It's strawberry season here in Wisconsin, or at least it was last week. We picked strawberries 3 separate times this year, and got a total of about 30 pounds. I might have gone a wee bit overboard.
Here is the beginning of mango-strawberry jam. We ran out of jam about 3 months ago, and I am making sure that we do not run out this year.
See? I went a bit overboard (and this isn't all of it). Over the past few days I made strawberry syrup, strawberry jam, strawberry-rhubarb jam, strawberry-raspberry jam, mango-strawberry jam, strawberry sorbet, vanilla yogurt, frijoles, refrigerator pickles, and pickled garlic scapes.
It got pretty hot in the kitchen some of those days. We don't have working a/c.
It was worth it though, as it all tastes SO good, and we'll especially appreciate it this winter when we get to have a taste of summer.
I also celebrated my 41st birthday on Wednesday. Calvin planned a dinner of my favorite comfort food (homemade macaroni and cheese), and instead of cake (which I don't care for very much), my favorite dessert (creme brulee).
I don't know why I put off uploading Calvin's gymnastics videos, but I do. It's not like there is anything new in them, it's the same 5 (should be 6) routines each time. Anyway, there are a lot to catch up. I won't embed them all.
In mid-February, we traveled to Iowa City for the Iowa Boys Invitational. Calvin's all around score was 61.8, the best for the season. His routines are here: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, and parallel bars.
March started off with a meet at Salto, where he got an all around score of 57.1 (floor, pommel, rings, vault, and p-bars).
The following week was our meet; his all around score was 57.3 (floor, pommel[painful!] , rings, vault [messed up his steps], p-bars).
The week after that was state, which Calvin qualified for, as they changed the qualification score. His all around score this time was 60.9 (floor, pommel, rings, vault [messed up his steps again!], p-bars).
Finally, this past Saturday was regionals. They were held here in Milwaukee, so we didn't have to travel anywhere. The boys started out on floor, where Calvin got a score of 13.85:
Next was pommel horse, which was painful to watch. He got a score of 6.2:
On rings he got a 12.8:
Then it was on to vault, where he got his steps right! His score was 14.45:
Last, parallel bars, with a score of 11.75:
His all around score was 59.05.
He also got to meet Morgan Hamm. Paul (his twin brother) was there as well. Morgan will also be at Porter Camp this summer, so they'll get to hang out again. :)
We had another gymnastics meet Saturday night. The team started on high bar, and Calvin did not compete on that event. He really needs to work through whatever issue he is having on it, because he will not be able to qualify for state without a high bar score.
After high bar they rotated to floor, where he got a score of 13.8:
Next was pommel horse, where he got a score of 7.6, one tenth better than last week, plus I think he didn't fall off as much:
After pommel comes rings, with a score of 11.2:
On vault he got a score of 14.2:
The team ended on the parallel bars, where Calvin got a score of 11.9:
His all-around score was 58.7, improving by two tenths from last week. Next meet is in 3 weeks, so he has plenty of time to focus on getting that high bar routine ready for competition!
By the way, this meet was especially fun to watch, as the session was for levels 7 through 10. Some of the skills the 10s do are just breathtaking, and sometimes it was hard to decide which event to watch.
Competition season has started again for Calvin. This year he is in Level 7. My understanding is that this is a particularly difficult level, and he has really been struggling lately. His first meet was Sunday. He actually did much better than I was expecting, since earlier in the week the team had run through their events with a judge and all did pretty terrible.
The boys started on rings, and Calvin scored a 13.2:
Next was vault, where he got a score of 14.2:
On the parallel bars he got an 11.1:
He did not compete on high bar (he needs to be able to do giants better)
Next was floor, where he got a score of 12.5 (he shouldn't be landing on his butt for a front tuck, he almost never does that!). I especially like his first tumbling pass, with that beautiful layout:
The boys ended on pommel horse, which was pretty rough for him. Calvin got a score of 7.5:
His all-around score was 58.5. Not enough to qualify for state yet, but now he knows what he really needs to work on, and has a goal to reach for. Next meet is Saturday night!
by the way, the team got new uniforms this year, they look pretty nice, no?
I have been so bad in posting! We had a wonderful, busy summer, and, as all good things do, it has come to an end. School started on Wednesday.
Caleb started high school. I can hardly believe he is a freshman!
Calvin is at the top of the totem pole this year, starting 5th grade. Middle school next year!
Connor is in 1st grade, and will be having his first experience going to school all day. He's loving it so far, telling me it's fun to eat lunch at school, and that he LOVES recess.
As for me, I am now home alone during the day for the first time in a long long time. I do go to the elementary school every day for noon hour recess supervision, but otherwise, I am on my own. I have grand plans for my time. Maybe I'll finally get those living and dining room curtains finished, the halls repainted, my sewing room cleaned, and some clothes made. :D
A few weeks ago, on January 3, Calvin had another meet (yeah, I'm behind in getting the videos up). He did pretty well, improving on his previous scores.
Para la familia del sur: Aqui estan los videos de la gimnasia de Calvin. Está era su segundo competición de este año. ¿Él es muy fuerte, no? Mi papá quisiera ver su nieto. Una trabajo perfecto sera diez y seis puntos. ¡Ganó su equipo primer lugar!
Los videos! ;)
First was floor. He scored a 13.4, and I think this was good for first place in his age group (I forgot to write down his placing on the events):
Next was pommel horse, where he got a score of 12.0:
On rings he got an 11.4:
He got a 14.5 on vault:
His p-bar routine got 12.5:
On high bar he got 12.9:
His all around score was 76.7, which was good for 5th place in his age group (10-11). Best of all, the team won first place! They were pretty thrilled:
Calvin had a gymnastics meet yesterday, the first of this season. He has moved up to Level 6, so that has meant learning new routines. Each routine builds on the previous level, so while there are similar elements, there are new things to add. What has made this hard for Calvin is that in practice he'll be working on his new routine and then find he's automatically doing the old one. He was nervous about this meet because of this and because he's really been struggling with some of the events. This is a really nice meet to start the season because the judges will talk with the boys and/or coaches after each event about what they did well and why they got certain deductions. It's kind of like a practice meet. :)
This year he started on high bar, one event he was quite nervous about. You can see he uses grips now, and he hates them. They take some getting used to, and even though he's been using them all summer, he still hates them. He was worried about his cast. It's a scary skill to learn, but he did it! He got a 13.2:
Next was floor. On his last pass he forgot to do his scale, but he remembered in time to go back and do it. He got an 11.7:
Then it was on to pommel horse. Not his best event by a long shot. After he watched these videos last night, he told me he forgot to do 2 of the circles on the mushroom, which would partly account for the very low score (the mushroom counts for quite a bit of the score). He got an 8.8.:
(by the way, if you want to see some amazing pommel skills, check out this routine by Alexander Artemev)
He uses grips now on rings as well (they are different than the high bar grips). He hates those too. He scored 11.3:
He got a 13.4 on vault. He needs to run faster:
He seems to really struggle with p-bars in practice also. He did pretty well, and managed to get up into some handstands (something he seems to be hesitant to do). I can't remember what the skill is called where he has to hold himself over the bar and then go into a press, but he did it much better here than I've seen in practice. He got a 12.7:
His all around score was 71.1, which was good for 8th place in his age division (ages 10-11) and a little trophy. :)
School started on Tuesday. I don't really look forward to new school years. I like my kids hanging around and having lazy mornings. :) But, start it did, and here are the requisite pictures: Caleb is an eighth grader now, has decided to play football this year (along with soccer), is now much bigger than me, and still gets annoyed that I want to take his photo on the first day of school. I did say I would be happy to walk him to school too but he declined. :)
Calvin is now in fourth grade, and also is now getting tired of the traditional first day of school photo. This year our neighbor up the street is in his class, which is pretty nice.
Connor had his very first first day of school! He is now going to senior kindergarten, in the mornings. What the photo doesn't show is how excited he was to go, and he made a friend the very first day and had a playdate planned with said friend 2 days later! There are only 10 kids in his class, which I think is great.
Now I have the mornings to myself for the first time in a long time. It's kinda weird, but I'll surely find lots to keep me occupied, like the quilt that has to be done next weekend. It's been all cut out and ten of the sixteen rows are already together.
Oh my, June has zipped by and we're almost halfway through July! Time to catch-up:
Caleb built some alternative energy models for the Human Ecology Fair at school. This is a hydroelectric generator. When they ran water down the chute, it generated enough electricity to make a buzzer go off.
We spent Father's Day at the Boerner Botanical Gardens. David's dad and wife came to visit also.
This past weekend we went up to Minneapolis, MN, for the Region 4 Gymnastics Championships (region 4 consists of 6 states: IA, MN, NE, ND, SD, and WI) . They were held at the University of Minnesota. The NCAA Men's Championships were also that weekend (same venue, in the evenings), so on Saturday night, Calvin and I went to see the individual event finals. WOW. Some amazing stuff!
Calvin competed on Sunday morning. There were 123 level 5 gymnasts of all ages, and about 30 or so in his age division (age 9). The meet style was Capital Cup, which means the gymnasts warm up on an event, then compete on that event, etc, etc. Since there were so many gymnasts, they were divided into two "flights", and while flight A was competing on their events, flight B was in the other gym warming up.
On to the videos! Calvin was in flight A, and started on rings. He scored 13.9, good for 16th place:
Next was vault, where he scored 14.4, and 6th place:
On p-bars, he scored 13.5 and 15th place:
He scored 14.5 on high bar, which was good for 5th place:
Calvin changed into his sport glasses for floor (he broke his regular glasses on Easter, and was wearing his backups). He got a 15.1 and 7th place:
He had some difficulty on pommel. He got a score of 13.1:
With an all-around score of 84.5, he got 11th place. (He's the 3rd gymnast on the right):
Practice is year-round, but it'll be nice to have the break from meets. Now it's on to Caleb's soccer games, which start this Saturday!
This past weekend was the Wisconsin State Men's Gymnastics Championships. Calvin competed yesterday afternoon. He had been nervous about this meet for almost 2 weeks (unusual for him). Mama? What if I do bad? What if I mess up my floor like I did in Iowa? You'll be fine, Calvin. But what if I do bad?
He did fine.
He started on floor and got a score of 15.1, good for 7th place (level 5 ages 8-9):
Next was pommel, where he felt confident enough to try his flares on the mushroom, and got a personal best score of 13.8:
Then it was on to rings, where he got a score of 13.9 and 16th place:
Vault was next, with a score of 14.5, and 7th place:
His p-bars routine got a score of 14.3, which was a tie for 9th place. He took 10th place (event ties are broken by the all around score):
Last was high bar, where he got a score of 13.6, another tie for 9th place (he took 10th):
His all around score was another personal best of 85.2. Not only that, he got named to the all-state level 5 team (the top 20 boys ages 7-9, by all around score)! This means he gets a t-shirt and gets to go to a Brewer's game with his coaches. He was pretty excited about that (I know it doesn't look like it, but he always gets kinda serious when he sees me taking his picture).
I'm really proud of Calvin. I think he's done very well this season. He started learning 4 of these 6 events last June or July, and I remember tears and frustration from him last summer complaining that he'll never figure out how to do a circle on the mushroom, or he'll never remember his floor routine, or he just can't do a kip. He's come so far and has been so determined and dedicated to improving. We are all so happy and very proud of him.
Today Calvin had another gymnastics meet (I know! A whole month without a meet! He was supposed to have one 2 weeks ago, but it got cancelled). The meet was at M&M Gymnastics, home of Olympian Chellsie Memmel. Calvin did well (level 5 ages 8-9).
This time around he started on vault, and got a score of 14.2:
Next was p-bars, where he got a score of 13.0. There is a deduction each time his coach touches him to prevent him from going over. However, it's good that Calvin being aggressive in going for the handstands, instead of hesitating because he is afraid to fall over. His coaches want to see him going for it:
Then it was on to high bar, where he nailed his routine! His clear hip circle was fantastic, and he got a score of 15.5, and first place:
After high bar, it was on to floor. Again, he did very well, and got a score of 15.4 and 2nd place:
Ah, his most difficult event, pommel horse. He didn't fall off the mushroom! He got a score of 13.5, which I'm pretty sure is a personal best:
He finished on rings, where he got a score of 14.7 and 8th place:
His all-around score was 86.3 (another personal best, I believe), which was good for 10th place. In two weeks he has the State meet, then on to Regionals in April, and then our meet season is DONE. :)
This past weekend was spent in Iowa, for another gymnastics meet. As there was no school on Friday or Monday, we made it a little family vacation, visiting with relatives, who were able to come and watch Calvin compete (even his great-grandmother -- how special is that!). We drove into Des Moines on Friday night (running into a bad snowstorm just at the end of our drive). Saturday afternoon we drove up to Iowa City for the meet, watching a NCAA mens meet that night. Very cool! Sunday morning was Calvin's session, and afterwards we drove back to Des Moines to visit some more. We came home yesterday. Phew! Ok, on to the videos!
This time, Calvin started on rings. He got a score of 14.6, and 4th place (level 5 age 9):
Next was vault, and he stuck his landing! With a score of 14.9, he got first place:
Then it was on to p-bars, where he got a score of 13.2. I can see he is still sometimes hesitant to go all the way up into the handstand. I think he doesn't want to fall over again:
On high bar, he got a score of 13.9 and 4th place:
Then it was floor, where he had a brain fart and botched up his first pass. He did a dive roll instead of a front handspring and realized it while he was doing it! He finished off his routine and was laughing about his mistake afterwards. He got a score of 13.5:
His last event was his nemesis, the pommel horse (actually, it's the mushroom he has trouble on). He got a 12.0:
His all around score was 82.1, which got him on the podium in 6th place. Overall, we had a wonderful time at this meet. There were teams from 8 different states (NE, IA, IL, KS, SD, WI, MN, and ND) and everyone had a good time. I'll definitely sign him up for this meet again next year.
Calvin had another meet yesterday, and did quite well. His grandmother came all the way from Arizona to watch him compete, and thoroughly enjoyed it. He also had a surprise in store for us that he would not tell us about (and then slipped up and told us anyway. We decided we can scratch CIA operative off his list of possible careers. ^_^).
This time around, they started on high bar. His surprise was that he has finally gotten his kip! He scored 13.9 and got 4th place in the 9 year old age division:
Next was floor, which I think he did very well on. His score was 14.9 and that was good for 2nd place:
Pommel seems to be his weakest event. He got a 12.4 this time around:
On rings he scored a 14.2, good for 4th place:
His vault got a score of 14.6 and 2nd place:
On p-bars he got a 13.8 and 5th place. More importantly, he didn't fall:
His all around score was 83.8, good for 5th place overall in his age division. He was quite pleased with his routines and his six medals!
I finshed a hat for Calvin yesterday at practice. This was such a fast hat to make! This was also my first experience with Malabrigo, and Yarndude? you were totally right, this stuff is great. The pattern is Thorpe, a top-down hat with flaps. I made a medium, and it's a bit big. Rav project page is here. Look at the cute baby variation she has too! I'll be trying that one next, for a friend who had a little girl last Thursday. Calvin also wants me to put a pom pom on top. As I said, I finished this at practice last night, and one of the coaches saw it and practically begged me to make one for him. :) So, Calvin and I will go back to Loop and he'll pick out some yarn for Dave's hat.
Now, about those bones.... On Friday, Caleb slipped on the ice on his way to school. He hopped home (he had only made it to the next door neighbor), and said, "Mama? I fell down." I took one look at his now very swollen ankle and paged the doc. She said to take him to the ER or the clinic, so I took him over to the Urgent Care clinic. Two hours and four x-rays later, we were sent home with crutches and a boot, with instructions to call later on in the day for the final radiologist report. That came back as a possible distal fibula fracture (and it is) and instructions to see an orthopaedic doctor. We did so on Monday morning, and Caleb now has a cool black cast for the next six weeks. He also now is out for soccer, out for the snowboarding/ski club at school, and out for the next few scout campouts. :( The cast is a chick magnet, though. :)
Calvin had another meet this weekend. It was at our gym, which meant I had to help set up, tear down, and work a concessions shift. We both worked Saturday night (Calvin was a runner -- he would bring the scores over to the computer), which meant we got to also watch Levels 7-10 compete. Pretty cool!
He competed yesterday afternoon. He told me he was a little nervous, since they were the host team. Like last time, they started on floor. He got a 13.7, and 5th place in his age division (8-9):
Next was pommel horse. He got a 13.2, and 10th place:
Then he did rings, earning a score of 13.7 and 12th place:
Next was vault. He was pretty happy with it, as you'll see. He got a score of 14.3, which was part of a 4 or 5 way tie for 6th, but he got 9th place (to break a tie, they go to the all around score):
On p-bars he had some trouble. He got a score of 11.4:
Last was high bar. He is just so close to getting his kip! I watched him do one in practice on Friday. He got a score of 14.1 and 4th place:
His all around score was 80.4, and that got him 10th place. He was pretty happy, and it was so cute to see all the boys shaking hands and congratulating each other during the awards presentation.
Calvin had his first gymnastics meet of the season today, and did pretty well! He placed 14th in his level (5) and age division (7-9) with his All Around score (79.6), out of 46 boys. Considering that six months ago he had never even been on 3 of the 6 apparatus (rings, pommel, and p-bars), that's great!
Before I get to the videos, I want to let you know that there is a new scoring system. If you watched the Olympics, you saw gymnasts get scores above 10, such as 16.325. In 2006, FIG instituted a new scoring system that combines an execution score (where the 10.0 would be awarded for a perfect routine) with a degree of difficulty score (such as 6.5, this is decided by the skills that are combined in the routine). This year the new scoring system is being used not just in the elite levels but in all levels. So, the boys are now getting scores like 13.8, or 14.1. At Calvin's level, all boys do the same routines, so in order to get the higher scores, one tries for bonus points. For instance, on floor, bonus points are awarded for holding the press to handstand for 3 seconds, or for doing 2 back handsprings at the end of the routine instead of 1. (Trust me, I don't understand it all yet either)
Ok, on to the videos! Unfortunately half of his floor routine is out of focus because it was quite crowded downstairs in the actual gym, so I was trying to get pictures from upstairs. (word of advice: taking video through glass doesn't work) Here is his floor routine, with a score of 14.1:
I then moved down into the gym. Next, his pommel horse routine, with a score of 11.2. Pommel horse does not get the nickname "the beast" for nothing:
Currently, Calvin's favorite apparatus is the rings. Bonus points are given if one can do the muscle-up (a pull-up that transitions into a dip. It's the first skill he does in the routine) without help. He got a 14.2:
On vault he got a 14.0. Bonus points are scored for height:
He got a score of 12.8 on the parallel bars:
His last event was high bar. He is so close to getting his kip (he's managed to do it once or twice), and when he does, he'll get bonus points for doing it on his own. He got a score of 13.3 yesterday:
I had a really fun time watching him compete. Now he has about 3 weeks to refine his routines for the next meet.
Here in Milwaukee, trick-or-treat is always held on the Sunday before Halloween, in the afternoon. It's always been that way (I don't know why); I never trick-or-treated in the dark on Halloween as a child. Anyway, here are the boys: Caleb was a biker. He was going to be the Joker, but I didn't get a costume done in time, and it actually turned out for the best, as we had to quickly leave town a few days later for a family funeral (having green hair at the funeral probably wouldn't have been the best thing. ^_^)
Calvin was Zorro, Connor was a ghost. He was going to be a doctor again like last year, but at the absolute last minute he wanted to be a ghost. It's a good thing I keep a bolt of muslin on hand at all times.
As I mentioned above, we had to go to Iowa for a funeral. They do trick-or-treat there at night, usually on Halloween (it was on the 30th this year, and they call it Beggar's Night instead). My FIL dressed up as a clown, Caleb decided to go as a pirate this time, and Connor decided to skip the whole thing and stay home to play with trains. One of the traditions in Iowa is that you have to tell a joke to get your candy. Calvin told everyone that he doesn't do jokes, he does tricks. So he'd go into the person's yard and do a running roundoff into a backhandspring. In a cape. It looked pretty darn cool. People were pretty impressed, and would give him extra candy. He scored big on the candy in Iowa!
I used Butterick 5656 for Calvin's Zorro cape, adding 10" to the length, and using the collar piece from the tunic. To finish off the collar, I stitched it on as if I were making a dress shirt collar stand. It's sewn all around the neck and front edges, leaving the top open.
I then trimmed and clipped the collar. After pressing it, I turned under the open edge on the top.
To finish it off and close the opening, I edgestitched all around. A finished collar, with all edges enclosed!
Today was the first day of school! Needless to say I was a little distracted and spacey this morning, but I remembered at the last minute to get a picture of Caleb, and totally embarrass him (that's in the mama job description, right?): "No! We'll do it when I get home. Aw, come on, in public even!"
We found out that Calvin is in the same class as 2 of his good friends, and his teacher has the most awesome hair (it's silver! gorgeous! great cut! yes, I am shallow!). I told her about Sonja, and she said she'd give Calvin a little extra TLC. I also, in my spacey-ness, forgot to pack his snack, and took forever to find the thermos for his lunch (he went with grilled red potatoes, a cut up pork chop, some BBQ sauce, grapes, and a drink).
My mom helped me get Sonja's body to the vet for cremation. Now Connor and I are home, it's a little too quiet, and I finally got a shower in. It'll be a long day for Calvin, as I won't see him until about 7:45, when he gets home from gymnastics practice (my mom is taking him today). Caleb has soccer practice, and the crazy Tuesdays/Thursdays begin....
It's official. My middle man is now 9. As usual, we talked about the day he was born, and shared his birth story. It's an especially cool one, as he was born at home (unplanned), on a staircase. He LOVES hearing his birth story! He had 2 friends over on Tuesday for a slumber party, and tomorrow gets to go to another birthday party (for one of the friends that stayed over). Life is good when you are nine.
(I'm scheduling this one to post about the time he was born. We're not sure of the exact time, but this is close enough, and what we decided to put down 'officially')
We picked strawberries 3 separate times this year, and got a total of about 30 pounds. I might have gone a wee bit overboard.
Here is the beginning of mango-strawberry jam. We ran out of jam about 3 months ago, and I am making sure that we do not run out this year.
See? I went a bit overboard (and this isn't all of it). Over the past few days I made strawberry syrup, strawberry jam, strawberry-rhubarb jam, strawberry-raspberry jam, mango-strawberry jam, strawberry sorbet, vanilla yogurt, frijoles, refrigerator pickles, and pickled garlic scapes. 
It got pretty hot in the kitchen some of those days. We don't have working a/c. 
It was worth it though, as it all tastes SO good, and we'll especially appreciate it this winter when we get to have a taste of summer.
I also celebrated my 41st birthday on Wednesday. Calvin planned a dinner of my favorite comfort food (homemade macaroni and cheese), and instead of cake (which I don't care for very much), my favorite dessert (creme brulee).
