Swim carnival

This year has been a big year for Eli, in many ways. He's been working on his swimming since it has warmed up again and for those of you that know how insanely competitive he is, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that he was very keen to translate his new skills into success on his first school swimming carnival.

Just in case there was any doubt, you can clearly see his steely determination in these first two photos, as he prepared himself for the kickboard race across the pool...


He did pretty well (especially considering that some of the kids in his grade are already six years old) and he got to the other end in third place...as you can see from this photo, he was quick to claim the third placed ribbon...even though the teachers weren't actually handing them out to the kids while they were still wet.





Next up Eli was lined up for the 'bouncing hoop relay', where the Prep kids had to bounce their way across the pool whilst holding a diving ring aloft (despite how it sounds, it should definitely be an olympic sport I think). This time the teams were organised on the basis of the three school houses at Eli's school - Gibson, Holland and Toohey. Eli is in Gibson and he was very vocal in his cheering...actually Eli's competitive nature really shone out during the relay, because I didn't see a single other kid cheer, or even express excitement around the races (I know I shouldn't encourage Eli's competitive spirit too much, but the lack of engagement from the other kids did actually have me shaking my head in amazement). Here's Eli bouncing his way across the pool - despite being one of the shorter kids in the grade, he did make his way across the pool quite swiftly.

Eli was thrilled that Gibson won (again he was pretty much alone in even recognising that the race had finished) and he came home that day complete with his third placed ribbon and a big grin on his face. Makes all of those swim classes, both at school and outside of school hours, seem even more worthwhile.