St Josephs Swimming Carnival
It's that time of year again: Swimming carnival.
Sian headed out to school this morning with her swimmers on under her sports uniform. She jumped on a school coach and they headed off to the local indoor swimming pool. I followed behind in the car with Gareth and enough drinks and snacks to feed a smalll army!
When we got there there was a bit of confusion as to where to sit. I had forgotton that the kids are elected to one of four "House's" when they join school and they then participate in sporting events under the banner of their house flag. Siblings are kept together to make it easier for the Mums to know who to shout for! We worked out that Sian was in Hunter House so we looked for the big green flag and sat underneath it.
As I sat down and looked around me I realised that some of the better Mums had gone to the effort to come dressed in their kids team colours. There was a sea of Green, Red, Yellow and Blue t-shirts. I sat there in my pale pink feeling a bit daft until my two friends Claire and Maree joined me on the Green stand. Claire was wearing a pastel green top so she looked smug but Maree was in burnt Orange. We sat and tried to find a connection linking the colours together.... green = leaves? burnt-orange = trunk? pink = cherry blossom?..... OK, it was a weak link!
On to the real action... The kids entered races of different lengths and strokes under their age group. A teacher tried calling out which races were next into a microphone. The sounds were all echoeing and bouncing around the pool and it sounded as though she was underwater! Despite this the kids seemed to be on the right starting blocks at the right time.
Sian was feeling a bit nervous and only wanted to enter one race. She swam well and finished with a smile on her face which is the aim of the day. Lots of her friends entered multiple races and swam brilliantly.
Gareth and his friend Tommy were so well behaved. They were only a few feet away from the edge of the water and it was a miracle that neither of them fell in! They tucked into their lunch boxes by 10am and soon there wasn't much left in them so they started nagging to go to the tuck shop. After a bellyful of E-numbers and artificial colouring they were hyper. I finally called it quits and brought a blue-tongued Gareth home to rest while Sian stayed on and cheered on the last few races.
It was a great if chaotic day. It finally gave me the motivation and opportunity to sign all three kids up for weekly swimming classes before I left. Roll on next year when Rhiannon will be old enough to join in and I will try to remember to wear my Irish Rugby top!
