Friday, April 29, 2016

Track: Meet 1

Ian and Shane joined the track team at the middle school this spring.  Yesterday was the first meet of the season!  We knew that Ian was going to beat everyone at shot put.

100m Hurdles: 2nd place!

But what we didn't know was that Shane was also going to be a winner.  I have officially held Shane back as a 6th grader, not because of academic purposes, but because it is better to be on the older end for all areas when you get to high school and college.  And although Shane is older than most kids on the 6th grade team....note I said most...there are boys older than Shane in 6th grade.  So with Shane being in 6th and Ian being in 8th, they don't have to compete against each other.

Long Jump: 12 ft, 1st Place!

Ian Shot Put : 32' 6" 1st Place!
Shane Shot Put: 23 ' 4" Second Place!
Ian: Discus 80' 1" Third Place!


I love this picture of Ian winding up simply because Shane is in the background, completely oblivious to his abilities.  He went into this track meet ready to just do his best.

The other events Ian ran were the 100m (5th place) and the 200m relay (2nd place-of two teams).  Shane also participated in the high jump, but I don't see his name on the finalist list.  I had a great time watching the boys compete.  Watch out world! Here come them Downens!

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Day the Babies Crawled Away

Subtitled: The Day I Should Have Just Bought Myself a Latte Instead of Saving $4 by Bringing My Own Coffee

Today was art day.  A local art alliance has been offering free art classes for the KP Homeschoolers this year.  Fiona and Genevieve have really loved going.  I spend their class time wrangling little ones in our tiny children's section of the library. The children's section isn't any bigger than my living room and the whole library is smaller than my house.  When we are at the library, all the patrons know.

As the subtitle suggests, I left a little late because I decided to make a quick cup of coffee to bring with me instead of driving over to the latte stand after dropping the girls off.  I feel ripped off when I spend $4 on coffee.  Buuuuuut..... our pothole-y driveway plus an open beverage cup equals coffee splashed all over my cream-colored capris.  Nice.  It looked like a baby pooped on me, but I was late enough.  No one would care if I showed up to the library with six kids and coffee stained pants.  Everyone would understand.

The girls went to their class and I went to the children's section with Daniel, Lula, Heidi, and Jason.  Daniel and Lula each made a beeline straight to two of the four computers to play games.  Heidi ripped a pair of headphones out of a third computer and walked around pretending she was listening to something and grinning at me when I frowned.  But I was stuck with Jason, who couldn't be distracted with blocks when he could do this:
The title of the black books says it all
I took the picture above and quickly posted it to Facebook after picking up the books. I went to show the librarian because the title of the book was just too funny.  This is when the story turns bad.  This is when Heidi starts walking around whispering "ouch" and holding her bum.  I ask, "Heidi, do you have to go potty?" No.  We color a picture together.  She says ouch again and reaches back.  I ask her again if she has to go potty and again she says no.  I could have dragged her to the bathroom, but I couldn't just leave the other kids yet I couldn't bring them all without making a huge scene either...

(Did you know that Heidi is scared of the sound of bathroom fans? And did you know that the library's bathroom has a very loud fan that turns on with the light? And did you also know that the last few times we've used the bathroom at the library, Heidi screamed at the top of her lungs while sitting on the toilet and everyone could hear her all through the entire library?)

Jason starts crawling away again, so I follow him around making sure he can't pull more books off the shelves.  I see Heidi heading over to Lula's computer holding her backside again, so I decide to check and see if she had a scratch or something on her back that was causing her to say ouch.  Because she usually doesn't say ouch about anything.  Never if she has to go potty.  She just tells everyone she has to go potty.  But instead of seeing anything, I smelled something. Something awful.

So, to make a gross story short, the whole library could hear Heidi screaming in the bathroom as I cleaned her up with wet paper towels.  She screamed while I washed her purple boots.  She screamed when I washed her feet.  She screamed when I wrapped her undies in paper towels and threw them in the garbage. And as soon as I turned off the light in the bathroom, she stopped screaming.  Darn fan.

If I would have just left on time, dropped the girls off, and bought myself a latte to drink in the van in the parking lot, I could have had a different afternoon. Next time.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Spring Beach

If the temperature reaches 80 degrees in April in Washington, we must go to the beach.  And since the schools are on spring break and we had no evening activities, Mark could work late and could join us.
These two are resembling each other more and more

These two need more beach time!

It wasn't long before the boots were abandoned...

...and the adventurous were swimming...

Daniel is adventurous!

Heidi was not. What happened to my Selkie?
Lula, Genevieve, Shane, Mark, and Daniel are all adventurous!

Jason's first toe dip!
Heidi's first Dad Dip!

Ah, someone else can hold Jason for a second....

Getting braver!
This guy got adventurous too!
It wasn't long before I was tired of pulling rocks out of his mouth.


Our trip didn't last very long. We didn't bring water or food or sunscreen or towels.  Some of us started burning pretty quickly. Some got hot and bored. Some didn't want to get wet and ride home in wet clothes.  And some wouldn't stop putting rocks in their mouths which meant they had to ride in a heavy, hot backpack on mom's back.  I'm happy we went, I'm happy I got a picture of all my loves, and I was happy to get home.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

My Little Man is Six




I love this guy.  He seems to be mellowing a bit. He still is very high energy and loves to annoy people and is hard to teach, but as long as I fill him up with love every once in awhile, he is quite agreeable ;)

Monday, April 11, 2016

Letters Between Sisters

This picture was taken a little over a month ago on the same day Shane built his can telephone.


See the string and baggy tied to the fence? Fiona and Genevieve had two camps in the yard and were writing letters back and forth. At the end of the day, they rigged a second letter carrying system up in their room linking their top bunks together.  I dug up a pile of old stationary that was stored a decade or so ago and made it useful for something... finally.  But I didn't realize a month ago how useful that stationary is/was!  Every night when the girls go to bed, they write letters to each other.  They. Write. Letters. To. Each. Other.  I could just die.  They are little glimpses into the girls' days: the desire for their own horse, a request for a Pokemon card trade, a complaint about a mean brother, a wish that Dad would come home early... all on beautiful vintage stationary written in their best handwriting. Genevieve corrects Fiona's spelling and sends her letters back.  I love these girls.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Jason and Emma

Both Ami and Laura came with their families to watch Genevieve's competition last weekend.  In between the two events, Emma and Jason spent some time playing.

Hey Uncle Jason, whatcha got there?
"Ooooo a dandelion! I'll take that!"
See ya later! Too bad you can't walk yet!
Okay, you can have it back. On your head.


 Aren't they just so cute?

Monday, April 4, 2016

Vault Into Spring

Genevieve participated in her first vaulting competition over the weekend.  We traveled to Lynden and stayed with our friends, so it was like going on vacation!  Since this was Genevieve's first competition, she was in the Novice Walk category.

Her first event was Barrel Freestyle.  The girls choose their music and their routines. Genevieve was pretty nervous, so a teammate gave her a quick hug of encouragement.  The camaraderie between the girls on the team is just one of the many benefits of this activity.

Genevieve's song was Everything is Awesome from the Lego Movie.  She modified the Supergirl Pose with a thumbs up to the judges, which they loved:





She got second place:

Sunday, she did her Novice Walk Compulsory.  This event has seven exercises performed in the same order.  The horse Genevieve is riding was having his first event too!

Basic Seat

Stand

Forward Swing

Backward Swing

Mill
She scored very high on Mill: a 6.8 out of 10! She placed second place in Compulsories.

Her last event was Novice Walk Freestyle.  This is another event where she chose her music and her moves.  She rode Joey for this one.  He is over 18 hands high, so she needs a boost to mount:






She placed second in this category as well!


She earned Second Overall, for a total of four ribbons!  Vaulting is both an individual and a team sport.  Now that Genevieve has a baseline score, she can work to improve her moves and compete again.  I had a pretty good time with the other vaulting moms, so I think we might be able to find a way to afford more than one competition a year....