Seven!

Noelle is seven which is just insane to me. She is smart, strong, and mostly sweet, and we are so proud of the young woman she is becoming. Here's the yearly interview!

1. What is your favorite color? Aqua
That room will stay yellow for your childhood whether you love it or not my friend! Aqua has been her favorite for about a year as she learns more in art class though.

2. What is your favorite toy? iPad and Baby Elsa

She loves to relax with the iPad during rest time on weekends, loves Elsa and her other Disney baby dolls, and loves to build. Those magnetile type toys have been a huge hit for both my kids.

3. What is your favorite fruit and vegetable? Cantaloupe and cucumbers
Both the same from last year. Still lucky to have a great eater!

4. What is your favorite tv show?  Lego Star Wars
Finally a show I can watch and actually sometimes laugh out loud watching! PS all of my star wars knowledge comes from this show.

5. What is your favorite movie? Frozen Sing Along
That girl loves some Disney. And loves some singing. At the top of her lungs!

6. What is your favorite thing to wear?  A Dress
Or shorts and a t-shirt. I love that she either wears gym clothes or dresses up. There is no in between!

7. What is your favorite animal? Puppy
Noelle and Maddie mostly love each other.

8. What is your favorite song? Best Day of My Life
Her K class sang this 1.5 years ago and she is still obsessed.

9. What is your favorite book? Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Despite writing a three week curriculum around this book, I swear I have never even read it with her. Great Grandma recently sent it. It is a great book though!

10. Who is your best friend? Sullie, Maeve, Veronica, Allana, Julia...
Noelle has a lot of BFF's. That are now spread across 4 schools. But they are all super sweet and it is great she sees them in different walks of life.

11. What is your favorite snack? Pretzel Goldfish
Hey, it could be worse. I feel like these count as almost healthy!

12. What is your favorite drink? Milk
Which she hardly ever gets. Water is a girl's best friend!

13. What is your favorite breakfast? Blueberry Waffles
Both my kids would still eat these every day. See Bryan's pregnancy post for the probable cause.

14. What is your favorite lunch? PB&J
Sorry allergy moms!

15. What is your favorite dinner? Pizza

Thankfully she still eats pretty much whatever I put in front of her.

16. What is your favorite game? Monopoly

She just learned this game and is obsessed! And she must be banker.

17. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swim and play soccer
Doing both this year. Yes, we are now over scheduled.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
My girl loves the holiday she is named for

19. What do you sleep with at night? Baby blanket and Elsa
Noelle is an insane sleeper. This is all that is left in her bed to keep the floor somewhat clear!

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Swimming scientist
I am cool with an Olympian swimmer who starts her career as a scientist when she can no longer win gold medals!

Happy Birthday, Noelle!

Swimteam 2016

Noelle spent her second summer on the Seals and had a super successful season! Swimming is one area where her late birthday is a big advantage. Still solidly in the 6 and under age bracket with her August birthday, Noelle rocked her meets this summer. And had tons of fun doing it, which is the most important part.

Noelle loved swimming summer 2015; so much that she wanted to do some winter swim last year after she got confident in the pool. We did two rounds of stroke and turn between the Ellicott City Y (no good) and then with Hoco Aquatics at Howard Community College (great).  The second much better session lead to her joining the team at practice two times a week for six weeks in April through mid-May. After that session, her free and back were solid and she was on her way to understanding fly and breaststroke.

Noelle began the summer season with solid mid-30's for her 25m free and back. Her team swam in division 2 this year and had some tough competition and a 2-3 record, but by divisionals she had qualified as a top 3 swimmer in her age group for free and back and had swam butterfly twice without disqualifying in the 8 and under division. She also had a fair breaststroke that would likely get her to the other side of the pool without a DQ. We were so proud of how hard she worked!

Noelle is competitive like her mom so her season highlight was getting first place in 25m 6 and under backstroke at divisionals. She cut almost three seconds off her best time in the race to hit the wall in 26.94 seconds, about 1.5 seconds faster than the second place finisher. Noelle also placed third overall in freestyle with a time of 26.95 s and worked with her team to get third in the mixed 6 and under free relay. It was a great showing!

Saturday mornings were definitely long this summer, especially with 4 am wake up calls to get in my long runs before heading to the pool for meets, but we wouldn't have it any other way. And Kellen can not wait to join in the fun next year as we add another seal to the mix!

Here are some photos (mostly taken by the team photographer) of our fabulous Seal, friends, and family. We look forward (and are a little frightened of the commitment!) of a full winter swim season as we just joined GBSA at CCBC for the year. For now though, Noelle is pretty sure she is the next Katie Ledecky and who are we to tell her she can't beat the Olympic competition by 7 seconds ten years down the line!

Go Rollingwood Seals!

Under the canopy coloring with her BFF between heats

6 and 8 and unders getting ready to swim at the 21228 invitational meet

On your mark, get set, go!

Noelle's two cheerleaders, and pretty much my favorite picture ever!

Ready for backstroke

Thumbs up from Coach Cassie

Noelle's Divisional Haul