looking forward to her 1st grade year! We are so lucky to have had Mrs. Sullivan this year and thank her for ALL her hard effort and patience (which you need to have a lot of when you teach 22 5 and 6 year olds!)!

Riley and buddy Marissa

Riley with Mrs. Sullivan
Singing for the parents

Our class gift for Mrs. Sullivan - sailing into Summer

USA Day (aka Field day)

The kids also sang Wonderful World and had drawn pix of various images in the song.

(which happens to be the song we danced to at our wedding!)

DelFest 2011

As always, I'm BEHIND so the next few entries are my catch up on all our summer fun!!
The summer kicks off with DelFest as it has for the past 3 years and every year it gets better and better! The kids are wonderful little music lovin hippies and suck up the heat and mud with the best of them! All three are becoming excellent hoopers as well!!

This is the first time Riley has ever touched a worm!

Hanging at camp!

This pix is of Riley watching a solo, up close and personal banjo performance from one of our tent neighbors - she is in awe!

LOTS of mud this year!!