Swimming Success

Syd has been doing such a good job with her swimming. She goes to practice 3-4 times a week, and the coaches make the kids work hard. But it seems to be paying off. She already has 4 more 1st place ribbons to add to the collection on her wall just after one meet.

The meet yesterday went well too. She is the oldest in her age group now, and Ken decided she needed some more incentive to keep swimming hard and not coasting when she knows everyone is so far behind her. So he told her any time she gets a new personal best he will give her $10. That's a lot of money for an 8 year old! Yesterday she only had the chance to improve on one time because she was swimming two races for the first time. But she did beat her backstroke time and came home rich and very happy about it.

Her award wall. I think by the end of this swim season she might need to find a bigger space.

The backstroke that won her $10

The butterfly was one of her new races. They have to be able to swim it leagally, and she's been working really hard at it.

Showing off her winnings. The coaches give them a little bead to put on a chain for every personal best they got. She got one for every race she swam.

Halloween Part II

All of our costumes from the Halloween party last week were so uncomfortable that by the end of the night we trashed all of them. That meant we had to find 3 new outfits for trick-or-treat and another party last night. We lucked out and found a very cute witch dress at Cracker Barrel of all places for Syd. Ken remembered a shop in town that rents costumes, so we went and found the perfect 70's/disco clothes.

During the afternoon, all the shops downtown hand out candy. It was so cold and windy. The blue coat really makes the witch outfit complete, don't you think?

Ken walked around with Syd and I stayed home to hand out candy. They came back earlier than I thought they would because it was so cold. Look how red her cheeks are. But she got a bucket full of candy!

I had to borrow some of Syd's tights because if not I knew I would freeze to death. Good thing they make them stretchy.


Check out Ken's platform shoes! And the plaid pants are great. The shades were a perfect final touch.