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Sixth

Science Olympiad. Our family passion. We discovered it when Caleb was in 8th grade, and have been submerged in it since.

A little background, to understand the challenge our small school faces. We are a 2A school. A town of a bit over 2000 people. We have one elementary, one middle school and one high school. Small town. Science Olympiad is one even that is not divided by school size, by public or private, by anything. A school with a couple thousand kids, has that couple thousand kids to pick their 15 team members from. Our middle school has around 200 kids to pick the 15 team members from. We do not have an endless budget. Many of our coaches volunteer (me inluded).

The kids start around November. They stay after school for an hour and a half to two hours every day. They go in on our days off for multiple hours. They are building contraptions and studying for tests. There are 15 kids, and 23 different events.

Two years ago we made it to state.

Oh my. Look how young they look! Caleb is there, front and center.

Back to the story. Two years ago we made it to state. We were in a local region that had us competing with schools our size. We made it. Only one event placed in state. We were thrilled. I don't recall where they whole team placed.

Then, last year, we were moved to the Kansas City region. Playing against big big big schools. We came in fifth. Top four go to state.

This year. We stepped up our game. Back to state.

These kids, have worked so very hard. Very, very hard. They placed 6th. In the entire state. The best our middle school has ever done. Competing against large schools and private schools. Schools with huge budgets. Schools with professionals for coaches. Sixth. Amazing.

Pictures can be found here. Lots of them. Of regionals and state.

Soccer Season

We have begun soccer season. Saturday was day one. Saturday, we also had a snow storm. It made for a fun, cold day. We started our day with Caleb's game. It is his first time playing since he was probably 9. He did practice sometimes with Alex last fall, so his skills were not all gone. My boys tend to not have a lot of agressive qualities, soccer is fun, but they are just not agressive. He will get even better with time.

Up next was Alex's game. It was several hours later. I managed to work in a visit with my grandma and a nap. My grandma is able to watch the games from her room. That is pretty cool.

Alex has found his niche at playing defender. I am learning quite a bit about soccer. Basically.. he is the last resort before the goal. He has some powerful kicks. And some awesome soccer hair.

It started snowing during Alex's game.

Immediately following Alex's game was Jonas' game.

The kids were loving the snow. His coach sent me the next picture.

I do not think these kids minded playing in the snow at all.

It was a wonderful start to the soccer season. Every Saturday for weeks, filled with more soccer. Fun fun fun!!

Talent Show

Tonight was the community talent show. I did not get a good photo of Jonas, but he played the Chicken Dance on the piano. Here is is, before the show, messing around with our neighbor, Callie.

Caleb performed an original song, with his band, Randevooz. The song is called "Stray Cat Blues".

Normally, this is loud. Loud. And then a little lounder. They did the accoustic version for this show.
There was a joke at the end. To like them on facebook. Ok. Not a joke. Alex told a joke later. But, here you go. Like them on facebook.

Then Alex and his friend Samuel performed. They sang "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, but Johnny Cash's version.

They have been practicing this number for months.

I was so proud of the boys. I was proud of their friends. I was also proud of all of the kids I know from work. What a great show.

Saturday Night

We have some good friends here in town, and we get together with them about once a month. Several families. The oldest kids play heavy, loud music. Middle kids play minecraft, younger kids admire all those older than them.

We got a surprise concert by these two. Somewhere between the older and middle kids, these two, as someone said last night, are meant for each other. They both have gentle souls. They are both so likable. Two great kids. Not that all the kids aren't great.

They are working on a number for the talent show that is March. They had only practiced together once before.

Pinball

Before I met Jared, I never knew anyone with a pinball machine in their house. I probably only played pinball a handful of times. But, then I met him. There was a pinball machine in his folks' basement. Then I went to his cousin's wedding. There was a pinball machine in her parents' basement. Whoa.

When Caleb was a wee baby. One month old or so. We would lay him in the middle of the living room to sleep, then go down and play pinball. When he was big enough, he stood on a chair to play pinball himself. All of the boys played pinball standing on a chair.

I learned about the fascination of the silver ball. I started playing pinball in the student union between classes. They had the Addams Family there. A good machine. I learned how to spot a good machine. Flash Gordon is also a good machine.

But, many moons ago, the machine broke. It is hard to find a repair person for a machine.

Several months ago, we were given the machine. The machine from Jared's childhood. The machine I played on while my baby boy slept on a blanket upstairs. It was busted, but had potential. If we found a person to repair it, it was a great machine.

We put it in the laundry room. A room that once seemed very large. Now, a pinball machine occupies over half of the room. The UPS man once commented on it, because you can see it through the windows. It is a great machine. Potential is there.

Guests came and went. I had to explain to adults and kids alike, it does not work. But someday it will, and you will LOVE it. Yesterday, I was telling Alex's buddy this. He didn't quite get what the problem was. I said.. come on in, I will show you. Plugged it in. Turned it on. Boom. It worked! He gave me his sweet smile, and started playing. They played until 1 am last night.

This morning, Jared came down stairs, excited to get the chance to play on the machine. He turned it on. No luck. The friend assured him it worked, went into the laundry room, did who knows what. It started working again. It is being temperamental. You have to be willing to accept that it will die at any minute, and may need to rest to work again, but it is up and going. We have been playing for about 24 hours now.

The kids had not played it for about 5 years, but the skills are coming back fast.

We need to get someone out to make it work right. It is a great machine. But, for now, it is wonderful. Not perfect, but wonderful. The memories are great. Kids are picking pinball over Xbox. Wonderful

Ringing in the New Year

So, our New Year's Eve plans were foiled by snow. So, we stayed home, had a ping pong tournament. (Still in progress, but I imagine Jared will win.)

I forced some of the children to pose in front of Christmas lights in order to have fun with bokeh.

Butterflies. I told him he could pick his shape. But, he had no interest.

Hearts. Again, I told him he could pick!

Then.. I came up with a brilliant idea.

Noise cancelling headphone shaped lights. This sums up our house since Christmas. If we thought Jonas had trouble hearing us before he got these headphones.... now he really can't hear us.

Happy New Year.

Merry Tuba Christmas

Today a select group of students got to go participate in a Tuba Christmas at Kauffman Performing Arts Center in Kansas City.

I am blown away by how cool this was. It is a state of the art auditorium. It was a huge crowd of tuba players. It was Christmas carols. My boy. Amazing.

Caleb is on the very top row. Right under the right hand corner of the organ platform. In a red santa hat.

Closer....

There he is. Those three kids are all from Lathrop. At one point they broke out into Lathrop pep band music. Not during the performance.

Caleb told me last night he was pretty excited for a Tuba Christmas. He was having fun. I should mention. He does not play the tuba. He plays the trumpet. He rocked.

The building was beautiful. I did not really have time to take it all in. Very interesting architecture.

It was one of the most relaxing field trips I have ever been on. A handful of well behaved kids. Music. Fun times.

Now for videos. No obligation to watch. I did not get all of the songs. I had technical difficulty. Jingle Bells was cut off at the beginning and end, but was so cool I left it anyway. In no particular order: