Henry: Wrestling

Henry completed another season of wrestling - his 2nd full year of competing in tournaments.  This year he wrestled for Competitive Edge Sports where he has gone since last year's season ended.  He practices 2-3 times a week.

He kept a fairly busy tournament schedule from January - March; wrestling most Sundays and a few Saturdays.

He did win a tournament at Norris but would usually come in 3rd or 4th.

There were 4 kids in Henry's bracket at Districts . . .regardless, Henry came in 3rd and qualfied for state!

State was quite the experience.  Henry's 1st match was the 12th bout on the mat.  He got the 1st points and kept the lead for a bit.  The 3 period ended in a tie.  Henry's opponent won in sudden victory.  Henry had a buy the next round and didn't wrestle again until bout 62th bout.  His opponent got the lead and continued getting points.  The match was called when the score was 0-14. 

Henry's confidence has grown through wrestling. 

Ralph: Gifts & Cake time!

Ralph finally got to open gifts and have cake four days after his birthday!  We have learned not to mess with violin practice time (in addtion to it being a CCD night).

Ralph receive many different books.

This year's cake was themed with music in mind - specifically the violin, bow, musical notes, and the Happy Birthday song.  As always, many thanks to my friend Cheri to meeting the challenge set before her!

Ralph tried to "play" the violin but made comments about not having a certain string.

He gave the cake two thumbs up!

 . .and deep in thought making his wish.

I'm not sure he could have gotten any more cake on that fork!

Ralph: Celebrating his 11th Birthday with Friends

During spring break the week before his birthday Ralph took a friend to Urban Air - the 1st visit for his friend, Henry, and Ralph.

We also took another friend to Amazing Pizza in Omaha another day.  The boys much preferred the video games to the rides but tallest/oldest two did hit the go karts a few times.

Ralph: Celebrating 11 years!

(from March 20, 2019)

After I took a photo of Ralph on his 11th birthday he wanted to take a photo of me on the 11th anniversary of me being a mom.

At 5:56 pm 11 years ago Ralph was born; this evening at 5:56 pm he was practicing violin.  As a general rule of thumb Ralph likes to get his violin practice minutes in on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thurdays so he can spend his time reading as much as possible on the weekends - along with other activities.  On the weekend if nothing is immediately going on Ralph will have to be encouraged to eat breakfast around 9 am just so it can be crossed off the list as he would spend the whole morning reading in bed if he could.

Ralph has yet to have a need for an alarm clock.  He usually wakes up by 6:30 am; the "worst" of mornings it can be as late as 7:15-7:30 am.  

Athletic pants are his 1st choice for bottoms in the winter followed by cargo pants with an elastic waistband.  I'm not really sure the last time I saw him in jeans and I'm sure it wasn't by choice.  He is moved into size 14.   He still enjoys graphic shirts - one he picked out recently says "Worlds Okayest Student".  Shirt sizes range from kid sizes L (10/12) to adult Small (tshirts - started when they were the smallest size).

Ralph got new glasses in December; they can be found sitting in the house or around his shirt collar.  I'm not sure how often he wears them at school but know its a rarity outside of school.  Anytime he wears them for even a short period of time I get to hear about his eyes hurting.

Ralph is continuing with basketball through Cornhusker Shooting Stars.  A team has formed for the summer session.

Ralph crossed over with his den of 6 Webelo II's from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts in February.  His patrol is the "Awesome Possums"

Ralph current method for choosing books are serial books and books by the same author.  I have learned he likes to re-read them a bit as well in the morning as he thinks about them going to bed.

Ralph's eating habits have now reached the "good to above average" level.  He will try most anything and complains less and less.  He has opinions about when something is dry or too spicy but they are inline with what the adults are thinking.

Ralph has many "ralph-ims" that make him unique.  If you ask him to be quiet he will tell you if you look up "quiet" in the dictionary there is a picture of him.  He'll go on to say "and the caption says Ralph is NOT quiet"