Pandemic Week 71: End of the Summer Swim Season

Coach Anna with Caroline
 It was the last week of the summer swim season for Anna.  The highlight of the week was the lollipop meet for the 6 and under swimmers, or the "mini-Ds."  The goal is for the kids to swim the length of the pool unassisted.  When they get to the end of the pool, they get a lollipop (hence the name).  Normally there are several teams that have their youngest swimmers; however, COVID limited participation this year to one other team.  The older swimmers "ran" the meet, including timing, announcing, etc....  

Anna served as a volunteer mini-D coach for the season and had a lot of fun working with the kids (well, mostly).  One of the mini-Ds was Caroline, whom Anna was also babysitting this summer.  Caroline was quite attached to Anna and often cried if someone other than Anna was helping her (Caroline is a bit dramatic).  There was no shortage of drama for the lollipop meet, including one of Anna's swimmers losing her tooth before the start of the race (that caused a pause in the action while one of the lifeguards found the swimmer's mom).  In addition to individual "races," there was also a relay event (the kids got to use pool noodles for that).  The event concluded with an award ceremony and ribbons for all of the participants.

The grand finale of the swim season was Saturday evening's award ceremony.  This year the event was held in the parking lot thanks to COVID.  The team managed

Roller skating with Victoria & Maddie

to get a big screen and video equipment for the annual team video and senior tribute (there was a last minute scramble since the neighbor that usually loans the equipment was out of town....at one point a neighbor with a key to the house was considering going to look for it).  It was a fun way to end the season.

Other events for the week included the following:

  • Anna went roller skating on Tuesday night with some of her friends to celebrate Maddie's birthday.  There is a temporary outdoor roller rink set up at one of the local town areas, complete with disco music.
  • Anna completed her final project for online PE (lots of mom nagging was involved with this).  Anna turned in her project, only to have her mom take a look at it and tell her she needed to make corrections and resubmit it.  At 11 PM Thursday night (it was due at 11:59) Anna finished and was ready to resubmit and found that her teacher had already graded what she handed in.....and gave her an A.  Clearly mom and teacher have a difference in opinion.
  • The Mini-D Coaches
    Anna finished her summer babysitting job on Friday.  One of the things she worked on with the kids over the summer was constructing 3-D puzzles of Harry Potter houses.  Thanks to her building prowess, the Tran's gave her a giant puzzle as a thank you (she is almost done with it).  There was lots of crying from Caroline when Anna left and a request from Mrs. Tran to see if Anna would like to babysit next summer.  We will see.
  • Go-cart racing
  • Anna went go-cart racing Sunday to celebrate the birthday of a swim team friend.  She had a great time, but is not yet ready for NASCAR.

  • Joe & Theresa went berry/peach picking on Sunday while Anna was out.  It was hot, but the berries were delicious.  

Anna had a great week and is looking forward to her trip to Ohio next week!

Berry Picking


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