Spring Break!

Hurray! Peter, Owen and Reilly were on spring break last week! Pierce, too, of course. Me, too, I guess. Although today, with everyone back in school for only the 10th day all year, sorta feels more like a break :) but I digress....
For the first time in 10 years, the weather in MD was PERFECT for spring break and we all loved soaking in the sun, although it was still quite muddy thanks to the ton of melting winter snow. Happily, that didn't stop the spring breakers from opening the garage and spilling its entire contents of bikes, bats, balls, hockey sticks, gloves, and scooters every single day. I said, "No." to the sprinklers and water guns though. But "Yes!" to a couple of friend sleepovers and a day trip to National Zoo. If you go there, you keep your fingers crossed that you will get to see the real rock stars of the zo0...
The Giant Pandas! We got there in time for breakfast....
and a nap!
We thought the sloth bear hauling its baby around was so cute... and oddly... familiar! Owen and Reilly also took photos of...
the meerkat and ...
the prairie dogs. Dad took pictures of...
the elephant. I took pictures of....
Reilly! Owen and Pierce were not in the mood, but they got a kick out of...
the billy goat with its own playground equipment and Dad's favorite was...
the Komodo Dragon, not really but it posed for him, so why not? Actually, we spent the most time laughing at the gorilla family swinging all over the place with their 14-month old baby, a lot of which also looked very familiar! Too bad they live behind glass and photos really don't work. But maybe you'd rather not see how they eat: they have poor digestive systems so they have to vomit and re-eat their food several times-YUCK! Oh well. At least when you have to sit down to dinner at our house, you can remember that and know we really are doing better than the monkeys! No matter. Pierce loved it all... especially getting to see all the "animals" (a great word to learn at the zoo) with DADDY!

Won... and Done!

Connor finished his youth league wrestling career with his personal best season, notching his first winning record in the CAWL and falling just one match short of placing at the MD-VA states. He won his first match at states, but then let a second-round defeat by the eventual 2nd place finisher destroy his confidence, putting him at a 5-0 deficit after the first period of his quarter-final match. He outwrestled his opponent in the last two periods, picking up 3 critical back points in the closing seconds of the gut-wrenching match, but still fell just short, losing 5-4.
We walked away a bit disappointed, trying to remind ourselves that he really did learn a lot this season and succeeded in elevating his wrestling to the elite level. The high school varsity coach gave him a pat on the back and told him he can't wait to get him on the team next year. After a ceremonial trash-can toss of Connor's much-maligned stinky kneepads (the whole team cheered), we headed where every wrestler heads when it's over: to get some food! (You often hear eliminated wrestlers, going out the door saying, "At least now I get to eat!")
Connor had been craving Chick Fil A for 4 weeks so we went to the mall where he downed a spicy chicken sandwhich and large fries in record time, and then ran into his baseball buds and coach who treated him to a long-promised milkshake. So good bye to the stinky knee pads and long winter Saturdays in the 85 lb. weight class and hello spring, metal cleats and diamond dreams!
Great job, Connor!
103 lbs. or bust!

Wrestlers on Top

Let me just begin by saying that wrestling is, BY FAR, the most difficult sport the boys participate in. I say "participate in" because wrestlers don't "play". They sweat their butts off every night in the gym wearing insulting t-shirts that say stuff like:
"Other guys PLAY with balls, wrestlers HAVE them" or
"If I wanted to do something easy, I would have played basketball" or Owen has one with the Incredible Hulk wearing headgear that says, "You won't like me when I get angry!" and I've even seen
"If your grandma were wearing a singlet, I'd take her down, too." Go ahead, laugh, it's okay. A wrestling gym is one of the few places left in America where a boy can still be a BOY.

However, my personal favorite t-shirts tend to be more motivational:
"Everyone has the desire to win, only champions have the desire to prepare" and
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog" and
"Train to near death. Rest. Repeat".
Connor has one that says "I wrestle. I wrestle with demons of doubt. With my past failures. With my injuries. With that unrelenting voice that tells me to stop. But I am a wrestler. And one thing is certain. I will be victorious." I even kinda like the pink ones that say "The only thing tougher than a wrestler is his MOM!"

So it would be safe to say I am proud of my wrestlers, no matter what. I am proud of them every time they step on the mat. They are tough and brave and smart and determined, traits that will take them lots of places far away from any wrestling mat.

Reilly had a great year in the B League, placing 5th in the county, a huge improvement for him over last year. He proved to us all that he can use his moves and stick with it through the tough times, even though I begged him to quit and stay home and color and read stories with me instead. :)
Owen stuck with it all year and never lost his cool (okay, only lost his cool once) even though he wrestled seriously underweight in the toughest league around. When he came up against someone his own size, he put them on their back almost every time.
Here is Owen, in deep on a double-leg takedown.
Here he is squeezing a half nelson.
And now, he stuck him! (Awesome photography by Connor; I am always running the video camera, trying not to pee my pants and/or throw up during their matches!) He did win bronze at the region qualifier, too. Most of the time though, Owen can be found bumming around the gym with the guys long after he's been eliminated and is the favorite, all-around team little brother.

More great news is this was FINALLY Connor's year! After winning the county B tournament his first year and then placing 5th in the county A the next year to qualify for states, Connor was promoted to the travel team for his third year and he has never had a fantastic record since, despite winning the team spirit, leadership and hard work award every season for the last three years. He has had to struggle, persevere, learn to manage his weight and find satisfaction in personal bests and baby steps toward the podium. Two weeks ago he took the gold medal in the region qualifier and with this being his last year in the youth leagues, set his sights on really doing something special at the beltway league championship tournament. Look at all these boys waiting to wrestle:

Connor in the skin and nail inspection. This is the first time the boys usually start looking around the gym and sizing up the competition. It makes me so nervous!
Here he is shaking off the nerves right before a big match. Sorry no action photos (Owen's not as good with the camera as Connor is but....)
...here's the sweet victory smile! He finally pulled it all together and wrestled really well against the best of the best, giving the eventual champion his only close match on his way to 3rd in the tournament, including 4 pins and an overtime victory against a former nemesis. He successfully qualified to wrestle in the Maryland/Virginia State Championships again this weekend! He was so happy he pumped his fist coming off the mat, a huge expression of elation from a kid who is always known for being SO SERIOUS. Dad got to be there and I got to see the video. Priceless.
Here he is with his trophy and the other state qualifiers from his team. Go Connor! We've always been proud. But it sure does feel good to be happy for you, too, this time! And, as those Dan Gable t-shirts say, "Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy."

Happy 8th Birthday Reilly!

Reilly had a fun birthday and enjoyed being the man of the moment around here. He chose pizza for dinner (what a surprise....) and vanilla cake. That's it. I asked him repeatedly what kind of cake he would like and he knows that means ANYTHING AT ALL is possible but all he kept saying was "Vanilla".
"What kind of cake, Reilly?" I'd ask.
He'd say, "Vanilla."
"What kind of frosting , Reilly?" I'd ask.
He'd say, "Vanilla."
"What color frosting, Reilly?"
"Doesn't matter. As long as it's vanilla."
What kind of decorations would you like on the cake?"
"Don't know. Just vanilla."
"Any special theme or picture that would be cool?"
"Not really. Vanilla."
You get the idea. So I came up with my own idea... a green number 8 (Reilly's favorite color) with a baseball and a soccer ball (his two favorite sports). He liked it a lot.

Meanwhile, Pierce decided, that since it was out and I had my attention focused elsewhere, he could seize the chance to finger paint with the red Wilton cake dye. The table, the chairs, his clothes. He was caught red-handed (literally) and will be for the next 2 weeks, I think. It should fade in time for Reilly's baptism on March 28, which he is really looking forward to. A special thanks to Graeme for the thoughtful birthday gift of organizing all of Reilly's baseball cards into a binder, to Connor for UA batting gloves, and to Owen for a Zhu Zhu ball. We love you, Reilly.

The only way
I'm going to get anything done....

Pierce likes chillaxing (Owen's new word: chilling + relaxing) in the dog crate we set up when Nana's dog Misha was visiting so we haven't put it away yet. Whatever works, right?

The big guy says Merry Christmas from the Joyces!

It's MLK. Not Santa. Sorry. This post is very late. Actually, it's not late; we're just keeping Christmas in our hearts all year long, right?

Connor

Favorite gift to give: Orioles Santa cap to Graeme
Favorite gift to receive: Under Armour metal spike baseball cleats

Graeme

Favorite gift to give: Credit Card Monopoly

Favorite gift to receive: Nerd book from Mom.
Just kidding: definitely ipod touch.Owen

Favorite gift to receive: DSi
Favorite gift to give: "The Nutty Professor" movie and snack basket for Dad

Reilly

Favorite gift to receive: DSi to share with Owen,
first ipod from Aunt Meg
Favorite gift to give: ball books for Pierce

Pierce
loves his coloring book from Nana best of all.

I was laughing so hard I cried over the "Report Card" the boys made me. I got the highest scores in "Encouraging" and "Overall Awesomeness" but was scored lowest in the winter marking period for serving soup regularly.
Hopefully I made up for it by serving cookies for breakfast.
Dad gave each of the boys his OWN 2009 complete set of baseball cards. Go e-bay Dad! They were thrilled!

" I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

Martin Luther King

Now who's gonna clean up this mess?

P.S.
And Santa really did come. However, only half a gift: a large bucket of baseballs. The note he left explained that due to our huge snowstorm (a real white Christmas in MD) rooftop landings were tricky this year and the professional grade batting tee he'd planned to give the boys slipped out of his sleigh and plummeted to the ground somewhere over Delaware. Only a heroic dive by Blitzen had saved the balls. He promised to send elves out in search of the batting tee and mail it to us via the post office when it was located. We waited several weeks, started to doubt the elves, and then, one day while I was out running errands, our mailman Bob delivered the package to Connor, just like this:
That must have been some tumble from the sleigh! So, as I said, we're keeping Christmas in our hearts all year long and we hope you do, too.

Why walk when you can run... everywhere!

Mommy made me stop for just a second to take these photos for Aunt Priscilla because I am wearing Timmy's hand-me-downs for the first time! Thanks, they're just my style! Now she's making me go take a nap so she can do the Christmas blog... finally!