This week

We started back to school Monday.  I've already learned a lot this week.  :)

Like we did an experiment with clay and toothpicks to see how the spines in a cactus help keep it cool.

As the sun moves, the spines cast shadows on the cactus, thus helping it to remain cool.  Interesting.  

I also learned that the Rosetta Stone was something real and not just the name of a foreign language study course.  What????  

It was the tool we used to learn to read hieroglyphics.  

Eric and Gizmo reading his book for school.  He is currently reading Black Stallion in the adventure genre.  I love the above picture because it looks like G is reading too.  

Then he just laid his head on Eric's arm.  Eric spoils that dog and will not move if G is comfortable.  

We went to a fun program at the library on Monday.  It was Lego Robotics, and E had a blast!  

Here is E with the children's librarian Ms. Lindsey.  He really likes her.  She leads the book clubs he attends.  It should not surprise anyone that he was the first person they had to make the robot his own way.  Some children added an accessory or two, but he completely changed his up. 

After they played with them for a while, the kids began to battle.  

Eric won some battles and lost some.  But, he had a blast!

His is the one on the far left.  The one that comes in later is the way his looked when he started.  

There were a couple of other variations pre built.  This picture shows him battling a scorpion looking version.  That one and a robot looking one were both pre built, and the children did not alter them.  They could, they just didn't.  

We will definitely be doing this again next time it is offered.

Soccer camp started back again last night.  E is in the orange on the left.  He is enjoying this camp, although he played so hard last night that he is really feeling it today.  He has a few bangs, bruises, and sore muscles.  

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.)