Swim Banquet

Last night's swim team banquet was a blast for the girls.  Not only did they have cake and ice cream, but they got to watch a slide show with photos and videos from the past season.

While Madeleine was smiling politely in at least one or two photos, most of the many shots of her were variations of goofball:

This kid knows how to represent her team with utmost dignity, for sure.

Each swimmer on the team received a unique award, and Julia's was a showcase of all the hard work she put in over the season: the 9-10 Girls' Coaches Award.  Madeleine's award was a whole different level of unique: the "Swim Like a Cheetah" Award.  Apparently, thanks to Madeleine, "Swim Like a Cheetah" had become the official motto for the 8-and-under kids on the team.  On the first day of practice, each age group was asked to come up with a team motto.  The 8-and-unders were struggling to come up with something until Madeleine hit it out of the park with her idea. 

Now, how, exactly, does a cheetah swim, and why should kids be emulating a land animal while in the water?  Madeleine clarified, as her coach pointed out last night: "Like, swim as FAST as a cheetah can RUN."  Got it?  Swim like a cheetah!  Team motto search solved!

Here are the girls displaying their awards:

You'll see they also received, as a team gift, swim team tank tops.  In addition, the top 6 finishers in each age group event at championships received a medal, and the top 12 finishers received ribbons.  Madeleine is SUPER excited about her 3rd place medal in backstroke, especially since she felt it wholly unfair that Julia received 3 medals last summer, despite the fact that Madeleine wasn't even on the team at that point and was, therefore, ineligible for any medals.  Julia received ribbons for her 7th place finish in breast stroke and in her freestyle relay, and a 9th place ribbon for butterfly.  Despite not getting a medal, Julia is (grudgingly) proud of her placings, seeing as she was one of the few 9-year-olds to place in the top 12 of the girls' 9-10 age group. (Plus, she still has 3 medals to Madeleine's 1, so the sibling rivalry is kept at bay.)

However, you can see that Madeleine is not rubbing in her medal AT ALL.  Here's her outfit today:

Congrats, Rowe girls, on a great (and goofy) season!