Don't Play with Fire

Because we don't like any free time on the weekends. Because I'm crazy. Just because we can.

The boys are playing 3v3 this summer. Our team name is El Fuego ('The Fire' for all of you Gringos).

It's soccer, and I can't think of anything to say about soccer that I haven't said in the last five years except to say I produced a whoppin' amount of Vitamin D today. My next invention will be a sideline chair that will allow you to flip and tan both sides of your legs while still enjoying the game. Because right now I have two distinct leg colors: white and freckled brown.

As finalists, we advance to the regional tournament later this summer.

The boys are hoping to advance to the national tournament in Orlando, Wes is hoping we lose the next tournament so we don't have to go to Orlando (aka "The Moneytrap"), and I'm wishing Orlando was in Italy or Spain. However, if Orlando is anything like it was the last time we were there, then the overwhelming number of foreigners there will make it feel like we are in Spain. Regardless, we will be there, and I have one piece of advice for the opposing team "Ten cuidado con El Fuego."

All Heart

Basketball season is still going strong. We are now about half way through our "spring" season. I never thought I would be so nervous watching a basketball game, but I was pacing the top row of bleachers at last night's championship game like a college scholarship was on the line. 

Evan began the season playing maybe eight minutes a game; he spent the majority of the games on the bench watching his teammates play. In the last four months, though, he has worked really hard to improve his skill set. He has listened to every piece of advice his coaches have given him, and after most team practices, he actually comes home to practice more. Once, about a month ago, he missed six shots in one game. When we got back home, he spent an hour and half doing nothing but shooting baskets. 

I am proud to say he is now a starter and plays the majority of each game. This weekend he was responsible for each of the team's tip-offs. He won all five of them.

What Evan lacks in talent, he completely makes up with heart. He still has a long way to go, but Evan's coach sent me a text last night that said, "Evan had a GREAT game tonight. He works so hard and has a bright future ahead of him."

The team won first place at this weekend's tournament. It is not our first championship. I believe it is our third, but Evan is smiling the biggest because he has had the most to prove. Victory is sweet, but it is even sweeter when you have proven you can play with the best!

Going to School to Play

Fifth grade graduation just happened. This means I now have a middle-schooler. I'm too young for this! Right?

Before the ceremony began, each student created a slide that announced their future goals. Evan's slide said: "I plan to play a professional sport and travel the world." Simple and yet it encompasses two things he truly loves.

The ceremony began today with a song performance that included sign language. Evan told me last night that for the first time in his life he wished the other kids were two or three inches taller so that their heads would block his face and he would be able to lip sync! The best news we have about leaving elementary school is the middle school offers a STEM class for related arts. No more music!

Junior Beta members were acknowledged. Another song was sung. Citizenship awards were announced. Hundreds of names were called, and then it was finally Evan's turn to walk across the stage. Today made me really rethink our decision to send Evan to public high school only because I can't imagine sitting through another ceremony with five times the number of names that I heard today. I almost died with the mundanity of it all. Connor. Riley. I think I heard these two names no fewer than one fifty times.

Evan was awarded the Presidential Academic Excellence Award for maintaining grades of 90% or higher in all of his classes. Normally I would be honest and tell you we really expect nothing else from Evan, but he got placed in a class that was filled with "challenging students", and he had so many teacher changes this year, that it took me until this month to remember his homeroom teacher's name. He survived it all.

Evan can't wait for middle school! He's ready to play QB for the football team; he's hoping to be the only sixth grader to make the middle school basketball team; and he's planning to win State with the middle school soccer team. I tried to explain that between all of these athletic goals he has to fit in some academics. That's not nearly as much fun to dwell upon though.

Bring it, Middle School! We're ready to play, cheer, win, and maybe study in between!

More Than Proud

It was the last full day of school for the boys today. I wish I could say the same for me. I'm so ready for lazy days on the porch with a book and worries that amount to nothing more than how much Vitamin D I am producing. 

Last fall after about three weeks of instruction, every parent was invited to attend P/T conferences. That night Keagan's teacher told me Keagan "was just average" and she hadn't seen any remarkable academic work from him.  I tried to explain that he had received a modified curriculum in Georgia as a first and second grader, and she point-blank told me that she didn't see how that was warranted in Tennessee. I was dumbfounded! I left that conference madder than heck and determined to prove she was wrong.

And so we began working. We worked on the weekends on multiplication facts. We did extra math work two or three times a week. We studied the challenge spelling list. We read novels together. We studied for every test (something we had never really had to do before). In short, Keagan busted his butt, and I hobbled along side of him determined to not let him give up.

I think we proved our point. His end of year testing came home today, and he scored sixth grade second month in reading and math! He was so proud of himself! My anger towards his teacher dissipated over the months, and now I can truly say her words were gifts. Without her words, we would not have worked so hard because we would not have had anything to prove. More importantly, Keagan learned hard work does and will continue to pay off. Today I could not be more grateful to her!

If the end of the year test results and another straight A report card were not reward enough, Keagan was also awarded the top end-of-year prize for being the most well-rounded and hard working student.

Proud does not do my emotion justice.

Magnum PI's in the House!

This weekend was our last of the spring soccer season. We could not have ended the season with a bigger bang. It was that good!

Let's begin with this.

I might be a little confused, but is that Magnum PI on the field? Look at those shorts! They are so short, the 80s called looking for their shorty shorts. But no, it's only Evan. The kid that grew five inches in nine months and wears a discontinued uniform kit that cannot be replaced.

He played the game of his life today. He had an assist on a throw in, a bicycle kick!!!, and a defensive game that left the opposing team in tears and the coach screaming for justice!

Keagan's team also played this weekend; they played the best weekend of soccer I have ever seen them play. There were some wicked stare downs, a few elbows thrown, and a foul called when Keagan left another player on his knees and in the dust!  Now that I am recalling today's highlights, I can vaguely remember that someone waiting for the next game to begin made a comment when Keagan scored the goal that tied the game and I jumped up and down the sideline yelling and screaming my head off. It went something like, "Oh, Wow! Look at that mom!" I completely understand if my pride in this type of behavior may disturb you, but it will do nothing to change my future behavior. It's a problem that I am more than willing to admit, and it is this type of behavior that made me covet the t-shirt I saw a fellow soccer mom wearing that said, "I Can't Stay Calm. I'm a Soccer Mom." 

The boys won the final game, and they went home with champion medals!

Spring soccer comes to an end, and I can't even begin to be sad because 3v3 practice begins after Memorial Day. Bring it on! But let me find some new shorts for Magnum first!

Art Fair

Tonight was the school art fair. Just like last year, the boys pleaded with me to skip the event; they tried their best to persuade me that soccer practice was more important. Just like last year, I was adamant about seeing their work. I yelled until they got in the car. You might be concerned with my mention of yelling, but I actually consider a few screams a success because last year I had to threaten spending soccer games on the bench to get the boys in the car. 

There were hundreds of people at the school when we arrived. Keagan commented, "I don't get it! Why are there so many people who want to look at art?"

Evan's class created power points in technology class and made hot air balloons as part of their WW2 unit. Supposedly hot air balloons were used to block air space so that enemy attacks were more difficult. Only one side of Evan's balloon actually got painted, and I am still trying to figure out why he came home with red paint all over his shirt on Tuesday when his balloon is blue. It will remain a mystery because I'm afraid of the truth. Evan's class also painted landscapes and flowers. Evan's flower was beautiful. I was so impressed and said as much. Evan responded, "Don't get excited, Mom! I had someone else do it for me. They owed me a favor."

 Keagan's class created super heroes, made mixed media owls, and wrote I Am poems in technology class. Should I be concerned that he sees cats and dogs fighting at school? I actually laughed when I saw his super hero. I laughed so hard, I cried. His teacher laughed along with us and commented that Keagan might not excel at art, but he can excel in the academics. She led us to the classroom to the book fair projects.

He earned a 100 on this project. My OCD couldn't keep me calm enough to actually read the board. I wanted to rip off those crooked pieces of paper on orange construction paper and so badly that I finally just walked away. God forbid, if a student tried to turn that in to me! 

So we survived another art fair, and I have several more pieces of art to add to my collection. The school was absolutely stunning with the walls covered in beautiful works of art. 

But to see the boys surrounded by friends was definitely the most heart warming. 

Say It Ain't True!

With his big brown eyes open wide and a level of animation that can only rival his excitement with the Snackeez, Evan told me this story this afternoon.

 "Hey, Mom! Today we were looking through magazines trying to collect clippings for our paper mache projects, and I decided to try extreme couponing. I collected a few and brought them home with me today. By the way, the teacher did not approve of this activity. She is a stickler about having fun at school. Look! I found this one for a Sonic Blast. Only $1.29! I'm thinking we could probably use this tomorrow or maybe tonight since it's such a good deal. And then I found this one....

Forget about back pain, Mom! Think about it! If I have this thing, I will be cured. I can just carry the pillow around with me and I'll never have any more pain. And for only $13 I think it's a pretty good deal!"

He's 11, going on 71!

This add reminded me of the girl I knew in high school who broke her tail bone while riding a horse and had to carry a pillow to every class for almost a year. I always felt sorry for her, and to think Evan wanted to do this voluntarily! He must be in some pretty serious pain, or maybe he's just a sucker for things too good to be true. With that thought, I'm hoping he never discovers QVC! Add a couple of coupons to QVC's lightning deals, and I see Evan starring in a new reality show!

Score!

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday!

Even better! Look at Keagan's expression when he saw Evan holding the package!

 I can't tell you how many of the neighbor kids have said, "Oh my gosh! You have Snackeez? Lucky!" I guess my kids aren't the only ones who think a cup within a cup can revolutionize their lives.