1st Grade Field Day

It's a proud day when you know your child was running as fast as her legs would take her and it wasn't because she was being chased by the police. The annual elementary school Field Day is a traditional event where the students get to burn off all their pent up energy that has been building throughout the year and the teachers get to relax - just a LITTLE - while the kids go crazy. The Kindergarten and 1st grade events aren't judged for winners. They're really just starting to understand the point of the games - but nobody gets ribbons or anything like that... so when Neal asked me if she won the relay and I said, "umm... I don't know" it's because I really don't. He thought maybe I wasn't paying attention to the relay race, but honestly I couldn't even tell if the kids were ending in the same lane they started in or handing off the batons to the right people. There was only 1 individual event. Everything else was done in groups. As frustrating as this might be for my husband, the kids had a blast! I don't think one of them even noticed that no one was taking inventory of their efforts.

Gwyneth did really well at most of the events! They began with an obsticle course. Weave around the balls on the ground, over one bar, under the other and run back - FAST.


Then they went on to Tug o' War. Gwyneth never misses a photo op!
PULL!!!

They pulled the other team over the line twice, so I guess that means they won - made apparent by Gwynnie's gesture here:

Then they did another group of events where they have to preform a task in relay fashion. The first required placing 3 bean bags into rings on the ground.


The second was balancing a ball on a paddle.


And the third was a race handing off the baton to the person across from you and then running to the other side to the next person.


Then they had the Hula Hoop contest! It lasted much longer than I had expected! My kids are terrible at this activity, but a couple of those kids can hold their own. You were to sit down when your hoop dropped... Gwyn wasn't the FIRST to sit, but it was pretty close.



After the competition they were given a "free play" which they really enjoyed. I think Gwyn had more success spinning the hula hoop, and that is just fine.

She has a BFF club at school... these are the members:

More members


Up the hill to the SACK RACE - Again, not Gwyneth's strength. She likes to go fast, and that is not easy in a sack. The minute you lean forward,


you've sealed your doom:
She told me today that she has a crush on the boy that she was paired up with for the 3-legged race. The good news is, his name is Caleb - this is the name she calls most every boy she meets, so she'll never get his name wrong.


There was another race where they had to jump while holding a ball between their legs. No one was good at this one.


Back down the hill for some bubbles and sidewalk chalk:




It wasn't long before she was bored with the chalk and discovered some ribbon tied to the tether ball pole.


That is when the ribbon dancing/rhythmic gymnastics began:

Back up the hill for the grand finale! The relay race. Gwyneth LOVES the track and running and is really good at it, so this was her favorite part. She was really fast!!! Here she is kind of stretching, kind of resting before the race:


The Handoff!
And she's off! Notice she is holding a RED baton here:

They asked her to run two laps the first time around and so she just figured she would run two laps again... this was not the case! *screeching hault* (notice the baton is now YELLOW)

Whizzing by on the final lap


We had so much fun and now we're really looking forward to this summer's track camp!