Fox Theatre

Monday night our friends' son was singing a song during a program at the Fox Theatre.  I was going to keep their baby for them while they went.  However, the mother had bid on some extra tickets at a silent auction fundraiser and won them.  So, she invited us to come and use those tickets.

Three newbies about to enter the Fox.  

We visited with our friends and took lots of pictures.  We wanted to give the baby plenty of time to walk around before she was stuck in the seats for the show.  

Eric and Jonah took turns pretending to be the king and the jester.  I love Eric's face as the king.   

Another king picture.  So, I am understanding that Eric views kings as haughty and grumpy.  Hmm..

There were four seats in our pack, so Jonah sat with us.   This theatre took my breath away.  We had amazing seats.  We were four rows back in the first level of the balcony.  We had a clear view of the stage.  The ceiling above us had twinkling stars and moving clouds.  We felt like we were in an outdoor amphitheatre.  It was cool and comfortable.  My friend had won this seats at a silent auction, and I think they were probably close to $100 each.  

The show was called Joy, An Irish Christmas with Keith and Kristyn Getty.  It was so good.  Eric loved the music, and we ended up ordering him a CD for Christmas.  

My favorite part was when Buddy Greene sang "Mary, did you know?".  He was the writer of the music for the song.  That was pretty amazing to me!  

Cole was one of 20 children who were chosen to sing a song with Kristyn Getty.  What an honor!

At intermission I met up with Cole and his mom. Cole really wanted to sit with Eric also.  I told them the row in front of us had been vacant during the first half, so they were just going to come up and join us.  By the time we got there, the second half was starting.  And someone had the same idea we did, and the row was no longer empty.  So, I quickly sent Cole in to my seat, and I went down to sit with the others.  

Their seats were not nearly as good.  And it was quite hot under the balcony.  

But, the night was such a blessing to us.  Thank you, Crabtrees, for taking us.  

Blessed

Something about these packages made me cry a bit today.  I so love being this boy's mom.  I am blessed.  

Musical

I was in our adult musical at church Sunday night.  I straightened my hair and wore make up.  No one noticed.  It was a lot of work too.  I rushed home from the meet Sunday afternoon to take my second shower of the day so that I could straighten my hair.  Then I put on make up and got dressed and left in less than an hour.  Sigh.  

Here is a cute picture of Eric playing with the baby from Saturday night.  

Swim Meet Day 2

Saturday evening, I babysat some kiddos here in GA.  They have some boys Eric's age, so he hung out with us for several hours, then Robert took him home to go to bed early.

I was exhausted Sunday morning, so we wrote Eric's events on his arm.  I was afraid I would tell him the wrong thing.

E started with the 100 Free.  He took 2.79 seconds off his previous best time and swam it in 1:21.27.  Woo hoo!

My mostest favoritest swimmer ever!!!!

E chats with the other swimmers in line.  He doesn't care if he knows them or not.  Love this unsocialized fella.  (wink, wink)

He did great in his 100 Back.  He swam it in 1:26.01, dropping 3.22 seconds.  Yay!

He swam his 100 Breast in 1:50.26, adding 2.39 seconds to his best ever time.  No complaints though.  Still a great swim!

His 50 Fly was also not his fastest.  He swam in 48.88 seconds, which is 2.26 seconds slower than his fastest time.  

However to get three best times in one meet, was fantastic!

Eric is the person diving in at the topmost spot.  

Before and after each event, the swimmers check in with their coaches for tips and feedback.  Here
Eric is talking to Coach Penny.  

Swim Meet

We did our first two day swim meet this weekend.  We have never done that before.  However, we knew that we would be going to church Sunday night for my musical, so we decided to try Sunday as well.  The meet was about an hour from our house, so we had to leave at 6:30 each morning.

For the first time, Eric wore his pajamas to the meet.  I think he liked it because he wore pajamas the next day too.  He changed once we got there.

Here's Eric in his pajama shirt with his buddy Ian.  

Getting ready for his first race, the 200 Free.  He's the one leaning on the diving block looking over his shoulder at the times on the wall.  He is always chomping at the bit to get into that water.  

He did well on his 200 Free.  It wasn't his best time.  He swam it in 3:02.33.  This was 1.45 seconds slower than his fastest time.  He started out super fast, and then had nothing left.  He will learn better how to pace himself.  We were so proud of him, though.  200 Yards is a long swim.  It's 8 lengths of the pool.  

He had lots of fun between events at this meet.  We have been here long enough that he has friends on the team.  Ian and his mom started out about 10 rows in front of us on the bleachers.  Before the meet had started, they had moved to the row right in front of us.  

That only lasted a little while.  Then Ian ended up on our row.  

We were joined shortly after by another sweet fella named Will.

They had lots of fun hanging out for the next 5 hours.  

E had two more swims that day.  He had a nice long break after the 200.  His coach knew he would need time to recover!  His next swim was the 50 Breast.  He got his personal best time in this event.  He swam it in 48.25 seconds, taking 2 whole seconds off.  That was huge for a 50 yard event!  He came in 14th place.  I was impressed with that.  There are so many swimmers at these meets.  He rarely places this high at a USA swimming event.  They are just filled with too many amazing swimmers.  

His last event was the 100 yard IM.  There is a little back story to this one.  He tried on his competition suit, but it was too small.  It was a 26, and speedo brand is not cut well for his body type.  So, we ordered a 30 online.  It came in Friday.  He tried it on, and it was still too small.  E and I went shopping and bought a 34, because I wanted to make sure it fit.  I knew it was a little big, but it could be pulled tight in the waist with the drawstring.  The next morning at his IM, he went to the bathroom right before...and we forgot to tie his drawstring.  So, during the race, he had water flowing in through the waist of his pants, giving him significant drag.  Therefore, he did not have his best swim.  But he did well.  And we made sure that string was nice and tight for all his races the next day.  ;) 

A day to breathe!

We have been so crazy busy lately.  Insanely, crazy, ridiculously busy.  I tried to back out of a few things we had going on, but that didn't work out well.  So, I pushed through, and we made it to the other side.  Now, we have a week of almost nothing.  Breathe in, breathe out!

This morning we took it easy.  Jiggy had left a candy cane hunt for Eric in the living room.

All 10 candy canes found!  (And the one on the floor next to Eric belongs to Gizmo.  I guess he decided to try to help.)

Straight A

I just checked his Chemistry grade for the fall.  E ended the semester with 105%.  Yes, the super nerds do all the extra credit assignments that are offered.  We just can't help ourselves!

Here is the breakdown of his grades:

Day 2 of Christmas/Soccer

Another excited morning, although not quite as frantic as yesterday.  

Jiggy decided to help Eric loom, but got a little tangled up instead.  Silly elf.  

Day 2 of Lego Advent Calendar was a little boy in a cool hat eating a pretzel while taking pictures.  Thanks for the extra pretzel and camera pieces, Lego!!!

Soccer last night was very good.  It was a large group of 10-18 year olds.  They worked on some skills, then split into smaller groups by age and played 4 v 4.  Eric did great.  He got very aggressive and scored 4 goals for his team.  They rotated the teams playing every 5 minutes.  There were 3 teams in his area, so every 10 minutes he got a break.  

His team was orange.  Since he was already wearing orange, he didn't have to wear a pinnie. 

Soccer practicing

E's winter soccer starts tonight.  He is super excited!  I mean he has been asking about this for the past few weeks.  He cannot wait.

We get in practice when we can.  We practice a little passing when Mimi was here over Thanksgiving.  We even worked in a little practice time when we arrived 30 minutes before the library opened on Sunday.  In my dress shoes.  Yeah, that was interesting.  But, he loves him some soccer, so we did it.

Book it

As a 6th grader, this will be Eric's last year to participate in Book It from Pizza Hut.  I find it fascinating that most reading programs cut off at 6th grade.  We never ended up using any last year.  I was determined to use his certificates this year, so we headed out to find a Pizza Hut.  I learned that very few Pizza Huts have dine in areas anymore.  I thought they all did.  Guess I was kind of spoiled by North Little Rock.  So, we got a pizza for him to go.  And some breadsticks for me.  I was wanting a salad bar.  Oh well.  He sat in the front seat to eat (yes, he still rides in the back.  He will until he is 13.  That's the safety recommendation. Always feels funny when he is sitting up there.  I do look forward to having him up there someday.  Will make riding around more fun. ) And he read a book.  I guess that is fitting for the Book It award.  Here is my fella.  Hanging onto the handlebar with his left hand, waiting for his pizza to cool, enjoying his book.

Love him so!!!!

December excitement

It was like Christmas morning here today.  Eric woke up early, shot out of bed, and took off through the house to look for Jiggy.  Sure enough, he had come back.  

He also got to start his Lego advent calendar.  We did this when he was 6, and he loved it.  As much as this fella loves his Legos, we decided to do one again this year.  Here is his day 1 build - two remote control cars with remotes.  Can't wait to see the finished product.  

We always love when they include extra pieces.  It's better than when we used to find a toy in a box of cereal.  Here are the extra pieces from build 1.