Cookies, cookies, cookies! Year three of our girl scout troop and this is the first year we decided to sell the infamous girl scout cookies (we finally had a mom volunteer to the the Cookie Manger because I will not do it). Fun fact: girl scout cookies have the 2nd strongest brand recognition in the US after Oreos. Many troops set quotos for the girls, our focus was to work on our selling skills, public speaking to the have fun. Our girls absolutely knocked it out of the park. Julia and Kendall went door to door in our neighborhood (as well as the fancy new neighborhood behind us) and sold a lot of cookies. Julia also made a lot of phone calls (I'm all about supporting fundraisers but I won't buy anything if a parent tries to sell it instead of the kid). For those of you who are waiting for me to mail you cookies-I will do it next week.
They have been in my kitchen waiting...sorry. The girls also have an opportunity to sell at cookie booths, which you've undoubtedly seen if you have ever gone grocery shopping this time of year. We decided to keep it small and do a few booths-we ended up selling our entire booth stock the first day (incredible!). We were able to get some more cookies for the second booth and sold every box we had. The final numbers? Our girls sold 1,356 boxes of cookies (yes, over thirteen hundred!) and earned over $800 for our troop. We had a meeting a few days ago and asked the girls what they wanted to do with the troop funds. Most of them shouted-Let's go on a cruise!' It was hilarious. I told them they will each have to sell 1.3k if they want to do that. Then we moved on to more reasonable things, like roller skating and a trip to Kemah Boardwalk. Hehe.
JD is a mentor for the robotics team at North Pointe Elementary, which has 2 teams comprised of 4th and 5th graders. I mentioned a few posts ago how they team did great at the district championships and qualified for states for the first time ever. Guess who WON (blue ribbon, first place, champions!) the elementary school division for the STATE of Texas (it's a big state people, so this is a big deal). Drum roll please......North Pointe Elementary!!! Oh my goodness-it's beyond exciting!! Next up is the world championships in Louisville, KY in April. The teacher in charge of the team told them they aren't going and JD is trying to figure out what the issue is (funding, etc). I will keep you all posted. Great job NPE Robotics!!
Switching gears, Julia started swimming at Aquastar about a month ago. Turns out she joined at the tail end of the season, so the only meet she was able to attend was the 8 and under championship meet. We weren't sure what to expect and she was signed up for fly, back, breast and free. Similar to summer meets, the parents are all outside in tents and go in to cheer the kids on when it's their turn to swim. The kids all compete in U8 heats but are scored as either U6, 7s or 8s. Julia's first event was backstroke and wow-she knocked it out of the park. She was in the outside lane and won her heat-she ended up placing 5th in the 7s (earning points for Aquastar) out of 40 kids. Great job Jules! She did a good job in freestyle, was dq'd in fly and scratched breast because the meet was the same day as her school carnival and the meet was running over an hour behind. Overall, great day! The Houston Rodeo opened this past Friday which means it's Go Texas Day. The kids are supposed to dress up in their cowboy/cowgirl best. Julia had an outfit picked out and then decided not to wear it because "how am I supposed to run around the playground in boots?" Luke has no such qualms. He was behind adorable in his jeans, boots and plaid shirt. I love our little cowboy!! We started soccer over the weekend and practice went great-the kids decided on the name "Tiger Wolf Pups" and our first game is this weekend.
We watched Jimo last weekend and it was great having the dogs together again. Really-life is better with a Labrador. Or 2. Or 3!! Last Friday we hosted movie night for the girl scout troop and Jimo was LOVING all the attention from the girls. In fact, once the movie got started, all the dogs were snuggled up near someone. Jimo was happy to be pet the entire movie. Amelia and Karma were more strategic-they were going for popcorn (and yes, they got some, sneaky sneaky girls). After the girls watched the movie and played awhile, the dogs were doggone tired and went upstairs to pass out. It was hilarious!
Luke is excelling in pre-school and absolutely loves learning. He's been reading BOB books for several months now and completed the whole box set, including their kindergarten books. He even asked for his own XtraMath account (online addition practice that Julia started last year as homework). He loves it! The other night he grabbed a Dr. Seuss book (a more advanced one) and read for an hour. I cut him off (it was almost 9pm) and told him it was time for bed. He got really mad and jumped out of bed and then sat next to the stair whining "But Mommy, I just want to read! Why can't I keep reading?" Of course, I LOVE that he wants to read but the little man also needs to sleep. I'm loving our little reader. He may look like his daddy...but he loves books like his mommy! :)
Happy Monday everyone! Julia competed in her last soccer tournament (until the fall) over the weekend and the girls had a blast. They played one game on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Their coach is very focused on the girls learning positions, learning the rules of the game, having good sportsmanship on the field and most importantly-having fun. The girls were undefeated and won every game in addition to their team goals, so it was a great time for everyone. The girls were very proud of themselves and were super excited to get their medals. While the girls play almost every position, Julia seems to be settling into being a midfielder. Her speed helps get the ball up the field and she loves assisting the forwards (the girls with the 'strong feet' as she calls them) scoring goals.
Luke absolutely LOVES his swimming lessons and really wants to be an Orca this spring/summer. The only challenge is that that the pool he is at is freezing. As he has no body fat, the poor little dude is literally shivering the entire time. They actually had him get out of the pool early during his last lessons because he was so cold. They are renovating their locker rooms so he can't take a hot shower afterward, so I bundle him in towels and a blanket for the drive home. In other news, JD's Robonaut team from JSC was award 'Government Invention of the year awar.' The award was for 2014 but just now made it to him. Great job guys!
Cold!
Why are you laying on the counter with a chocolate face?
Great job Space City!
Congrats JD!
Julia lost a front tooth last week and wrote the tooth fairy a letter with several questions. The tooth fairy found her tooth 2 days later (a paper had drifted over Julia's letter and tooth in the middle of the night..which is why the TF couldn't find it). Julia was very excited to find this letter from Nissa!
Whip Nae Nae soccer style-this is how the girls warm up
Happy Wednesday folks-can you believe it is already February? I still have some January events to catch you up on, so let's dig in. American Ninja Warrior-amazing show, right? (for those who haven't watched it, I highly recommend it) I'm sure we've all wished we could compete in something like that at some point in our lives (when we were young and in shape, hehe). Well, it just so happens that there is an actual Ninja Warrior training gym in north Houston. They've trained 50 ninjas that have competed on the show and offer all sorts of classes, including kids. The gym is too far away for weekly classes (almost an hour without any traffic, during the weekend it would probably take 1.5-2h to get there) BUT they just had their 2nd ever 'Mini Ninja Warrior Competition' last month and...you guessed it-our little ninja Julia competed!
Mini Ninjas
We weren't sure what to expect as it was our first time in the gym. The kids were divided up into age brackets-she was in the 7/8 group-and then into another 2 smaller groups (approx. 24 kids divided into 2 groups of 12). After stretching, the kids had to complete 3 different obstacle courses. There was no warm up on the courses-the instructors told them how to do the course and the kids had to go one by one. One chance. Each course was timed and the kids earned points for completing specific tasks. If they couldn't complete a task (none of the kids could do all of them) they just had to move on to the next thing and complete the course as best as they could. Now, all of these kids (excluding Julia) take classes at the gym and were familiar with the courses and their parents were also 'coaching' them up on the sideline. I didn't have much to say other than 'Do your best and have fun.' She had trouble on the rings in the first course but completed the rest of the obstacles with no problem.
Mom & work friends
She did great on the 2nd and 3rd courses. At the end of the 3rd course, the kids had to run up a wall (just like on the show). The kids were all chanting "Beat that wall!" every time a kid went. It was awesome. So..how did ninja Julia do? She placed 1st and tied for 2nd in her group. INCREDIBLE!! She did not place in the top 3 out of all the 7/8's and being the little competitive athlete she is (just like her mother..) she was furious. Furious. I explained she should be proud for doing so awesome considering it was literally her first time on the courses but she wasn't satisfied. She is looking forward to the next competition. If you are wondering about Luke-they did have a 5/6 age division but he didn't want to participate. I'm hoping to convince him to participate next time.
beautiful day in Kemah
Speaking of our little man, he started swim lessons a few weeks ago at a local indoor pool. He's freezing cold (zero body fat) but having a blast! He's also LOVING his pre-school teacher at school and is constantly drawing her pictures and writing her letters. Every night at dinner we all say one great thing about our day (I think it's important to focus on positives every day) and his is always saying much fun he had at school with Ms. Cheryl. He is also reading (simple 3-letter books) and wants to do sight words at night (he actually asks). Adorable! In other January 'catch up' news, I was in Scottsdale for our national sales meeting a few weeks ago. The weather was gorgeous and the meeting went well. JD was at a gaming convention in San Antonio this past weekend with friends and they had fun. The kids and I spent Sunday at the Kemah Boardwalk going on rides. Luke is finally tall enough to go on several 'big kid' rides (yahoo!) and the weather was perfect. We also picked up girl scout cookies this weekend and need to start delivering them. Fun times!
