Kyle and Reed are at MawmMaw and PawPaw's this week. They took their hamsters with them, and have already been to Pet's Mart to buy more stuff for them.
Reed was telling me that they bought the hamsters cars to race in, which really made me laugh. I told him I couldn't wait to see that, and lucky me, they had already posted a video of it to YouTube. (Of course they had).
Our swim team season continued in to this weekend since Reed actually qualified for the "championship" swim meet.
It was Saturday, and it's officially called "The Country Club Invitational". I'm positive there are way more competitive swim leagues, so it was nice that everyone there was the opposite of a crazy sports parent. In fact, I was even chatting with one of the dads whose only complaint was that there wasn't a Bloody Mary bar.
Each team got to have 2 swimmers per event.
Reed swam freestyle and butterfly.
It was at the University of Houston natatorium, and I never dreamed it would be so nice. I was very impressed.
Reed was most excited that his name was on the big board!
He's the one in the middle
It was just like the Olympics where they get disqualified for starting early, and they had to touch the pad underwater to stop the clock. (And I'm only comparing it to the Olympics because that's the only other time I've watching swimming.)
He didn't place, but he didn't come in last in either event either.
Here you can see he got 5th in his heat (you'll see the kid above him got disqualified, so that was helpful)
Here's the Houston Racquet Club Team.
Reed is on the top row 2nd kid from the left and he's not wearing a swim cap.
And they came in 2nd in the meet.
We were very proud of his 1st ever swim season.
And I didn't even notice until that night that they wrote on his arm to make sure he knew when to swim.
Jason and I celebrated our 16th anniversary this weekend.
We spent the night at the new Marriott Marquis that was built for the Superbowl.
It was awesome...but with a lazy river like this how could it not be?
We stayed on the 14th floor and the pool is on the 6th floor.
We had a massage and hung out by the pool.
We also celebrated with dinner at the revolving, rooftop restaurant, Spindletop, on the 34th floor of the Hyatt. Neither of us had ever been, so we had lots of fun.
Kyle and Reed have never done swim team in their lives, but Jason and I made them do it this year.
I emphasize the 'made' because they literally couldn't have complained about having to do it more.
They were in the 9-10 year old boys group, and for never being on swim team and being 9, I think they did great.
They eventually admitted they liked the meets, they just didn't like to practice.
I didn't take many pictures because I could never figure out who was who. They all look alike!
Reed is on the far left with the cut on his face, and Kyle is on the right behind the boy with no cap.
They swam in 5 meets (they missed one because of camp) and I think Reed got 1st in his heat in backstroke in every meet.
Reed specifically asked me to take a picture of him on the blocks.
Kyle did great, and even beat his brother in breaststroke a few times.
But no matter how much swimming was going on, Kyle was more interested in sneaking off to the diving boards during the meets. He even taught himself how to backdive!
But the best part of the season was when they raced each other and this happened.
Kyle and Reed went to church camp from Sunday-Wednesday. They said they had fun and that they want to go back next year.
They also reported that they "had to get baptized"...which Jason and I knew was coming. In fact, we joked that if they came home and didn't mention being baptized, the Baptists had totally failed at church camp.
They spent the day at the pool yesterday showing off their flips. They aren't allowed to do back flips, which really upsets them.
I got this picture from my dad, which I thought was such a pretty background it almost looks fake. Clearly JR is enjoying Paw-Paw's new, fancy 4-wheeler.
JR is at my parents this week so I got this text from my mom (which means either JR or my dad sent it) of him celebrating the big day.
JR called me to wish me a "Happy Flag Day" and I said, "Did Maw-Maw tell you to call me?" He said, "No, Dad texted me, but I knew because I knew it was Donald Trump's birthday."
Jason took me to dinner last night to celebrate "Trump's Birthday". We went to State of Grace with our next door neighbors (all of which was a surprise to me) so it was a good day.
The day before the last day of school was my big hurrah.
I had 144 kids in the talent show this year.
And I had to get all the acts finished before lunch started at 10:50. I almost made it, I think they had to start lunch at 11:00.
And while Kyle and Reed's act didn't have the most "talent", it was definitely the funniest.
I planned the act for the boys with different cuts of music, and one cut of music was a "ballet" section. They liked it so much they asked if they could do the whole act as ballet...and dress up like girls.
They got their wish.
These are literally the 4 most athletic boys in the 3rd grade.
Here's the full group
Best part? I finally know what it would have been like to have a girl!
Here's their act. It's only 30 seconds, but you get the added "bonus" of my "be a good audience speech to the kids". Please just fast forward through that!
The kids are laughing so loud you can't hear their music until the end.
I think I only have 2 or 3 more posts from May and then I'll finally be done with the end of school ridiculousness.
After the Winds of Time parade we took the boys out of school and down to Kemah to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp. (JR had finals so he didn't get to go.) We did this last year, so now it's become sort of a tradition.
Both Kyle and Reed love Forrest Gump, and the food is decent, so it's a fun lunch.
After lunch Kyle wanted to ride all of the roller coasters on the boardwalk, and Reed wanted to ride none of them.
Jason and Kyle rode one of the big ones, while Reed and I discussed how happy we were that we weren't riding a roller coaster.
I took a picture as they came out, and both of their faces crack me up.
Kyle is definitely proud of himself, and Jason is wondering when roller coasters became not as fun as they used to be! (I figured that out a few years ago.)
Thumbs up for riding, and that Reed and I didn't have to ride!
Jason's big claim to fame is that back in elementary school he was in the Ft. Bend Boys Choir and sang on Channel 13 for Kathy Whitmire (she was the mayor of Houston back in the 80's).
So, I had to giggle when Reed brought a note home from school saying that he had been chosen by his music teacher to audition for the Spring Branch Boys Choir.
This all went down right at the end of the year, and in fact, Reed just so happened to be going through his backpack one night and said "Oh, I forgot to give this to you." It was the invitation to audition, and the last day listed to audition was the next day. No telling how long he had been carrying it around.
I don't ever think auditions are a sure thing/formality because I've been to way too many of them with JR. Things we think he's a shoo-in for he usually winds up not getting.
Reed went to the audition and they told us they would send us a letter to let us know.
Since a letter hadn't turned up, I was assuming he didn't get in.
But on Wednesday we got a letter telling us he'd been chosen.
I'm not sure how we'll work this in with all his sports teams, but we're going to give it a go.
So a few days after the big chariot races, the school had their annual Winds of Time ceremony, My kids call it "Waste of Time", but even so, the parents are all required to go and take pictures.
We were actually going to just skip the whole day this year, but Kyle was picked to be one of the banner carriers, so we couldn't miss that "excitement".
You also get a front row seat at the ceremony when you're a banner carrier
Stepping away from my May recaps, this weekend the boys played in their first baseball tournament.
They could have played as many as 5 games, but since they won every game they played, they only had to play 3.
I got to do the commentating on Friday night (my announcing included intros like..."he's got the best hair on the field") but JR was back in action (with real sports talk) for the championship game on Sunday. (JR had been at his friend's ranch for the weekend.)
They had lots of friends from other schools on their team, and we wound up having an impromptu celebration party at our house after the big win.
And though both the boys played great in all the games, Kyle batted in the winning run for the championship game, which was very exciting. Here he is getting the game ball.
After cookie cake blue teeth and the game ball.
And they may look like loving brothers in the picture above, but this was Reed this morning.
Kyle got mad at him for getting him "out" when they were playing baseball upstairs and threw one of the cardboard "bases" at him Sunday night.
In 3rd grade the kids study Ancient Rome, and the highlight of the 3rd grade is the chariot races.
The whole school comes out to watch and it's a huge deal.
Kyle and Reed have been planning their chariots since the first day of school: you need a pusher, a puller, and a sitter.
Unfortunately for them, the teachers pick the groups. But fortunately for them, their teachers like me (and them) so even though they didn't get the groups they had picked out, they wound up with pretty good groups.
Lots of Kyle's class with his teacher
Reed's chariot group with his teacher
There are 8 groups in each of the 8 heats, and then the winner of each heat goes to the finals.
This is Kyle's race heat.
I missed videoing, but another mom got it (which is why you can't hear me screaming for them.)
The puller of Kyle's group has on yellow and takes an early lead.
Kyle is pushing in back in red.
Here's Reed's race heat.
Yes, I'm loosing my mind screaming for him, (I told you, it's a big deal.)
His puller has on black, and what I didn't get on video is Reed (white T-shirt) jumping up and down like a crazy person (can't imagine where he gets it) when he found out they won.
Reed's teacher was also excited because she said she's never had a group make it to the finals before.
Reed's team came in 4th in the finals, but they had just run the last heat, so I do believe if they had had time to catch their breath they might have made it on the podium and won a crown leaves.
Kyle's group came in 5th or 6th.
I don't have video because I was having a hard enough time just trying to cheer for 2 groups.
And I might have been busy bragging about "all the Ingersolls" being in the finals.