Saturday at the pool

It was a hot and humid day and we surprisingly had nothing planned... so we headed to the pool! We picked up Jimmy John's for lunch to eat while we were there. They were having some fun activities to kick off the July 4th week of festivities. There was a bounce house and jewelry making and even a dive contest!

Morgan tried out the bouncy house!

Morgan was one of the two winners in the "dive" contest, which was basically a cannon ball type contest. She did a can opener and the judges loved it!

She won a gigantic freeze pop!

Fun Friday at Swim Team Practice

On Fridays at swim team practice, they always do "Fun Fridays". Today was "Halloween" day, complete with costumes and trick or treating! Morgan went to the early practice which is less crowded. Avery had to do a presentation at camp, so she skipped practice today. A few kids dressed up... Morgan wore her Dalmatian costume since it was easy to get on/off. After practice, they got to grab some candy! :)

At practice, Morgan picked up her ribbons from some of the recent swim meets (they organize them in folders for the kids to pick up - you don't get them at the meet). She's getting quite a collection!

Swim Meet in Lisle

Last night we had a swim meet in Lisle at the Sea Lion Aquatic Park. It's right by where Ruth lives (like walking distance), so she walked over to meet up with us. The weather was not good, though. It was chilly and overcast and the kids were freezing! Plus, the meet itself was really chaotic... there weren't actual heat sheets until a few minutes before the start time so everyone was scrambling to make sure the kids had their lanes/heats written on their arms. I think we were also down a few swim team coaches, so not as many people to wrangle the kids!

A couple girls were missing, so Morgan ended up doing a relay at the beginning that she wasn't signed up for. She did the backstroke in the 100 yard medley. Then, Avery and Morgan were in the same events after that. We had the 50 yard butterfly and the 100 yard freestyle. Then, they were supposed to do a 100 yard freestyle relay together with two other girls. But, they ended up scratching all the relays at the end of the meet because the meet was running long and the temperature really dropped after the sun started going down.

The girls were happy Grandma Ruth could come watch for a bit!

So many kids trying to warm up at the same time!

Finally got their lane assignments.

Morgan getting ready to swim the backstroke in her impromptu relay.

Trying to keep warm between races!

Avery's in lane 1 and Morgan's in lane 3... ready for the butterfly!

I even grabbed our super warm soccer blanket from the car for the girls to bundle up with!

While Morgan was waiting for the 100 yard freestyle race behind the blocks, she fell super hard on the pavement! There were so many kids there and it was chaotic (it was hard to know what race they were on because the announcer wasn't super loud, so tons of kids were waiting because they didn't know how long it was until their race). Morgan was trying to walk to me so I could give her the sweatshirt to wear while she waited and she tripped over another girl. Morgan landed on her knees, hip and elbow really hard. One of the lifeguards immediately sprinted over to us to check on her. She gave us a couple ice packs and put some band-aids on Morgan's knees.

Of course, Morgan was really sore right after this and her race was up next... the 100 yard free, which is a LONG race. She couldn't decide if she wanted to do it or not, but in the end toughed it out and finished the race!

Since that was their last race of the meet, we took off after that. The girls came home and took warm showers and ate dinner before crashing hard for the night! They were exhausted! And Morgan is sporting a few new bruises! :(

Summer Dance

Morgan wanted to try out a dance class, so we signed her up for a summer session to see how she liked it. She's taking Contemporary Dance at Avery's dance studio with Miss Shaurice. She had an absolute blast at the class! And she was really excited to see one of her friends from summer camp, Maeve, was in her class! They did quite a bit of improv, which she loved!

We fixed her hair and Avery let her borrow a leotard and tights!

Girl Scout trip to Raging Waves

Avery's Girl Scouts troop used some of their cookie sales money for a trip to the water park, Raging Waves. They got there around 10AM and stayed all day! Avery had a blast! This is the last year for her Girl Scout troop. I know she'll miss it!

Happy Birthday Milo!

Milo turned THREE today! 

He celebrated by eating a few cicadas and throwing up!

Yep, pretty typical. Ha!

Grove Fest

While Avery was at the water park with the Girl Scouts, Morgan and I went up to the Grove Fest so she could check out the rides.

She started off on the Downdraft, which is a "spinny" ride as she called it. It went up in the air, up and down and spun around. When she got off, she said "man, I didn't think I would get THAT dizzy!"

Next, she went on the Guitar. This one just goes around and up and down. She loves this ride, but only if she gets to sit in the front row. Otherwise, you don't get any wind! :)

Next up was the Pharaoh, the boat ride. She's not a fan of this ride. She says she feels like she will fly out. So, she crouches down in her seat!

Then, she went to Zero Gravity. I think this may be her favorite ride! She likes to lift up her feet when they get going.

There was a new ride this year called the Ring of Fire. This goes around in a circle and you can get stuck upside down at the top! She was a little apprehensive about going on it, but she braved it anyway! She ended up LOVING it!

She even got stuck upside down a few times!

She rode this again with her friend Emily right after this. This may be her new favorite ride! :)

We hit up the disco ride, which is pretty tame.

Of course, she had to ride Zero Gravity again!

We ended the day with a funnel cake!

Happy Birthday Mama!

We celebrated Mama's birthday with a pizza party and some cake and ice cream after Avery's recital.

Singing to Mama... no videos (you should be thanking me for that - ha!)

She will never be able to blow out her own candles around this crew!

Dance Recital

Avery's dance recital for her regular classes was on Saturday afternoon. She had two dances - one for her Acro class and the other for her jazz class.

Here she is... ready to go!

Opening number with all the kids:

I got a few pictures during her Acro number:

We'll have to wait for the official video to come out with her individual dances, but I did get a little bit of the closing number:

 

Here's a link to the official video: https://vimeo.com/987689832/808a33616f?share=copy

Her dances are at 0:31:40 and 1:29:52.

Afterwards we got a few pictures with all of Avery's fans!

Morgan had fun with shadows!

Swim Meet

Morgan participated in the home swim meet at the DGSRC on Saturday morning. A group of Dads grilled out before the meet... pancakes, eggs and tons of bacon! Everyone brings food and they have a huge buffet! Morgan did great at the meet and even did her flip turn in two of her events!

Here she is doing her flip turn... not too bad for her first attempt!