Cool Things Your Kids Do!

5MB Movie of My Kid Doing Something Cool

way cool.

Griff, Knowing nothing about fencing, if I had to pick an opponent it would be the chubby one on the left. The short one looks like she (?) would mess me up.

From looking at the video of her fencing, it looks like she doesn't take crap, even from people with a pointy metal stick. :biggrin:

Griff, you and Pete are awesome parents. You're doing a great job.

footfootfoot wrote:

way cool.

Griff, Knowing nothing about fencing, if I had to pick an opponent it would be the chubby one on the left. The short one looks like she (?) would mess me up.

From looking at the video of her fencing, it looks like she doesn't take crap, even from people with a pointy metal stick. :biggrin:

The chubby one was a champion in his day, I wouldn't mess with him. :biggrin: Cheech (she) is devoping her skills quickly. The boy is more experienced and a year older but she gets her touches. She tore him apart a couple weeks ago when he got a little complacent, so he's taking it up a notch lately. Fencing is really the most beautiful thing to watch when its done properly. Both these kids take direction well and you can see the Maestro just glow when they mix it up. This video was taken by the boy's mom, when Pete gets her new Canon we'll give you some unbiased reporting. ;)

Thanks Wolf we appreciate it.

sweet! i just saw this, neato! what got her interested?

We were watching the Olympics and a girl from Notre Dame picked up a Gold Medal. She was really fascinated and we talked about it for a while then I mentioned that her Grampa was an All-American in epee at Buffalo. That closed the deal. A cool part of it is that "Pops" has never been really comfortable spending a lot of time with grandkids. He likes them well enough but he doesn't know what to do with them. He's really not wired for being with kids, but now he takes her to class once a week and they're really bonding. :thumbsup:

We went down to New Hope PA,/Lambertville over the weekend for her first youth fencing tourney. She took third place! :D It was great fun and I may write about it in detail later.

Bah, I'd pick a broadsword to a whippy little thing any day. But rad video, y'oughtta be proud. Congratulate her on the 3rd for me!

This is part of my youngest daughter's senior project. Her older sister appears on OtakuGeneration podcast

Neat kids Maggie!



I forgot we were still hosting that video. It looks pretty quaint considering her development.

Ibram wrote:

Bah, I'd pick a broadsword to a whippy little thing any day. But rad video, y'oughtta be proud. Congratulate her on the 3rd for me!

Roger that. You should see the guys fence saber. It is a little more testosterone driven. :yeldead:

One little incedent from Sunday that gets to who my kid is- She lost to a boy in the round robin seeding part of the tourney. She met him again in the single elimination brackets. They started to fence but the off target light kept going off because he had a bad body cord. He tried his spare and it was faulty as well. If your equipment fails its your responsibility and you can be eliminated from the competition. Little Pete really wants to medal so she... offers him her spare cord. He accepts the offer and they fought like mad. She took the first engagement 5-3. He took the second engagement 5-0. Unfortunately, he turns to his Dad and asks what he's going to do for a cord when she leaves. She takes it up a notch beating him 5-3 again and gets a great cheer, the first cheering of the day. Kids Dad came over after with a big grin, he wanted to make sure he had her name right cuz she's going on his boys people I need to beat list. :D Nice folks down there by the way very welcoming.

Had we known you were in New Hope (ahem), perhaps we could have arranged a GTG at one of the snooty restaurants, possibly even the one where Jessica Savitch went into the canal.

Griff wrote:

You should see the guys fence saber. It is a little more testosterone driven.

You should see my Gwennie fence saber. SCA style. :-)

Don't make any cracks to her about testosterone though.

Heh, back in Maryland, me and a buncha the neighborhood kids would get together and 'sword'fight all the time... okay, they were just sticks, but they weren't like, little whippy sticks, I'm talkin' sticks like, an inch or two thick... And we would actually like, have contest things, playing by rules - we played to three hits on the torso, usually.

wolf wrote:

Had we known you were in New Hope (ahem), perhaps we could have arranged a GTG at one of the snooty restaurants, possibly even the one where Jessica Savitch went into the canal.

er... um... my bad

that is soo cool that little pete is getting so good. especially when she gets older it will reallly be something that sets her apart. fantastic of you to be so supportive about it uncle griff :)

MaggieL wrote:

You should see my Gwennie fence saber. SCA style. :-)

Don't make any cracks to her about testosterone though.

I had to google SCA but didn't get a clear idea about the it. Is it for acting/fairs or is it more of a competition thing? I like that they fence in the round. It makes more sense than the strip.

Sun_Sparkz wrote:

that is soo cool that little pete is getting so good. especially when she gets older it will reallly be something that sets her apart. fantastic of you to be so supportive about it uncle griff :)

Thanks! I just like hearing Griff 5 So and So 0. Not to mention, it really is entertaining.

do they teach them about the discepline and control issues as in other martial arts or is this more of an athletic based sport for the youngn's?

There is some ritualistic formality to it. The fencers salute the director and their opponent before and after each match. Our coach is very big on the etiquete. For his athletes, only the foil talks on the strip. It is very cerebral, often called physical chess, the difference between success and failure being so minute. Since these kids won't be carrying their swords around, there is less need for the philosophical training the karate kids get. I'd say it is more individualistic than the Eastern arts. I was impressed with the sportsmanship of the kids and parents at this tournament but I bet that will not always be the case.

This weekends tourney didn't go well so we get to see how lil Pete handles adversity. She did well in the round robin seating this time winning 4 and losing 1 in a tie-breaker that she didn't understand. Unfortunately, one of the kids she beat (5-0) dropped out of the tournament. All his statistics dropped out with him. That means instead of being seated with an 80% winning percentage and a high point differential (something like 3rd or 4th) she was 75% with a middling differential (9th ?). Long story short she had to fight the kid she lost to on her own group and lost again.:sniff: (she had a couple stop thrusts which the inexperienced director missed but she didn't get mouthy cuz she's a nice kid) She still finished as the highest ranked girl in the brackets but she was not pleased especially since she whipped the bronze medalist (both at this tourney and the earlier one) and a couple other folks who placed ahead of her. Lets see if she buckles down in the run up to the Keystone State Games. That will be a Y-14 girls only tourney so the atmosphere will be different from the last two.

You should explain to her the pirates method of keeping a pistol in the off hand. :D

Well, I know Little League is pretty common. But for a kid who never picked up a bat before last year, I'm pretty darned proud of Miss Dallas. She played last year in the local little league and liked it enough to come back for more.

She's not a "natural athlete" and, frankly, she often spends more time in her own little world than on Planet Earth (a trait she shares with, and no doubt inherited from, her father). But she came into her own this year. She spent most of her time in the outfield, and while she never had the opportunity to make a miraculous catch in the air, she almost always got the ball back to the infield quickly to hold the batter to 1 or 2 bases.

And I said "most" of her time--she also made regular appearances as catcher, did some time at third base, and even pitched several innings, including one scoreless one--no mean feat in a league where, with 6-inning games and scoring capped at 6 runs per inning by rule, scores in excess of 20 runs are not unheard of.

On the hitting side, she overcame a tendency to swing three times and strike out quickly and got to the point where she was pretty good at earning walks. But she also found her bat near the end of the season. In the last inning of the second playoff game she hit hard toward first and got out, but moved the runners at first and second ahead, where they both scored on the next hit to take the lead. In the next to last playoff she hit a pop fly and got on base, sending home the run that locked up the win.

Her 5-team league held a double-elimination post-season tournament. Her team dropped the first game 21-19 and then proceeded to dominate the loser's bracket, sending three different teams to their reward. The final game was tonight and they lost 8-5, failing to force the team that survived the winner's bracket to a final deciding game. Of course it was disappointing to fall short, but it was a damned impressive season and it was really good for my daughter in a lot of ways.

It is so cool to see kids develop like that SD. I'm still worried about kid 2 and her lack of confidence/interests, but she has her qualities. Congrats to Miss Dallas!

It looks like lil' Pete has bounced right back! She watched the video of her matches and got her head in the right place, remembering that the challenge is supposed to be part of the fun and intellectualizing what went wrong. She was on a terrible softball team last summer so I think she can handle the losing but it is more personal when its just you out there.

Lil Pete on the local news. Nice guy but he really needed a primer on the sport.

video part of linky no worky :(

Worked for me, ok. The trainer isn't politically correct, though. Calling it a weapon instead of a foil will probably bring the mothers against something or other.:crazy:
It's a shame they've been discontinued because Lil Pete could easily be a Breck Girl.

ooooo I hadn't thought of Erin Gray in years. beedy beedy

It still works for me but that is the #3 news outfit here so maybe they've got server issues.

He can name most major types of sharks, has been able to since before he turned three, he loves sharks.

BigV wrote:

video part of linky no worky :(

Open it in internet exploder, rather than firefox.

YOU ROCK!

You rock only slightly less than Li'l Pete! woot!

I have slightly peeved skilz.

This doesn't compare with Lil' Pete's fencing skills, but we are excited none the less. Inchling made his first drawing with eyes and a tail and feet and a worm watching the action.

We were blown away, actually. everything up to this point had been little storm clouds of scribbles. Tonight he walks up and hands us his "dog" He even pointed out the worm.

here's one of mom's scribbles

inch seems to be on track to be the next exploding dog artist

Cool f^3! Major developmental milestone there.

Thanks Griff, It was an exciting moment, and yes, LJ that was the first thing I thought when I saw it.

btw to further my ongoing effort to make everything about me, lil' Pete took fifth place in a tournament two weekends back... a college tournament.:eek:

I just think it's great that my oldest son will graduate next May from the Naval Academy! He left high school with a full scholarship to Cal Polly in Computer Graphics but hated the course and dropped out. Fooled around for a year or two and took some community college courses, got a job at McDonalds and then decided he better get on with life. He joined the Navy and after 2 years as an inlistee in the Nuclear Sub program was told by his commander that he was pretty smart and should apply to Annapolis where he was accepted. He was 23 as a plebe, one of the oldest in his class and he seems to have really found something he likes. I'm especially happy that he is getting a real good education and we are not having to foot the bill!

chrisinhouston wrote:

I just think it's great that my oldest son will graduate next May from the Naval Academy!

Very cool. I admire his route as well.

Ripley's first ballet performance

Jinx , pick all sizes , pick the size you want to post , copy the LOWER URL , click the photo above , paste , then click ok

Way to go Ripley!

Verry nice !!

Awesome! She looks very elegant/poised in those pics.


My daughter scored her first goal in soccer on Saturday. It's actually a pretty big deal, because she is normally a very timid player. Always passes the ball to someone else as soon as she gets it. Unfortunately for me, this was the first time (in two years of playing) I ever missed one of her games, so I missed it. :sniff:

Instead, I was staying at home with our boy, playing Legos. :) He and I hadn't spent enough time together recently, so I was doing that when our daughter scored.

So I was happy to be playing legos with my son, and happy that my daughter scored, but sorry I missed it. Two out of three ain't bad.

awesome photography, too! stages are so hard to shoot sometimes.

Awesome on the first goal Glatt! there will be many more to follow i'm sure. usually it just takes the realization that they really can do it.

Unfortunately for me, this was the first time (in two years of playing) I ever missed one of her games, so I missed it.

i missed my kid's first goal too. but i was there. i was dealing with other players when i heard the whistle and he came running at the bench with the biggest smile on his face. i missed his second the same way. he'll never hear that part of the story.

awesome pics jinx!

I can see only jinx genes in that gal, no LJ... where are the LJ genes?

I was thinking the same thing.

I also have to jump on the bandwagon praising the pictures. I've never taken such a nice picture of a kid on a stage. It's always too dark to get a crisp one or one that isn't all noisy because I cranked the sensitivity all the way up.

Believe it or not!

Great performance, great pictures!

jinx genes? check.

that is a good thing right? i mean LJ's a fiiine looking man and all, but do you really want a daughter that looks like him if the jinx option is available?

yes,yes, of course that is piggish. we love our children regardless of how they look, but seriously. if i had a daughter i would pray for there to be no outward evidence of my genes.

they got my hair?

so that's where it went.


[SIZE="1"]yeahyeahyeah. glass house and all that.[/SIZE]

Here at work, we usually get "gift certificates" for $$ off of dinners at local restaurants, in the mail, for free. Yesterday we had several for Don Pablos'. Usually, I toss them cause most of the guys here don't really use them. So my son (16 yr) takes them to school today - sold them to kids at school for $1 ea and even sold one to a sub-teacher for $2.

Here are my kids with their ribbons from swim championships -and the oldest two both won the "high points" (MVP) trophies for their age groups. The little guy got his first "place" ribbon (top 16) from a championship meet. And it wasn't just because there were few enough relay teams that all participants placed -they actally beat one team! :lol: (he just turned 6 and the youngest age category is 8 and under, so it'll be a few years before he starts seriously winning. But he will, if determination is anything to go by. He can swim all 4 strokes and has an awesome start off the blocks!)

Gooooo little monsterlings! :D *cheers*

hip hip hooray!

Just saw the latest set of pics. Way to go, mini-jinx, Glatt's daughter and moster's spawn!!

My boys are considerably older than most here, but still proud. This past Tues - was a "Christmas concert" at school - he is in the "Boys Chorus" - there are several groups. He at first played the Grinch and then they sang a few songs. He's the big one in the middle top row.


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Cool. Where's the youtube link?:D

Lil' Pete had big fun at the Junior Olympics in Charlotte, NC over the weekend. She competed in the Cadet Women's Foil which is the under 17 group. Going in her goal was to win a couple pool bouts and qualify for the direct elimination part of the tournament since she's only 13 and hadn't fenced a national competition before. So instead she came out of the pools @ 4 wins and 2 losses, won her first DE, and snuck into the top third! If this upload ever finshes, you'll get to see her beating a C rated fencer in her pool.

[youtube]5nnbAzVuLY0[/youtube]

That was so cool to see. Thanks!! Way to go Lil Pete!!

I wish I was allowed to watch video at work.

Awesome! I really like her style. No theatrics, no wasted motion, consistant, confident, commanding, but not foolishly aggressive. Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

Thanks guys! Foolish aggressive was the next bout. ;) She's learning though.

Congrats to Ms Miyagi.

I passed on the congrats. It seems she made a guest appearance in a SoCal kids video. She's knocking his friend out of the tourney. 2:15 in

[youtube]E2uJlnk-ZJs[/youtube]

You can always tell the villains by their blue and black socks.:lol2:

It's not exactly something my son does, but today I'm going to a ceremony at school where he'll be appointed sports captain for the year.

He's very excited about it and it's the role he really wanted to win.

I am very proud that he's worked hard and has achieved this particular goal for himself.

wtg alijr. what sports does he play?

atm it's rugby league and tennis, but he's pretty keen on just about anything. He's a great swimmer too. He also likes basketball and most of the other team sports they play in school. He's pretty good at field events and long distance although not the fastest sprinter.

So you guys have captains across more than one sport?

Each sport team has a captain. That's fairly standard isn't it? But Aden is what we refer to as house captain. The school is divided into two groups who compete against each other throughout the year and at the end, one side wins and one side loses (or comes second if you like to put it that way).

Aden is the head of his half of the school as far as all sporting events go. They have inter-house sports every friday, and also there's swiming and sporting carnivals and usually a cross country run too.

Ah, he's in a Oliver Wood situation.

Who is Oliver Wood?

Harry Potter's team captain.

Our 10yo 5th grader wrote this for an essay competition: How Can Recycling Help Stop Global Warming? (500-750 words)

I thought it was pretty cool, even when I read it as if it was written by someone else's offspring :D So I thought I'd share (Author asked for anonymity due to shyness, so no author name).

Essays become the property of Recycle Ann Arbor when submitted, but it hasn't been submitted yet, so I don't believe my posting it here breaks any rules or laws. Of course, I will ask for it to be removed if they object once it's theirs...


[CENTER]How Can Recycling Help Stop Global Warming? [/CENTER]

Global warming is caused by excess heat getting trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. Usually, most of the sun’s rays are reflected off the Earth and back into space. However, in the past few decades, harmful gases have been building up in the atmosphere. These gases act as a shield, preventing the rays from leaving the atmosphere. The heat is bounced back to the surface of the Earth, and as more heat gets trapped, the Earth grows warmer. This is called the Greenhouse Effect, because the gases work like the glass roof in a greenhouse.

The gas that causes the most trouble in the atmosphere is carbon dioxide. One of the main causes of the extra carbon dioxide is the emissions from vehicles. Also high on the list are factories, which produce a lot of carbon dioxide.

Another reason that we have extra carbon dioxide is that many trees are being cut down. Unlike humans, trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. (Humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.) With less trees around to absorb it, there is more carbon dioxide than ever.

It’s obvious that if we don’t do something, global warming will get out of hand. It’s also apparent that we can’t stop cutting down trees altogether, because we need paper. We also can’t shut down factories, because we need food and clothes and everything else that factories make. So what do we do? The answer is simple: recycle. By recycling, we can reuse the same raw materials over and over again. Factories will not have to produce so many products, and fewer trees will have to be chopped down.

There are two main ways to recycle. You can reuse an item again for the same purpose, or you can break it up and use the material to make something else. For example, if you have a used piece of paper, you could do two things; you could turn it over and use the other side for something else, or you could put it in the paper-recycling tote to be made into a new piece of paper. By doing either of these options, the piece of paper is recycled, saving trees.

Reusing is better than remanufacturing because it doesn’t use any energy at all, but things aren’t always reusable. The best option of all is to reuse an item until it can’t be reused anymore, and then send it to be remanufactured. Remanufacturing does not contribute nearly as much to global warming as regular manufacturing does. For example, if you recycle aluminum, it will take energy to melt it into a different shape. However, to make something from scratch, the aluminum has to be mined (using energy), transported by trucks to the factory (producing emissions), and then melted down and turned into something new.

To conclude, recycling -reusing and remanufacturing- can help stop global warming by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases that we emit into the atmosphere. However, recycling only has a chance of working to stop global warming if more people do it.

Wow. I was going to say that my 12 year old daughter just started riding a dirt bike, but it pales in comparison to that

She didn't even get a runner up place. Not sure what the judging criteria was...perhaps they just thought it was too good ;) :lol:

It was well written, followed a logical pattern and was well expressed.
All I can assume is that they felt there were better essays re content, ie less about what global warming was and more about how recycling could help.

I'd be interested in seeing the winners though, because that blew me away, especially for a 10 year old. You should see some of the workshop evaluation forms we received in for the same age group!

What part of the activity did you enjoy the least?
The stappling becousse you prik
[next line]
you finnger

I've always found in essay contests like that, they're really looking for sappy, Readers' Digest kind of crap. Like, "Recycling is important because my dad died in Iraq."

Clodfobble;444933 wrote:

Recycling is important because my dad died in Iraq.

I think you mean 9/11

My sister was killed in the WTC on 9/11, while writing an essay about why recycling is important because our dad died in Iraq,

[SIZE="3"]you insensitive bastards.[/SIZE]

sorry Flint - no "bold" allowed in essay contests.

[SIZE="6"]FAIL[/SIZE]

You gits! My mother was accidentally recycled on 9/11. :cry:

Here are the winning essays if you are truly interested, SG. http://www.recycleannarbor.org/ It's hard to judge stuff like this at this age because they're all so far from "perfect".

I like to think that the fact that I took them to task over one of the rules being US citizenship has nothing to do with the results ;)

Seriously, though, she didn't enter to win, she entered mostly because we both thought it was unfair she was excluded on grounds of nationailty, so they changed the rules to allow her to enter :lol: Also the practice she got helped her score a perfect 25 in her report on Benjamin Franklin last month, and she's already all revised for the Science olympiad pentathlon questions which are based on An Inconvenient Truth. So it's win win. And it's an awesome essay and I'm proud of her. :D

Monster that's rubbish. That essay needs to be recycled.

I don't care if the kid's 10, he uses far too many exclamation marks for a serious essay. His style is too effusive for journalism - what was this - future writers of the National Enquirer Essay Competition? Also he can't tell the difference between to and too. And he spelled aluminium wrong ;)

She was robbed.

:lol: thanks. I mean Thanks! There's a reason! A reason Lol Cats! Have so many exclamation marks !!!!111!11!!

My 6th grader (first year music student) just played a solo on her euphonium(sort of a slightly smaller tuba) and was judged by 3 judges from the Southern California School band and Orchestra Association and was awarded a Superior, the highest rank they can award!!

Very cool binky. [COLOR="White"]Even if that is a make believe instrument.[/COLOR] ;)

Ty Griff BTW very cool on the fencing as well- I did that in high school and really liked it

An article on her jewelry business:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/lifestyle/ci_9615837?source=email

She's been so excited over this! I'm so proud of her!

Cool, she's a busy girl, pretty too. :thumb:

I know. Good picture of her! She quit her job at the daycare, except for substituting, so she should be able to devote her time to this. She has more energy than I ever did!

Extremely cool Cloud!

I like the "real" hearts - although I'd prefer them as a pendant giving me the choice of chain.
But that's only picking the nits off nits because it's such a cool idea.

Well done you and well done her.

I actually don't like the "real" hearts as much. I like the miniature corset necklaces the best; and the ouija board ones.

She said she actually got a nasty email about her "anti-Bush" line. But she's going to discontinue those, anyway.

My boys give me a kiss and tell me they love me, even at school in front of their friends.

I think this is ultra cool and I'm glad they've got the confidence to do so without feeling embarrassed.

ooh, me too! good mom, good boys!

Cloud, your daughter's jewelry is amazing! I am impressed.

Ali, I hope my son continues to do so, also. I feel sad to think one day he will probably grow out of it.

Fiirst Dive Meet of the season

[youtube]ZbjAFMhSYBg[/youtube]

first 3 are Thor, last 8 are Hector and Hebe alternated.

Our 21 month old plays drum duets on her own drum set with Papa Flint... its about the coolest thing I've ever seen.

You have a very nice floor.

Ooh! Missed the dive clips til now.
I think of Thor as about 4 (possibly his age when you started posting?)
I guess they do the growing up thing though.

Hebe's backwards dives were beautiful!

Why, thank you. Thor is now 6, and small for his age. people would believe 4 if we said so. Until he opens his mouth. Which is often. That was the first meet of the season, now all 5 are over (on Friday Thor won the 8 and under boys diving!). Championships start on Monday, Carbo-load Spaghetti dinner and head-shaving is tomorrow.

monster;470355 wrote:

Championships start on Monday, Carbo-load Spaghetti dinner and head-shaving is tomorrow.

GI Jane thing going, huh?

For sure.

8 and under dive was this afternoon (girls are still going on...) There were 46 boys.... Thor got...................14th -in the points! Top 16 score for their teams and get their names in the paper and get ribbons and everything. They got so high up the results list and his team mate had already been mentioned, I thought they'd missed him out! Seriously! Couldn't believe it. So Proud.

Congratulations to your young waterdogs!

Nice!

I finally had a chance to catch up on this thread, way to go Cellar 'rents, all of you!!

Hebe placed in all her swim events today (5th out of about 100 in breaststroke), Hector did great too, shaving seconds off his personal bests. Newspaper only printed the names of the top 8 divers. boo.

You haz moar pics/vids?

no, they're too fast for that ;). I have some vids from a couple of weeks ago somewhere. Maybe Banana lady has some. Thor's relay team got 16th today. Paper only printed top 8 swimmers, so only Hebe mentioned, but they did do all 16 divers today :rolleyes:

Not to make this a me me me thread :), but here is Lil' Pete at the Keystone games fencing one of her friends a 14 year old from the York area. He has a unique style and a long reach, which gives folks trouble. This is the third period of their bout, they fenced even through two.

[youtube]sYI-kTSMaXI[/youtube]

edit: She's leaning too far forward which is a really bad habit that we'll have to focus on fixing.

Ferocious!
I don't know enough about fencing to even try to work out who won, but from here it looks like she beat the pants off him.

She did finally get him in the last minute. The previous eight minutes were totally even. He's an awfully nice kid and took the loss with dignity. The next bout went to over-time and Lil' lost by a touch to an older boy who went on to win the over-all and was also gracious in victory. Whether character is built or just revealed this kind of competition lays it on the line.

After further review - His pants remained, but he was certainly stripped of his pride.

classicman;472162 wrote:

~snip~ His pants remained, but he was certainly stripped of his pride.

New sig line...;)

Not my kid, but somebody's kid. Check the look on everyone's face.

http://www.noob.us/entertainment/amazing-baseball-catch-by-ball-girl/

Snoped.

I wish it was true, but it isn't

That was on here before - somewhere.

D'oh!

Tied up 14 all after 3 periods, one minute overtime.

[youtube]PqrQz_Yctq4[/youtube]

Bravo. Congrats to the lady. :thumb2:

Not having children, I borrow other people's.

Cool things your cow orkers kids do ...

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=115823

Berks County girl named state Outstanding Young Woman
From our news staff

Anna Szimhart of Douglassville was named Pennsylvania Outstanding Young Woman 2008 at the 11th annual scholarship event Saturday night in Gov. Mifflin High School.

Szimhart, who represented Berks County in the contest, received a $4,000 cash scholarship. She is home-schooled through 21st Century Cyber Charter School.

She also received awards for performing arts and aerobics and fitness. Those two awards are worth $150 each.

Twelve finalists from across Pennsylvania competed for the title. In addition to cash scholarships, more than $550,000 in tuition scholarships from 12 Pennsylvania colleges will be available to this year's contestants.

Other top finishers and their cash prizes:

First runner-up, Brenna Mateljan of Somerset County: $1,250, plus $150 award for presence and presentation.

Second runner-up, Adrianne Lazer of Cambria County: $1,000, plus $150 award for interview.

It was Pinewood Derby day!

My son's last one -- he crosses over to Boy Scouts this spring. We've enjoyed the Pinewood Derby. One year he won 1st place in his division - that was Bears, I believe.

This year, he won Best Original Design!

Check it out. Yes, he had help from dad actually making it, but the idea and design was all his (with a little advice).

Sorry that the photo quality isn't the best. My good camera isn't working right and I had to use my old one.

Nice! That put a smile on my face.

It's Jack!
Wonderful.

darlet #1 passed her road test yesterday - in the Accord with manual transmission. The driving examiner was impressed both because she took the test in a manual, plus she never ground the gears.

Congrats! I dunno if I'm ready for drivers...

SonofV made a PowerPoint presentation for me while I worked late tonight.

Love that boy!

I just thought I'd put a little brag in here about my boys (again...sorry).

Mav was elected house captain last week after only being at the school since the start of the year (about 4 weeks ago), and Aden was declared 'Age Champion' at his swimming carnival last week and is today representing his school at the district carnival.

I don't know what I did to deserve such fine young men, but they're a credit to themselves.

eta: Mav being elected house captain caused a bit of strife with some of the old kids who've been at the school for years and Mavs mate Mitch (who happens to have just started at the school too) ended up getting a punch in the nose for it on the bus on the way home. We'll see what the outcome of that is when they get home today. Aden wanted to run off and punch the puncher in the nose to return the favour on Friday, but I didn't think that'd help the situation much so they stayed home and bitched about him instead.

Two personal bests each for my boys at Winter swim championships yesterday, Plus ribbon/points places for my oldest in eveything and a heat winner in the last race to boot, in an event where he was seeded 23rd and cam in 15th (breaststroke). let's see what the girl an do this afternoon -although she already got a personal best in the IM on Friday afternoon at the Middle School Swim Meet. she just ate ten pancakes for breakfast, though, so sinking may be an option :lol:

WTG boys...good luck to girl! :)

No PBs for Hebe, but she placed in the breaststroke and she only just "aged up" so she was swimming agaianst kids two years older then her (and twice her size with boobs and make-up and everything :eek: ...these girls are just turned 13 at the very oldest ....if they must wear make-up, why has nobody told them about waterproof stuff? complete bunch of pandas by the end :lol:)

Okay, okay, it's not really "cool", just a developmental thing, but as a first-time mommy... my one year old can now CORRECTLY brush her own hair and teeth! (of course, Mommy or Daddy helps her with her teeth, just to be sure she doesn't miss any... of the eight lol)

Darlet #2 set school records in both the 200 & 300 meter events in indoor track this season.

SuhWeet!!! Those are very very competitive events, so rock on Darlet#2!!

Darlet #1 just got her ACT scores - 33 overall, 33s and one 34 on the sections.

Woot!

I have no idea what those numbers mean, but since you're proud: WooHoo Darlet!!! :cheerldr:

Thanks QotR.

36 is max. Over 30 is considered good. She's in pretty good shape for any college she wants to apply for (and hopefully some scholarship money - crosses fingers).

I have a cute story about what my grandson told my wife the other day...

My wife told me she didn't sleep well the other night. She said she kept having dreams about Rattlesnakes and big hairy spiders. Well, my wife was watching him (he's 4) and she dozed off on the sofa. Apparently he went up to grandma and pushed on her. My wife woke up to see what it was he wanted and he spoke up and told grandma "you were sleeping." My wife told him she didn't sleep very well last night. He asked "why?" And grandma told him that she had a bad dream of "snakes and spiders."

Well, the little guy went over to his toy box and rummaged around in it for a bit. He finally said in an excited voice "found it!" He then went over to his grandma and laid a Dreamcatcher on the end table next to her and told her; "here grandma, you won't have any more bad dreams now."

Cute.

Seems like forever ago that my girls were that age.

dar512;566748 wrote:

Darlet #1 just got her ACT scores - 33 overall, 33s and one 34 on the sections.

Woot!

Sweet!

Lil Pete was a monster fencing last weekend. That is all.

That may be all, but it's awesome.

:)

Awww...about the dream catcher. My kids have them, and when they were little sometimes they'd have bad dreams anyway. They'd want to know why they had bad dreams despite the dream catcher, and I told them it must need to be cleaned out. So we'd go over and open the window, hold it up and both of us blow it out. Then we'd hang it up on the wall again, and the problem was solved.

Anyway...

Tomorrow is the last day of the clinic for the junior high competition cheer squad. Over 4 days, coaches and judges have been evaluating the girls, and when I pick her up at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon she will have an envelope in her hand that tells whether or not she made the team.

She already made the football sidelines squad, but this is something extra. It is a BIG deal, too.

Last year she got picked as an alternate, but this was probably because she missed two of the clinic dates due to a scheduling conflict with summer camp. She's really very good - she can do all the fancy tumbling stuff like handsprings and even a standing back tuck.

Cross your fingers for her! I'll let you know what happens.

Just a random thought....

After Sheldon posted in the "pictures of your offspring" thread ...

please, no.

Not here.

Miss Dallas and Young Master Dallas both auditioned for a local youth orchestra on Saturday. Last night we learned by email that they both got in.

It was almost a shoe-in for Miss Dallas, even though she's mentally checking out of almost everything requiring effort as the school year ends. There are very few orchestras at this level that don't need every competent cellist they can get their hands on.

As a trumpet player, and considerably younger (going into 5th grade) than most of the kids in the orchestra (8th-9th for the most part), Young Master Dallas was much more doubtful. He's very good, but just from a numbers standpoint they were unlikely to be looking for more than one or at most two new trumpets.

The girl has developed a new art technique:

1) Find a wet patch on the back porch where the water hose leaks;
2) rub large-sized sidewalk chalk into the wet area to create a highly-pigmented paste (looks like oil pastels);
3) place your tiny, cute hands in the paste and then make little colorful handprints all over stuff in the backyard.

I think this is pretty creative for a 2 year-old kid to have come up with completely on her own.

That IS very creative, Flint!

Love it Flint!

And woo hoo Dallas juniors!

What about your littel cheerleader, Juni?

Princess OTR "graduates" from Kindergarten tomorrow - we got the letter last week confirming she will be in the "gifted" classes for First Grade. Yes, I am bragging.

Yeah what happ with iddy biddy cheer leader?

Cool stuff guys!

She's not itty bitty -- she is taller than me!

And...she made the squad! Yippee!

That means...um, another $350 added to the pay-to-play costs. But that's a lot cheaper than what the private gym charged for the all-star squad last year, so I'm not complaining. I don't have to buy her uniform or warm-ups, they're borrowed from the school. I think the only expense besides pay-to-play is the shoes ($70 for competition shoes, $40 for the sidelines shoes, yes, of course they must use different ones) and travel expenses for all these competitions, some out of state. Fun!

It also means NO EYE GLITTER! (whew!)

Oh huge congrats to the new all-star!

[ATTACH]23724[/ATTACH]
Kindergarten Graduation! Woot Woot!
This was the "unofficial" celebration - (I promise she dresed up way more for the real thing...)

Ain't that sweet! I don't think my kids had a K graduation. Preschool, yes. :)

Thors first lego stop motion animation. ( mine too, I'm figuring it out as we go along). It's importnat that it's on you tube, as they watch a lot of lego stuff there (a lot of which is very good)

No sound as yet.

[youtube]QLQ6-2yUUUA[/youtube]

The plot, truck carrying bomb, overshhots mark, reverses, drops off bomb.
Storm trooper kicks bomb back onto truck, blasts bomb, which explodes.
Stormtroopers rejoice

My son loves doing that stuff, but we haven't figured out how to make an actual video yet. I admit, I haven't been motivated to try. :( How do you do it? What do you use? He's made a lot of photo series/slideshows. Very creative.

Bravo, Thor! :)

Did you see how awesomely they set the scene? putting fake dust on that shelf and everything

:rolleyes:

:lol:

lol, I mean, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

If you ever run out and the kids need more dust for, you know, staging purposes...I've been saving some I could mail to you.

New swim/dive season, second dive meet, all three took first place in their age/gender category. No outside competition (other team is swim only), but each beat at least two others

Good stuff!

And all of a sudden it's Swim/Dive Championships week again. Hector dropped 9 seconds (1:39 to 1:31) -that's 8%! in his 100y individual medley and took 11th place out of 34 -he was seeded 16th. top 16 score points for the team. His medley relay was also 11th.

I was surprised to learn that hector's free relay also scored (we had to leave before results were posted to get to hebe's dive)

and then today....

teeny-weeny cutesy 7yo Thor, who took a whole minute off his 3 minute 100free time on Saturday, not only repeated that swim but shaved off another 2 seconds and took 16th (which is the last scoring place) and beat out a fair few 8-year-olds. Finally he has mastered the freestyle. both of his relays placed too. he was DQd in the breaststroke, though, -as were 50% of the starters :lol:

Future Olympians, perhaps? Bravo Hector and Thor!

Um, but, what is DQ'd? Oh, disqualified...right? Why?

Steroids.

Don't make them swim over there and kick your ass, Zen.

Shawnee123;583209 wrote:

Future Olympians, perhaps? Bravo Hector and Thor!

Um, but, what is DQ'd? Oh, disqualified...right? Why?

dunno yet. probably illegal kick.

makes it sound like a martial art, huh? ;)

Hebe swims and hector dives tomorrow

In breast stroke don't they have to touch the wall with two hands as with butterfly? I know that's how heaps of kids got disqualified at my boys latest swimming comp.

yup. but thor did, so his DQ was something else. Like his kick. because he finds a flutter kick faster :lol:

You're not allowed to make a splash with your feet in breast stroke either. Not even a little one! Maybe that was it?

That would seem pretty tough for little kids though.

unlikely, given his kick but you're right, no splash allowed. my money's on the flutter kick though. It's not a biggie and not a suprise.

Hebe got 7th in the breaststroke (out of about 70) and she only just moved up into the age group :D

Hoorah!
Lil'Pete won the junior women's and women's events at the Keystone Games over the weekend. Two gold shineys for her!

Excellent, wtg lil'pete

Sweet, lil'Pete!

Why of course, after all she's the spawn of winners. :notworthy

Griff;584673 wrote:

Hoorah!
Lil'Pete won the junior women's and women's events at the Keystone Games over the weekend. Two gold shineys for her!

Excellent!

pic of the champ

very nice! congrats

Very cool Griff! :)

Wow! Awesome.

[youtube]42Ev1L7Ky1s[/youtube]

Little kid at 27 seconds is Hector shooting me twice on the thigh

fecking awesome.

Now remind me again why you let him go up against Weltman wearing only a t-shirt and shorts when you wore long sleeves and pants against him? When it ws his first ever paintball experience? I understand that he saw the blood that weltman drew from him as a right of passage, but as a mother of a white boy transplanted from the Ukto Michigan, I'm sort of feeling i'd prefer something less violent. Just sayin'

What, I was going to face Weltman and Conan on my own!

Z daughter #1 graduated high school yesterday - honors, NHS, etc. Great weather for it too.

Congrats! It is great to see kids achieve.

Griff;585172 wrote:

pic of the champ

Paste that photo on your "wagon" as a reminder. You are a lucky father!

That was last summer, but remains very cool. Both girls are making me proud with their end of year awards. Lil' Griff graduated middle school, got class high gpa in ELA, Social Studies, high achievement in Spanish, and the Presidential thingy for straight A s in a very competitive school. Lil Pete scored the Art award and kicked butt in all her classes getting high honors.

Most excellent, Griff. :thumb:

Zing #2 runs cross country. She ran JV last week and was #1 with 20:06. She ran varsity this week and was #13 with 19:53. Her goal was to break 20, so there you go.

That is a cool thing. :cool:

Zing1 and Zing2, I like.

Congrats to Zing2. zingzingzing

Lil Griff drained 4 goals in their opening field hockey game tonight. Sweeet. It is a brand new team with a lot of first timers and her coach has really been amazing getting them prepared. They are hoping for a .500 season 1-0 is a nice start. They don't have a suitable field so it is all away games this year... much driving.

Driving time = getting psyched up time.

I hear there was great joy and revelry up and back. :)

Yeah, I remember the baseball and gymnastic teams in high school. For away games/meets, it would be all go-team-go on the bus, whereas at home the guys would straggle in from various classes, dress, and wander out to the field/gym. Then it was go time, without any mental run-up.

Lil G scored the opening and closing goals of a 3-1 victory over a local powerhouse this morning. This was the early season test they'd been looking toward. They got up 2-0 early but gave up an early 2nd half goal. It was a tense half of back and forth hockey before she slapped one between the goalies leg pads. It was team play all the way.

Super, good play when neither the leading or trailing team gives up. :thumb: