Return to Rochester

 James had another meet in Rochester this weekend (although at a different gym).  This one was held at the Chili high school, which is pretty fancy!

We weren't sure if James would be able to compete all the events, because on Thursday he jammed his finger playing basketball at school.  It was swollen up and he couldn't bend it all the way.  Fortunately, it healed fast and he didn't seem to have any trouble with it today!

He had a good meet: first place on rings, first place on vault, fourth place on parallel bars, high bar, and floor. (He fell on the pommel horse/mushroom, so no surprise that he didn't place on that one!)  And he came in third place overall, which earned him a fancy trophy. Their team won first place.

(At his last hearing aid appointment, they gave him new tubes for his hearing aids -- which is annoying because they're a little too long for gymnastics, and so his hearing aids flop around when he's doing his floor routine. Not sure if it's fixable without making them too short! We tried to put some sticky stuff on them to temporarily stick them to his skin, but either it wasn't strong enough or it wore off.)

Meanwhile, Rochester was breaking February temperature records by getting into the low 60s.  We didn't stick around after the meet to enjoy it, but the boys had a great afternoon here (temps in the mid-50s) playing outside with their friends and even riding bikes.

 

More Medals

James had a gymnastics meet in Rochester last Sunday, fortunately in the afternoon so he didn't have to have an early morning or late night. He and Mike went; Mattie and I stayed home. (Today was my first day back at work, and I thought the trip might be a little too much exertion.)

James had another good meet.  He won third place all around, first on parallel bars, and four other medals.

Green Belt

 Even though it seems like he just got his orange belt, Matthew earned his green belt on Saturday!

Guest Reader Race Night

 The boys's school had "Guest Reader Night" on Friday.  This time, they had "Amazing Race" stations set up around the school where the kids had to do an activity (a puzzle, a fill-in-the-blank reading, mazes, etc.) and get a stamp on their "passports." If they completed the passports, which I think basically everyone did, they could get a prize. (It was a big hit -- the mom who was organizing it said they didn't expect so many people to come!)

This year they did all the readings in the auditorium instead of different classrooms.  Matthew didn't go to any of the readings (although he did find a Minecraft book at the book fair), but James and his friend Jake went to Mrs. Weber's reading.  (She is the school librarian and a huge favorite with the kids.)

Guest Reader Night is the closing event for the two weeks of PARP (pick a reading partner), which also includes competitions for how many minutes each class reads at home.  James's class won the second grade reading-minutes competition the second week!  He was very excited.  (Alas, his class did not get drawn out of the hat for the prize -- having one kid from the class be Principal or PE teacher for the day.)

Mrs. Weber, the librarian