So This Was Christmas...

Bothered

This is what it would look like if I, an Ewok or Chewbacca wore a strappy, high heeled boot.
I don't think that's the look most ladies are going for.
So why do I see the ad for these boots on every web site?
They are hideous.
I hate them and they are stalking me.

Season's End

Grump.

Today was the 2011 NorCal Level 4 State Championships.  As you can see from the photo, Lydia was not happy with her performance.

Happy Little Lumberjack

Luckily, her Lumberjack's Breakfast cheered her up pretty quickly!

 She really didn't do so badly, my Lydia is just hard on herself.  She got medals for every event.  You can see the scores in the chart I made up below. (I had to make my own.  I wasn't happy with the score tracker sites out there.)

Medal Wall!

I think Lydia had a great first season.  She placed in 35 out of 40 possible events.

Two of those medals were 1st place, one was 2nd and seven were 3rd place.

Lydia also holds the title of "Zone 4 Vault Champion".

We are super proud of her and can't wait for her Level 5 season!

Silly Kid

Goofball!

Date	Meet	Level	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	A.A.
08/13/11	Meet At Mavericks	4	8.525 (13)	8.325 (7)	8.875 (3)	8.425 (6T)	35.150 (7)
08/20/11	2011 NAWGJ Judges Cup	4	8.900 (3)	8.025 (7T)	8.225 (8)	8.550 (8)	33.700 (7)
09/10/11	2011 River City Classic	4	9.175 (9T)	8.675 (4)	8.600 (4)	8.275 (12)	34.725 (4T)
09/17/11	Candyland Classic	4	9.275 (2)	8.725 (3)	8.625 (3)	8.625 (6)	35.300 (3T)
10/08/11	Tumble in the Jungle	4	8.700 (11T)	8.675 (6)	9.150 (3)	8.750 (11)	35.275 (6)
10/15/11	2011 Circus Parade	4	9.500 (1)	8.975 (3)	8.875 (4)	8.825 (6T)	36.175 (4)
10/30/11	Zone 4 Championships	4	9.525 (1)	8.300 (12)	8.750 (8)	9.275 (4)	35.850 (7)
11/20/11	NorCal State Championships	4	9.000 (8T)	8.925 (7)	8.975 (8T)	8.900 (8T)	35.800 (9)
~*Personal Bests*~		4	9.525 (1)	8.975 (3)	9.150 (3)	9.275 (4)	36.175 (3T*)
							*Highest place does not coincide with highest score.

Rowan Lost A Tooth!

Rowan is very happy to have lost her first tooth today!  She's been dying to lose one for years.  

I remember her as a tiny, little 3 year old saying, "Look, Mom, my tooth is wiggly!"  as she shook her entire jaw at me.  

This tooth started wiggling for real on the morning of Halloween.  She played with it so much that day I was sure it would be out by nightfall.  It hung on for 10 more days despite the constant attention from it's owner.  This morning, Rowan decided she'd had enough and pulled it all on her own!

Although she tells me she doesn't believe in the tooth fairy, Rowan will still be putting her first tooth in the lovely box she got from her friends Eva and Irenie for her birthday.

Update!  Rowan's best friend, Ciara, pulled her loose tooth on the same morning as Rowan did.   They really do do everything together!

Rowan's Tutorial

Rowan teaches you how to make a toy. Daddy says she's our future Martha Stewart.

Tumble in the Jungle 2011

Lydia had her first late meet on Saturday.  It started at 5pm in Larkspur.

Until now, all her meets have started early in the morning.  It was quite a change for all of us!

Lydia was not happy with her performance.  She expects to earn medals for every event.  This time, she placed in 3 out of 5.

I think she did a fine job. Although she didn't place on floor, she did earn her highest score to date!  She also received her highest score on beam (9.15), which earned 3rd place.

In addition to 3rd on beam, she placed 6th on bars & 6th all-around.  That puts her up to 21 medals for 5 meets!

All the gymnasts received a cool leo as their gift.  Lydia is modeling it in the picture Daddy took with a Droid app.

As always, you can check out the full scores by following the link.  ---->

Updated Scores!

Lydia had her 4th meet today.  Check out her scores!                                                                      

Pre-meet photo by Rowan. :)

         














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Desmond's Bath

While the girls & I were cleaning, Desmond decided he wanted a bath.  Instead of asking for help, my self-sufficient little boy just helped himself!

Dinnertime

Judges Cup Meet Results

Lydia's 2nd meet was today.  This one was local, but it was still an early day.  Wave took this picture of  Des sleeping during awards.  It was really loud, so you know he was a tired boy!

Lydia had another successful meet!  This meet was much bigger than last weekend, so awards were given up to 8th place.

Lydia earned a trip to the podium for every event!


Here's the summary...

3rd place on VAULT (A great improvement from last week when she got last place.)
7th place on BARS
8th place on  BEAM & FLOOR
7th place ALL-AROUND

Once again, her team took first place!  Yay, Byers!

If you'd like to support Lydia at her next meet, it's September 10th at 8am at Byers Elk Grove.

Meet At Mavericks - August 14, 2011

As most of you have heard, Lydia's first gymnastics meet was this past weekend. It turned out to be a great first experience for her (and me!).  Use the link  to view the pictures and videos we all took throughout the trip.  2011 Meet at Mavericks

On Saturday, Grandma Susie came to Sacramento and we all piled into her car for the trip to our hotel in South San Francisco.  After a long trip due to the heavy traffic, the kids played in the pool & hot tub with their Daddy. We followed that up with snacks and drinks at the hotel happy hour.  Wave and I picked up some fast food for Grandma & the kids then went out for sushi by ourselves.

Sunday morning, we were up at 6am.  Lydia's hair still takes me a while to put up properly.  We were out of the hotel at 7am.  The trip to Moss Beach took about 1/2 an hour.  Breakfast muffins & orange juice were a pretty good on-the-go meal.

It was chilly in Moss Beach.  My favorite, foggy-type weather.

The meet started at 8am.  Byers competed on beam first.  Amazingly,  Byers girls earned the 1st, 2nd & 3rd best scores in Lydia's division and they held for the rest of the meet!

We are so proud of Lydia for her 3rd place score on beam!  Beam is the event that she has shed the most tears over in practice.  Parts of the routine were really hard for her to master and a fall caused her a lot of anxiety over the dismount.  3rd place at her first meet is a great accomplishment!

Along with 3rd place on beam, Lydia tied for 6th on floor.  She ended up with 7th place all around.  Her all around score qualifies her to compete in the Level 4 State Championship on November 19th or 20th!  Byers took home 1st place as a team. Here are  the  full results for her division.

Lydia Performs

Lydia performed at the Byers Olympics on July 17th.   Lydia is in the middle, her best friend, Zoe, is on the left and Sylvana is on the right.

Lydia will begin competing with the Level 4 team August 14th.  We are very proud and excited!

Here's a link to her competition schedule.  I'm sure she'd love to have some support at meets.

Check out my YouTube channel for videos of Rowan's performances at the Byers Olympics.

Right Now...

A compilation CD is playing on the stereo.  The girls are off chasing lizards.  Wave is on the couch.  Des & I are enjoying the deck. Aaaaah....

jen.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre

The Best Salad Ever

I ♥ you, arugula.

I had the best salad ever today.  I can't stop thinking about it.  It was so, so good.

Today we had brunch at a little place in Davis called Ciocolat.  Some other people ordered some other things, but I ordered a salad.  A spinach & arugula salad to be exact.

Spinach & arugula are two of my favorite things.  I eat spinach several times a week.  Arugula is more of a luxury.  It's not available all the time or in every grocery store.  I get it when I can.

But I digress...  Back to the salad.   Mmmm...

Picture a good sized plateful of the aforementioned leaves, cubed mozzarella, shaved parmesan, hearts of palm, a drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper.  It was so good, I ate it without the dressing.  I also ate it without thinking to take a picture.  You'll have to enjoy the arugula field instead.

Thanks for lunch, Mom.  Good find!

7:54 am

So far this morning...

Bunnies escaped from their backyard cage.
Desmond pooped on the floor.
Captured rabbits. Got scratched.
Desmond pooped on the floor again.
Smoke detector went off.
I'm out of coffee.

It had better get better...

I ♥ Books

I love books.  I  L-O-V-E books.  I ♥♥♥♥ books.  I won't go so far as to say I luv books, though.  That's just wrong.

Lydia had an assignment recently to estimate the number of books in her house.  (Incidentally, completing that assignment  earned 5 free books!)  She did this by counting the number of books on a few shelves and getting an average number.  Since all our shelves aren't the same size, she used a tape measure for the length.  Working together, we came up with this equation.  23 inches = 25 books.  It took some time, but she came up with 1250 as her answer.

Since then, I've been looking around and realizing that we missed some books.  There are books on tables, in tables, under tables and in baskets.  There are books ALL OVER Lydia's floor and under her pillows.  I have stacks of books in my room.  Rowan & Desmond sleep with books in their beds.

Still, it's not enough.  I need more books.  I can't enter the library (which we do at least once per week) without perusing the sale shelf.  Most of my coins go into the mouth of that hungry, metal box.

I've recently discovered PaperBackSwap. It's a site where members can list books they are willing to part with.  If someone else wants one of your books, they'll request it.  You then send the book to them.  You can even buy and print out postage right from the site.  For each book you mail out, you get to choose a book from someone else's list.  You earn bonus books for listing your first 10 books for trade and for signing up new members.  (Use that link up there to help me get more books! :)

I'm actually a pretty picky reader, so most of the books I want are not available on PaperBackSwap.  They do have a lot of books that Lydia wants, though.  She's been reading an average of 2 books per day, so I need all the help I can get to keep her in books!

My new source for my books is Borders.com.  They have an amazing selection of used books at truly amazing prices.  With the $10 gift cards Matt send Desmond & I for our birthdays, I was able to get 14 books!  Yes, really.  Fourteen books for $20.  I'm a Borders Rewards Plus member, so I don't have to pay shipping ever.  (That's really worth it, by the way.  It's $20 per year.  You get $10 back in Borders Bucks to spend + free shipping + and extra 10% off a lot of things in the store.)

Another book site I like is The Book Depository.  They have a good selection and shipping is always free.  They also have a really cool map that shows what people around the world are buying.

It is so exciting to me that, at this very moment, 16 books are speeding their way to us through the mail. (I got 2 yesterday.)  Even more exciting, I spent hardly any money on those books!

Yay, books!

Benches by Rowan

Happy Friday!

For Papa

Lydia was excited to show Papa her round-off back handspring, so she and Rowan made this video of each other (and Desmond).

Check It Out!

I've added a couple new videos.

My YouTube Channel

Porthos Paints

Do you think this is what the Easter Bunny looks like when he's done dyeing eggs?  

Porthos ate part of a picture Rowan had just painted and ended up blue from his nose to his tail.

Our bunnies live in the same room as our art supplies.  It's a constant battle to keep it all cleaned up and out of reach.   These naughty little rabbits eat everything they can get their paws on; books, crayons, pencils, paints & paper.  Nothing is safe!

Good thing they're cute...