Swimming like a fish!

Yesterday was Abigail's annual inter-house gala. The girls had a lot of fun with sock races, pyjama races, crazy hat races and a raft race and there were also the usual races of a more competitive nature - but only slightly!!

Abigail swam in the individual freestyle and backstroke in her age group and came tied first and second respectively. She swam really well and she told me afterwards that she "wasn't swimming her fastest" because she gets tired if she does!! Uh, I think that is the point!!

Anyway, her house came last (the first time in years that they haven't won) but at the end she was awarded the trophy for Most Promising Junior Swimmer.

She has come so far from the first term of grade 1 when she couldn't swim a single stroke. We were/are very proud of her.

Some pictures of the day:

Freestyle: she tied with her friend Emma.

Backstroke: she came second, she has a very relaxed, graceful style - as if she is going for a little stroll!!

Receiving her cup.

She did it!

It took 4 years, 9 months, 1 week and 6 days but she finally learnt to blow her nose!!!

Hooray!!

Taffy.

1998 - 2011

~

A weekend of firsts.

When Abigail started grade 1 she was a "non-swimmer", she could swim enough to not drown but she couldn't do strokes.

Yesterday she swam in her first gala. They have inter-house gala's which every child in the school takes part in, even those who cannot swim (they have a grade 7 helping them to do a width if they are not able to do it alone) but the swimming team takes part in gala's between different schools and after much encouragement (read bribery) Abigail tried out for the team and got in!

So she is now officially a team swimmer!

This entails three practices a week including one early morning one at 7a.m. and of course the acquisition of the much sought after green cap!! (All the girls have a house colour cap - red, yellow or blue, but only a green one if they are in the team!!)

Yesterday they had their first gala of the season at Springfield. They swam against Springfield, St. Cyprians, Wynberg and Herschel.

Abigail was quite nervous not knowing what to expect but she did very well. She swam in 3 relays, the freestyle relay where everybody swims freestyle, the medley relay where each swimmer swims a different stroke, she swam freestyle and the ladder relay which is 1 swimmer from each each age group which was quite fun.

Abigail is not competitive and while she has a nice stroke she doesn't always appear to be kicking as fast as she could be, but I think yesterday was a good experience for her and now that she knows what it's all about she will feel more confident at the next one. She seemed quite "pumped" when we got home and as if she had been doing it all her life!!

So now my Friday afternoons entail watching a lot of little girls in brightly coloured caps swimming their little hearts out!!

~~~

The second first for the weekend was Abigail's first camp.

A couple of weeks ago she received a camp form at Sunday School and I casually asked her if she'd like to go not at all expecting her to say yes, but she did!

The camp is from grade 3 so she has never been before and at school they only start in grade 4, she has never even been on a sleepover other than to my parents so I was very surprised at how she took it all in her stride.

It was a quick dash to get home from the gala, change and pack the last 1 or 2 things and head off to Noordhoek by 5:00pm.

She comes home tomorrow afternoon and will probably be absolutely exhausted!

I didn't stay too long when I dropped her off but I did take a couple of pictures:

A row of dorm's.

The dorm where she will sleep with the other grade 3 girls and 2 leaders.

There are huge grounds, a trampoline, a pool and a jungle gym, Abigail, of course, spotted a bunny and there is a very peculiar looking animal called a geep - it's a cross between a goat and a sheep - it is very strange looking indeed.

The pool.

Maybe some more pics tomorrow when she is back.

I had a little chuckle at the irony that at school I am helping little ones of 2 years to say goddbye to their mommies for 2 hours and here I was saying goodbye to my 9 year old for 2 days! How times have changed!

Bunk beds.

Great excitement - we have bunk beds!!

Next week we have a friend coming to stay for a few weeks from overseas, last time she visited Niave was still in a cot so we had plenty of beds, however time has moved on and Niave is very much out of a cot now so we were a bed short.

I wasn't sure how to solve the problem, there were a few options but most were quite expensive until I remembered that 1 of our beds was actually half of a bunk and the other half belonged to my cousin who is currently overseas herself and so wouldn't be needing it, my aunt and uncle very kindly agreed to loan it to us so we now have a set of bunk beds.

It is only temporary at this stage, we want to see how it works with the girls sharing and how the bunk itself works out (i.e. no broken bones etc.) if it works out we may consider making it a permanent arrangement. (Don't worry Tanya, you will get your bed back!!)

So far there are 1 or 2 issues, 1 being that it is very hot at the top of a bunk when you have a heatwave as we currently do (yes, they were right, hot air rises!) the fan that we have doesn't seem to work effectively so we are looking for a ceiling fan but it is proving hard to find. Last night Niave was supposed to sleep at the top for the first time as Abigail wasn't here but it was so hot that she ended up sleeping at the bottom - after a week of eager anticipation!!
We'll have to give her a turn on a cooler night.