This morning when Lincoln was told that it was Kara's birthday, he marched downstairs to see if the birthday decorations were up. They weren't, so he went back upstairs and informed his mom that it was NOT her birthday. He's a clever kid to look for outside collaborating evidence, but despite its lack, it IS Kara's birthday. (Kara decorates for the children's birthdays, but we don't usually decorate for the adults.)
The older children were asked to give five words that describe their mother:
Bentley: smart nice specific (when she's teaching!) fast understanding
Jake: fabulous best mom ever loving perfect blessed
Kara had a good birthday with lots of love, family, pizza, cake, and gifts (especially Pandora beads--her new obsession). I wanted to post a photo of her, but she said no. So here's what photos she did approve:
That last photo was hard to get. Lincoln wouldn't share a chair with Bentley. We had to drag a second chair over. Then Jake wanted a chair of his own. Then Evan started pinching off pieces of the birthday cakes and that was making his siblings angry. This is candid shot of Kara's chaotic life. It is a good life. Happy Birthday! Let the party continue...
The last meet of the gymnastics season was at the end of March - I'm feeling fairly timely with my post here! Our season was six meets long, which was (just about) the perfect length. I remember thinking at the beginning of the season that it was too bad there wasn't more meets - but towards the end of the season six (or even five!!) was sounding about right! :)
Genevieve scored her first 9 at state, which was a big deal for her - she had a personal goal to get above a 9, and at many meets she came close with 8.8s, 8.9s, and 8.95s - but that 9 was elusive! At state in vault she finally ran like her life depended on it and she caught that 9 she was looking for. :) In fact, her great vault earned her a gold for her division and age at state!
As a proud parent I should just leave it at that but for the sake of honesty I feel compelled to say that gymnastics meets utterly confound me with how the divisions and age brackets work. I sometimes feel they must put names in a hat and pull them out to come up with arbitrary groups of kids to give medals to. :) (Grandma Julia: They did do just that at one meet, but this is state and it wasn't quite that random. My research leads me to believe they divided the girls by level and age. If you are out of the normal age range for a level, you stand a much better chance of getting a gold!)
Regardless of that, Viva had some great scores and didn't fall off of anything--always a plus in my mind, the safety conscious gymnastics Mom! She caught her little bro's cold the day before state and wasn't feeling great, but she still gave it her all.
Great job, Viva! It has been so fun to see her with an activity that she enjoys so completely.
I think it's impossible for this little guy to take a bad picture - his gleeful impishness and cheer always comes through and I love it! (Wondering about the super hero costume? He requested photo props!)
Check out his necklaces, made by his sister for him:
At the beginning of April the boys went down to Las Vegas for a week to compete in two karate tournaments. They had a blast and it was definitely a new experience! On Friday they competed in the Jr. International Elite tournament, and on Saturday they competed in the USA Open. There were over 100 countries represented at this event! Our dojo sent 6 people.
On Friday at the Jr. International event the boys competed in kata and kumite (fighting) and on Saturday in the USA Open they competed in kata, kumite, weapons, and team kata. They were lucky enough to be in different age divisions for all of the individual events with the exception of weapons. They did remarkably well, and came home with 9 medals between them!
On Friday the boys both won their kata divisions, and Jake also placed bronze in kumite. On Saturday Bentley won his kata division, and Jake won bronzes in both kumite and kata. As a team their group won team kata, and Jake won gold in the weapons event!
It was a fun experience overall, although it did provide some "learning moments" for the kids on how sports and luck sometimes come together.... !
These type of tournaments are single elimination bracket style for kata and kumite, which means that all the competitors are put into pairs and either do kata at the same time or fight. At the end of each group of two the judges give either the blue or red flag and the kid wearing that belt (the red or the blue) advances to the next bracket level. The only caveat being if you lose in the first round and the kid that beat you eventually goes for gold or silver you get the chance to go for bronze again.
So if you happen to face the eventual winner in the first round (what happened to Jake in kata on day two!) you can't go for silver, but you can at least compete for bronze.
As for the fighting... fun for the boys but nerve wracking for me as a parent. It is interesting to me that Bentley says his favorite moment of the weekend is the fight he won. Not all the gold medals, but the fight! Ack! Our dojo doesn't really focus on the fighting so it's an area we don't have as much experience with.
Last but not least? The weapons division. It was tough to see Bentley and Jake compete against each other! They both performed beautifully in my completely non biased opinion! Weapons is the only area of competition that is scored by points instead of flags and brackets. There were 21 kids and Bentley was 2nd up. Like all point based sports the first kids set a bit of a baseline for the rest of the group (meaning you rarely see top marks at the beginning). Jake had a better position at 14th to compete and ended up with gold, and Bentley was just barely edged off the medal stand. I am very proud of Jake and also bummed for Bentley at the same time. I have no doubts they would have both been up there on the medal stand if Bentley had a different draw. But... sometimes that is how the cards fall!
Here are two short clips from the competition.
Bentley doing kata (he is the blue belt on the right):
*Birthday boy* was the reason for getting out the photo equipment - we are often a bit belated around here, but better late than never! It's hard to believe my Bentley is already nine, but it is fun to see glimpses of the great guy he's growing into. :)
Fashion at our house involves pajamas at all times of the day:
A few months back Bentley started keeping his PJs on in the morning, and I'm afraid he's started a bit of a trend. Evan never wants to climb out of his PJs. Viva is in hers half the time. Jake hasn't given into the trend, and Lincoln is still proud of his ability to dress himself so hasn't succumbed. But my oldest and youngest? PJ boys.
Bentley tells me that he can go twice as long without doing laundry using this method. :) I tell him to just admit pajamas are super comfy - no shame in that!
He does still get dressed before he leaves the house. So we're not too far gone... yet!
Gymnastics photo shoots aren't *quite* as fun as dance ones - no tutus and flowers and ballet slippers... :) But, nonetheless, my favorite little girl and some snap shots of what she's dedicated soooo many hours to working on this past year!
Viva sewed a small decorative pillow from fabrics I received at a quilt retreat.
Evan LOVES strawberries.
Viva LOVES to read.
Evan playing on some of Viva's gymnastic equipment.
Jake drawing!
Evan and Lincoln enjoying a green bath.
Great-grandma reading to Lincoln. She reads a lot of books to Lincoln.
Our Little Superhero!
Bentley playing Small World. Jake doesn't like the game, so either Matt or I play with him. When a game is new we play five times or more a week. Now we play once every week or so.
