Battle of the Books

Colton participated at school in something called "Battle of the Books".  Basically, kids form teams.  All the teams have to read a bunch of books (usually ones that have either won awards or are best sellers for their age group), then they get asked questions about the books at the Battle of the Books event.  I think there were 3 or 4 battles at different times during the school year.  Each battle, the questions were over 4 different books, so these kids ended up reading quite a lot of books!  Not a problem at our house.  These kids LOVE to read!

When the proctor asks the team a question, they have a certain time to answer. They are allowed to discuss the answer between themselves before answering...

Bryan - OUR HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER STUD!

Bryan was beyond excited when he made his high school soccer team this year.  He worked really hard to get to the point where he was good enough to do it.  He goes to a high school of 3000+ students, so tryouts for ANYTHING are SUPER competitive.  Mark and I were so excited for him!

The boys had two-hour practices every day after school, and then games sometimes 2 or 3 per week.  They worked hard and played hard.  It payed off. They only lost 2 games!

Here are some of the pictures I caught of Bryan...

About halfway through the season, we had ALL of Bryan's team over for dinner at our house after practice one night.  We made our version of Cafe Rio Sweet Pulled Pork burritos.  Those boys PLOWED through all the food and expressed thanks for dinner - sweet boys!  Here are some pics of dinner, and some more of their games...

GO HAWKS!!!!

At the end of the season there was a special banquet for the players, coaches, and parents honoring all the players and their hard work.  We are so proud of Bryan and his hard work on this team.  They were AWESOME!

Stay off the sidewalks...Bryan is driving!

When I was old enough to get a driver's permit, I went and took the test THE SAME DAY I WAS ELIGIBLE.  For some reason, Bryan was in no hurry to get his permit.  We had to beg, plead, and threaten before he would go take the test.  I also begged him to study the manual - he thought he didn't need to (famous last words).  We sat at the DMV for a couple of hours waiting for his turn.  When he came out from the test I failed to notice that the girl I was sitting next to while waiting, who was Bryan's age, was actually pretty cute.  I made the mistake of asking how he did...ooops (totally embarrassed him).  We came back the next week, and this time he passed.

I try to take each of my kids out to lunch each month - just them and me.  We were at Panda Express the week Bryan got his permit.  This is what his fortune cookie said...

We both laughed so hard!

First Family Ski Trip - YAY!!

Mark and I have REALLY, REALLY missed snow skiing!  Neither of us had been since we were engaged, so we decided it was high time to take our family.  SO MUCH FUN!  

We went to Sunrise Ski Resort here in the mountains of Arizona.  The first day we put the kids in ski school for the whole day.  Mark and I had the day to ski by ourselves.  What a blast!  When ski school ended there was still 2 hours left before close, so we took them up and did some green (easy) runs.  Between Mark and I we created a human sandwich with the kids in between.  Our deal was that whichever one of us was in the front, they could go down the hill as fast as they wanted.  The person at the back made sure none of the kids got left behind and helped get skis back on and helped teach the kids a little bit.  We took turns being the caboose or racing down the mountain.  The next day we decided they had done pretty well so far, so we took them up on some blue (intermediate) runs.  We quickly learned that Colton and Kyle's method was to just point your skis straight down the hill and don't turn at all.  HOLY COW!  About gave me a heart attack.  Amazingly enough, they didn't do a whole lot of falling, and when they did, they just hopped right back up and kept going.  My least favorite part was when one of them would fall on a steep hill and lose a ski.  Trying to balance on one foot while trying to click a boot into your ski is not the easiest thing to do.  One time it took 30 minutes.  I had to take my skis off to help Kyle.  When he got it on he zipped down the hill, and it took me another 15 to get MINE back on.  

At the end of our two days on the mountain, we decided we needed to make this a yearly trip.  It was so. much. fun.