Swim meet and birthday party

Getting ready, Dirk is looking sideways to mr.karate chop







Today was my son's first exposure the the swim meet. He started the neighbourhood swim team last year but did not participate in any of the meets. This year, we kinda 'nudged' him so he agreed to do 'just' the breast stroke and the freestyle. Then this morning, with about three hours before his first heat (the kids have to be there for 7am) he got cold feet and needed some rara's and encouragement. He's a gently, playful (and with a great sense of humour I might add) kid and not particularly competitive. The only thing we told him was that we needed a baseline for getting a time so that he could work towards improving his time. Not having to compete against others for winning a race (heat). The team is pretty good. Several neighbourhoods get together at the end of each (public) school year and practice for about two months and doing swim meets during that time. This time, we had 3 other neighbourhoods participating (instead of just one or two) and there were A LOT of people. Volunteerism is great and the parents cheer on all kids, besides their own.
There was this little guy, probably 6 yrs old, doing some heat and he was sooo behind. He was basically dog peddling and kept pausing for the alloted few seconds on the rope every couple of strokes. The whole crowd started to encourage him and when HE finally touched the side of the pool, EVERYBODY cheered. It was so nice. So this other older kid said, 'why are they cheering for him'? I said, because we're glad he made it (and didn't drown in the process, which of course I did not say lol).

My son Dirk did a 25 mt breast stroke and freestyle, plus unexpectantly got put in a 100 meter medley. Then, the whole shebang was done at 2pm but I had gone home earlier to get stuff ready for this afternoon's pool birthday party for Rebecca as it was her 4th birthday today.
woohoo..PRESENTS!


Time flies..everybody had a great time as parents and siblings were also invited. As she was unwrapping her presents, I think she was kinda 'whelmed'! There was a lot of swimming this morning AND this afternoon and now..lo and behold.. our brood finally passed out. Aaahh.. the peace and quiet..