RRRRrrrrrRRRRrrrrr!

This 1st week in 2012 was brought to our family by the letter "R"!!!!

We returned to work/school....we returned items that didn't fit...we swam a relay and had record breaking times (personal best times...this was Ellie...not the entire family!)....we read books....we wrapped ribbon....we ripped open our upper gum...we had a very eventful week!

We must pause though, to all remember and enjoy that beautiful snow we woke up to on New Year's Day! What a joy it was to hear the 4 children say " Can we shovel for you, Dad?!" Sweet! Our drive was the only one cleared for hours...even days! Since this might be the only snow photo we get this year, here it is for your enjoyment...

Now...about that really fun ribbon activity. Colin was so sad when I started un-decorating the Christmas tree and he found it very funny as I walked around and around and around the tree unwrapping the beautiful plaid ribbon. As soon as I finished, the phone rang and I dropped the ribbon....as I was talking on the phone, I just started laughing...Colin was running through the rooms of our main level, weaving and pulling ribbon while singing "Follow The Leader"! I don't enjoy un-decorating, and Colin's happiness definitely put a smile on my face!

Enjoy these photos I captured...all while talking on the phone (scheduling another pull up study, of all things!)...he didn't even know I was snapping photos, it was wonderful! The middle photo here shows Colin holding onto a drawer pull saying "It's tight Mommy!" as the ribbon was caught on something in a different room!

And the end result:

We also had a scare on Friday night...when Colin RIPPED his upper gum open! He had piled pillows on Ellie's bed and then plopped onto them...but instead of plopping onto them, he plopped into her headboard! Ouch. Mouths bleed A LOT...and we had no idea what to expect. After a few minutes, he was running around like nothing had happened, asking for his sippy cup and ready for dinner...it was at that point that Ava just started sobbing, she had been so scared that something really bad was going to happen to him. 2 peas in a pod, let me tell you! :)

This photo is a tad bit graphic:

And yes, he is 100% fine, and his mouth is almost fully healed 24 hrs after the injury!

Finally, we finished the week out with the first swim meet of 2012 for Ellie. I told a friend that when I ran races, it was all about the free tee shirt each runner received. Well, with this meet, if you tried a new event or won your heat, you received a free swim cap! We were all over that one! Ellie tried 2 new events today--the 100 yd backstroke and the 200 yd individual medley. Let me just say that she rocks the backstroke but does not enjoy it--she hit her head once and that was the end of her desire to enter these events! She did wonderfully today though--had the lead the entire race and then got 2nd by just .49 of a second! It was a fun swim to watch. Also fun (and tiring) to watch was the 200 IM. Yikes. I surely could not do THAT one. She said that she was so nervous, she was shaking as she waited by the starting block. BUT...it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be and she established a new time to work off of on that event.

BUT...by far, THIS result was our highlight of the day:

This was the first meet of the new age bracket and we did not have high hopes for anything since Ellie is a young 11 and isn't very tall. She did amazing in the 50 yd freestyle, shaving 5 seconds off her previous best time AND winning her heat! It was a fun swim meet, for sure.

If you are into swimming, here are 3 of the 4 events she swam today:
50 yd freestyle, click HERE.
100 yd backstroke, click HERE.
200 yd IM, click HERE.

And one more "R" for you....it was a week of resolutions! Jayna said she wants to try new foods this year....this week, she tried sushi and banana muffins! I want to make new recipes...52 this year...and I completed 2 new recipes, that the family LOVED!

Happy 2012!

Marathon Water Station

We live in a community that hosts weekend full of running events...fun runs, shorts runs, 1/2 marathon and a full marathon. And this year, for the 2nd time, Ellie and I volunteered with the swim team to hand out water to the marathoners.

It's fun...it's fast...but it is early! We get up really early, arrive at the station, and then go fill the water and gatorade cups. After that, we wait...and wait some more....and a little longer waiting...finally, the runners come. In a blink of an eye, hundreds have passed our station and it is all done!

The above photo is the team volunteers...
And below, you see Ellie holding out a drinks to the runners. There is quite a technique with this--you don't want the liquid spilled on you, and not everyone wants a drink...

It was a really fun time!

Summer, Week 1.

We just finished week 1 of Summer break!This summer, I decided to do a true "scrapbook" entry of each week....especially since I recently discovered a site to print the blog!

Our summer vacation started last Thursday and Ellie and Jayna went to the auditions at Appleton Alliance Church for the children's musical that will be held later this summer. Ellie was chosen as an "aside speaker", which is sort of like a narrator. Upon finding more information out about this part, we were told that she will be tying the play's story line to God's word and truth! She is very excited! Both girls will be in the chorus for the play--they can't wait.

On Friday, we had a "Father's Day Craft Session" with our friends the Landsverks. That's all we can say about that....after all, it's not Father's Day yet and we'd hate for the dads to see what they are getting...

And after 13 months of waiting....our sand FINALLY arrived. On Friday, Colin played for 5 straight hours in the sand, taking about a 20 minute lunch break. He was in heaven! On Saturday, he played for about 3 hours straight! The sand is definitely loved by all.

On Saturday, Andy, Ellie and Jayna went to Cherry On Top in Neenah to tie dye shirts! It was a VERY hot day and it was very messy...but the shirts turned out so cute! We'll be wearing them as a family when we go on vacation--I'm sure people will notice them, they are so bright!

While Andy and the girls were tie dying, I took Ava to see a ballet performance of "Where The Wild Things Are". She loved it....and can't wait to start ballet next week again!

On Sunday, we had an impromptu "fix the faucet BBQ" at our house!
One of our bathrooms had a leaky faucet and I was just collecting all the water and dumping it on my plants each day. We found out that a friend could help....so it was "bring the kids to play while the dad's fix the faucet" day! We had such a great time with the Schlafmans and I captured this photo just as the kids arrived:

Rub-A-Dub-Dub....5 girls in a "tub"...

They did eventually move to the bigger pool, the trampoline, the swingset, the basement, the sand, the basketball court....we covered all activities in 1 short afternoon/evening!
As you can see below, all 7 children were just having a ball together: (check out Colin's macho man look with Lexi!)
Another first for our family: I took all 4 kids to a public pool by myself, on a VERY hot (and busy pool day!) day! We surprised Ellie and Jayna with the activity and Ellie said "Are you sure mom?!" My response was "This is either the best idea and the start of something new or the worst idea and we'll never do it again!"

All the kids LOVED it, and we will definitely go swimming together again!

Colin is doing a Pull Ups study and it is quite interesting. The testing is a sensor attached to the Pull Up; when the child wets, the sensor sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Quite funny! However, we first found that Colin LIKED to hear the song (wrong behavior to enforce) and now our sensor is acting up and playing every 5 minutes, even without wetness. Now he is upset at the song. It has been an experience!

And, Ellie had her 1st swim meet of the summer! We love the local meets and this one was very low key, a dual meet between Fox Cities and Oshkosh. We were trying to pump Ellie up in the afternoon before the meet....it was either the Wiggles' "Swim Like A Fish" song or "Just Keep Swimming" from Nemo. At any rate, she swam wonderfully; it is so neat to see her improve and get stronger....which equals faster!
For the swimming fanatics:
Catch the 50M butterfly HERE. (Ellie is the 2nd to last lane)
Catch the 50M freestyle HERE. (Ellie is 2nd to last lane)
Catch the 50M breaststroke HERE. (Ellie is in the 2nd lane)

We did forget our camera at home...but thankfully we had 2 iphones...1 for videoing and 1 for timing her events. We had NO idea that she swam so well in the freestyle until we were leaving and checked the results. See for yourself.....moving on up....Way to go, Ellie!
In other news of the week, both Ellie and Jayna have been attending choir camp through the Appleton Public Schools. WOW. I am left speechless by the organization, the beautiful singing I have heard, the instructors...everything! The end of the camp week is a concert,which will be included on week 2 of the blog roll. And while the big girls were singing, Ava was learning how to ride her 2 wheeled bike! We're almost there!
Until next week...

What a weekend!

We had a packed weekend at the beginning of the week; so packed that we were splitting up our family--1 parent to the swimming meet, 1 parent to take care of swimming lessons, birthday party attendance etc. And then we added 2 more "events" to our Saturday/Sunday schedule....but what a memorable weekend it turned out to be!

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Neenah has this Christmas celebration every year--the stores on Wisconsin Ave. participate in "live manequins" with their storefront windows. We've never attended....because.....1) we lived "all the way" in Appleton (haha for those of you who know that joke!) and 2) last year, we were still recovering from the big move, still knee deep in boxes etc.

But this year, Jayna's choir was going to be caroling during the festivities and it gave us a REASON to go out in the very cold night air. And what fun it was! (You will notice that Ava and Colin are not captured in our photos--Ava was very overtired from a long week of no napping and not feeling very photogenic. And Colin? Well....he was afraid of the manequins!)

Here is the Badger State Girl Choir caroling:

To catch a listen to the choir, click HERE.

And here are some photos of the window displays. It is so neat, the photos don't do the displays justice. Looks like we have ourselves a new December tradition....even if it's freezing cold outside!

After the Friday night festivities, we hurried home to put the kids to bed, especially Ellie. Saturday morning, she was ready to swim in the Green Bay Sprint meet...and sprint was the key word of the day!
Here are some photos I captured....note her new cap that actually has her NAME on it. We love the easy identification of our little swimmer!

And this collage captures her Saturday swimming success. The collage is read from left to right, top to bottom, like a book:
1st row: starting her 50 yd breastroke event
scoreboard for that event...Ellie got 2nd place!
preparing for her 50 yd backstroke event

2nd row: scoreboard for that event; another 2nd place!
Ellie swimming the 50 yd freestyle
scoreboard for that event; 4th place this time

3rd row: the relay swimmers
starting off the 100 yd freestyle relay
and the scoreboard for the relay....FIRST PLACE!

For your viewing pleasure, HERE is the 50 freestyle (Ellie's in the middle lane shown on the camera.)
And HERE is the "sprint" in action as she starts off the relay. (Ellie's relay is in lane 3.)

It was a super fun swimming meet. We're seeing the effects of practice this year, especially as she "gets" how to swim competitively!

But now we must back up 2 days to Thursday night. Andy was reading The Christmas Story to Ava before bed. In this particular book, the very last page has a flap with a huge heart on it. If you lift the flap, you see a picture of baby Jesus lying in a manger with John 3:16 written underneath.

When they finished, Ava said "I have a little place in my heart where Jesus can live", to which Andy replied "You are right Ava, but you haven't asked Him into your heart...do you want to do that tonight?", to which she said (in typical Ava fashion) "No, maybe tomorrow!". On Friday morning at breakfast, all of a sudden a quiet little voice said "I want to ask Jesus into my heart!". Suddenly everything stopped and then the girls started cheering for Ava! We talked about sin, we talked about Jesus saving us from sin, and Ava prayed to God, asking Jesus into her heart. It was beautiful.

Our tradition with this is that we get the girls a little cross necklace and have a party....we had a heart brownie "cake" and Ava got her necklace...

It was a joyous time, that is for sure.

Then, December 5th is the night that St. Nick visits the homes of Wisconsin. I'm not sure if any other states in the USA do this tradition, in all the states we've lived, I had never heard of it until we moved here! We've never participated....until this year....and of course, we put our own spin on it.

Each year the kids get new PJs for Christmas, on Christmas Eve. This year, we decided it would be fun for them to wear the PJs all month long and we were going to give the PJs on St. Nick Night and read the story about St. Nick. In a nutshell, he was all about generosity. More giving, less focus on receiving of gifts. Beautiful little book, that's for sure. The kids loved it, and they loved their new pjs. We loved taking photos of the fun we had:
In this collage, Andy is reading to the kids about St. Nick and then they are opening their gift. We tried to get a good group photo, but for some reason, it just wasn't in the cards last night! In the bottom right photo, Colin actually THOUGHT he was participating appropriately!

And for the candid photos....which had all of us laughing...

until Andy asked Colin to hug his best buddy Ava...and then we REALLY laughed at Colin the Clown...

And to top off the weekend, we slowly started a new endeavor that is my least favorite part of parenting. Potty training. Ugh.....to be continued....hopefully the training goes speedily!

The Bird Bath!

Is the above picture a great picture or what? To me it screams "perfect day"--big, beautiful pool with the hot sun blazing down--wonderfulness! And the best part is unseen--no humidity!

This weekend was the Bird Bath Open swim meet that the Fox Cities YMCA Swim Team puts on each year...I had heard a lot about it, seen lots of Bird Bath "stuff" floating around...and wondered "What is the big deal? It's a SWIM MEET!" Oh, were we pleasantly surprised! It was wonderful--all 6 of us had a blast, the weather was perfect and much fun was had by the swimmers.

The meet started Friday afternoon and ran through Sunday. I was told that on SATURDAY alone, there were 900 swimmers signed up to swim and they expected over 1000 spectators. When I heard that, my thoughts went to "Oh great....and we're bringing the 3 little Glynns...how is this going to work?" Well...Erb Park is phenomenal--lots of grassy space, great play equipment for the little siblings, and tons of mature trees providing shade. But still...1000 spectators IN the pool area? Well, my source was right when she said "But people are REALLY respectful--they watch their event and then they leave the pool area." Never had we experienced that at other meets...but sure enough, it was the case here.

Prior to the meet though, we took advantage of buying a clearanced out slip n slide...here is a photo of the 3 girls trying it for the first time Friday morning--they loved it. (I didn't have the camera handy this afternoon when Colin copied the girls--He also loved it and was quite cute falling on the slippery slide!)
Here is Ellie wearing her shirt from the swim meet--we HAD to buy a shirt....because...
1) Very cool shirts 2) You could get all your teammates' names on them and then a little star by your name and 3) Any 9 yr old who swims the 200 meter freestyle deserves a reward for her endurance, don't you think?!

Here is Ellie before her event, diving off the block and after her finish, looking back to check her time and placement. Her times are amazing, they are continuing to decrease with each meet....and she's doing great for being a 9 yr old in a large group of 9-10 yr old girls! Some of those 10 yr old girls are HUGE and STRONG!
This meet, she swam: Friday night the 200 meter freestyle. Saturday morning, she kicked off her events swimming 50 meters of backstroke in the 200 Medley Relay, the 50 meter backstroke and then finished the morning with a 100 meter freestyle event.

• To see her swim the backstroke, click HERE.
• To see her swim the freestyle, click HERE.
  

In between her events, we retreated to our grassy spot in the shade and Colin was comical Colin, as usual. If he wasn't Wiggle-dancing, he was tackling Ava or asking to be in his stroller (and buckled in!)....Andy caught these shots of Colin "chilling":
I think Colin ate the entire bag of iced animal crackers this weekend....YIKES!

We also had some help and visitors at the meet! Ellie's team "hosted" the meet and that meant that if she was to participate, WE had to fill in 3 volunteer slots. This is usually very hard for us since we have such little kiddos that also need care during the meets. However, this meet, Andy worked concessions Friday afternoon, I worked them late Friday afternoon-evening and then our beloved babysitter Miss Valerie really helped us out--she was a timer on Saturday afternoon for us! She even came early for her shift, just to see Ellie swim!


We also got to spend time with Amy and Cindy, more beloved babysitters! They had been at the Farmer's Market and then made their way to the park...only to arrive just as Ellie finished her last event! What a bummer! But Andy said "That's ok...you can watch her on our camera!"....and this is what it looked like when they were watching the race on our camera--all 4 Glynn kiddos were "on" Cindy and Amy watching the tiny camera screen!
Cindy, Amy and Valerie even blessed Ellie's little friend Mackenzie--we all stayed longer to see Mackenzie swim her last event and it was fun to cheer her on as spectators! The photo below is Ellie and Mackenzie--they met at the stroke clinic they attended before they even signed up for swim team! 2 peas in a pod, that's for sure!

Our first year is officially done! Amazing job, Ellie!!! She participated in 6 meets since last October and now knows the ins and outs of swimming meets! The best part of her swimming though, is to see her get out of the water just beaming. What fun it has been!

Ellie's 1st Swim Meet!

Tonight we had a fun "first"...Ellie's 1st swim meet! We really had no idea what to expect....I think things have changed a lot since I was on the swim team in elementary school! The meet started "late" at night, at Ellie's regular bedtime hour! But, that turned out to be a huge blessing...Andy had been to Madison to see the Hawkeyes play the Badgers and he was able to meet us at the Oshkosh YMCA for the meet.

Ellie did great! And, she had fun! She even said she wants to do another meet and keep swimming! :) Tonight's meet was low key--each swimmer chose 2 events and all races were 25 or 50 yards. Ellie chose the 25 yard Butterfly race as well as the 50 yard Freestyle. Click HERE to see her freestyle race! And click HERE to see her butterfly race!