Swimming Champion!

We had a great swim-team summer again this year.  Both Kaitlyn and Brynn seem to have a great time, and both girls improved considerably from last year.  Brynn swam her fastest freestyle at the district meet, and we were proud of her for doing her best and always having a great attitude.

Kaitlyn qualified to swim in the City meet in 25 yd freestyle, 50 yd freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly.  At the City meet she placed second in the two relays she participated in, and took 3rd place in the 25 yd freestyle.  There was a bit of discrepancy on her time in the backstroke since her lane timer stopped working.  According to our calculations, she should have placed 3rd in the backstroke, but they had her placing 4th.  I was proud of Kaitlyn for not making a big deal of this.  She also placed 4th in the 50 yd freestyle and cut 5 seconds off her district time.  She came away with a ton of medals.  Way to go Kaitlyn!

We had a great time watching and cheering on Kaitlyn and Brynn this summer.

Grown Up Girl

 Ellie started her first day of preschool just a couple of days after the big kids started.  She is attending the same program as Jared did last year so she is a peer model for a developmental preschool.  When the teachers last year asked if Ellie wanted to be part of the three-year-old program, I was a bit hesitant.  The preschool is four days a week, and I hate to push my little three year old out of the house so much.  The teachers told me I could send her as little or as much as I wanted.  I couldn't argue with that, and since we love the program and teachers I decided to do it.

 I was a little worried about how Ellie would do.  Ellie is a girl of extremes--she would either hate it or she would love it with no in-between.  Apparently, this little girl has been craving a chance to be just like everyone else in her family and have something of her own. 

The day before her preschool started I went to the school to fill out papers.  Ellie came up to me and was whispering something at me with a very mad expression.  I thought she was telling me she wanted to leave, but she was telling me she wanted ME to leave and her to stay by herself!  That was a good sign.

 On the first day of school funny Ellie refused to let me take a picture of her in front of the house.  I brought my camera to take a couple of pictures at the school, and as you can see she refused to smile or look like she was enjoying herself at all.  She immediately found the babies and busied herself with their needs. 

 She told me to leave, and so I did.  She loves to talk about how she just "marches" right up to her preschool all by herself.  In the past month she has grown-up so much.  She dresses herself, gets her teeth brushed and tries to fix her hair every preschool morning.  She can buckle her own car seat, and she continues to be a big help with Nathan.  It seems like I have such grown-up conversations with her too. 

She loves everything about preschool.  She especially loves the songs she is learning, and I have heard her singing them to Nathan on several occasions.  She definitely has no problem being away from me!  I sure love this girl and am glad she has something she loves to look forward to.