Basketball

Elizabeth decided to give basketball a try this winter.  It is a short season and apparently this is something that a lot of girls try in kindergarten because by 1st grade it is mostly boys playing!  This did not at all phase her.  She was glad to have another girl on her team but many teams they played were all boys.  A lot of the boys she knew from school and it was fun to see how they interacted with each other on the court.  The interaction typically being like they had never seen each other before!  Once during a practice when they were sitting down to wait their turn for a drill a few of the boys were messing around near her and she actually moved away from them because they were horsing around and not paying attention.  The look on her face is what we refer to her as "our aloof Elizabeth" which we better learn to tone down or a "miss goody two shoes"  label might follow.  Then again it's not wrong to follow directions and pay attention! She just needs to smile as she scoots away from them, and loose the glare and eye roll!

She had a lot of fun and her skill set progressed throughout the season.  The kids all wear colored wristbands to color coordinate who they defend.  One game she was paired up with an extremely athletic boy who she has been in class with the last two years.  He was blocking her shots, which at this level is not allowed.  The ref finally called him on it and he was a little upset, so the next time they met up, he stole the ball from her, something that is also not allowed, but he made his point!  He was not going to let a girl get the best of him and Elizabeth took it all in stride.

Signaute tongue out of the mouth

I think Grant appreciated basketball season because a) it only lasts 6 weeks and b) games are only once a week for 1 hour.  He is gearing up for spring soccer.  Cold, wet spring soccer...yeah!

Swim Season

Our little swimmers! Grant did technique school right before Elizabeth's practices so he got be in the picture too!

Anyone who knows us knows that our daughter is a swimmer! We are very proud of everything she has accomplished.  She has been swimming for over 3 years, but only starting competing last summer and has never wanted to stop!  We didn't do a lot of meets this fall/winter because of scheduling conflicts, but managed to squeeze a lot in as of recently.  She swims as part of the Peoria Y team that is affiliated the USA Swimming.  They have championship level meets.  She qualified for districts, meaning she meant the time standards in all of the individual strokes, but you can only have so many meet entries.  I really thought we selected butterfly and breast, but she ended up swimming the 25 fly and 25 free.  These are all 8 and under age categories.  In addition the coach put her on two relay teams, the 100 medley and 100 free.  She typically swims the fly on the medley relay.  She didn't really understand what it meant to swim at districts, but we we tried our best to explain.  There are 15-20 in our district.  At anytime in the season if you meet the state time standards you also qualify for the state meet.  The district meet was a two day event.  The top 8 in each event swam again on Sunday.  She finished 11th  in the fly and 35th in freestyle.  The medley relay team only had 8 teams entered in the event and the freestyle team only had 4, so the relay teams qualified to swim Sunday before they even swam Saturday.  As we were leaving on Saturday one of the coaches pulled me aside to let me know that Elizabeth's relay team had qualified for state and we needed to discuss if that was something we wanted to do.  We discussed and of course she was thrilled!  She was really excited to be going to state.  And even though it was a relay team and we knew they were going to get smoked, she is 7 years old and can say "I went to State!"  The relay teams finished 6th (out of 7) and 3rd (out of 4) at districts.  As proud parents we were happy to support her and promised Grant we would make it a fun weekend since he has had about all of the swim meets he can take.

We went out to dinner to celebrate and Brandon and I took her back on Sunday to finish out districts.  She had a really fun day with her teammates.  When they swam their last relay they were giddy.  7th place is exciting because the ribbons are PINK!! (insert screaming girls).  I took the girls into the locker room to get showered and one of her teammates said to Elizabeth "want to come in the double shower so we can talk?"  Well one of the showers was a handheld with no holder and so I warned the girl using it "be careful and keep the water pointed in your direction!" Elizabeth interrupts and says "She is sensitive" and for a brief moment I think I have maybe offended this girl and then she completes her sentence "about her shoes!"  Me...she was talking about me! Even though she was totally making fun of me at least she had the decency to do it in front of me and we all got a good laugh!

The chlorine in the air was so bad it was burning our eyes, especially Grant.  So he put on goggles and curled up for a nap on Ima's lap.  She keeps saying he is too big for this, but somehow he wiggles his way in!

Unfortunately the coach that had invited her to swim on the state relay teams was mistaken.  Another coach had reviewed the times and they offered her an alternate position to which we declined.  We had a very sad little girl but nothing can take away the wonderful swim season she had.  Learning life lessons usually aren't easy.  We will take a few months off and both kids will be doing summer swim team!

Things that happen at Wal-Mart

Elizabeth had been complaining of a sore throat over the weekend and even though she never ran a temp over 99, I kept her home from school and made an appointment.  Thirty minutes prior to the appt when she asked me if she could run on the treadmill I was tempted to cancel it, but I didn't.  The rapid strept test turned positive in 30 seconds.  Which meant our next trip was to Wal-Mart to get her prescription filled. Of course it wasn't ready due to a last minute request for pill form vs. liquid as we were walking out of the doctor's office.  We had some time to kill and although I really needed groceries I didn't want to drag the kids all around the store so we looked at the fish and shopped the clearance aisles.  We finally wandered into the Easter section where Elizabeth asks really loudly "Are you guys the Easter Bunny?"  I assured that we were not but she needed to keep her voice down - of course there were other children in the same section.  So I quickly distracted them with a stuffed bunny that smells like chocolate.  Then Grant says he needs to zip his coat up because he is cold.  I thought it was kind of weird, but didn't think that much more of it.  Until we were going up to pick up the prescription and he unveiled the chocolate scented bunny from under his coat!! Oh my gosh, my son the shop lifter! He really wanted that chocolate smelling bunny.  Of course I made him put it back and gave a lecture on hiding items on our body and not paying for them and threats of the police and how stealing is just plain wrong.  When he get in the car he asks "Mom can I give you $5 and you buy me that bunny?"  Sure honey, if it means that much to you...let's not steal the bunny!

The Kids Baking Championship

There is a series on Food Network, called The Kids Baking Championship.  I am not sure the age range, but I am guessing 11 and 12 year olds.  They have a challenge, with a surprise twist and at the end somebody gets sent home.  The kids are infatuated with this show!  They love it so much that they thought we should have our own baking challenge.  Back in January we our first challenge.  The kids insisted that they compete against us.  The twist was that you had to use an ingredient with the letter B.  Here are the exact descriptions from the score card:

Today we present to you a valentine chocolate cupcake.  Our B ingredient is a banana.  For our topping we included Twizzlers and a sliced banana.  These are strawberry flavored Twizzlers and we think strawberries and bananas compliment each other well.  We garnished with sprinkles for extra love! Enjoy our wonderful treats!

Today we present to you a heart shaped bacon chocolate chip cupcake, filled with maple whipped cream, topped with maple frosting, garnished with bourbon glazed bacon pecan bits.  That’s two “B’s” Bourbon and Bacon!  

(yes we had the bacon and bourbon one)

Ima and Pops came over and scored the cupcakes as an exact tie!  The kids had a blast with it.  Today is President's Day so I have the children at home with me and they wanted to have a challenge.  Since teams weren't even and they really didn't want to work together they decided to compete against each other, yet they still really worked together.  Today's challenge was "you have to use ingredients that we already have in the cabinets!"  I left them to scour the kitchen while I separated some laundry and when I came back the first thing I see is Grant trying to smash graham crackers on a serving tray - not a cutting board!  I decided that they might need a little help.  They pretty much made the same thing and used the same ingredients but they each did their own and I only helped where needed (aka when big messes were a possibility!)  They put graham crackers crumbs in cupcake liners and then piled in peanut butter, marshmallows, a chopped chocolate bar, powdered sugar (that they insisted on sifting), sprinkles, lemon zest (because why not?!) and chocolate frosting.  They were actually pretty good.  I just followed them around with the vacuum.  They wanted me to judge honestly, so I did.  There are three categories, creativity, presentation and taste.  I tied them on creativity because they basically made the same thing.  Grant won taste and Elizabeth won presentation.  They keep pushing the issue saying that I really hadn't chosen a winner - yes kids that was exactly what I was tying to avoid! But they wouldn't give up so I finally chose Grant to go home, siting that his peanut butter was not evenly distributed (which I had helped him with, so really it was my fault!).  

This is the part when you yell "hands up!" and the time expires

Super Bowl 50

Last year our plans had to be cancelled due to illness.  This year we opted for a low key afternoon and only made plans on Saturday!  My friend and her boys joined us for the festivities.  There were no wings, but there was a dip (for carrots and chips!) and Portillo's Italian beef.  A batch of homemade ice cream (vanilla with Reese's pieces, heath bits and chocolate chips) and scotch-a-roos rounded out the food.  The kids opted to watch the Puppy Bowl until the half time show.  Coldplay opened and when Burno Mars started Uptown Funk, one of the kids asked if they could get up and dance.  Of course!! Grant was trying to mimic the dance moves, it was pretty cute.  Then Beyonce made her appearance and Elizabeth declared that she was not ladylike and Grant said "you can see her pee-pee!"  Thank you Beyonce for wearing so little and dancing so maturely, provocatively.  And while I am ranting, thank you CBS and for your TV previews that show inappropriate content for children.  It really makes me sad that you can't watch a sporting event as a family without the networks showing scandalous previews.  After halftime it was bed time.  The kids were exhausted and everyone slept like logs! Good job Peyton - we were all rooting for you!

Swim Meets

Although Elizabeth has been swimming for 3 years,  2015 was her first summer to compete and then we continued into the school season.  You can pick and choose the meets that you want to attend, so it can take up as much or little time as you want.  We did one meet in November and then our location hosted a meet in December.  Districts are coming up in March and she has the qualifying times, but not the meet requirements.  We discussed it with her and she said she wants to do as many meets as she can and so that lead us to register her a meet this weekend and next so that she will be able to swim districts.

Being none of our family has any experience with competitive swimming this has all been an eye opener.  I compare a Saturday swim meet to a dance recital.  You sit dressed in a gym for hours, waiting for your 3 minute routine.  Swimming, you sit in a gym, waiting for your event to be called.  She swims events in less than 30 seconds and usually swims 4-6 events.  And if there are dance moms, then you know there are swim moms too! Actually, everyone has been really nice and helpful as we navigate through these new waters.

This morning in particular the meet was an hour drive away.  Check-in was at 7:15, warm-ups at 7:30, meet starts at 8:45 (well 9:30 because there were computer glitches) = alarm went off really early! The teams pile into their designated holding zones (usually in a drafty gym) and make camp.  We just take chairs, a blanket and a bag of entertainment/food, but I was envious of the sleeping bag and pillow people today.  She was in a relay today so there wasn't a huge gap between warm-ups and her first event, but if she isn't in a relay it can be almost two hours before she is in the water again.  So you sit at your camp site, wait for your event number to be called so the swimmers can get organized in the bull pen and then you get to go into the pool area (which is usually very balmy) and watch their 30 seconds of fame.  And repeat this a few more times - maybe with a lunch break.


As she was getting showered after her last event today I told my mom that she must really love to swim because why else would you spend your entire Saturday doing this?! Yet, there we all were.  Grant is a trooper and Ima and Pops are usually there too!  We are happy to support her and are very proud of all she has accomplished.  She brought home 2nd place overall in the girls 8 and under 25 meter butterfly.  It may not be her favorite stroke to swim, but it is by far her best.  If she swims the medley relay she usually swims the fly leg.  Unfortunately her relay team had a disqualification, but she was a rock star on her leg, making up half of the pool length on her closest competitor.  She also got to swim the freestyle relay.  She typically swims the last leg of this and she really turned it on today.  As Pops likes to tell her "get angry with the water!".  Her breast and back stroke look really awesome they just aren't particularly fast...but when she decides she wants to go all out, she does!  I am really looking forward to summer swimming and having fresh air and sunshine.  Most of all it is just a pleasure to watch her be so comfortable in the water - even if that means we are uncomfortable most of the day.  It is all worth it, because you would do anything for your kids!

The best way to describe her swimming, is with the quote I put on her ribbon holder...."I sparkle in the water".

(and no pictures because I need to "manage the storage" on my phone!)

Megan's Baptism

I was lucky enough to be abel to spend with weekend with my brother and his family (and our parents!) in Georgia.  Not only was it David's birthday, but my niece was also being baptized.  She stole the show!  When the pastor paraded her up and down the aisles of the church she had a look on her face that was priceless! No tears! It was if she was saying "I know what you are all here for and here I am!"  She is such a pretty baby and so much fun to be around.  I hate that there are so many miles between us, because being an aunt is a lot of fun!

Such a doll!