Our Gymnastics Star

Katherine began her third year of gymnastics this fall.  She always seems to view it as a fun activity and therefore never really seemed to take much interest in the team.  In fact she chose this year to drop from a two hour class to a one hour class because she found it too tiring.  So imagine my surprise one Thursday evening in September when Katherine asked if she could attend team tryouts that weekend.    I told her she was welcome to attend tryouts but I would make no promises of her actually being able to join anything but the rec team.  I didn’t know much about the teams but I knew all of them but the recreational team required a lot of time and a lot of money.  She also happened to have a Girl Scout sleepover the night before tryouts so I questioned whether she would actually feel like attending or perform all that well after staying up way past her bedtime.   But it wouldn’t hurt her to try, it may even be a good learning experience.

I picked her up that Saturday morning as soon as the sleepover was over and got her to tryouts a bit late but still in time to participate.  Told her to do her best and have fun. Told Cris (gym owner) that I wasn’t sure how she would do but we were probably only interested in the recreational team.  Let me tell you, girlfriend walked onto that floor for tryouts like a boss.  LIKE A BOSS.  There was no other way to describe it. If she was exhausted she didn’t show it. If she was nervous, she didn’t show it. Her whole attitude was “I got this”.  And she did.  Balance beam, floor, stretches.  Basically whatever they asked her to do, she did it like it was no big deal.  When it was time for the bar, Cris was helping each of the kids to flip over.  When it was Katherine’s turn, she looked at Chris and said “I know how to do this”.  Two seconds later she had flipped herself right over and was balancing right on top.  Cris and Nikki (one of the coaches) were shocked.  They asked her to do it again and she was like “ok.” And she did.

Cris came up after tryouts to talk to the parents about when to expect results and the different levels of teams, etc…  She then asked me, in a very nice way, why we were only considering the recreational team.  I mentioned the obvious reason of cost but also the amount of time in relation to academics.  We talked for a bit, during which time she said more than once “She’s good, she’s REALLY good.”  I stifled my urge to say something sacrastic like “Well s*** lady of course she’s good, why would she be anything else?”  We talked about the three levels of team and she said that more than likely her team invite would be coming from the highest,  USA Gymnastics level (heck yeah, it would).  And while the two other levels (AAU and the recreational Stars Team) would also be available to her, USA Gymnastics would be a now or never opportunity.  The goal of that team is a college scholarship and they need to make sure there’s enough time to develop the skills needed to qualify for one.  After 9 years old, there’s not enough time and they don’t offer slots.  It was an all or nothing decision with that team.

Now on the one hand I was REALLY proud of my girl. Really proud.  A tryout performance like that deserved some serious bragging rights.  Miss K rocked it.  She went in there for the rec team and walked out with an invite to the top team. BOOM. On the other hand I was torn…not really torn but maybe a little funny feeling in my tummy.  My kid was good, there was potential there.  Let’s face it who doesn’t like having someone talk about their kid like that?  I know there were a bunch of other parents in that gym who wishing for the chance for their daughter to be invited to the top team.  For them it would be a no brainer.  We went in for fun, not expecting anything, and it got laid right in front of us. I think I felt a bit guilty for saying no because of that.  There was a part of me that wished she could do it, that we as a family could make that commitment, give her that opportunity.  But I knew that from every angle… budget, time, and, most importantly, our sanity, it just was not going to happen.

I think a part of me was also angry…why did it have to be all or nothing?  Why did it have to require 8 plus hours of practice a week and hundreds of dollars a month?  Why couldn’t she get her feet wet this year and slowly ramp up her commitment if she wanted to?  It seemed like a huge decision to be making at 9 years old. As expected, the email came through later that evening with an invitation to the USA Gymnastics Team.  I about fell over when I looked at the cost information…we’ll just say between class fees, meet fees, and travel expenses, it was A LOT. That alone ruled it out, never mind the time commitment.  But I didn’t share any of that information with Katherine…it never even got to a discussion on cost and she had made a decision before the invite ever came through.

On the way home I told her the days of the week that the USA Gymnastics Team met, which happened to be the same day as Girl Scouts.  I told her that if she made a commitment to the team, she’d have to give up Girl Scouts for the simple reason that you can’t be in two places at once.  Her immediate response was “I’m not giving up Girls Scouts”.  That was it done, no agonizing over a decision for her.  She would join the rec team.  Boom, end of discussion, she didn’t want to hear anything else.  She rode home a happy kid.  I was proud of her again for being so level headed and sure of what she wanted.

So we blazed full steam ahead on Katherine’s first year as a member of the Stars Team.  And in the end I think it was a perfect fit for our family.  It added an additional hour of practice to our week, which was totally doable.  The four meets were all local, no travel involved…although all but the last one took up the better part of an entire Saturday for maybe 10 minutes of actual performing.  Not that Katherine noticed because while I was wiling away my time with the other parents, she was hanging with her friends.  . Miss K (or Kate as she is called on the team) was able to experience learning a routine to perfection, performing that routine in front of a crowd and then what it was like to be judged on that routine.   Even though every kid received a trophy, they were ranked in each event.  I was concerned that she would get upset when she was ranked near the bottom.  However, it never seemed to phase her whether she was on top of the podium or at the bottom in 7th or 8th place (and she ended up being at both those places and everywhere in between during the course of the season).  She left each meet in the same happy mood.

Will there be a second year of Stars for Miss K?  The jury is still out.  Right now she is leaning more towards taking Parkour with her brother because tumbling and climbing all over things looks like So. Much. More. Fun.  I told her to think about it and take her time…no decision has to be made until sign ups in August.  In the meantime I’m just going to be proud for how she handled things from beginning to end…with a very mature and positive attitude.  Of course she did. That’s my girl.

Six

At the top of our stairs is a collage of pictures of the kids when they were wee ones. One of them is of Teddy when he was only about four days old. It was taken right after we had returned from his first pediatrician appointment. Our spunky little guy turns 6 today and it is hard to believe he was ever that small.  

Not that he's a huge kid now, he seems to be growing taller but not wider. 4T pants are still a perfect fit waste wise, even if the length barely reaches his ankles. Thank goodness it's just about short season.

I would say the last year has really been a transition for him in going from a preschooler to a kindergartner and loosing his "toddlerness".  He is a full fledged little boy now with a smile that is so infectious that you find it hard to discipline him on those rare occasions where he misbehaves. He's still a snuggler and will frequently ask you to sit with him so that he can get as close as possible. This includes digging his feet underneath you as far as he can get.

He's inquisitive; Young Chet will talk your ear off about anything and everything.  "Mommy, I've got to tell you something." is heard frequently heard around our house.  He tried soccer this year and while he was good at it, it was not quite the right fit.  Since then he's latched on to parkour and is making is Ninja Warrior dreams come true every week.

We are hoping to get him involved in Scouts this fall.  Minecraft has captured his attention this year as well and his favorite guilty pleasure, aside from playing the game, is to watch non stop You Tube videos of others playing the game.  He can't help it, gaming is in his blood.

As much as he is growing up, he still loves his trains.  Our living room frequently becomes the Island of Sodor with Thomas and the gang chucking along.  I am convinced that he will become the adult with a model train set in the basement.  He also loves marble runs which makes me think we may have a budding engineer in the house.  While he loves to have you read books to him at bedtime, I wonder if he'll be another STEM child like his sister.

Teddy is the only non-summer birthday in our house and I frequently wonder if he gets shortchanged on the birthday front just because the pace is always more hectic during the school year.  We celebrated a bit on Sunday, surprising him when he arrived home from Papa and Gram's house with a cake, Olaf decorations, and presents, including a big stuffed Kion from the Lion Guard, the current favorite TV show.  He was excited at Parkour last night that it was his turn to stand up on the vault and get his birthday cheer and medal.  Tonight will probably be fairly low key...although he is excited that he and Daddy get to play with his new circuit board set from Uncle Scott and Aunt Kathleen.  And on Saturday, the boys are going to the Monster Jam truck show.

Here's to another year of fun, laughter, and discovery!  Happy 6th Birthday Teddy!!!!

WRAL Balloon Fest

Hard to believe we're coming up on almost a full year since this event. In the spirit of catching up on all our comings and goings during the year I took off from the blog, this one was not to be left out. The pictures alone are worth posting...so this one may be big on pics and short on description.

Last May we were fortunate enough to have The WRAL Freedom Balloon Fest hosted right in our town...down the street from our house!  What a gorgeous weekend it turned out to be.  EOGs had just ended that week for Katherine.  Third great is a tough make it or break year and so nerves were frayed leading up to that week.  When Friday came, it was time to relax and celebrate!  The weather was absolutely perfect for the event so it seemed a shame not to head down and check it out.  Balloons will occasionally fly over our house but we had never seen them up close and personal before (and we were about to get a surprise in that area!).

Since it was so close to our house Ted simply drove us down about halfway and we walked the rest of the way over.  This probably changed our experience quite a bit from those who drove in and had to park at the Mudcats stadium and get bused over.  I guess the main roads were quite backed up around the event. Being the first year, the organizers completely under anticipated the crowds and so shuttle buses were in short supply.

We headed right over to the field to watch the mass accession.  You got to watch them blow up the balloons right in front of you. The field was soon covered and then they all started lifting off.  It was gorgeous.

The plan was after the mass ascension that the balloons would fly and then around sunset come back and blow up again to glow.  So we walked around checked out what else there was to do.  This is also where the organizer completely under estimated the crowds. The amount of food vendors and other entertainment was completely inadequate and lines were impossibly long.  Luckily I had brought some snacks with us and while it was not nearly enough, we were able to make do. And they had some inflatable bounce houses so the kids were thrilled.  Once the sun went down the balloons that were able to make their way back through the traffic set up and started to glow.

Had we not been starving we probably could have stayed a lot longer and just watched because it was gorgeous.  But I got what pictures I could and the kids pulled me out of there to head for home.  The next morning we were exhausted.  Ted got up early to go for a run and the kids and I lounged around in bed:

We kept hearing some noise and the kids asked what it was.  Must be a truck on the highway I said.  At some point I stumbled out of bed and down the stairs to get some coffee and I heard it as loud as could be.  The burners from the ballons...there was no mistaking it.  My God, it sounded like it was happening in the house.  What is going on???  I ran out to the front porch and was met with this view:

And there was another one up the street?!?!

What the heck was going on?  Yes, I just about #$%@ a brick. I ran back inside and screamed something similar to "youguysneedtocomedownhererightnowhurryup!!!!!" I've never seen two kids move faster, both with a look on their faces of "what did we do, we didn't do anything!" I ushered them out the door in time to see the balloons take off.

Then we noticed they were getting ready to set up another one across the street AND just up the street.  If you're counting this is number 3 and 4.  In our neighborhood. Turns our the balloon guys were knocking on neighbor's doors at 5:45 am asking "Do you mind if we set up a balloon in your front yard?" Now there's a first. The morning's competition involved taking off front a point about a mile from the farm and our neighborhood was it!  Hot dog!

We set up camp with the neighbors across the street like kids on Christmas morning.  Unfortunately the wind picked up and not in a good way.  This meant they had to call that morning's competition off.  However, the owner of the balloon below (named Elsa after the Last of the Mohicans) offered to blow it up part way (no burner) so we could see it and the kids could sit inside it.  What an opportunity!

We offered to make them all breakfast if they showed up the next morning...just call and we'll have the coffee going for you!  We were serious too.  Unfortunately it's all dependent on the wind direction and the next morning's activities did not start in our neighborhood.  We thought all was over when all of a sudden, about an hour later than the previous morning we heard the distinctive burners again and we ran outside in time to see a whole bunch of them fly right over our house.


I swore this one was going to land in our street.  I guess that's part of the fun for them, it's called dipping.


There were a few more the next morning but harder to get pictures as they were mostly flying further away from the neighborhood.  You could hear them but you couldn't see them.

It truly made it magical weekend.  We had hoped that this would become a permanent fixture in Zebulon each spring but unfortunately it is not to be.  Seem the organizers decided to search for another, larger venue for the next festival and have picked a site down in Fuquay-Varina.  I personally think because of the location that site is sub-par to what was offered them in Zebulon (cause the amount of shuttle busses, food and entertain could be easily taken care of) but it's not my choice.  I'll be interested to see how this year's festival turns out.

Young Chet

My maternal grandfather loved telling a good story.  Chet Wiater commanded a chair at the table at my grandparent's house where he would proceed to expound on anything and everything. There wasn't a topic that he couldn't say anything about...even if he didn't know anything about it.  We sometimes questioned the accuracy of his statements, especially in the later years, but he was not to be deterred. His opinion was the definitive fact on any matter...at least in his opinion.

Unfortunately he passed away well before his two great grandchildren came into the world. So imagine my surprise one day, as I was driving the kids home from daycare that then four year old Teddy launched into a full back story about one of the farms near our house.  "They used to have cows here and the cows would cross the road..."  I almost stopped the car right there in the middle of the street..."grandpa?"

And the nickname "Young Chet" was born.

In the two years since then we've heard stories and opinions about all kinds of things, usually spoken while waving his hand around to show that he is serious about the point he is trying to make.  Everything you buy on TV is junk. The clouds are all heading to the ocean (our recent car conversation...his favorite place to expound is in the car).

My parents got a run down last summer on what all of the boats in Virginia Beach were up to.  My cousin's daughter Hannah received the sage advice last winter to "not eat the yellow snow".  I've never told him that but my grandpa sure said it to me a few times growing up.

In general the kid has a story and an opinion about anything and everything and he's not shy about launching into it at a moment's notice...sound familiar?  But you really have to see it to understand it.  It's hard to catch him in the act because so many of the real gems happen in the car. So last Thursday night I grabbed my phone and asked him to tell me some things so I could post it on the blog. His response? "Oh, there's lots of things I could tell you about." Of course there is. This one happened when I asked him to recap the everything you buy on TV is junk conversation. For those not in the know, I can specifically remember my grandpa talking about how the "buy one get one stuff on TV is a ripoff." But Teddy...er...Young Chet has never come out with these specific details before.  So without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: Young Chet.

Car Conversations

It takes us about 10 minutes to get from our house to the kids before and after school care at their former daycare.  Most days it's just a usual drive, either conversation about the day ahead or a recap of what went on in school. But occasionally some things come out of little mouths that make you just about laugh out loud. In the last week or so there have been some real gems.  I'll call them car conversations.

Last week Teddy noticed that a bird had pooped on his window. I guess this is bad manners for a bird as far as he was concerned because he declared that if he was a bird he would never poop on a car. In fact he would build two nests: "One for the bed and one for the poop!" However Katherine let him know that "when a bird's gotta drop it, they gotta drop it."

This was followed up the next morning by the same little boy declaring that he knew exactly where the clouds were going. "They are going to the see to suck up water." He didn't know how they sucked it up but they do. Again, Miss K very matter of factly informed him that it is called evaporation. I think she feels it is her duty to keep him straight.  After all, she knows all the facts.

Stayed tuned for more car conversations!

Around the House...Wrapping Paper Organization

Puxatawny Phil and Sir Walter Wally may or may not have correctly predicted an early spring but I've already got urge to take on a few spring cleaning type organization projects. I took the opportunity during our snowy weekend a few weeks ago to work on a project I've been thinking about for a while.

While I love the layout, our house is limited in its storage capabilities.  Our attic is only partially, very partially, floored and we have no basement.  So we are really left with the garage and our closets to put things.  Our master closet is the biggest and therefore seems to be the most popular place where stuff is dumped stored.  One of the things I keep here is the wrapping paper, which, up until recently fit fairly well in a Rubbermaid gift wrap storage bin.  However, things were starting to overflow and finding stuff in that bin was a pain. Most of the time I would have to take everything out of the bin to get at what I was looking for.  Time for a new solution.  Floor space is at a premium in there, so the only logical place to go was up, taking advantage of vertical storage space.

I did some online and Pinterest searching and saw a lot of posts about the Elfa Door and Wall Rack System from the Container Store.  Thanks to a Christmas gift card and the annual 30% off Elfa sale I picked up a system for the back of our closet door.  I used their customizing tool to pick out the components I wanted.  A week or so later, I was in business.

Installation was fairly easy but first I cleaned up the area a bit. Needless to say, we don't look behind our closet door all that often so there were quite a few cobwebs.

First step was to install the bar that the baskets would mount.  It uses brackets over and under the door that are adjustable.  This was a bit tricky to line everything up and it probably would have taken half the time if I wasn't doing it by myself but I managed with minimal effort (and swearing).  After that, all I had to was baskets and load them up.

Here's the finished product.  I had to lean way into the clothes rack and take two pictures to show the whole thing, our closet runs horizontally to the door, not vertically.

As you can see this was a hugely wasted space that works great for all of the wrapping supplies.  Even better, there's still an empty basket...room to grow.  I also like how all of the baskets are adjustable.  In the future, I'll probably pick up another one of the deeper baskets for the smaller gift bags but right now everything fits perfectly.

One project down, on to something else...a gallery wall in Katherine's room!