Easter eggs

Oh yeah....Easter Eggs!! There isn't to much to say about them. Jake dyed his hands every color of the rainbow and enjoyed himself tremendously. I had to do at least ONE egg...that is mine with the little blue hearts all around.

Alex and Micah found a box of latex gloves and decided to utilize those to keep their hands from changing colors.

Caleb abstained from our traditional Easter festivities. He hasn't dyed eggs or carved a pumpkin since he was 10 year old. I guess he's just not the "holiday" type of person. He stayed in the living room and played Rock Band with Tilden. Alex never misses the opportunity to dye eggs. :)

I know this is a little late, but I finally uploaded a little video montage of Micah playing basketball. I spliced a few scenes together and it should show up on the Youtube link.

Have you seen Susan Boyles?

While I was watching some entertainment news last night I saw this clip about a 47 year old Scottish woman named Susan Boyles. She tried out for Britan's Got Talent and wowed the judges, included Simon Cowel.

Well, on a whim in a moment of bordem today I decided to google her and have a look at her song. It popped up on YouTube and has had 20 MILLION views in under a week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I watched it out of curiosity to see what the buzz was and I was so shocked to find myself crying. I can't even pinpoint why it made me cry. It was something about her "sweetness" and her total unphased simple personality. She gives you something to laugh at in the beginning in her little pre interview because she's so witty. When she takes the stage she is actually booed as soon as the crowd hears her age. It doesn't even bother her and she just starts singing. She shuts the crowd and the judges right up in about 2 seconds into her song. When she is done she simply walks off the stage and has to be called back. She is just SOOOOO completely lovable and you want her to succeed. I couldn't help , but to share her video. LOL

Track update

I figured that I'd keep you all posted on Micah's progress. He had his second track meet today and dropped his times in both the mile and the 800 meters. Both races had around 20 participants.
He came in 5th in the mile with a time of 5:53!! Obviously, he is getting faster :)
He came in 3rd in the 800 meter with a time of 2:51. He was in the top 2 kids from his school in this race, which was the goal. Only the top 2 times can go to some of the bigger meets. He was trying to be in that elite group.
After the meet his coach came up to us and said, "Wow, that Micah is improving fast. He's doing great for a 7th grader. He runs his hardest at practice and always listens to us and that is why he's getting better. He's easy to coach."
Tilden and I were pretty proud of him. Not only is he working his butt off at track, but he also got a 4.0 this grading period. Add to that the fact that he made it through the second sets of cuts in his try outs for the Olympic Development Soccer Team. THAT is incredibly difficult to do. They only take the cream of the crop to form the Ohio team. He made it part way last year, but was cut at this point. He's gone one step further so far.
The try outs are pretty far away and it's a commitment from US as well as Micah. He begged us to allow him to try out because he just loves this sport. Everyone else that is trying out has been playing for international teams and paid thousands of dollars for personal training and elite camps. Micah is going in there with just sheer talent...very little training. No one knows who he is, but he is fighting his way through try outs and forcing them to notice him. LOL He sure is scrappy!

Kraynak's

If you are missing Kraynaks....here you go!

Easter Bunny Lane.

Jake and Micah liked this SpongeBob scene the best.

Jake was pretty enthralled with this giant stuffed duck. He talked a lot about how it needed to come home with him and be his "new friend". LOL
I'm not sure what this scene was all about, but it appeared that Sesame Street characters were attending a birthday party for Winnie The Pooh.

A trip to Kraynak's isn't complete until you've wandered through the green house and smelled all the flowers. :)

My picture in the header is actually from Kraynak's 2008. heehee

Micah's first track meet

This is our first experience with Middle School track. Alex ran track for 2 years at the high school level, so we were familiar with how a track meet works and all those detailed things. Middle school track is different though because they don't do finals for anything. It seemed unorganized and chaotic at times, but maybe that was just the location...who knows? LOL

Micah is one of the youngest kids on the track team, but it doesn't seem to matter to much. He is so competitive and has been this way all of his life. As he was running the 1600 meter race ( 1 mile ) I was remembering all those times in his life when he needed to be first. He was constantly asking us to time him on whatever he did and he ran everywhere he went. He even owned his own stop watch by the time he was 4 years old. I guess that he's been a track runner his whole life and it's FINALLY gotten to the point where he can put all that energy and desire to good use.

The 1600 meter race at a track meet is the longest race in middle school track. They go around the track 4 times. Tilden and I were discussing Micah's thoughts as he ran. As his parents we knew exactly what that boy was thinking. He looked at each runner on that track as his enemy...his prey. He would see someone ahead of him and then he would literally hunt them down and pass them with this intense look on his face. We heard him shout , "Come on you are faster than this" to one of his team mates as he passed him, LOL. ( they are good friends )

There were 20 kids on the track for this race and it was the first time Micah has ever stepped foot on a track for a competition. Eighteen of the runners were 8th graders and had run before. He started off slowly and paced himself for one lap and then systematically hunted down runners for the next 3 laps. I took this picture in the home- stretch of the final lap, you can see Micah is putting every last ounce of his energy into passing this kid. Micah completely took this kid off guard and literally FLEW to catch him.

Unfortunately, this boy was more familiar with how to "work" a race. He got close enough to elbow Micah and knock him off his lane. It took Micah off guard and he slowed up just enough for this boy to pass him just 2 yards from the finish line. He talked about it a lot that night. He said that when he was shoved he wasn't sure if that was like a foul or if maybe he stepped out of his lane and was going to be disqualified and it disoriented him enough to make him "lose his game". I'm sure that was the point!! LOL One thing about Micah though...that will NEVER happen to him again. Once is all it ever takes and he has it figured out now.

He finished that race with a time of 6:24 and was 5th place. We were VERY proud of him and impressed that he could hold his own in a pack of experienced 8th grade boys. He runs a pretty fast 400 meter too , but was not in that event this time around. The coach is still trying to figure out where to put all the kids for the bigger races. Micah's goal is to be one of the boys chosen to attend the Invitationals. There are 40 boys on his track team and they can only take about 15 of them to the big meets. He wants to be one of those boys. Good Luck, Micah!!