Worship Camp

The girls and I had Worship Camp last week. The theme was Reign and all the songs/music was about reign, rain, or some kind of water. It was an awesome week! The kids learned 4 songs to sing; learned sign language to a song; learned a dance; and had a blacklight performance.

This is the 4th & 5th graders dance to Singin' in the Rain. Rachel has the green umbrella in the front row. One of our friends built a massive structure that actually allowed it to rain on stage! It was so awesome in person. Unfortunately, it's difficult to see the rain on video.




The 4th & 5th graders did a blacklight performance to Calling for a Flood. Rachel is one of the white dancers with the curtain at the end (she's the back right curtain). Once again, video does not do this justice.




The 2nd & 3rd graders did a blacklight performance too. Katelyn is in charge of moving the back right curtain.

Sharks & Seals Triathlon

Rachel competed in the Sharks & Seals triathlon today! It consisted of a 100 yard swim, 3 mile bike ride, and 0.75 mile run. She did an awesome job and ended up placing 3rd in the 9 & 10 year old girls division! Way to go Rachel!!!

Medley Relay - June 16, 2011

This is the medley relay from Rachel's swim meet last week. Her team is in lane 3 with the orange/black swimsuits. Rachel swims the butterfly leg, which is the 3rd leg of the relay.

Freestyle Relay - June 16, 2011

This is the freestyle relay from last week's swim meet. Rachel's team is in lane 3 with the orange/black swimsuits. Rachel swims the 4th leg of the race.

Swim Meet - 6/16/11 Pictures

These are some pictures from the 1st swim meet of the season that was held last Thursday night.

This is Katelyn & Zoe. Zoe is the little sister of two of the swimmers on our team. Her grandparents are also the team managers. Katelyn & Zoe like to hang out with each other during practices and meets!

These 4 girls swam the two relays together: Madison, Logan, Amy, and Rachel. They won 1st place in both relays!

This is Rachel & Logan. They are both awesome swimmers! They are friends, but also competitors and want to win! Sometimes Rachel wins and sometimes Logan wins, but regardless of who wins, they make each other a better swimmer! These two girls could be two of the best 9 & 10 year old swimmers in Knoxville! We're hoping for finals (top 16) in all three individual events at the big GKAISA meet at UT in July, but there's a good chance they could both make top 8 in all three individual events! That would be so awesome!!!

Swim Meet - June 16, 2011

We had our 1st official swim meet of the year last Thursday. Rachel swam in 5 events: 25 yard freestyle, 25 yard backstroke, 25 yard butterfly, 100 yard freestyle relay, and 100 yard medley relay. Rachel had a great night and ended up with four 1st place finishes and one 2nd place finish! Her 2nd place finish was to her friend & teammate, Logan, who swam an awesome race and set a personal best time! In addition to the four 1st place finishes and one 2nd place finish, Rachel also set personal best records in the butterfly and backstroke, and tied her personal best in freestyle!

Here are videos of Rachel's three individual events:

Mock Swim Meet

Rachel's team had their mock swim meet on June 2nd. This is just a way to get everyone back into the swing of things, and to help those 1st time swimmers see what a swim meet is like. Rachel did awesome at the mock meet! She set personal best times in all 4 events! Backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle are her best three strokes, and she did inbelievable on those! If she keeps those times up for the rest of the season, she'll be swimming in the finals at UT in July at the big city meet! She had to move up an age division this year, so we expected this year to be a tougher year for her than last year. (Last year in the 8 & under division, she made the finals in all 4 of her events, winning 1st place in backstroke, 4th in butterfly, 7th in freestyle, and 10th in co-ed freestyle relay in the older age group.) But her times from the mock meet suggest not only could she make the finals (top 16) at UT, but she could finish in the top 8! We'll just have to wait & see!!!

Lady Vols Basketball Camp

Katelyn went to a 3-day Lady Vols Basketball Camp this week-end. She had a fun time and enjoyed hanging out with the Lady Vols! One of her favorite players is Briana Bass because she's short like Katelyn! Katelyn told her she was her favorite player and why! Briana just gave her a big hug! Since she's not one of the major players, I'm sure there are quite a few girls who don't know who she is. But Katelyn would always cheer for Briana when we were at the games and always wanted her to be in the game!

Another of Katelyn's favorite players is Taber Spani. Taber was very sweet with all the girls this week-end. She specifically worked with the 8 & under group, so she worked with Katelyn and would just pick her up and give her hugs!

Katelyn's other favorite player is Meighan Simmons. She worked with the 8 & under group also and was super sweet with the girls. Katelyn liked it because she gave Katelyn a lot of high fives! On one of the defensive drills, Katelyn was guarding Meighan. Meighan tried to bend down really low so that she could be closer to Katelyn's level! It was so cute!!!

The camp was for girls ages 6-12. Katelyn is 8, but she was the 2nd shortest one there! The only girl shorter than her was a 6 year old, and she was just barely shorter! And I'm pretty certain she outweighed Katelyn! I'm sure most of the Lady Vols there and other coaches all thought Katelyn was younger than what she is. They would see her and tell her how cute she is or just want to pick her up and squeeze her! Shekinna Stricklen even said she just wanted to squeeze Katelyn cause she was so cute!

Before Katelyn's group got to meet Pat Summitt, one of the helpers told the girls that Coach Summitt doesn't like a wimpy handshake. So when Katelyn actually got to meet Pat Summitt, Pat told Katelyn "Nice strong, firm handshake!"

When we met Alicia Manning, she looked up and told Katelyn "You look just like your mama!"

I think Katelyn's two favorite parts of the camp were meeting the players and touring the locker room! She was funny telling me all about the locker room. She thought it was cool that she got to hang out in the "hang out" room of the locker room!!!

VBS

This past week we had VBS at our church. We had a great week! I was in charge of preschool crafts again (ages 2 through kindergarten) and I helped lead music in the worship rally. It was lots of fun! I think the favorite song of the week was definitely NY2LA! We had a boys vs. girls mission offering challenge and the girls won!!! It's a good thing too, since I had been designated as the girls representative to be in the dunk tank if the boys won! The kids raised over $3,000 to be sent to our friends in India to buy water since it is so hot there that the wells have dried up.

UT Swim Camp

Rachel went to UT Swim Camp last week. She had a really good time! The head coach for the Lady Vols Swimming & Diving Team was the main one running the camp, along with some of the assistant coaches. Coach Jen, the Lady Vols assistant coach, told me the last day of camp to keep Rachel in the water because she is a good swimmer. I politely thanked her and she said "I'm serious - keep her in the water! She's an excellent swimmer!!!" That made Rachel pretty happy!!!

Dollywood

The girls & I went to Dollywood the day after school was out. We had "bring a friend free" passes so we brought our friends, the Chimleys! We had a great time and didn't have to wait in line for hardly anything! Most rides we were able to just walk right up and get on the next one! It was awesome!

Last Day of School

Softball Pictures and Party

We had our last softball game on May 21st. The girls played a great game and our team won! What a great way to finish the season. After the game, we had a team pizza party and a little awards ceremony. Rachel received the "unassisted triple play award" and Katelyn received the "consistency award" because she always hit the ball right up the middle every single time!!!

Harmony Kids Triathlon

Rachel participated in the Harmony Kids Triathlon again this year, and she recruited some of her friends to do it also! The pool water was VERY cold and pretty much took your breath away when you got in the water! That was the week that we had unseasonably cool temps with temps getting down into the 40's a few nights before the triathlon! Rachel did a great job and ended up 4th in her age division.

AWANA Awards

The girls finished another year of AWANA at church. Since I was one of Rachel's leaders, I was on stage helping to hand out awards and didn't get to take pictures. But Rachel did great this year and completed the 5th grade book and started on the 6th grade book, which is the last book. So she's well ahead of where she is supposed to be!

Katelyn had a great year too! It's her last year in Sparks. She has loved her leaders! She finished her book early too, and completed another extra book. She and her friend Ryleigh were the only two 2nd graders to complete all three Sparks books!

Katelyn & Ryleigh

Rachel's Field Day

Rachel participated in her last field day at Eaton Elementary. She ran in the 200 yard race and the 4x100 relay. Last year her 4x100 relay team won. Three of the four girls from that team were in Rachel's class again this year, so they just added a 4th classmate to complete the team. This year they won the 4x100 relay again!

Katelyn's Field Day

Fittest School Challenge

As part of the Knoxville Marathon, they also had a Kids Run. As part of the Kids Run, they sponsored a Fittest School Challenge for all of the schools in Knox County and all the surrounding counties. The school in each county who had the highest percentage of students participate in the Kids Run would be declared the Fittest School and would receive $250 for that school's PE program. Robert & I worked with our students and met every Friday for a couple of months to exercise and run. Our school won the Fittest School for our county. Before school was out, representatives from the Knoxville Marathon, Covenant Health, and Children's Hospital came to our school to make the Fittest School Challenge winner's presentation!

Creekfest

Our children's choir was invited to sing at a local elementary school's spring carnival called Creekfest. The choir sang several songs and did a great job! Here are a couple of pictures from Creekfest.

Fun with Friends

Before school was out, we had some friends come home with us from school. We were supposed to have a kickball game, but the weather didn't cooperate. So instead, we had an indoor playdate! I think everyone had a great time!

2nd Grade Awards

Katelyn's class had a little awards program before the end of school. The kids sang a few songs; we watched a picture slideshow; and the kids received their awards. It's hard to believe that Katelyn has now completed 2nd grade!

This is Katelyn and her friend, Joy

Katelyn and her classmates singing

4th Grade Gifted Movie Premiere Pictures

Rachel and Mrs. Dongarra
Rachel and Mrs. Talley

Rachel walking in on the red carpet