New personal best

This past weekend brought another JOAD tournament. This one was local for us (yay!) and ran pretty smoothly. (We were fortunate not to have any of the travel/weather issues that many others did thanks to the snow. Plus, it's just nice to be at your "home" range.)

Noah did okay, though not as well as the last tournament. (This might have something to do with practicing just over half as much as Micah did in the month between the last tournament and this one...just saying. Bleh.)

Micah improved on his previous best score for this distance during both his rounds, so was pretty happy. (Remember, this is only his second tournament at this further distance.) Plus, he managed to snag third place, which delighted him, as it meant that he actually beat out six other boys. (At the shorter distance, he very rarely was competing against more than two other boys at any given tournament.)

So. That's that. :)  

PS...Hats off to the lovely folks at Rocky Mountain Archery, as pulling off a two day tournament for just under 200 archers is *not* easy.

JOAD tournament number 18...

So, last weekend, Noah and Micah had their first JOAD tournament of the season...number 18 for us all told, as this is our fourth season now. As tournaments go, it wasn't horrible. ;) Here's a recap:

For NOAH...he continues to shoot in a very popular division so has steep competition. Over the summer, he upgraded most all of his equipment and is generally shooting better than ever. He hasn't, though, spent very much time practicing with this new set up (and I should get new boots for not screaming "I told you so" on Saturday, lol). Regardless, he shot decently and *almost* set a new personal record and *almost* earned a new award pin for six 10s in a row. (Yeah, he was a ray of sunshine after those *almosts* lol.) In the end, his score was the fourth highest, which he's familiar with. He recently wrote a paper for his English class about the value of practice. Let's all wait and see how long it takes for him to make the connection. ;)

For MICAH...after wrapping up the state title in his division last spring, Micah decided to move up to the next division (though he's not required to do so until January). The new division means that he's now shooting from 18 meters instead of 9, which is kind of a big difference. :) (For the record, I tried to talk him out of this as I'd prefer he stop being in such a hurry to grow up, but he was adamant. He wants/needs the new challenge of the longer distance and actual competition and is now eligible to earn new awards pins, as he'd reached the end of those available at the shorter distance.)

I digress. So, he arrived at the tournament fully ready to treat this as practice (well, more practice...he's been doing an okay job of actually practicing), knowing that he hasn't shot the scores to be competitive in this division yet. His mood took a downswing when we learned that he was assigned an upper target (which he can't reach to retrieve his arrows...it doesn't affect his shooting, though, just meant that he had to ask for help pulling his arrows after every end...all 20 times) and the tournament folks wouldn't let us switch (though Noah had a lower target so it would have been a simple matter and one we've done before). On top of that, the other three shooters with him on his bale (they score in groups of four) were all new. As in, they'd never kept score before. Fortunately, Micah is Micah and has scored aplenty at team practices and other tournaments when they didn't have enough parent volunteers at the shorter distance. But. One has to question the logic of assigning the absolutely youngest kid on the main line to the target butt with the three new people.

Anyhow, despite the lucky dime that his coach gave him in an effort to help turn his mood, Micah didn't shoot well his first round (a tournament is two rounds of ten ends each...three arrows for each end). During the break in between, he returned the "unlucky" dime to his coach. :) And then the kid managed to shoot decently during the second round and somehow pulled out a first place finish! He fully understands that this was somewhat of a fluke, as two of his teammates missed this tournament and regularly shoot much higher scores in this division, but he'll take it. ;) 

So. That was our first tournament for the season.

(PS With Micah shooting at the longer distance, I now find myself with nothing to do during tournaments. At the shorter distance, they always needed parent volunteers to help the youngsters with scoring and such. At the longer distance, it's all on the archers. Suggestions? We were there for about five hours. I tried to do some reading but was also trying to watch how the boys were doing. No, Deanna, I don't think I'm ready to learn how to knit just yet, lol.)

Ten on Tuesday

1. I need a fox. A week or so ago, I discovered that our neighborhood rabbits really like some of the plants we had so carefully planted out front. Apparently, the rabbit population in our neighborhood is high this year, as a number of our neighbors have also been having problems. Upon talking with them and thinking on it, we used to have some foxes in the neighborhood. I haven't seen any lately. Do you suppose I could call animal control and have them drop a fox or two in our parts? ;) 

In the meantime...two things. First, thankfully the nursery we bought the plants from has a one year guarantee so we went and exchanged our poor eaten plants for new (hopefully rabbit-resistant) plants. Two, I read somewhere that pepper repels rabbits so have been sprinkling both black pepper and red pepper flakes around the remaining plant we have that matches the ones eaten by the rabbits. So far it's doing well. Fingers crossed.

2. While exchanging plants to replace our poor eaten ones, we also bought more for a few more pots for out front now that the last bush is gone. I've assured Nathan I'm mostly done (with the front yard, excluding wanting a new front door and such, lol) for now. ;)

3. My youngest two regaled me with their newfound skill yesterday. Yup. They can burp the alphabet. I'm so proud. ;)

4. I mailed off our completed PASS tests for the year yesterday! Whew. Glad to have that just done. (I administer the PASS tests every other year as a means of meeting the homeschool law testing requirement here in Colorado. I don't actually much care about the tests, as I already have a very good idea what the boys know and don't know, lol.)

5. Randomly, Micah has decided to start drawing Pokemon characters. He's not bad. :) I'll take some pictures soon. He's already got almost a dozen.

6. Though he's miffed at the rabbits now, Micah continues to try to get close enough to hug them. Well. He alternates between trying to hug them and chasing them away with enthusiasm, lol. His latest tactic is to use his stuffies...holding one out in front of him in the hopes that the stuffie is less intimidating than the boy. It actually appears to work a bit...as he's gotten much closer (like within a foot) than ever before. He's still not succeeded in catching any, though. (I've pointed out that we have plenty of friends with rabbits who would be happy to let him hold them. He's stubbornly continuing to try to catch the neighborhood rabbits.)

7. Last week, I finally had a chance to go see the movie "Mom's Night Out" with friends. It was co-written/directed/produced by a homeschooler and is a touching, hilarious, fun story. If you can still find it in a theater, go see it!

8. Nathan and the boys bought the supplies to make a simple fire pit in the backyard. The goal is to finish that up in the evenings this week. I'll keep you posted. :)

9. I actually did some "back to school" shopping with Noah today. I know it's still only June, but I had one of those super cash coupon things that expires tomorrow, so we went and picked up some more tees, a hoodie and some khakis (that he'll need for JOAD). I know I joke about how he's a pretty picky dresser and all, but I have to admit that he's pretty easy to shop with...his very specific requirements limit the selections quickly, lol. So. It's easy to tell when we're done looking. 

10. Noah got his new bow today. He's happy...

This one *should* fit him for years, and he's got it mostly all tweaked the way he wants it for now.  

Whew. 

Ridiculously

Even though it's Monday and there's snow on the ground still from yesterday (argh), feeling pretty ridiculously happy today. :) Here's why:

1. Our last JOAD tournament of the (October-April) season was yesterday down in Denver. Due to scheduling conflicts (Noah's age group was scheduled for the morning session which conflicted with Noah sleeping, lol), Noah opted not to compete this time. He's pretty happy with how he finished the last tournament in March and wanted to end his season on that note...which satisfied him and meant I didn't have to try to wake him up at 6 am or spend the entire day at the tournament (as Micah's age group was scheduled for the afternoon session). Happy.

2. This meant it was just Micah and me, so we had a little mother-son time. Happy.

3. While we were down there, we also managed to meet up with friends for lunch. Happy.

4. Micah's been really working hard toward this tournament, even knowing that he likely wouldn't score as well as he has in the past. He got a new release two weeks ago and has been practicing extra to adjust to the new form/style. He was very dedicated and determined but managed to remember that it's an adjustment and keep his expectations in line. Truly, even a couple of the other parents noticed how much less frustrated he was at this tournament. Happy.

5. And he won his division:

(Yes, yes, technically he was again the only one in his division, lol.)

6. And because it was the state championship (and he had participated in the required number of previous tournaments to qualify for state), he also got the state champion title and belt buckle. He was pretty...happy.

7. And that means that the JOAD season is almost officially over! (Just have our team potluck and awards stuff yet...) Which means a good freeing up of my weekly schedule. (We'll still practice somewhat regularly, as Micah won't let us not, but now it's more flexible by far.) HAPPY.

Off to a fabulous start!

Noah and Micah had their first JOAD tournament of the season yesterday in south Denver. It was a new location for us (which is always a bit iffy for certain eldest sons who appreciate knowing what to expect, lol), but it turned out pretty well. Our team put in a strong showing, having by far the most shooters during the Saturday afternoon session that we were at. Here's the team stretching and warming up ahead of time. 

(Noah and Micah are the ones on the far right.) Our team actually has more than 50 shooters this year (so this is less than half of them) and is almost certainly the largest JOAD team in the state. Given the increase in archers (thanks to the Olympics and movies like The Hunger Games and Avengers and Brave and such), Colorado JOAD tournaments this year will all be larger...this first one had four sessions (Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon) to try to accommodate everyone and still had people on a waiting list.

In any case, we arrived shortly after lunch and got set up, stretched, took the two practice ends and got underway.

(Sidenote: For our purposes (and to explain very generally), an "end" is shooting three arrows within a set amount of time. The bullseye is worth ten points, with each ring out from there being one less point. Each "round" consists of ten ends...so a possible total score of 300. In a tournament, we shoot two rounds. Awards are based on total scores, so out of a possible 600. Shooters are divided by class (whether they shoot recurve, barebow or compound), gender, and division (age). It's a long day, lol.)

Here's Micah shooting. He's the one with the mohawk (though it's hard to see here), lol. He and the other yeomen (under 9 years old) shoot at a shorter distance than everyone else:

There aren't as many yeomen as the other divisions, hence the only one target butt arranged for the shorter distance. In fact, at this session, all four of the yeomen were from our team.

So. In their first rounds of the day, both Noah and Micah set new personal best scores! Micah scored 270, beating his previous best by three points. (And that previous best had been last November...he hadn't scored nearly as well between then and now.) He didn't shoot as strongly in the second round (which is pretty normal as he starts getting distracted and tired, lol) but still shot decently. He also managed to take first...

...which wasn't terribly difficult being as there was no one else in his division, lol. (In all fairness, his score still would have earned him first almost assuredly even if other shooters had been at this tournament.)

Meanwhile, Noah shot a 272 in his first round! That beat his previous high by four points and, like Micah, had been set last November, without many rounds coming close between then and now. For Noah, being as he's at the standard distance unlike Micah, it also meant he finally earned his yellow pin that he's been after since last year. :) And, because he managed a solid second round, he was only three points off of the podium, which I don't think he's ever come so close to before. (This was our twelfth JOAD tournament, and we've always stressed personal goals over placing...particularly as Noah is in a larger and more competitive division. Still, I think he was privately pretty happy about being so close, though he was also sincerely relieved not to have to stand on a podium in front of people, lol.) 

Truly, though, we were most proud of how well both boys handled themselves throughout the tournament. We've come a long ways from the days of our first tournaments where the goal was simply not to make a scene crying. ;) Even within the past month (during dress rehearsals--basically tournaments just for our own team--and at practice), both boys have still had their moments...with letting a poor shot get to them and affect their behavior and shooting. Yesterday, though, they did fabulously! There was no crying or stomping or slamming of bows or glaring at people who happened to be near them, lol. They kept themselves in check and were able to just take a deep breath and refocus after poor shots. Seriously. That was awesome progress! Woohoo!

(Note, amazing how keeping one's self in check resulted in better scores overall...not that we haven't been saying that for years now, right?)

Whew. Here's hoping the rest of the season goes as well...