Battle of the Books 2015

Battle of the Books is serious business around here. And Ivory joined the ranks this year. In previous years, I have tried hard to read the books with the kids or make sure they are reading, but I have turned ownership over to the kids. I figure if they read the books, they can feel good about doing well. If they don't read, and do poorly, that is part of life. (And I guess there is always the scenario where they read the books and still do poorly. That also is part of life.)

Let's start with Miss Ivory. She was very excited to read and battle. She worked hard in her group and read almost everything. She was the team captain, but only because the original captain moved. They made posters at school and I think her team did such a great job.

Volunteering for Battle of the Books is my favorite. I didn't ever see Ivory's team, but I hear on day 1, in one of her battles, each team didn't miss ANY questions. (That hardly ever happens.) Ivory's team won three, tied one, and lost one. That is pretty darn good. The next day during tournament play, they lost early on, but I think she did a fantastic job and she will be all ready for next year.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Robyn. I did get to help with one of her battles. They won a lot of battles the first day, and during tournament play, moved on to the semi-finals, where they were beaten by a really good team. Robyn was also her team captain. She did a great job, especially since I know not all the kids on her team read the books.

June is at a different school and I have never helped there before, but this year, I was able to volunteer over there as well. First team of the day happened to be June's team. They won, and went on to win all of their battles. Smarties.

I don't take pictures during battles because usually I am helping, so I didn't get any pictures until the final battle at June's school. (Although Robyn didn't make it to the finals, she was called back up to be in the All-Stars battle against the teachers. The kids creamed the teachers!! They do every year.)

It was kind of sad because the finals at June's school was between two teams of girls from the same class. So really, just a bunch of friends battling. June said she was torn between wanting to win and wanting the other team to win.

In the end, June's team was victorious. They did a good job and everyone was a good sport on both sides.

Next up...battling the teachers. (Their teacher Mrs. Billings was the team captain.)

It wasn't a competition...at least not a close one. The kids blew them away.

Oh...I should tell you all the team names.

Ivory was on the Reading Rescuers.
Robyn was one of the Golden Books. (Cute.)
And June was a Read Dragon. (Pronounced 'red'. Clever pun, I think.)

June's team went on to the district competition. They went last year and did okay. (Did I ever blog about it??) They lost their first two games, but came back to win two and tie one, I think.

This year, they did much better. Four games won in a row. They kind of lost their momentum on the last game and didn't pull through, but overall, I think they felt good about the day.

Here they are at the end waiting for results. They only announce the top five teams and sadly, the Read Dragons did not make it. (It was later that we found out that ranked number six. Not too shabby.)

Mrs. Giles always helps out with the event. She is such a great lady. What makes me happiest of all is that since the program started, her school, Vineyard, has never won. This time, Vineyard went all the way to the top. In fact, the team that beat Robyn's team were the champions. Good job Vineyard. (And you can feel a little better about losing to them Robyn.)

Good job all you girls.

Oh...I was just removing pictures from my phone and I found this picture from last year at district....when they were the Bookworms. They sure grow up a lot in one year. And yes, I have too many pictures on my phone.

Happy Tax Day

I feel sorry for anyone who has a birthday today. April 15th is not the happiest day for many people. (Then again, maybe having a birthday would counter all the other unpleasantness.)

Utah decided that tax day might be cheerier with some snow.

I was picking up Pearl from preschool and enjoying the scenery.

Snow in April is pretty normal around here. I'm surprised it didn't happen last week during Spring Break. Or maybe it did? We were out of town.

Regardless, there is supposed to be lovely weather this weekend. That makes up for the snow.

Now...how do we make up for the taxes?

Kelly Crack Off

We have never visited the Kelly's around Easter time. Granted, they visited a week or so before Easter, but it was close enough to introduce them to the Crack Off. It just needs to happen.

We came home from the museum and got right down to business decorating our eggs. It is so fun that the kids are getting older and their eggs are creative and original. I really believe that we all enjoy decorating them more than cracking them, but both parts are essential.

Here are all our eggs on display.

Tyler took a close up of some of them. Let's take a peek at some of the contenders. This is Tyler's Cadbury egg.

His other egg was very detailed. I wish he had taken a picture of the whale on the back.

Robyn's Penguin was fantastic. She held that thing forever in the dye to make sure the belly stayed white.

Here is Ivory's Lady Begg and my Pistachio.

June made Quizzle, Tim decorated Killer Grouper and I was very proud of my simple, easy Baymax.

I wish we had pictures of all the eggs. I really liked June's Connect, and Tim had an awesome Albert Eggstein that was great. Jeannie had some beautiful eggs too. They are in there somewhere. Ethan didn't decorate his eggs so much as name them after sports figures. (This seems fitting for a boy.)

The voting was intense, but our big winner was Robyn, with her Penguin.

Ivory was so proud of herself since she came in second.

In fact, the Cazier's, with their intense art skills, swept the podium.

Now to the cracking, in which you don't need any special art abilities to contend. I put Ethan in charge of the bracket. He knows sports and I figured he would do a great job being in charge. He did.

We do draw names at random, but it is frequent that spouses square off. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Pearl had some trouble reaching the table. That's what mom's are good for.

June looks pretty intense here, but I had to tell her sadly that even though Pistachio had smashed Ethan's egg, he too had cracked in the process. (Actually, the double crack was entirely too rampant this year. It happened here, twice at Tyler's work, and once in Robyn's class. I wonder if we have people that roll too roughly. Maybe holding them and hitting them together would be a better way.)

Jeannie helped Erin the first time around, but after that, Erin knew just what to do. She was a great cracker!

Everyone feels differently about their eggs. There are those, with no love lost, who just eat their egg once it cracks.

There are others that treasure the eggs. Daisy would not crack hers this year, and not only that, but she developed a strange attachment to my Baymax egg and practically cried when he cracked. Then she carried him around the house and put him in a bag to keep him. I had to get her a Baymax substitute so she would finally throw him away.*

Tim would step aside and whisper encouragement to his egg.

It didn't help. Jeannie beat him and went on to the semi-finals.

But alas, although Jeannie came back from the loser bracket, it was not enough to beat Tyler. He was the champion, with no cracked eggs by the end. Cadbury put away the competition.

This is actually comforting, since Robyn won two years in a row. I was beginning to think she was invincible.

After the Crack Off, it was time for the Kelly's to go. Everyone was so sad to see them leave. Robyn was the only one with any sense to take pictures. (We already know I am scatterbrained when it comes to things like that.) So one more time.

Erin

Jeannie

Ethan

Tim

We love you all! Come visit again soon! Or we will come your way. We always love an excuse to come to sunny CA.

Other great memories from the trip - Going shopping with Jeannie and getting special jewelry gifts. Also the most confusing game of 'My Team' we have ever played. (Are you Robin?)



* We did try to buy a Baymax for Daisy, but they were all over in China and our order was canceled as soon as it was supposedly shipped. So we opted for a shirt instead, since our resident designer can bust those out.

Here is the front.

And the back.

Daisy loves it, but she doesn't like wearing it to school because people read the back over and over again. I guess that is what happens when you are in first grade and everyone is learning to read. (Actually, it would probably happen in the other grades as well.)

Curiosity Didn't Kill Any of Us

We are now the proud members of a pass to Thanksgiving Point.

I tend to steer clear of memberships...wait...that is not accurate. I tend to buy memberships and then regret them almost instantly. I don't like dragging around small children who need naps, so much of life previous to this time has been spent close to home making sure that children get enough sleep. (I promise this is connected. Stay with me.)

We tried the Zoo membership. But it was far enough away that every time we went some child fell asleep in the car. It was not ideal, and thus we just didn't go that often.

We also tried the Pass of all Passes. I guess that one is supposed to be good for Seven Peaks, but I do not feel comfortable taking five children by myself, so I never availed myself of that one, and we used the other venues perhaps once or twice. (Really, memberships are wasted on us.)

We even have a family pass to the rec center right now, but we have only taken the kids a few times. That is probably because it is such a pain to get kids all dressed in swimming attire. (Can you feel the laziness coming off me in waves??)

So, why the new membership, you ask? Because I am an optimist. I don't have any babies and no one naps around here except me, if I can sneak one. Thanksgiving Point has a lot of different places to visit and it is only a hop, skip, and jump away. I have already promised to incorporate all its different venues into my field trips this summer. I am DETERMINED to use it. If I don't, I will never get a membership again.

Most likely.

But the real reason we got the membership was because it is so dang expensive to visit that Museum of Curiosity, that it would pay itself off after only two visits. And when you have people visiting and you are thinking of something fun to do, the museum is certainly worth a trip. I think the Kelly's enjoyed it. Let's check out our activities.

First off, I made myself the designated photographer, mainly because Tyler had never been to the museum before and it seemed only fair that he should get a chance to explore like any child person. I tend to like to start and end events with a group photo. Here we are bright and early at the museum. (Not that we beat the crowds. I took the kids out of school, much to their delight, but there are daily field trips to the museum and it was already crowded when we got there.)

Tyler loves imitating strange sculptures and faces. Oh, and enjoy the only picture of Ivory there. She escaped into the maze of the museum and I didn't see her until we rejoined at the end.

The kids paired off. Ivory begged to go with Ethan first and they disappeared into the Rainforest. I followed June and Daisy who went out to the Garden, which was amazingly empty.

I then wandered inside looking for more photography targets. I found Pearl and Robyn in Water Works.

I know that I have mentioned this before, but I love seeing the older girls helping the littler ones. It warms my heart.

Here they are trying to stand up to the winds of a hurricane.

Then I went in search of some more victims and ran into these two again, headed for the Rainforest.

I found the Kelly's in Kidopolis. There is always a hundred things to do there. Tim actually found his favorite place in the percussion room. (I had never been there before. It was pretty awesome.)

Having gathered some reinforcements, we all headed over to the Rainforest to find children. We still didn't locate Ivory and Ethan, but we had plenty of fun playing. We tested our hanging endurance over at the sloth rope. Tim went first. He made a good effort.

Tyler hung a little longer.

Jeannie showed up both the men. She is tough.

I was proud to hang in there over a minute.

But nothing compares to Daisy. I think she was made to be a sloth. She finally let go after five minutes, but probably only because she was bored.

Kids were once again scattered throughout. It really is hard to keep track of everyone in there. I found some kids over by the delayed video. The kids didn't even know I was there until I wandered in and across the screens. Ivory saw me first. (Oh, hey...I did find Ivory!)

Back in Kidopolis, I finally caught up with Ethan. He had traded buddies and was exploring with Daisy.

I left them to search out some more people. We ended up in the garden maze. I love this picture. I hadn't fixed camera settings, so it is a bit bright, but it makes me smile. (Keeping up with camera settings is harder than you think. In one room there will be hardly any light, and then I'll be outside with plenty and to spare.)

Here is the whole Kelly family. Impressive that we had all found each other again.

The only area we hadn't visited was Motion Matters. We didn't stay long, but we did bust out some smoke rings.

About this time everyone was getting hungry. It was time to wrap up the festivities and head for lunch. But don't forget a final group photo. I know, you don't need to say anything. It is awesome.

The Kelly's were so kind to take us to lunch. There was a funny moment when Tim took Pearl to get a hot dog and soda. She came back with a Mountain Dew for herself and Ivory. She thought it was yellow sprite.

I didn't even know what to say at first. I don't let the kids have caffeinated soda because I don't think they need it, so they have never had Mountain Dew before. I think Tim thought I was a little crazy to even care, but I realized quickly that it wasn't a big deal. A Mountain Dew every now and then isn't going to kill them. But in the bathroom, Ivory could tell I was concerned and she asked, "Does it have alcohol?"

Haha. I told Ivory that Uncle Tim would never order them an alcoholic drink. Clearly we need to have a talk about sodas and why their stingy mother doesn't let them drink them. I've never had a Mountain Dew myself actually. I guess old habits die hard.

We headed home from the museum to color eggs and get ready for what else? A Crack Off!! It wouldn't be Easter Time without it.