Track season is here! Spring is around the corner!

Rubix's school soccer season is already over. He had his last soccer game, League of Champions, this past Wednesday. We received the soccer photos last week of the 4th grade Intramural team and individual pictures. I think he is starting to look older. He has been having an absolute blast playing and has been wanting to play more and more. Because of this, Dad and him are considering putting together another soccer team for the fall, despite them both saying last year would be the last time. 

Rubix is in the back row, 4th from the right. 

Here is the leader board for the League of Champions for most goals and assists. I was surprised to see Rubix close to the top considering the teams are combined with 5th graders, but, of course, Rubix is making goals and helping his teammates make goals. 

Phoenix had a Japanese party at school, Setsubun, a bean throwing party. Here is her class after their bean throwing fun. She is 2nd to the left in the back row. There are only a few times per year that teachers share pictures of class activities. I enjoy being able to see her in her element. :)

Axel is really good at capturing both Rubix and Phoenix with silly poses. He sent me this one after making Rubix laugh. I love how well the kids get along and how much they enjoy each others company. Today Phoenix told me on her ride home from swim that Axel is her best friend. How sweet!

Phoenix continues to do her nails and create. Here is one that she blended that I thought was an interesting new technique. 

Phoenix also continues to draw. She has done probably 50 or more since I last posted a picture of one of her drawings. The problem is, she doesn't want to share them with me anymore. She has some really cool ones that are noteworthy, but I will have to be okay with her wanting to keep some private. 

She has been venturing out to including more body parts, including hands, which has been a difficult task for her, but she has not given up and makes iteration after iteration when necessary. 

When Axel and I got back from Cal Tech, Phoenix had a Senior Champs meet that was prelims and finals. The weather held out for the most part and it was just cold Saturday and Sunday. I was also somewhat pleased that Phoenix didn't make finals, so we thought, on Saturday, which was Valentine's day. This meant we had the entire afternoon to do something else! I was hopeful that Keith and I could go out to eat, but after lifting together and running a couple of errands, we both were really tired. He had another bad night of sleep or lack of sleep I should say which meant I was operating on about 4 hours and he was operating on a couple of hours. I was pleasantly surprised to see these nice flowers when Phoenix and I returned home from the meet. We found out the next day that Phoenix was called up for the 50 back and that she was an alternate. I had asked her to check before we left, but she was very clear and said, we aren't coming back for a 50, even if I made it. Yay, for me and having free time!

Phoenix hung out with Cielo for the three day swim meet. She was happy to make the 200 back final on Sunday, which allowed Keith to come along and officiate. It was almost like a date.....

On Monday, President's day, it rained. Phoenix was a trooper and went despite the weather. She ended up making the 100 back final, and most likely would have been able to do the 200 IM final, because everyone was scratching. Most people felt the 3 day prelim/final meet was long enough, especially with the cold wet weather. We also felt the same way, and besides, Phoenix was able to go directly to a friends house and spend the entire afternoon hanging out with her new crew, Millie, Jeanie, Aly and Prishi. 

Rubix volunteered to bring in his Challah bread for the cultural cookbook for History class. I had to come home from work and essentially prepare the dough for a couple of hours before getting him from school. We had just enough time to have him learn how to roll out the dough and then braid it. I let it rise for another hour and then baked it for him while he was at practice. He was able to bring it in on Friday, Feb. 20th without incident. 

Here he is braiding his bread. This did not come instinctively for him. 

Done with the braiding!

Fresh out of the oven!

On Feb. 21st Rubix had the 10 and under champs. It ended up being a very long day because the pool it was suppose to be at was down. They moved it to another local pool, but had to push back the start time to 10 am in order to set up all of the equipment.  The day is already long enough because all 11 events are offered and every swimmer does 4 events and up to 2 relays. I left about 3:30pm after Rubix's 4th event and one relay. He still had the 200 Medley relay, but Keith was there officiating and he was all settled with his teammates. They got home about 4:15pm! What a long day!!!

His teammate, Aurey was runner up and Rubix easily won the high point award again. 

Here he is with Stephen who won the high point for 10 year old boys. I think we have gotten a picture of these two together for years now.

Rubix had the San Francisco Exploratorium Field trip earlier in the week, on the 18th. Here are a couple of pictures his parent chaperone shared on the WhatsApp. 

I thought it was a little funny that he was put with three girls. He had fun exploring the hands on science. 

The temperatures plummeted with the rain, which meant it snowed all the way down to 1200 feet. That resulted in beautiful white capped mountains for a few days. This was looking out from the road around the corner from our house. 

With the colder weather came more of the pools being down for some reason or other. This resulted in the National group going to Mary Gomez to mentor the Yellow Bell group Rubix swims with to work on turns and underwaters. Rubix was paired up with Shareef Elaydi, which was really fun! I think this is only the second time that this has happened, although, Kevin, the head coach says he wants to do more of this. 

After the really cold spell came a heat streak with Friday the 27th hitting 80 degrees, after multiple days in the 70's. This meant a wonderful week of bike rides for me and a change in vibe from the entire Szolusha family and most people we interacted with. Everyone enjoyed the warm weather and the feeling that Spring was in the air!

We had another swim meet for Rubix last weekend. After a pretty flat season, except for breast stroke a couple of weeks ago, he finally dropped in a few events. These drops were mostly fractions of a second, except for the 500 free where he dropped to a 5:41 from a 5:45. He says this gives him some confidence going into Age group Champs which start on March 20th.  

I ended up having a crazy gastritis flare on Saturday night last weekend which resulted in me staying home on Sunday for most of the day. I was able to spend some time with these two kiddos. They happen to be both putting on their socks and Phoenix thought it would be funny to mirror Axel. 

They both had a good laugh after their socks were on.

Axel had a workout last Saturday and he didn't have any teammates available to run with him, so Daddy decided to ride his bike next to him, or should I say, ride my bike next to him. Keith hasn't had a working bike in more than a year, but he was happy to ride alongside Axel to West Valley and then alongside him on the track as he did his workout. It was a warm day for the end of February. 

Axel greatly appreciated the company. I am too lazy to turn the picture around, so I apologize for the side ways picture. 

We had a rare night together and had an impromptu family game night. Phoenix did her normal, make a face, for the picture. 

When she saw it, even she couldn't help but laugh!

So funny!

Rubix had his last soccer game and soccer party on Wednesday (March 4th). I do have to say, I am glad it is over, because it took a lot out of him physically and emotionally. 

He really does love soccer, so much so, that he did not do as well in school during the second trimester and now has to make some changes going forward, especially since track starts on Monday!

Speaking of track, Axel had his first track meet for the school season. He did the 1600 at the K-Bell Invitational and finished in 4:42.31. He went out really strong with a 1:06 first lap, and finished strong with a similar pace. The second and third laps were a little tougher, but he knows what he has to work on and he was happy with his effort and the first race of the year. Next week he will compete in the 3200 meter. 

Here he is all cued up and ready to go. I was so proud of him for going out and racing hard. You can watch his race below. 

Axel 1600 meter

The next time I post, we will have a 10 year old and 17 year old in the house. Rubix will be going to a friend's party on his birthday and Axel will be in Boston visiting colleges for his birthday with Keith. 

Oh, before I forget, the big news is that Axel got a 36 on his ACT, Keith got cleared for any cancer and is back to himself, and Axel is getting through his Anki app with the hopes of being as fluent as possible in Japanese before he leaves in 2.5 months. Check back in early April to see all things Szolusha!