Serve It Up!

After spending a few years playing football, Matthew has discovered that he really enjoys volleyball. Being shorter than most kids his age is less of a detriment in volleyball and he has been working hard to develop a good overhand serve. He has been playing at the rec center and his current team has been great. They work well together, have a good coach, and have a number of players who can serve really well so they have been winning all their games. Matthew has really enjoyed it and I’m really glad he has discovered a sport where he can actually have some success and find some joy! He still loves football but had begun to view it as more of a spectator sport. And that’s not a bad thing!

"He's a Music Man..."

After four months of rehearsing, preparing, planning, and stressing, The Music Man performances finally arrived. Between being the lead and being one of the head honchos for stage crew, Nathan has pretty much been living at school. But all the work was paid back in full by the enormous performance high that he had going all week. He had family and friends there for all three performances and as an opening and closing night attendee, I can truthfully say that they improved with each performance.

It was fun to finally see all the little things Nathan has been telling us about for months. And as mother of the lead, I got a bit teary when he led the entire cast around the auditorium singing “76 Trombones.” Not that I probably wouldn’t be a huge crybaby even if he weren’t the lead (live theater often has that effect on me), but I’ve got bragging rights this time around and I’m going to take advantage of that. 😉

I think the kids did a great job and I know Nathan has had a fabulous time. He has given the show his all since auditions in January. He’s completely exhausted today, but I have a feeling that he’s going to be rattling around the house for the next few weeks wondering what in the world he’s supposed to do with all the extra time he has.

Tip Tapping Away

We’re headed into that busy time of year when all the kids have concerts, recitals, awards ceremonies, etc. This evening was one of the first events of the season-Malia’s dance recital. She has enjoyed dance lessons (although she complains about not being able to play with friends on dance days) and we can see improvement. She says she likes both tap and ballet, but the tap seems to come much easier. She struggles a bit with the ballet. Nevertheless, she has a good time and we got to see a fun show this evening.

Turnabout is Fair Play

Daniel did the asking for Prom last month. This month it was ladies’ choice for Sadie Hawkins. It was a sports theme for this event and being the group of kids that they are, their sport was marching band. It was a more casual dance, but Daniel and company still had a great time!

She’s Definitely One of the Techie Generation

I’m currently teaching primary which means Malia and I are in sharing time together. Today one of the primary presidency members asked the kids, “What do you do if you have a question?” Malia raised her hand and answered, “Ask my mom and dad.” Then the presidency member asked, “What if they don’t know?” Malia’s response? “Ask google.” All the adults in the room laughed, me included.

Retail Therapy

Nathan was in a funk today. It happens to everyone from time to time and today was one of this days. The musical opens in a couple of weeks. He’s been spending long hours in rehearsal and working on stage crew tasks and when the other kids dork around and don’t take things seriously, it has a tendency to irritate him. A lack of sleep and stress are never good for him either, hence the funk. He was in need of stage make up, so we headed to the Walmart to get him some foundation and guy liner. I helped him choose the make up he needed and then a cute blouse caught my eye. Nathan didn’t want to hang out in the lingerie section while I tried it on (that’s where the fitting rooms are in this particular Walmart) so he opted to browse the men’s section instead. When I made it back, he had discovered a shirt he really liked and we selected a coordinating t-shirt to go with it to complete the look. He is being raised by an emotional eater which means that I have a tendency to treat my offspring’s funks with food, so I walked him down to frozen foods and had him pick out some ice cream. By the time we got home, his funk had dissipated and his mood was greatly improved.

To sum up our excursion, we bought make up, clothes and ice cream and then he felt better.

Maybe teenage boys aren’t as different from teenage girls as everyone tells me.  😉

Bee Your Best

Today was the state geography bee. Matthew has been studying like mad. He felt prepared but was pretty nervous as well. They broke the kids into smaller groups (five groups of about 20 kids) and all of them got to compete for the first eight rounds. Points were totaled at that point and the top twenty kids went to the finals. Matthew did not move on to the finals, but we felt like he did a great job. He gave some correct answers to some pretty tough questions and kept his cool throughout. He was one of the youngest kids (the bee is grades 4-8 and only about 20 of the kids were grades 4-5) but I really felt like he held his own. A couple more years of school that include a lot of the curriculum that he hasn’t learned yet and he could definitely be a contender.

I’m so proud of how hard he has worked to prepare for this event. He has learned to think through the stress of the spotlight and to apply logic when he doesn’t know the answer. That is really tough to do in the heat of the moment. He has gained some valuable skills and given this opportunity his best effort. I look forward to seeing how he does next year. He’s already thinking about next year as well.

Since this is Matthew’s shining moment, I asked him to give me his two cents on the whole thing:

The National Geography Bee was a big thing for me. In 4th grade I was in it, but I only made it through the second round. I had none right, but that didn’t stop me from trying again. This year I went from nothing to something, I jumped over the fence. In other words, I got 1st place. One of the most amazing questions was a total guess that kept me in the game. It was to the effect of, “blah blah K-pop is popular in Seoul blah blah?” At first, I just said, “Korea.” But they asked me to specify. I guessed again and said, “South Korea.” I thought I would get it wrong, but then I heard,” Correct”, followed by what sounded by an explosion. The whole gym had gone absolutely crazy. I’m so glad everyone supports everyone. It was a good experience. The next day I took the test to see if I would make it to the state level and in about 5 weeks we got the email, I had made to the state level. By now I was freaking out. I made quite a few phone calls. Later in time, it’s the 6th. I’m stressed out of my mind. I get there and miss one of the easiest questions. “Which has more military force? Michigan or Hawaii?” I answered Michigan. That’s the one that kept me from going on to the finals. I had one more amazing save, where I found out something about myself. It was a news round and I news story I hadn’t heard. I found out that I can sometimes realize French when spoken to me. That was very interesting. Although I was very disappointed, I still felt accomplished, and I still had fun.   

Easter Blessings

With the ages of the majority of my children in double digits, the Easter festivities have mellowed considerably. We have been able to focus more on the real meaning of the holiday which has been fantastic. We still color eggs and do the egg hunt for Malia, but now I actually have kids that will eat the deviled eggs and egg salad that come afterward. In past years, Kevin and I ate as many hard-cooked eggs as we could before we tossed the last few just so that the kids could color them.

At eleven, this was Matthew’s last year to hunt eggs. Mentally, I think Matthew is done with the whole Easter egg hunt thing. However, he definitely still likes to have a basketful of sugar, so I suspect he persevered for the sake of the candy. He does still enjoy the fine art of dying eggs so he happily participated in that. Malia was as gung ho as ever about the whole thing and the big boys enjoy the copious amounts of jelly beans.

I always like when General Conference and Easter fall on the same day, so that was great this year. It is uplifting to listen to the words of the prophet and apostles and really ponder on the marvelous blessings we receive as a result of the atonement and resurrection. It makes for a wonderful experience. So it was a good weekend, a great holiday, not much in the ways of news to report, but fabulous just the same.