Ben and Cooper were in Florida for a quick trip for Cooper to compete in the USA Diving Junior World Trials in platform diving. The top 20 kids in the country were invited to compete, and the top 2 get to go to Worlds. Cooper finished 15th (and the top 12 made finals, so he was coulda woulda shoulda-ing himself like crazy), and we are SO PROUD of him. He is 14 year old competing in the 14-15 age group for the second year (terrible dive birthday!), and he is SOCLOSE to just being consistently amazing. What's frustrating for him right now is that he has hit all of his dives in competition for 8's at some point this season--but never all of them in the same competition. We have been really committed to traveling a lot for dive this year because we think the more reps he has in high stakes comps in front of judges, the more likely he is going to be to find that consistency. It's just so fun to watch him, and he loves the circuit ad has made great friends all over the country-- it's pretty amazing.
Before I rest on my grocery saving laurels, I should note that we also did a Target run for cleaning supplies and a trip to the local grocery for wine, cheese, and salads-in-a-bag, and I don't know how much that cost because Ben went, and I hate checking my account balances. #badatadulting. ALSO, we spent all of the money eating all of our meals at restaurants last weekend because SO MANY KID THINGS. (Srsly we had lunch and dinner out Friday-Sunday, which is very much not like us, but was necessary.)
BUT! I only spent $308 at the grocery store! That;'s unheard of around here!
Menu:
Sunday (yesterday LOL): Burgers, chips and veggies and dips, green beans, peanut butter cookies (I had a Costco chipotle black bean burger wrapped in lettuce, and it was SO DELISH).
M-W: SO MANY options! Sandwiches and crudite, breakfast sandwiches, eggs, pancakes, and fruit, pizza, spaghetti, deli fried chicken-- I will fully commit to being a short order cook as we get through another week full of kid things. Also there is a very good chance that takeout is in the cards tonight because Minnie and Cooper have to come to campus with me for a 4-6 thing.
Thurs: Grilled chicken breasts, baked potatoes, broccoli, salad.
Friday: No clue! Maybe tacos; maybe spaghetti. We'll see where the wind takes us.
Weekend: Dorothy has a Chicago dance convention/competition, but Ben might take her because she has only one dance (it's only for the company dances, and most of hers compete at the club level), and she wears her hair down for it. Soooooo, I could be home alone with everyone else-- meaning I will probably throw money at my feelings.
Jack had his state speech competition on Saturday. He competes in a category called special occasion speaking, and in WI, this (funny-- think mini stand-up routine built around a specific topic to a fake audience) category has 3 prompts that the students can choose from. The prompts are determined at the state coaches' meeting in July, so kids theoretically have from July-December to work on their speeches, but Jack? Decided to write his 6-minute speech the week of the year's first tournament, where he placed 4th and then took off like a (non spaceX) rocket!
He has won so many competitions this year, and he was so happy heading into state (hosted at his very own school no less!) This year, students could choose from a motivational speech by a coach, a villain monologue, or a welcome-to-camp speech. Jack did the camp speech, and it was HILARIOUS and BANANAS. SO much physical humor! SO many dark jokes about middle schoolers! He did a cartwheel In a suit! And did a Russian jump that was always higher than classroom desks!
He was elated to make semi finals (he has never broken into out-rounds at state before). Coop and I went to the high school when the semis were over to wait and see if he made finals because we planned to watch. Well! Jack's coach could not contain his delight and told Jack he was the top speaker going into finals before the postings had even dropped. Jack was SO EXCITED. To make things even sweeter, 2 of his teammates also made the final (it's unusual for schools to have HALF of the final round, so the whole team was thrilled, and anyone not in their own round came to watch.)
Jack was AWESOME in the final round, and the whole round was just ridiculously funny. Kids! They're so smart and talented. Jack got to speak in his AP history classroom, and the room was stuffed to the gills with people sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Jack got the most laughs for sure, and he was clearly so happy and proud of himself.
The whole fam came to school for awards, and JACK TOOK SECOND PLACE IN THE WHOLE STATE OF WI! His teammate got third, and his other teammate won. It was SO COOL!
