Last Thursday

Noah had his first swim meet of the 2013-14 season last Thursday. As usual, they're just small internal meets, such that Noah's really only competing against himself. He managed to set a new personal best in freestyle and came pretty close in backstroke and the IM. ;)

Honestly, it's wonderful to watch him...his stroke and strength has improved so much since he began swim team. (I'm sure growing almost a foot hasn't hurt, either, lol.) He's really a very good swimmer who just isn't interested in taking things to the next level (even his coaches have talked to him about switching to a more competitive team) and is quite content to simply work on his own form and enjoy the exercise. 

Unlike previous years, this first meet of the season was held at the outdoor pool since Miramont still has it open through the end of October. It was, um, chilly. The coaches warned everyone to bring extra towels, blankets and jackets (though a number of parents apparently didn't read the email so were scurrying around trying to find things to wrap their kids in, lol). I want to go on record as saying that I had blankets and jackets available. But. I also have a very stubborn almost thirteen year old who stead-fastly insisted he would not be cold and that I should not bring any extra towels or blankets, lol.

In the end, he relented and let me bring him his jacket but continues to believe that he was not cold...despite the completely goose-bumped skin, blue lips and visible shivering. Of course. ;)

Anyhow, here's the team warming up with some practice starts:

Noah's in the far lane. ;) And here he is during backstroke:

And during the IM:

Ta da. ;) And that was Noah's swim meet.

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... 

Mythbusters!

On Thursday, we took the boys to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for their members preview of the new traveling Mythbusters exhibit. As a surprise to the boys, we even signed up for the special deal where you could actually meet Kari & Tory from the show...and it was great. ;)

Here are the boys standing in line as we were waiting to meet Kari & Tory before entering the exhibit:

Yes, Micah is wearing a crash test dummy costume. He's going as "Buster" for Halloween and wanted to wear his costume to the exhibit. Unsurprisingly, he got lots of compliments and smiles and people asking him where he found his costume. Everyone knew exactly who he was supposed to be. ;)

(For the record, we got it at a Spirit of Halloween store. Size up if your kid happens to have a big head like mine does...even in this kids large, we had a tough time getting the zipper closed over the back of his head, lol. (It's a two person job.) Also, I cut those eyes out. The costume is designed such that you can see through the fabric, but Micah felt squashed and we figured good visibility was important.)

(PS No, Asher's not actually going as a ninja for Halloween. He just really likes that shirt, lol. He'll be Iron Man again. Noah is going as an almost thirteen year old who dislikes having his picture taken. Ha!)

Anyhow, here we are actually meeting Tory & Kari. There were no posed photos allowed but Micah earned himself a fist bump for his costume:

The boys also each got signed photos of Kari & Tory. They're pretty happy. They've decided we now just need to find an event with Grant at it (they're thinking a robot battle event of some sort) and we'll have met all the Mythbusters. :) (We "met" Jamie and Adam back in January 2012...which was awesome.)

After our brush with celebrities, we headed into the exhibit. The boys were stoked to see actual pieces from the many Mythbusters episodes (we've seen every single episode from the fourteen seasons, many more than once) and recognized them at once. (They could mostly also identify which episode and whether the myth had been busted or confirmed and such. Yeah. You know how some boys can memorize sports stats? Mine memorize sciencey stuff, lol.) Then we moved on to the parts of the exhibit where you could try your own hand at things...

The boys tried their hands at tossing a playing card (measured for speed), testing whether you get wetter running or walking through rain, and many other things. I didn't take pictures of everything. But these that follow were the favorites. ;)

Here, the boys each got to build their own little structure and then put them into the wind tunnel thing to test whether the big bad wolf would be able to blow them down. The yellow blocks were supposed to represent straw...the grey were sticks...and the red were bricks. Micah, with his costume gloves, couldn't feel the difference and didn't hear the volunteer's explanation, so promptly went about building a house to match his costume. It didn't last long against the wind, lol. Noah's, as is to be expected, was the strongest.

Noah may be good at building, but Asher and Micah definitely had quicker reflexes. Here they got to try to dodge a bullet (something with light and reflectors and a digital clock)...which was great fun to watch. ;)

And then they got to see how long they could hang from a ledge, both at "novice" and "expert" widths. They all agreed that it definitely was harder than it looked, lol.

And the younger two tried their hands at driving blind. They each had Nathan try to talk them through the course (which he could see off to the side) but Asher ended up crashing into a post and Micah crashed into another car. ;) But. They both made it out of the parking lot, so they were happy. (Noah would have loved to do this also but the line was really long and he was off running through the "rain" when the younger two got in line.)

Noah made up for missing the blind driving by doubling back to the tablecloth station for another go at pulling the tablecloth out from under the table settings. He didn't spill a thing. :)

And at the end, Nathan and the younger two had their picture taken against a green screen, which they then turned into this 3D photo that looks much cooler in real life. ;) The yellow crash test suit didn't really work that well against a green screen, btw. If you go and think you might want to take a picture, be sure not to wear green or yellow... They used a green cloth over the rest of Asher so it looked like he was just a floating head. There were some families full of parents holding just their kids' heads. It was awesome. 

Whew. Great afternoon! We usually enjoy the traveling exhibits at the museum but this one was particularly fabulous to us...as we were already so familiar with the Mythbusters and all of their episodes that it felt like home. ;)

Support Flood Recovery

I know it's only October and many folks haven't started thinking about Christmas shopping yet. I'm not one of those people, lol. So. I thought I'd just share that I've decided to focus on helping support flood recovery efforts here in Colorado this Christmas...by doing most of my shopping either from businesses directly affected by the floods (such as those in Estes Park, where the winter is going to be a rough one and online shopping will definitely make a difference for them) or from businesses that are supporting recovery efforts in some way. Thought you might want to consider doing the same and figured I'd put it out there so you can let me know if you find any great places that meet these criteria. ;)

Happy shopping! 

Ten on Tuesday

1. In regard to yesterday's post, I wanted to add that I'm incredibly thankful that Nathan's job pays well enough that we can afford for me to stay home. ;) I get that I'm blessed. :)

2. JOAD season is underway again! Noah and Micah are both participating again and are in the same compound bow divisions as last year. Here's hoping that they enjoy the year and continue to make personal progress. 

3. Micah, meanwhile, is about as interested in convincing teams to give out stuffed animals for prizes as he is in winning or beating personal records, lol.

4. Last month, we did a unit on nutrition. While I wasn't thrilled with the curriculum's grammar (reading it out loud drove me crazy), it did cover some good stuff. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have persuaded Asher to eat better (as hoped) so much as it's given Noah ammunition against me and my vices when grocery shopping. (For example, I took the boys to the grocery store the other day in search of a snack. All I got from Noah were comments about how donuts weren't good for me (and why), nor was soda. Poo.)

5. Great. Now I really want donuts and pop again. (Especially since I didn't get any the other day, lol.)

6. I bought new boots yesterday. They were on a smokin' sale, and it had to be done. ;) So enjoying this fall weather...

7. Now, though, I feel the need to reorganize my closet. I need a new boot/shoe storage solution. ;)

8. Speaking of organization, though...I've been putting our weekly schedule on the inside of the armoire doors in our "school" room (trying to just use what I've already got and also keep it from being in the way):

There are columns for each day of the week (just one, though, for the weekend). I then used color coded post-it notes to show each boy's individual work, afternoon group work, things that involve leaving the house, and stuff to do on each boy's own time. The point is to get boys to look here rather than ask me every ten minutes. So far, it's going okay.

9. Further, if you happen to need a solution for displaying award medals, belt/tie racks work really well:

(These are Micah's science fair, karate tournament and JOAD tournament medals. They were getting too heavy strung up on the display wire in his bedroom.)

10. Okay, need to go get boys to take a break from a card game so that we can do more afternoon schoolwork. ;)