New Hair

I have flat-ironed my hair nearly every day for I don’t know how many years…  and before that I dried it to make it go straight.

I recently got my hair cut and my hair dresser suggested sometimes wearing my hair wavy – since it is naturally that way and I was worrying about the damage that might be caused by the flat iron.

I have tried this wavy thing one or two times, and was going this route this morning but got distracted with lunch preparation, shoe locations, and other exciting morning routines.  By the time I remembered my hair, it had moved from wavy to frizzy…

I fixed it the best I could, but it was iffy.  Still, I didn’t have time to dry and flat-iron it – I had to get the boys to school and then was out all day.

Of course, it is the day that you think your hair looks bad that you run into all kinds of people that you don’t normally see… at least 7 different people that I haven’t seen in weeks, in my case.  Oh boy.

I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t that bad.  But then Owen dropped the bomb.  I was discussing my hair with Nana and Dock at dinner (you know, to let them know that I knew that it looked bad so they didn’t go around thinking that I thought it looked good, and then they would have the dilemma of wondering if they should tell me it wasn’t a good look, or think I have terrible taste in hair…)  ANYWAY…Owen mentioned that his classmates had seen my hair and asked him about it.  (what are 7-year-old boys discussing my hair for?!?)   Owen shrugged his shoulders: “I just said, ‘I don’t know, I guess she forgot to brush it.’”

nice

a few photos

Sunday’s Game – Owen was at a birthday party, but Jack and the team won!   (Jack’s in the middle – getting ready to hike the ball.)

Cousins at “Owen’s Beach” at Point Defiance

Serious tree-climbing

and relaxing…

Oh my, can you guess who this is in the middle?

None other than the (not so) baby Grady!

Flag Football

I know nothing about football.  I have never really been concerned about this before, but today I felt a little worried.  The meet and greet for the boys’ team was today.  And I found that I had a lot to learn.  First, they have a racket going on with their photos.  Write your credit card on the line…

Second, I had no idea how a mouth-guard goes in.  “Does this go on the top or bottom teeth?”  I asked.  A kid pulled his hearing aid off his ear, and said, “Like this.”  Then he put his hearing aid in his mouth.  Only it wasn’t a hearing aid; it was his mouth-guard.  Um, is that where you are supposed to store it when it isn’t in your mouth?  It does seem better than on the ground where Jack kept his.  Yummy.

Third, some people take sports (for 6 and 7 year olds) really really seriously… Eric nudged me, “They are talking about adding practice days, you should be involved.  That’s all you.”   I furrowed my brows.  Weren’t practices and games on Sundays? 

“All of the other teams have met 4 or 5 times already!  We need a mid-week practice!” one of the parents insisted.

Why did this sound so much like, “Mom, all the other kids are doing it!”?  But, apparently we are now practicing on Tuesday afternoons too.  There goes my one free day…

Fourth, I don’t actually know any of the rules so that I can practice at home.

Owen and Jack LOVED the short practice and scrimmage that they had today.  I guess the team even won their practice game.  They had tons of smiles, and were really involved and chattered all the way home.  When we got home they ran outside to practice right away. 

Jack had been worried because he had been transferred from his age team to Owen’s because there weren’t enough kids for the younger league.  But Jack seemed to keep up just fine, and the coach couldn’t tell which boys was older…

Jack – Number 19

Owen – Number 12 (in the middle of the photo)

Jack’s Camping List

S’mores, tent, food, hotdogs, ketchup, mustard, root beer, buns, eggs and bacon.

Owen’s New Moves

I figured there would be a lot of playing at gymnastics today since the state meet was last weekend, but Owen was as determined as ever.  The door to the gym was still locked, and Owen told his coach he wanted to do a flip (he called it the proper name…)

Owen landed his flips on the double-mini today for the first time.  His smile was so so big.

He also got closer to the moves for his backflip.  Here is one with help from his coach. (Don’t mind me helping Jack spell in the background.)

T&T 3rd Meet and the State Competition

At his third meet, Owen beat his own score again in double-mini. 

It cracks me up when Owen salutes the judges because he looks like he’s in the ranks of the Hitler youth…

Waiting to be signaled by the judges to begin.

Waiting for the awards…

Owen got a special “judges’ award” that he was very proud of. 

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The state final was this weekend.  It was a bigger competition and Owen was waiting around at least two hours before it was his turn.  Owen seemed a little off the whole time.  Still, he improved his score on double-mini once again, which was great.

My camera wasn’t working during his trampoline, so I didn’t get any photos.  He must have touched outside the lines or something during the event because his score was only about half of his other scores at other meets.  Still, he was happy to have participated and is proud of where he is. 

Trampoline and Tumbling Competitions

Owen was markedly nervous during his first meet in January, but it seemed to help with his focus.  To me, his trampoline routine was one of his best.  He got first place in both of his events.

 

These are his coaches. 

When Owen first saw his uniform, he asked his coach, “You know I’m not a girl, right?”

The routines are fixed, and all participants must do the prescribed routine.

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March Meet - Owen was much less nervous at his second competition.  He got a 2nd and 3rd place medal, though his individual scores went up in each event.  That was hard for him to understand, but he liked that he had medals of each color…