Buckingham Palace: Guppies

This year was our first year participating in guppies. Guppies is a program that several neighborhood pools have. Teenagers from the swim team work one-on-one with the kids, giving lessons and playing games. They met twice a week through the month of June, and last weekend had their Guppy meet to finish off the season. John and Eve had a blast! Here they are at the Guppy meet. It was extra fun because we had just watched the swimming olympic trials, and the meet was just as official. Each swimmer's name was announced before the race, and they had a starting "beep" just like in the Olympics.

Diving off the blocks! The first race they did was 25m freestyle.

Each swimmer had a helper with them in case they needed a break, but for the first time John made it all the way across, no break, breathing to the side and making big ice cream scoops the whole way! I was so excited and proud of him!

He was pretty proud too!

Eve's turn off the blocks!

Up until Guppies, Eve has done really well making her way through the water, but couldn't get her head up to breathe. When Guppies started, she got really good at keeping her head up over the water, but then ended up straight up and down and couldn't move much. She's somewhere in between now, but in the excitement of the race forgot to put her face in the water. A little more help from her helper, but still she made it all the way across the pool!

Thumbs up, Eve! Very proud of her, too!

Next they did back stroke. John participated, but Eve wasn't ready. John hasn't practiced that much, so the length of the pool was a stretch, and by that point he was sort of done. Afterward they had kickboard and floatie races.

Ellie was a trooper! Last weekend the weather was over 100. Fortunately, this was early in the morning, but still, it wasn't quite fair to be so hot, watching all the other kids swim, and not get to get in. Several doughnuts and a new pair of sunglasses (that conveniently matched her outfit and necklace) got her through it.