Another "Outstanding" at the Fair

This is Maria's fourth year in 4-H, and her third year competing with a clothing project (her second year she tried photography but then came back to clothing).  This year, Maria wanted to knit so she entered the "Tops for Tweens" category and knitted a tank top.  I helped her pick the design and yarn color, but then she was pretty much on her own, as I don't know much about knitting.  I did help with the "blocking" at the end of the project right before she attached the front to the back.  She got lots of compliments, though, and most people would ask me if I knitted as well.  I told them no, that she had one grandma who taught her how to knit and the other grandma taught her how to crochet.  She is very fortunate to have such wonderful grandmas!

Maria's judging interview took place last Thursday, and she did very well.  She scored "Excellent" in 7 out of 8 categories, with the only "Good" rating under "Fit."  We did notice that the back gaped just a little, but I have no idea how to fix that.  Her judge wrote comments like "Wonderful" for design, "Just great!" for personable qualities, and "Oh yes!" for knowledge. 


Yesterday was the Style Review, where the girls model their outfits and they learn how they did when they were judged.  Maria ended up with an "Outstanding" ribbon, which is the highest you can get, and also got a specialty award.  Out of all the girls taking a clothing project (probably about 50), seven of them are recognized for illustrating one of the "Seven Clues to Achieve a Total Look."  These include things like fashion, fit, construction, posture, poise, construction, and grooming.  Maria won the award for grooming, which came with a $10 gift card to JoAnn Fabrics.  The only disappointment of the day was that she was not chosen as the representative in her category to go to the State Fair.  The girl who was chosen had a top that looked pretty difficult to make, and since Maria went last year, its good for someone else to have that opportunity.  Overall, it was a great experience and we are very proud of her!

Goodbye, Harry Potter

I know, I know.  Everyone's talking about it, everyone's writing about it.  But this is a family blog, and this Harry Potter stuff has been pretty important to our family, so I need to write about it.

I didn't read Harry Potter until the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban was out.  I never enjoyed fantasy type books, and I was busy with Maria, who was an active toddler, and I just thought in spite of all the hype, I wouldn't enjoy the books.  I was wrong.  My college roommate and fellow lover of books, Amy, convinced me to give Harry Potter a chance, and boy was she right.  I zipped right through the first three books, and then I caught up with the rest of the world, anxiously awaiting the release of the next book.  I even got Ben to read them, and if you are aware of how many actual books Ben has read in the last 15 years, you would know what an accomplishment that was.  (Ben is very well-read, but prefers magazines, online articles, etc.) 

When Maria was in second grade she decided she wanted to start reading the first Harry Potter book.  I had tried the previous year to read it to her, but she never really caught on to it and we quit partway through the second chapter, I think.  Maria has always been a avid reader, and I couldn't understand why she didn't enjoy Harry Potter that first time, but when another boy in her class started reading the books, then she became interested.  This was the first experience in what has turned out to be a pattern of her not taking my advice on what books she should read. But as long as she reads, that's fine.  I never took my Mom's advice at her age either.

So once Maria read the first few books, she started to watch the movies, which of course, we own on DVD.  Sam, who was too young to read the books at the time, and had no attention span for me to read them to him, started to watch the movies too.  We have spent many weekends watching the ABC Family marathons with Harry Potter movies - they're just that good.  I think the 5th movie is the first that Maria watched in the theatre.  Sam has seen the last couple on the theatre, although not this last one because he was afraid he's be scared.  The storyline is over his head too, and so he's bored a lot of the time.  I wish I could get him interested in reading those books, but he hasn't had any interest yet.  I still have hope, though.  Anyway, I saw the movie with Maria, and then Ben went later that night on his own so we could take turns staying with Sam.

I love being able to share the experience of reading the books and watching the movies with the kids almost as much as I like reading the books on my own.  Maria and I each have our own copy of Deathly Hallows because when it was released, we couldn't wait for each other to finish it before we read it.  I was never into Star Wars as a kid, never liked Lord of the Rings, so this is the first series like this that I have ever been a fan of.  And it's a great story, with characters that you love (or love to hate) and the timeless good versus evil theme.  And the characters are all flawed in some way, which allows us all to relate to them.  And the best part for me, what Ben calls the cheesy part, is that epilogue when they all grow up, marry each other, and have great kids who will experience a better world because of what their parents fought for.

I just love it, and I am very sad this last movie means its all over.  Harry Potter has been around almost the entire time I've been a parent, and I've already missed the new books, now I'm going to miss the new movies too.

Golf Champion!

Maria competed with the Union County Junior Golf Academy and Tour (UCJGAT) this summer for the third year.  She played in the 10-12 age group, but usually the 10-11-year-olds were allowed to shorten the holes while the 12-year-olds were not.  There were about seven girls who competed in this age group, and they play nine holes during each outing.  The tour consists of playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays for three weeks, and each round is at a different course in the county.  Maria did pretty well on each outing, although sometimes the scores were difficult to compare since the younger girls played on the shorter tees.  Each round of golf stands alone, but the last round is considered the championship.  The championship round was at Darby Creek, which is probably the nicest of the courses in the county.

Maria won the round on Thursday and brought home the trophy.  The scores from her division are below.  We're very proud of here - especially since she only had one practice round with Ben all summer - we have just been too busy to fit it in!

Academy Girls 10-12                                                                                   
Maria Keller    6    6    4    10    5    8    6    7    5    57                                           
Samantha Zaborowski    6    9    5    8    7    9    7    8    5    64                                           
Edie Morris    5    9    5    8    10    7    7    6    8    65                                           
Elizabeth Mueller    7    10    6    10    9    9    5    7    7    70                                           
Emily Cook    7    10    7    10    10    10    6    6    8    74                                           
Isabel White    5    7    7    10    10    10    6    9    10    74       

The End of Baseball Season

This is Sam's second year of 8U baseball.  When the season started it looked like it would be another rough year, but many of the boys really improved as the season progressed.  They ended the regular season with a record of 8-4, and entered the tournament with a 4th seed out of 9 teams.  I think we lost more than we won last year, so already the season was a huge improvement.  Wednesday was our first tournament game, and we won with a score of 13-5.  The boys were so excited - most of the kids are the same as our team last year, and I think maybe they just expected to lose their first tournament game since that's what happened last year.

Saturday was our second game - we had to play the number 1 seed.  Our boys had trouble getting a string of hits together, and weren't really fielding very well in the beginning either.  It seemed that they were nervous, and some boys that usually have no trouble hitting the ball struck out.  But by the end of the game we were doing much better.  Unfortunately,  the score was 8-1 going into the 6th.  Sam was the second hitter in that inning (the first hitter struck out), and he hit the ball and made it to first base.  That started a string of hits and runs, and we brought the score to 8-7, with several of those runs happening with two outs.  But we didn't have enough time, and so the boys lost.  But I don't think the boys were as disappointed as the might have been if that last inning hadn't been so exciting.  Sam wasn't too disappointed, he was mainly happy with his successes (2 for 2 with one run scored).  

So baseball's over for the year and soon it will be time to think about soccer again.  Sam seemed to enjoy himself this year and have a good experience (and he improved a lot too), and that's really all that matters.

Thanks to Rita for the pictures!

Hilton Head Vacation

Last week we went to Hilton Head with Ben's parents.  We do a beach vacation with them every other year, but the past three times have all been to Kiawah Island and this was the first time to Hilton Head.  This is also the first time we drove in separate cars - Ben and I had to attend a wedding on Saturday, so Ben's parents took the kids down on Friday and Saturday, and Ben and I drove straight through on Sunday and met them at the condo on Sunday evening. 

As the kids get older these vacation change, and usually that means they become easier.  They can both swim, so we don;t have to be right next to them in the pool all the time.  And they like to stay up late and sleep in, so they don;t requiring entertaining from the early morning on.  We spent most days at both the pool and the beach.  Maria liked to hang out at the pool with us, Sam would swim for about an hour and then come back up to the condo to play in his room.  A perk at the condo that the kids don not have at home is a TV in their bedroom, and they enjoy hanging out on their own in there.  At the beach, we built sand castles and the kids liked to use the boogie boards.  The weather was hot, but not really unbearable on most days.

Ben and I ran most mornings, although not together - he liked the beach and I enjoyed the shady bike trails.  And Ben and his parents golfed twice.  We also ate out a lot and shopped - Sam's favorite restaurant was Hot Dog Harbor, although he only gets his hot dog with ketchup so it must be the atmosphere that he enjoyed.




All in all, it was a great vacation and I hope the kids will have awesome memories of their time spent there.