Summer, Week 6

We have had a super crazy week!

The 2 highlights were the Bird Bath Open swimming meet and the end of our activities--as of today, ballet is done and tonight is the last swimming practice of the summer season!

This was the entrance to Erb Pool last weekend, welcoming swimmers to the Bird Bath meet...28 teams and around 850 swimmers were hanging out at Erb for the weekend fun.

Ellie had a blast....and was EXHAUSTED when it was all done!Again, this year had perfect weather...it was enjoyable for spectators and swimmers!
It was a really fast swimming meet. Ellie's times were amazing; in the 100 freestyle, she shaved 20 seconds off her time from last year at the BBO! Her relay team did fabulous--Ellie was the starter and had the team in the lead...and they just missed getting a placing ribbon by .5 of a second.
To see Ellie swim backstroke with the relay, click HERE.
To see Ellie swim freestyle, click HERE.

Ellie's swimming friend, Mackenzie, took the summer off from swimming this summer. However, her entire family came to watch Ellie swim on Saturday morning! They had tent camped with the cub scouts the night before and then got up bright and early to see Ellie swim at 8am! Ellie was thrilled to catch up with Mackenzie again and Colin loved both Mackenzie and Caden's attention.

Here are some shots of the "people" of the Bird Bath...

After the Bird Bath, when we all felt like collapsing from the exhaustion of the weekend and being outside working the meet and watching Ellie swim, Andy and I undertook the "Declutter 2011" event. The pink room has been bugging me like crazy...and it took all afternoon, but it is no longer cluttered and the girls were thrilled with the end result.

Another fun part of the week was Grammie and Grampy's visit--they were here for 5 days! We returned home from IL on Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon, Grammie and Grampy were here! Aside from the 2 times we've moved in Wisconsin, we've never seen them for that many days straight! They were able to spend time with the kids and take in the Bird Bath fun! They even treated us to our favorite chinese restaurant Saturday night...and showed up "dressed up" to go out to eat! The girls got a kick out of quickly changing to also be "dressed up"!

As mentioned above, today ended Ava's summer ballet program.
She used to dance for 30 minutes 1x a week. This summer, we switched programs and she danced for 1 hr 2x a week! Quite a difference. Ava learned so much this summer; it was fun today, to get to sit and observe her class. She can't wait until fall classes start--new shoes, new leotard and the VAA will be in their new building in just 1 month!

I was able to capture some video of today's class....this is especially for you, Megan!
Ballet 1, click HERE.
Ballet 2, click HERE.
Ballet 3, click HERE.
Tummy torture, click HERE.
Ballet 4, click HERE.

Colin has had enough of summer activities...when he wasn't dancing as a ballerina at dance class today, he was laying on the floor 'sleeping'. Oh, and there was also a time that he was air guitar-ing it to the classical music.

And now, as activities slow down, we will start traveling again!