Quick Update

Owen came in sixth place overall in backstroke out of 18 or so kids. The ribbon he received is HUGE and decorative. He loves it.

Craig is scheduled to arrive in the US of A on August 9th. Keep your fingers crossed!

Divisionals and Fireworks

We are finished with summer swimming. Evan won his backstroke heat. Owen came in second in his backstroke and fourth in his freestyle heats. He also single-handedly swam his team into third place in the 100 relay. They were somewhat behind but Owen gave it his all! I am not sure about their overall places in their individual events as it was a yucky day today and we did not go to the pool.

Saturday evening, we celebrated the end of swimming at Oregon Ridge with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and fireworks. It was a summer outdoor concert featuring theme songs from popular movies and TV shows. The kids enjoyed it and recognized many of the tunes (Simpsons, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Copeland).

The McCarters and Henriksons go to Washington

Our wonderful friends, Sue, Hannah and Sophia Henrikson came to visit Maryland from Seattle, Washington for my birthday and to visit lots of friends. Sue, my good friend, Jane, and I had a grown-up girls' weekend at the beach in Wildwood, NJ last weekend. We all slept in and enjoyed visiting Cape May, NJ sans children.

On Tuesday, July 24th, we took the Metro to DC to see the White House and to visit the Natural History Museum.

Sophia and Owen waiting for the train

A McCarter menagerie

It was a great visit and we are trying to plan a trip to Seattle to see our Aunt Vic and the Henriksons.

Breaking News

Well, I just found out that Evan and Owen will be swimming in Divisionals. Owen is swimming freestyle, backstroke and mixed 100-free A relay. Evan is swimming backstroke, breaststroke and is an alternate on the 200-free B/C relay. Go ClanMcCarter! Finn is somewhat disappointed that he is not swimming. However, he was the only one to swim in Divisionals last year and he will be in the same age group next year. He also needs to apply himself at practices.

I am 40 today. I don't feel that old at all. It was a gorgeous day in Catonsville. I slept in thanks to my friend, Sue, who is visiting, then I had lunch with Evan and my Mom, relaxed at home with friends and went to dinner with Sue and our kids. A day well-spent.

Congratulations, Catonsville!!

Catonsville, MD has been named one of Money magazine's top 100 places to live! We are 49th on the list. Way to go, Music City!

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2007/top100/

On another note, there's big doin's in ol' Bawlmer with Cal Ripken's impending induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

A Correction

Last Saturday's meet actually was fairly productive for the boys. Owen placed third in back and eighth in free. Evan placed seventh in free and back. Finn placed eighth in breast and surprisingly enough was not DQ'd for his freestyle when he pushed off the bottom (a true accident) after his flip turn. They had to flip in the shallow end and Finn flipped so low that his foot touched bottom. I was surprised Owen placed at all, he really was moving SLOW! I do think a few kids were DQ'd in Owen's backstroke event, leading to his third place finish. Take what you can get, eh?

The Week in Review

On Tuesday, we celebrated Owen's birthday with family and friends at the pool. About an hour and a half prior to the party, a ferocious rainstorm rolled through Catonsville.

The pool cleared out and decent weather returned just in time for the guests to arrive to an almost private pool party.

Thursday was the most gorgeous day of the summer so far: mid 80's with absolutely no humidity. So after the kids' computer class, Owen, Finn and I went on a hike to search for raspberries. We found a smattering here and there, but we ate those as we went. After our hike, I took the kids to the field behind The Candlelight Inn and hit PAYDIRT!!!! We all picked raspberries for about 45 minutes with minimal eating. Here are the results after a small snack.

On Saturday, we had a swim meet against the Bolton Hill Barracudas (same mascot as us). I think they beat us soundly. I am not sure, but I don't think it was a good meet for the men of ClanMcCarter overall. However, Evan did win his 50-freestyle heat which is fantastic since he is back in the water again after his injury. His leg was a little swollen after the backstroke, so he sat out for breaststroke which I do think was wise since it's a different kick. Finn and Owen were moving slow in the water today. We had a giant thunderstorm last night at around midnight which woke them both up and they didn't get back to sleep until about 1:30 AM. Then Owen was awake before 6:30 AM for sure and Finn soon after. At least I didn't need my alarm clock to get me out of bed since I had two human alarm clocks.

Lucky 7/7/07

7/7/07 was definitely Finn's lucky day because he won his backstroke and breaststroke heats and placed seventh overall in breaststroke. This means that he actually beat two boys in the "fastest" heat after his! It also means that he was probably the fourth fastest 9-10 year old on the team for this meet. He was motoring and had a big grin on his face the entire time. :-) He also swam freestyle and was the first leg of his relay.

Owen had an almost repeat performance in the swim meet today. His relay came in second (he has been the third leg of the relay both times), he was third in backstroke (two boys from the other team were faster) and fifth in freestyle.

It was a hot, hot day in July and we are all wiped out from a long, productive day.

All the boys will be attending a half-day Techno Art/Cartooning class at Catonsville Community College next week. I will try to get some of their stuff up on the blog.

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We had a good ole Catonsville 4th. We watched the parade which was a bit shorter than in years past and awaited the fireworks, but it RAINED and RAINED and RAINED!!! The biggest thunderstorm and the first real rain of the summer. The kids put on their swimsuits and ran around while shooting waterguns at one another.

Last swim meet was another good one for Owen. He placed second in backstroke, his relay came in second and he was fifth in freestyle. There were at least 28 9-10 boys in Finn's events. He placed 17th in freestyle and 13th in breaststroke. Evan did not swim because he injured the back of his leg, has 11 stitches and wears a leg brace because the injury is right behind his knee and he shouldn't bend it. He was scheduled to get the stitches out today, but the doctor left them in for two more days. So he's out for the next meet as well.