State Swimming.

What a great day. It started with our dueling cell phone alarms going off at 5am. Well rested and ready to go on 5.5 hours of sleep!  Showered, Elie's sandwich ready to go, (which received a thumbs up), our wheels were up at 6:05am. Our journey to Marshalltown was quick, arriving 20 minutes before we needed to. Elie was VERY happy.  She swam like a champ today, dropping time in every race in the morning session. It was such a positive day for our team. All kids dropped time again after last weekend at Regionals. A huge kudos goes out to our coaches. The taper was spot on! After our 12 hour day in the pool (with a 4 hour break of eating and shopping), she ended with no more fuel in the tank. Game over. Until tomorrow. God love her! We shopped like champions too, FYI... 2 pairs flip flops, 1 bottle bath and body works mini lotion and 1 pair of earrings from Claires...$8.00.. so proud of us:)

So you can imagine, dinner plan wasn't happening. We grabbed a Little Caesars Pizza on the way out of town after 7pm. Hot and ready to eat which resulted in a very happy swimmer. Arrived in Des Moines to pick up Katy at Grandma Jane's and then home to prepare for tomorrow's meet.  Oh and to bake a batch of Dutch Letter Bars for Katy's World Thinking Day Girl Scouts event we will be attending tomorrow after the meet.

Dutch Letter Bars
One stick margarine

One stick butter

One 8oz can/tube of almond paste

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

Melt margarine and butter. Add eggs and almond paste. Add sugar and flour. Blend thoroughly and spread in well-greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Watch the last few minutes of baking time as you don't want to overbake these.

World thinking day is an event where each troop in the area picks a country to represent. Holland is Katy's troops country, hence the dutch letter bars. The girls are encouraged to make something to represent the country as well. All items are sold and the girls go around with their passports to get stamps and try new things from every country. It's a really cool event, open to the public tomorrow from 2-4pm at Southwoods School in West Des Moines.

Until tomorrow-this cat's going to bed once her teenager arrives home....