Our very own Triathlete!

Our Ellie can do anything she wants once she sets her mind to it and today she proved that to us again.  A couple of months ago she decided that it would be fun to participate in a triathlon with some of her girlfriends and today she did just that!

This triathlon held at the University of North Florida is the largest kids triathlon in the United States with 1800 kids participating!  The afternoon before we had already taken Ellie's bike over to the event area so this morning all we had to do was get Ellie there bright and early...before the heat set in.  She was all smiles and ready to go!

Here are all of Ellie's girlfriends from our neighbhorhood before the race.  In the front row we have Allie, Haven, McKenna, Samantha and in the back Ellie and Kimberly.

The triathlon for Ellie's age group, the Juniors, consisted of a 100 meter swim, followed by a 3 mile bike ride and then a half mile run.

This is a fraction of the bike transition area.  1800 bikes all in one place is pretty amazing to see!

Ellie and Allie were excited for their turn to finally arrive so that they could line up and get the race started.

And she is off to the pool...Good Luck Ellie!

Dan and Emory went into the pool area to see her swim while I waited outside to catch her in the transition to the bike ride.  We wanted to make sure that we didn't miss any part of it and these kids were moving quickly!  It's not the best photo but it was hard to get a photo in the pool area with Emory's cell phone.  From what I was told, she flew through the swimming and wanted the slower kids in front of her to get out of her way.  That's our girl! 

When she came out of the pool, she was off and running to the bike transition area where she had to put on her shoes, shirt with her race number and her bike helmet before heading out on the three mile bike ride.  She was running full speed and all smiles.

Here she is at the end of the bike ride.  She was cruising past some of the kids on the smaller bikes.  Just one more part of the race to go! 

And here she is as she runs to the finish line!  By now it was getting hot and she was surely tired but she was still smiling and running full speed.  Quite and accomplishment for our nine year old.  Way to go, Ellie!!!

We are always proud of her but today we were even more so than usual.  She really did her best, never stopped and did exactly what she set out to do. 

Might this be her new lucky number?

Twelve!

Wildcat Soccer

The middle school soccer season came to an end last week and the Pacetti Bay Wildcats came in 3rd in our district.  They came so close to moving on to the championships with the score in their last game being just 0-1, and that goal coming from a penalty kick.  The team that they lost to was the best team in the district and went on to win the tournament.  It was a great season and so fun to watch.  Go Wildcats!

Character Counts Award

On Thursday, January 26th, Ellie participated in a Character Counts celebration.  She was chosen by her classmates to receive the award for the trait of the month:  Respect.  Each month the children focus on one character trait and learn all about it and how to model that behavior.  The six traits are: respect, trustrworthy, caring, responsibility, fairness and citizenship.  Ellie's class voted that she was the most respectful student in their class.  She received a certificate in a small ceremony held by the guidance department with yummy cake afterwards!

One of Ellie's friends, Allie, who she has known since preschool and who lives down our street also received the Respect award. 

Congratulations Ellie!  We agree that you are very respectful and we are so proud of you!

Second Quarter Report Cards

They did it again...HONOR ROLL!!! 

Second quarter report cards came home on Tuesday, January 24th.  Ellie was so excited to share hers with us as she earned straight As for the first time.  She worked really hard to pull her B in social studies up to an A this quarter.  Emory held onto his streak of honor rolls but brought home one B.  It was in math and so close to being an A at an 89.05.  We are so proud of them and all of their hard work!

Great Job Emory and Ellie!!!

Extra post

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Christmas

coming soon :o)

Ellie's Christmas Piano Recital

Ellie played in her Christmas piano recital on the afternoon of December 11th.  This is the recital that her piano teacher hosts just for her students, no parents invited, as a Christmas present for them.  Ellie played her two songs, Chord Etude and Jingle Bells Boogie, wonderfully so I am told.  She certainly looked beautiful!

PBMS Band Concert

On December 6th   , Pacetti Bay Middle School had their first Beginning Band concert of the year.  We were very impressed with their director, Mr. Rankin, and with all that his students had learned in just a little over three months.  They actually sounded like a real band!

Emory made us especially proud that he volunteered to perform a solo at the concert.  He stood up in front of hundreds of people and played his saxophone.....all after having been playing in a PBMS soccer game less than an hour before!

 

Thanksgiving

Where has this year gone?  Just a few hours left in 2011, so I'm going to quickly add a couple of pictures of things that we've done this year so that we don't forget....and I'll promise to try to keep up better with all of this next year!

This year we went to Richmond again for Thanksgiving.  It's becoming a tradition to make this trip each year now that the kids are older and so much easier to travel with and it's one that we really love and look forward to.  It's wonderful to see everyone again, have a great Thanksgiving dinner and it serves as our official kick off to all of the fun of the Christmas season!

Our first night in Richmond, Kenny and Leigh-Emma came over with Jack and Max.  It's always so much fun to see how much the boys have grown since our last visit.  They are growing way too fast but it's always great to watch the kids together.  Jack has a special fondness for Emory and wants to be with him every minute, doing anything that Emory is doing.  Max has grown from a baby into a little boy now and it is fun to see him running around and actually able to take part in the playing with Emory, Ellie and Jack this time. We brought a special surprise with us this time...dinosaur tails!  They were soft like a stuffed animal and attached at the waist.  One was for Jack and the other for Max, but Emory and Jack had the most fun chasing each other I think!

Max had lots of fun playing the Sesame Street saxophone for us that Emory and Ellie used to both play.  It's funny how the saxophone is the instrument that Emory chose to play in band this year!

We were also finally able to pass along a pair of lion pjs that I have been saving since Emory was three and he wore them.  Jack fit right into them and looked just as cute and I remember Emory being when he wore them eight years ago!  Maybe we'll see them on Max in a couple of years too.

...and here is a look back at Emory wearing the same pjs back in December 2003.  Such a cutie!

This year we headed to the Hanover Tavern for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was yummy and afterwards we all spent the rest of the day together at Tammy and Dante's.

Ellie and Dan after driving the four wheeler through a big puddle and getting soaking wet!

The annual tickle-wrestling match between the kids and Uncle Dante.  This IS a Thanksgiving tradition for sure!

The morning after Thanksgiving,  Leigh-Emma planned a really fun scavenger hunt for the kids and adults.  It was great to get outside and moving early in the day and lots of fun looking for all of the items too.   Afterwards we had lunch together and then the kids got some more time to run around together outside.

 

Dan and I decided that we wanted to start showing Emory and Ellie some of our favorite parts of Richmond and this trip we took them to Joe's Inn.  Mmmmm!  It's always been a favorite although it really is just a little hole in the wall.  Tammy, David, Amrah and Rylan joined us and it was a fun evening.  Emory and Ellie LOVED it too and are already asking when we can go back again!

Our last night in Richmond, Jack had a sleepover with Emory at Ga's house.  Emory was so wonderful with Jack and even got up with him in the middle of the night and didn't wake anyone else up!