Swim Meet #4

The fourth swim meet of the season was on Rylan's birthday.  This was the second away meet and this time it was against the Murfreesboro Comets at Oakland High School (about 45 minutes away).  The pool was inside but the pool deck is very small so we were all set up outside.  There is a small upper bleacher area where we could watch our kids swim but it was extremely hot up there.  My mom was still here for this meet and we decided she would stay home with Gray instead of hanging out with him in the heat.

Carter decided he wanted to write the popular phrase "eat my bubbles" on his back.  Rylan decided on "birthday boy".  He got lots of well wishes from everyone and met a couple of other people at the meet who were also celebrating their birthdays!

Rylan has another good meet.  He was in the second heat of the freestyle and backstroke and since he was swimming against a smaller team, he was able to win lots of heat ribbons.

Evie got her first heat ribbon!

Branson was in the first heat for the 6 and under boys and won heat ribbons in freestyle and backstroke as well.

Rylan was also in the freestyle relay (with Branson) and got a third heat ribbon!!!  Carter also finally got a heat ribbon (though we later found out he DQ'd).

Here are Rylan's times ...

Freestyle: 37.17 seconds, 5th place (best time by 2.95 seconds)
Backstroke: 42.88 seconds, 4th place (1.77 seconds slower than last week)
Freestyle Relay: 02:20:27, 1st place

It was awesome that Rylan had such a great meet on his birthday!

Carter also did so, so good!  Unfortunately the tough stroke and turn judges were back for this meet and were DQ'ing all the kids in breaststroke and butterfly.

Only Carter and one kid from the other team swam the breaststroke event for 7-8 boys.  Carter beat the other boy by about a second and won his first heat ribbon of the season.  Unfortunately, both Carter and the other kid were DQ'd though so Carter was really disappointed (he was SO PROUD of that heat ribbon!).  I asked his coaches at practice on Wednesday if they could help Carter figure out what he's doing wrong.  They thought he was doing great but finally figured out what the judge must have been picking out as wrong.  Carter and his two coaches worked so hard this week and I really hope Carter has a chance to do the stroke right next week!

Carter also swam the individual medley for this first time.  For that event, one swimmer does 25 yards of each stroke (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle).  Carter finished last in his heat but did it!  Unfortunately he and all but one boy were DQ'd.  He was exhausted afterwards though.  The IM is the last event of the day and the clerk of course pulled Carter about 30 minutes before his race (he had to sit in the hot sun that whole time just waiting).

I'm so proud of this kiddo though.  He's trying these new strokes and is excited to do them.  He is definitely really disappointed about DQ'ing but after a bit he moves on.

Here are Carter's times for this week:

Freestyle: 28:23 seconds, 7th place (0.15 seconds slower than last week)
Freestyle Relay: 01:47:62, 2nd place
Breaststroke: DQ
Medley Relay: DQ
Individual Medley: DQ

The boys only have one more regular season meet and then the county championship meet.

Oh, Grayson ...

This afternoon while picking up the kitchen, Gray grabbed a couple of sponges out from under the sink and went off to play.  The big boys were watching a movie and playing in the family room.  After a couple of minutes I heard a weird sound and asked them where Gray was (I had assumed he was behind the couch playing).  We found him in the little hallway to the half bathroom in a huge puddle of water.  He'd managed to completely empty the toilet using those two sponges and water was everywhere!  Oh, Grayson ...

Love these boys ...

Colorado / Utah Trip - Day Three - One More Thing

I totally forgot to share a funny story from our vacation!

After we finished hiking to Sand Dune Arch we drove to Double Arch.  In our rental car, all three boys sat in the back seat (we are used to our minivan with bucket seats and a third row).  Grayson was in the middle in his Britax carseat (facing forward because he does better on long drives that way) with the older boys on both sides of him sitting on booster seats.

We had the windows down as we drove and suddenly one of the big boys yells that Grayson threw his shoe out the window.  WHAT?!?!?  We thought he was joking but nope, Gray sure did!  We only had one pair of shoes for Gray on our trip too - a pair of Rylan's old Converse.  We found a place to turn around as quickly as we could and went in search of the shoe.  Gray threw the shoe out towards the center of the road and we found it on the side with some black marks from being run over, but still in one piece.  YAY!

As we turned around again, suddenly a sock went flying out the window!  AGAIN?!?!?  We didn't realize Gray had anymore ammo!  We were luckily able to get that right away and the windows remained up after that!

Happy Birthday!!!

Rylan turned 6 today!  Happy birthday our sweet, stubborn, lovable, goofy, hard-working, perfectionist, difficult, amazing, and perfect boy!  We love you so much!!!

Tailgate Brewery

My mom has been visiting for the past two weeks and when we don't have soccer or basketball in the evenings, Brian and I have been going out to dinner without the kiddos.  On Saturday we found a Groupon and did a tour of a new brewery before going to dinner.  Tailgate Brewery has been in Nashville a little over a year (though they started in California and have been around for a few years just moving locations).

We weren't big fans though.  They make a lot of weird beers using extracts to add flavor.  Two of the samples on the tour were Peanut Butter Milk Stout and Hot Chicken IPA.

As part of the Groupon we each got a growler and fill.  We tried to pick the most normal beers we could find (they have about 25 of their own creations on tap).  We got the Santa Maria Pale and Southeast IPA.

These weren't amazing, but definitely better than the samples!!!

O'More Summer Studio

Carter did an art camp at O'More College of Design in downtown Franklin the week before last.  O'More does two sessions for elementary age students and two sessions for older students during the summer.  Carter took an afternoon class only (so that it didn't interfere with swim team) that was from 12:30 to 3:30 each day.  He took the "Drawing Styles" class, as recommended by his art teacher at school.

Carter loved the class!  There were only four students (including him) in the class so he got lots of attention.  The instructor is the art teacher at another local elementary school and she did a great job of exposing the kids to different ways to draw, some fundamentals of drawing, and to famous artwork.

Each student also got to pick out their favorite artwork from the week and there will be an art show at the end of the summer.  Carter submitted a self portrait that we are excited to see in a few weeks!

Here is some of Carter's artwork that he brought home at the end of the week ...

Value Study

Texture Study

Perspective

Surrealism

Watercolor - Bird's Eye View

Chalk Abstract Portrait

Self-Portrait

Tesselation

Linear Landscape

Zentangle

Zentangle - Butterfly

Monet Style

A Fish (unfinished)

Drawing of the Fountain at O'More

Carter's Version of Van Gogh's Starry Night

Carter's Art

Carter's art teacher at school (Mrs. Lee) is great.  All the art that he brings home is always amazing.  Unfortunately she is going to be moving to a new school next year that is closer to her home.  Carter and I are both so sad to see her leave.

She is so supportive of Carter and his love of art.  When I asked her for a recommendation for a summer art camp for Carter, she wrote me this about our art-loving kiddo:

I’m so glad you contacted me because as mentioned before, Carter has a gift. This year his work is impressing me even more. His “Dr. Seuss Lorax” drawing almost looked just like my example! He definitely needs to be in art camp every summer. His talent amazes me and that’s saying a lot for someone only in the first grade!

Here are a few examples of what Carter did at school this year ...

Gray's First Birthday

Since Rylan's birthday is coming up in a few days, maybe I should finally post about Gray's first birthday!  I started this post after his birthday in November but not got around to finishing it.  I have about 40 posts like that in my draft folder that I hope to someday finish!

We decided not to do a party for Gray's first birthday.  But I still arranged a playdate with our friends that have preschoolers (or younger) at the indoor playground at Cornerstone Church on Monday, November 2nd.  Missy, Suzy, Jen, Ashley, Laura, and Wren were all able to come with some of their kiddos.

The indoor playground is amazing and so much fun for the kids.  It's like a Chick-fil-A playground times ten.  And it's free!  Gray wasn't able to do too much yet since he still wasn't walking (and is super shy) but he still seemed to enjoy it!

After awhile we took a break and ate lunch.  I brought along cupcakes (with a fish theme) to celebrate Gray's birthday.

Gray trying his first cupcake ...

He ate a couple of tiny bites but wasn't really interested in eating it.

I love that so many of our sweet friends were able to celebrate Gray's first birthday!!!

Gray's actual birthday was the next day - Tuesday, November 3rd.

I've always made banners for the older boys when we have parties for them and had to make one for Gray's first birthday even though we didn't have a big party.  Again, I went with a fish/underwater theme and colors.  They didn't show up in this photo, but I also decorated the columns next to the streamers with origami fish.

What a cutie!!!

Gray had a ton of presents to open!

He did a good job tearing off the paper (and had lots of help from his big bros!).

Gray really liked us singing to him :)

Getting a little him with blowing out his candle ...

Again Gray wasn't that into eating his cupcake but he tried a tiny, tiny bit!

Happy VERY belated birthday sweet boy!!!