school things

Owen's class did a play on the 13 colonies.  He was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and a salesman.  

The kids had crazy hair and sock day.  We put a wire through Savannah's hair, sticking it straight up.  She reminds me of Pippi Longstocking.  Weston has crazy socks every day and likes to wear a hat! 

Basketball 2019-20

All of the boys played winter basketball.  It was Weston's first year to play, and it might be his last year as well.  He enjoys playing at school, in a less structured environment, but he doesn't do so well with the structure and pressure of a team.  He was pretty good about running and standing in "his spot" on the floor.  He did a lot of jumping up and down too.  One time he nearly blocked his own teammate's shot.  He doesn't dribble it very well, and he only shot the ball a handful of times all season.  He never made a basket (and he even got 2 freethrows one game).  His team only won one game as well, so it was a pretty tough season.  His coach tried the best she could to work with him, but she also yelled a lot and didn't actually give him the minimum time for each of the games.  All of the kids are supposed to play at least one half of the game - one full quarter in the first half and the equivalent of a quarter in the 2nd half.  He only got the minimum 4 of the 8 games.  That was a little frustrating for me.  I understand the desire to win, but I also think it's important for the kids to get a chance to play.  For one of the games, he showed up at the beginning in tears, not wanting to play.  Obviously he didn't play much that game - just part of the 3rd quarter.  However, the next game he did want to play, but still got docked on time.  He played 4.5 minutes in the 2nd quarter, and then the coach called a time-out and pulled him out of the game.  She put him in for the last 3 minutes of that quarter, but then never went back in the game.  I asked her about it after the game, and she said it was because Weston said he didn't want to play (and so his "unsportsmanslike conduct" caused him to forfeit his time for the rest of the game).  Hmmm... possibly he said something about being tired, but he was already out on the court playing when she called a time-out to take him out!  That's not a stubborn kid sitting on the bench not wanting to play.  She did that again with 2 more games - he was playing, she called a time-out, he started to go back out on the court and she pulled him out. 

He got frustrated during the games because his teammates rarely passed to him, and he just ran back and forth down the court, hopping around and sticking to his spot.  It was a frustrating season for him.  He enjoyed the practices more than the games, when the assistant coaches were running practice.  Weston said his head coach was "intense".  Unfortunately, he said he doesn't like basketball anymore.  I was proud of him for sticking it out this season even though it was hard for him.  The last photo is their one win - he's got his arms in the air.  He was pretty excited about winning!    

Owen enjoyed his season but didn't have a lot of wins either.  They did win the 1st round of play-off games, but got beat by the #1 team in the 2nd round.  He really improved on his defense this year, and his height helped him get several rebounds.  He did score some points too - his best game was 6 points.  He's not a great ball handler, but he's always in the right spot and a good team player.  He had a good coach too, who gave everyone fair time and recognized there was more to the game than winning.  I'm hopeful that Owen will keep playing next year - he seems to enjoy it.     

It was Jared's last season of basketball, because he's going to do cross country and possibly try out for the soccer team in 9th grade school sports.  Jared works really hard, and his team did well this season.  They were tied for 2nd place after the regular season play (and their 2 losses were only by 2 points).  They had an off game the first round of play-offs and had a tough loss.  Jared did make a 3 pointer in the game though, so I was glad to see him hit one of those.  He likes to shoot the 3 pointer, but didn't connect much this season (he made more three's last year). Jared doesn't handle the ball much, but he is a great defender and sets lots of screens for his teammates.  I think his best game was 4 points and 2 steals.     

Nathan played frosh (freshman-sophomore) basketball again this year.  His team had a good record - 9 wins and 1 loss for the regular season.  The season didn't go as expected for Nathan, despite working really hard.  He had high hopes going into it, since he got a lot of playing time during summer league.  He was 1 of 3 sophomores on the team (of 15-16 players), so he thought he would be a starter.  But for some reason, when the regular season started he didn't get much playing time.  To make it worse, when he did get to play, he had to play with 3 of the weakest players on the team.  He also had to either be the ball handler OR play the post position.  In the 3rd photo, you can see he was guarding a guy who was much taller than him.  He did pretty well despite the height difference. 

 Nathan got about 1 quarter of play each game.  His high for the regular season was 8 points and he made 11 points during tournament play.  One of his best games was the last one - 7 points and maybe 6 rebounds.  He was good at rebounding and got some good blocks too.  He was a great leader, communicating a lot on the floor, always working hard, and staying positive. He got himself to and from practices, getting up at 5:00am to get ready and walk to the 6:00am practices. 

Nathan was given the "Character" award at the end of the season, for his attitude, leadership, and being a good person on and off the court.  That was well deserved.  There were only a few awards given - one for MVP, another for most improved, and the character award, so I was proud that the coaches recognized Nathan.   

     

Proud of all the boys for their hard work in basketball this year!  

Camping out

Owen, Weston, and Savannah wanted to sleep on the trampoline.  The 4 day weekend was a good time for them to do that.  They had fun out there one night, although Weston got a little scared by the time it was dark.  They had a pillow fight and read books with their inflatable lanterns.  We left the dog out there to watch over them - she was wondering what was going on and why she didn't get to come inside that night.  ☺

I remember camping out on the trampoline as a kid, except we didn't have an enclosure!

Valentine's Day

Jared got a Valentine card from a girl in England, the kids exchanged valentines at school (we didn't make them this year),  I made M&M cookies, Owen made a crossword puzzle for a girl he likes, and I made a card for Alex.  Some of the cookies went to our friends who let Weston and Savannah do a sleepover.  The rest of us had to get up around 4:30am to go to the temple.  

We had a special day at the temple.  The youth in our ward met to do baptisms.  It was Owen's first time inside to do temple work.  He was baptized on behalf of Alex's brother Jim, who passed away a couple years ago.  We also did temple work for Alex's grandparents.  Nathan was able to perform baptisms, so he baptized Jared on behalf of his great grandpa and me on behalf of Alex's grandmothers.  There was a special feeling doing the work for loved ones.  I think they may have been with us there in spirit.  

In January, Nathan was ordained a priest, Jared was ordained a teacher, and Owen was given the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained a deacon.  He can now pass the sacrament, while Jared helps prepare it and Nathan can bless the sacrament.  I really felt the spirit during the ordinations, and it's neat to watch them participating in the sacred ordinance of the sacrament.  

Jogathon

The kids all did a great job again this year, running for 30 minutes (about 3 miles).  I ran 25 minutes with Savannah, 20 minutes with Weston, and just a couple laps with Owen.  Savannah got 27 laps, Weston got 25 laps, and Owen got 29 laps.  They all ran without walking (they each stopped a couple of times to get water, but ran the whole time).  Love my little runners! 

  

Survivor party

We didn't have a chance to do a party in December for Owen - we finally got to have his party on February 1st.  He wanted a Survivor party, like we did for Nathan a few years ago.  It was a lot of work for me, but so much fun for Owen and his friends.  All 14 guests were able to come, so we had full teams - the Odo Odo (purple) and Mato Mato (green) tribes.  Owen picked his favorite colors.  

We didn't vote anyone out, but we did several challenges:  coconut roll, relay race, puzzle, memory, nerf gun target, water brigade, cup towers, gross food, and Owen trivia.  We had grilled hamburgers for lunch and had cake, of course.  Odo Odo won the relay, target, water brigade, cup tower, and food challenge.  Mato Mato won the coconut roll, puzzle, and memory game.  

Odo Odo ended up the overall winner, and they each took home a box of powdered donuts.  Everyone got a "Survivor Kit", with jelly beans, pretzel matches, water, and a rice krispie treat, along with their bandana.      

For puzzle challenge, they had to climb up and retrieve a bag, which contained puzzle pieces.  Once they collected all the bags, they were able to start solving the puzzle.  The puzzle says, "I am a survivor of Owen's 11th birthday party".  It was actually a little tricky to get the pieces in the right place, especially the edges.   

We did a relay race, but I didn't take any pictures.  They had to hand off paper plate rings to their teammates and run around the field and through the obstacle course.

The coconut roll was fun - they each got to roll a coconut towards a cone.  The closest to the cone got the point (best 2 out of 3).  The next challenge was the memory game, simply finding matches to various Survivor pictures.  There was one advantage, which they didn't realize until the end.  The person who found the match for the immunity idol got an advantage in the Target challenge.  It ended up being Owen who got the advantage!

This was the match that had the advantage with it.  

 The target was the next challenge.  They had to shoot the nerf gun and hit different colors, which was the color popsicle stick they pulled from the boxes.  As the sticks were pulled, that released the candy reward down through the box.  The lucky person was the one who hit the red target and pulled the red stick, releasing and earning the reward.  The advantage that Owen earned was being able to pull 2 sticks at a time on one turn (just once).  This was mostly an individual challenge, with only 7 people earning rewards.  But we did give a point to the team who earned the most individual rewards. 

The next challenge was a water brigade, passing water from cup to cup to fill a water bottle.  The water bottle had a little plastic cube that floats - the first team to get the cube out won.

The next challenge was to build a tower of cups using a rubberband that had strings attached to it.  They had to work together to stretch the rubberband around the cups, pick them up, and put the cups in place. 

No one was excited about the gross food challenge, but there were some who participated.  Owen got canned spinach, which he finished, but nearly puked.  No one would even attempt to eat sardines, which Weston got on a random draw.  Weston happily ate his and the other bowl of sardines.  Other people had to drink vegetable juice, eat jello worms, and eat real crickets (edible and seasoned).  I've tried the crickets before, and they're not that bad. 

The people who didn't do the gross food challenge participated in digging gummy worms out of chocolate pudding "dirt" (without using their hands).  Tasty, but messy!

The last challenge was Owen trivia, although we didn't do team points for it (purple had enough overall points already).  The first 10 questions were questions with correct answers.  The next 10 questions were majority rules - no correct answer, but it was just up to what the most people thought.  

I cheated on the cake again, printing and laminating a Survivor logo.  I did make the little coconut trees though.  It was a triple layer cake, with purple, green, and white.  

Owen Trivia

1 – Where was Owen born?  A.  TX       B.  CA      C. OK

2 – What is Owen’s middle name?  A.  Knight           B.  Alexander      C.  James

3 – Which foreign country did Owen live in for a year?  A. England   B.  Scotland    C.  Canada

4 – Which country has Owen NOT been to?    A.  Morocco      B.  Ireland      C.  Denmark

5 – What is Owen’s favorite subject?   A.  Science      B.  Math      C.  Reading

6 – What is Owen’s favorite soda?   A.  Dr. Pepper     B.  Sprite      C.  Fanta

7 – What is Owen’s favorite dessert?   A.  Key Lime Pie    B.  Brownies    C.  Ice cream

8 – What is Owen’s favorite candy?  A. Skittles    B.  Starburst     C.  Jolly Ranchers

9 – What did 2 year old Owen warm up in the microwave for 2 minutes?  A.  Egg     B. Popsicle    C.  Hot dog

10 – What is Owen’s nickname in football at school?  A.  Tumbleweed    B. Butterfingers    C.  Stiff arm

(Answers to questions above:  C, A, A, B, B, C, A, C, C, A)

Majority Rules

1 – What does Owen complain about the most?   A.  Where to sit in the car     B.  Chores      

           C.  Brothers

2 – What is Owen’s best personality trait?    A.  Cheerful     B.  Kind      C.  Friendly

3 – What is Owen most afraid of?    A.  Dark      B.  Being alone      C.  Spiders

4 – What does Owen want to be when he grows up?   A.  Professor      B.  Lego Designer     

          C.  Engineer

5 – If Owen was an animal, what would he be?   A.  Cheetah      B. Owl      C.  Fox

6 – There’s a fire – If Owen can only grab 1 of these items, which would he take?     

                             A.  Water bottle           B.  Hoodie        C.  Flashlight

7 – What superhero would Owen be?     A.  Dr. Strange      B.  Thor      C.  Captain America

8 – What song title best describes Owen?   A.  You’ve got a Friend in Me     B.  Happy   

           C.  I am the Champion

9 – How many kids does Owen want when he’s a Dad?     A.  7       B.  5       C.  3

10 – What movie title best describes Owen?   A.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid    B.  Megamind    

           C.  Greatest Showman

Last cub scout ceremony

This was likely our last cub scout ceremony, as our church is no longer sponsoring cub scouts (although we could join another troop).  Weston got a few awards, and Owen got several awards and his Arrow of Light award.  He finished just in time, at the end of the program and as it was time for him to move on to the youth program.    

I put together some gifts to recognize the leaders, who have spent so much time with the boys on Wednesday evenings and some Saturday mornings.  I gave the den leaders a solar powered lantern that said "thanks for being a light to others and helping us do our best and be prepared, powered by the Son."  The cub master and other leaders got some chocolate.