Swim Team 2010

2010 was Molly's first year on the swim team.

Rusty thought I was crazy to register her since he had witnessed her two months earlier, during spring break, unable to even get in the pool without a floaty or me holding her. But I was not about to let that deter my goal of having Molly be a proud member of the Glen Oaks Swim Team. I really wanted her to learn to swim, and another HUGE deciding factor was our swim teams policy: pay for three kids and the fourth one is free. I am all about getting something free.

Therefore, I went on the hunt to find someone to teach Molly swim lessons three times a week during the month of May so that she would be able to "pass" the tryout and swim the length of the pool by June 1, 2010. After paying a small fortune for intense private lessons, she was accepted as a Glen Oaks Gator. In hind sight, I wonder if the swim lessons were worth the free swim team season.

Our swim team does a lot of fun things throughout the season (these enticements are the only way I am able to convince Meg to swim. . .that, and promising her she only has to go to practice two times a week with one of the practices being the "fun practice". . .I'm just picking my battles:). They have a pirate swim meet where everyone dresses up like pirates, we have an Amazing Race party which ends with a pudding drop, and a great awards banquet right before championships (see pictures below).

Most improved for the 11-12 year old girls.

Swim Team: June3 - July 19, 2008

Swim Team 2008

This year the first seven weeks of summer were spent doing swim team (since there are only 10 weeks of summer this was a HUGE part of ours). Meg and Sam were in the older half of their age divisions this year, and did really well this year (I mean, not compared to Michael Phelps, but who can?). They both were on the A relay and made great times in qualifications, which enabled them to go to championships. Ben was in the lower half of his age division, but still made the B relay and continued to improve his times, especially in free style.

Meg doing her favorite stroke--the Butterfly

Winning a heat ribbon.

Getting some last-minute advice from the coach.

Getting a heat ribbon for the 25 free.

Sam diving in ready for the 25 free

Heat ribbon winner. Sam loves the green goggles.

These were the "older" boys (16-18 year olds) on the swim team. For whatever reason they started hanging out with Sam at the first meet, and their friendship grew. I did have to have a little sit down with them at one point when I heard my six year old son tell a girl that one of the boys thought she was "hot." Sam later that night asked me what a "hot girl" was.

Pirate meet. . .Arrrrrrrg.

Molly playing with her toys on the swim deck.

Molly hanging out with Meg before a race.

Molly hanging out with the 13 year old girls. Every time I couldn't find her, I went to where the 13-14 girls (and I must say boys) hang out. There I would find her.

Rusty is the Louisville Swim Association representative for our swim team, which means he's the referee for each meet. He also is the life of the party. Here he is taking place in a half time relay during the pirate meet. He came in first by the way, but didn't get a heat ribbon.

The best part of swim team however isn't all the practices and meets, it's the FUN! Every practice the kids get coins to collect and then on Fridays the "coin cart" is available with tons of fun things to "buy." They could also earn extra coins by helping with set up, clean up or anything else the coaches asked. Fridays were also "Donut Day." The kids got at least two donuts after practice (Sam usually finagled three and always got Molly one as well). Another favorite swim team activity was "weekly fun practice." The kids never knew which practice of the week this would be, but they would get to play games, have tube relays and wear their p.j.'s one day. And did I mention all the parties? Holy cow, does our swim team know how to celebrate. This is why we are on swim team.

Meg with her participation medal at the awards party.

Both Meg and Ben won the award for the "Most Improved" in their age divisions. They tried every week to just focus on beating their own times. They both succeeded.

We decorated our van the day before swim championships. Ben got the back window and drew a swimmer doing free style (his best stroke) and a gold medal.

We also had someone come and put "Gator" tattoos on the kids' backs.


Sam decided, (unbeknowst to me) to draw his own version of the "gator" on his tummy with a blue Sharpie.

The whole family at championships.

Ben earned one medal, and Meg earned three. She would have gotten two more (she qualified for the IM and the free relay), but she got a tummy ache right before the IM, and another girl on her 100 free relay got disqualified for jumping in too soon. They did win though. Bummer.

Our team won the division and now we move up to a much more competitive division , which none of us are too excited about. But hey, the O'Brien mob swims for the fun. Meg holding the team's trophy.