Friday, again

Things I'm thinking about this snowy/rainy Friday...

1. I'm not happy about this weather. Nope. Not at all. It's gray and icky and cold outside, and I want to boycott wearing coats and jackets already. The only glimmer of happiness about this spring storm is that I got to wear my new yellow rain boots that I found on clearance a week or so ago:

Aren't they fun?!

2. I saw Gilderoy just a bit ago! I was worried that he'd gone missing since I hadn't seen him for a couple days. :) To explain...Gilderoy is what I named the solitary goose who's taken to wandering our neighborhood. We're pretty sure that poor Gilderoy is missing some marbles. We've seen him actually fall off the curb when walking. He likes to mosey across the street and stop traffic. In any case, he's still there. :) 

3. I'm making cookies now. Because I can. 

That is all. :)

Friday

1. Last Sunday, we took the boys to watch Canyon Concert Ballet's performance of Peter Pan. One of our friends was in the show, and we joined her family to watch. Here's our crew during intermission:

Thank you, B, for helping me bring some culture to these boys of mine! :)

For what it's worth, they did enjoy the sword fighting and even recognized one of the pirates from karate. They felt there should have been more blood, as boys are apt to do. Noah won for aftershow comments, though. He (unlike his brothers) wasn't familiar with the storyline. As we were walking out, he declared that obviously the whole thing was a mass hallucination brought on by the medicine that the father gave Wendy, John & Michael before tucking them in. :) (And, looking back, I could see his point, lol!)

2. Speaking of Noah, he (along with most of the other 10th graders in Colorado, I think) took the PSAT on Wednesday as the required state testing this year. (We both appreciated that they switched from the weird PARCC testing from last year (that required like three days of testing over two different periods) to something that's actually useful practice for the future.) 

A couple weeks ago, he actually took the ACT, too. That one wasn't through school but was on the advice of his advisor for practice and because the advisor was concerned that Noah might not retain all of the algebra and geometry by his junior year since he's already doing calculus now.

Noah says he preferred the PSAT format, though he wasn't thrilled about taking it...mostly because (even though CEC cancelled classes for the day) he still had calculus over at Front Range Community College that afternoon. :)

Whew. Only three more weeks of classes for him this term.

3. These are my boys this morning. Unprompted, they began talking to each other on their feet-phones:

Don't ask me why. They're weird. ;)

(I did take the opportunity to do a small lesson on phone etiquette, btw. ;) Talked them through how to properly answer and end a call, since we don't have a landline and they so rarely talk on the phone. Just a good reminder.) 

Done

After Friday night's promotion for Micah (followed by demo team practice for Asher and Micah), we set out early Saturday for Denver for the final JOAD tournament of the season. Micah's check-in time was 7:00 am and we managed to get on the road (overly prepared for the potential snow that had been forecast) by 6 and registered just fine. 

Micah had put in extra practice in the weeks leading up to this final tournament so was really hoping for a good showing...knowing that if he shot his best, he had a good chance at placing. Unfortunately, though his form was definitely more consistent and better overall, his scores didn't match his expectations. :(

But. Social boy that he is, he managed to enjoy himself chatting with his coach and teammates:

...when he wasn't shooting, obviously...

After he finished shooting, Noah's division started. Like Micah, results were less than expectations, sadly. But. Our team definitely put in a good showing:

Look at all those teenage boys, lol. (There were a few more that weren't in this picture for this shooting time.) 

So. After a long couple of shooting sessions (which both started late thanks to not the greatest tournament management and some technical issues), we made it home about 12 hours after leaving. Very glad that we didn't have either boy shooting in the third session of the day...which was set to start at 4, but which obviously didn't since Noah's session was still shooting at that point. Whew. So that was Saturday. 

And now our JOAD season is DONE. Or will be after this weekend's team party. :)

Brown belt

So. Last Friday, Micah promoted to BROWN BELT. He's pretty happy. :) He has to earn one more belt after this (and put in the requisite class work from there) before he'll be eligible to test for black belt. Whoa.

Here are a few pictures...first, the demo team performing as usual:

...and actually receiving the new belt from Mr. Yee:

...and high-fiving the others who promoted:

...and hanging with his pals (who also promoted to brown belt that night):

Yay! Continually pleased with how karate has and is influencing our lives! 

Four on Friday

1. We've been watching a weird lot of Food Network here lately...Next Food Network Star, Cutthroat Kitchen, Iron Chef, etc. This has Micah, in particular, all excited. He's been taking cooking classes at Options each year since he was five, so he kinda enjoys cooking. ;) He really loves Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame, among other things...whose current US tour does not include a stop in Colorado, much to Micah's disappointment) and thinks he might want to be a chef when he grows up. So, on our last one-on-one night (just me and Micah), his request was to hang out in bookstores looking at cookbooks by Food Network chefs. This is him at The Cupboard. We hit two more bookstores and had dinner after that. :) 

2. Noah registered for his fall semester classes yesterday! It's nice to have that checked off the list. All of his classes will be Front Range Community College classes and on that campus next fall, which I suppose will be easier than navigating both that and having some classes on the CEC campus like he's been doing this term. He ended up having to call the school to complete his registration, though. He more than met the prerequisites for his Chemistry 111 class, but the system didn't recognize that he had...because his first math class at FRCC is Calculus. Apparently, it was only set up to recognize Algebra or Trigonometry as meeting the prerequisite...which is a little bit annoying since we already went through that when he registered for Calculus in the first place (and had to get his transcript adjusted/accepted to merge the two school's records and such).

3. Asher successfully mowed the yard for the first time ever yesterday. He was pretty excited about it (though not about wasps, lol), since it's a way for our boys to make a little more money. (Most chores are simply required but a select few can earn money.) Until now, Noah was the only one who had that available. (Micah really needs to get big enough to handle the lawnmower, as he's routinely broke compared to his brothers, lol.) In any case, we had him do this yesterday on account of how this weekend probably won't work...

4. ...because we're, of course, under a Winter Storm Warning and they're predicting many inches of snow this weekend. Lovely. If the temperatures stay warm enough (I think it may have hit 80 yesterday), it may just be rain at our "lower" elevation (of about a mile high)...with the snow staying in the mountains. But, that wouldn't be great news for our rivers and streams. Snow, though, won't be good for some of our plants...like my fun little tulip hybrids (?) that are blooming right now: 

Alas, that's what we get for living here in Colorado, I suppose. :) Here's hoping at the very least that the more severe weather holds off until Saturday night, since we need to drive down to Denver tomorrow for the boys' final JOAD tournament of the season. Whew.