Junior Olympics, Rubix turns 7, Axel celebrates 14 and crazy winter weather!

Rubix celebrated his birthday with Kian on March 5th over a long playdate. He helped make cupcakes and asked for cheese tortellini for lunch. This is Saturday night before his playdate after making the chocolate vegan cupcakes and adding sprinkles to his and Kian's. They were to both get 2 cupcakes each.  

Axel qualified for Mathcounts and participated in the competition on March 5th. He finished 11th overall out of 100+ students. Unfortunately, only the top 10 get to go to state. I was very proud of him, but he was a bit disappointed. He had 3 hours of Alpha Star math practice on Sunday, so most of his weekend was math! I took a picture of him because he wonders why his back and neck hurt and this just shows that he doesn't have the best posture!

Here the boys are eating lunch. Yum, yum!

I purchased letter graham crackers for his "party". He couldn't wait to eat/play with them. 

Happy birthday time! I love how Rubix wanted to sing along :)

Kian, please do not blow my candles out.

Axel convinced Rubix to add frosting to his cupcakes. He was very pleased with the addition of frosting, especially because the sprinkles he put on all melted and they never got to the "surprise" in the middle of the cupcake. Rubix and I poked a hole and filled it with sprinkles. We didn't realize they would melt because the cupcakes were not fully cooled. So funny!

The boys played very well together for 4 hours!

I really enjoy seeing him interact with a peer. They were able to do whatever they wanted without any older siblings getting in the way. I think they both thoroughly enjoyed the playdate.

Time to say goodbye! Love that Rubix is wearing a Christmas shirt and Kian is wearing a Halloween shirt.

Track started for the kids and Axel needed new track shoes. The store was crazy busy so Axel entertained himself as we waited. 

The big news since I last wrote is that after the All Star meet we really didn't think Los Gatos was a good fit for the kids anymore. I hustled to get the kids try outs with different teams. March 3rd the kids tried out for Santa Clara Swim Team and loved it so much, they have been swimming there every since. It is a very good fit for all 3 of them. The program is extremely different. Rubix swims only 4 days a week, but has 1.5 hour practices and one day of 30 minutes of dry land. He is with kids his speed and many of them are very motivated. Phoenix has 5 practices a week that are 1.5 hours with 2 days of 30 minutes of dryland. She is around a group of amazing girls who are really pushing her. She became instant friends with Victoire, Helen, Sarah, Savannah, Annabell, Cielo and Laura. There are more of course, but these are the fast girls with most of them qualifying for Far Westerns, which is the next stage after Junior Olympics. We have learned it goes J.O., Far Westerns, Sectionals (which is not age dependent but time standards for men and women, Junior Nationals, Futures and then Nationals. Those who can compete at Nationals and do well go to the Olympic trials. Santa Clara Swim Team has a Nationals Team and their focus is to develop swimmers to love swimming and reach their full potential. Many swimmers at SCSC want to see how far they can go. The kids get to train at the George Haines International Swim Center or ISC. Axel is there 5 out of his 6 practices a week. He is 2 hour practices most days, except 2 are only 1 hour and 45 minutes, but that is entirely water time. He is loving being around motivated kids, although he has had the hardest time meeting other kids as the practices don't allow much for talking as you get into the more competitive groups. All three kids are super happy. As Axel says, "I get to go to swim at SCSC." He knows it is a big deal to make the commitment to such a team. 

We had to try out Axel's new spikes before the track season officially started after school on Tuesday March 7th. The shoes were pretty good, but the rainbow was even better!

Axel needed to borrow a sweatshirt of mine so I loaned him my old Clarke sweatshirt. It fits him just like it fits me; nice and big. 

March 9-11th was the big J.O. meet. SCSC hosted the event. We helped set up Thursday night in the dumping rain and luckily Friday morning the weather held out to mild rain. Here you can see swimmers warming up. 

Phoenix had the 50 fly on Friday, the 50 breast on Saturday and the 200 free and 100 breast on Sunday. You can see her in her lime green J.O. sweatshirt cheering on a team mate with a couple of teammates next to her. I am impressed with how easily she makes friends. She had a tough 50 fly and 200 free race, but her 50 breast she got down to .6 seconds away from a Far Western time. In the 100 breast she made top 10 and made the finals. She swam her fastest race Sunday night missing Far Western time by .25 seconds in a screaming fast 100 breast. All the girls in the finals went under the Far Western time. Apparently, only 3% of all swimmers make Far Western times. 

After J.O. came a crazy storm. We were so lucky to miss the storm that was suppose to come over the weekend, but it ended up coming Tuesday with over 70 mph winds that took down a plethora of old, big trees that proceeded to take down power lines. We were without power for 54 hours. You can see the tree across the street went down into the park.

Here is the back side of our fence that came down.

This is our side fence that also came down. The fence in the front is almost completely down too. We will hopefully get it off our poor little Maple tree soon. 

Cooking and keeping food good was interesting. We were lucky to cook on our gas stove by lighting it with a match. We were also lucky to be able to fill our deep freezer so everything stayed frozen. I put most of the dairy items into our normal freezer, so for the most part things stayed good until the last day. Here Keith and Axel are playing chess by candle light. I took this picture and then took the opportunity to go to bed early as there was nothing to do :)

Wed. morning Rubix woke up to a dark birthday. My flash was a bit bright in his eyes. 

The birthday boy forgot to do his homework in the dark last night so he had to do it before school!

Happy 7th birthday to Rubix!!! We finally got a decent photo next to the front door where the light was coming through. 

After school Rubix was excited to go to swim and pass out donuts. I have a really cute video of his team mates singing him happy birthday. 

A big perk for going to the pool this week is that there was electricity and warm showers. I was able to charge my device and the kids took long warm showers.

Rubix opening up birthday cards and gifts from his many grandparents. Thank you all Grandma's and Grandpa's!!!!

We were lucky to have our power come back on Thursday evening. I held my breath, as we received the notice at 5:10pm and I had left for the pool at 5:07. I was very pleased to find out the power was really on!!!! On Friday they had the pool set up for long course. Phoenix had her practice down the 50 meter stretch. I think she enjoyed it. When she was done I headed over to Axel's swim practice. Keith was at soccer practice with Rubix, so I had the fun 3:30 to 7:30 pm swim shift.  :)

Phoenix and I got to Peterson Middle school where Axel practices on Fridays (the other two swim there Mon, Tues and Mon, Wed). I decided to leave Phoenix in the car for the first time so she could stay warm and eat dinner. I was worried about Axel, as he was reporting shoulder soreness/tightness since Wed. and I wanted to see him swim and make sure he was okay. It was after about 8 minutes that I see Phoenix running toward me crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said my car rolled into the car in front of me. What!!!??? Well, the front left of my car was in the back, right of this car. Phoenix eventually confessed that she must of knocked the shift lever some how, which caused the car to roll. She managed to get it in park because when I opened my car it was in park. It was a very scary event for her and I wish she could just speak the truth to me easily. I had to pull it out of her because we had plans to drive to Santa Cruz for another swim meet and I told her I can't drive my car if it isn't safe and she clearly said, "It is not your car. It is fine." 

Axel and Phoenix raced on Saturday while Rubix was at a soccer game. It was a beautiful sunny day, but a long one. We didn't get home until 3:15 pm and Phoenix ended up having to do her piano lesson by phone because we still did not have internet up and running. To make things more interesting, Axel had his 5 closest friends coming over to celebrate his birthday. They played pinball, ate some sushi and then quickly had cake and ice cream.  

It was a little rushed because some kids were late and they had an Escape room scheduled for 6:10pm and they needed to arrive by 6pm. 

Happy Birthday Axel!!!

Yum, yum! The boys escaped in 47 minutes. Apparently, when you escape in under the time limit you get money back! Funny! They had a great time.

 On Sunday, Axel was in a state math league competition while Phoenix and Rubix swam. Haofang's parents picked up Axel and the two of them had a blast competing. Haofang ended up 5th or 6th overall and Axel got 8th overall. Only the top 6 get to go to the national competition, so Axel was bummed that he was so close, yet so far for the second weekend in a row! Here are a few certificates Axel received. he is proud of the Honor Roll of Distinction for the AMC 8 as he is in the top 1% of the country, but he thinks it is silly he received participation certificates for Mathcounts and AIME. I had to remind him that there are not very many kids who make the cut to take the test, especially with the AIME as an 8th grader. I am so very proud of him and hope that he learns that he is really gifted, even if he has 10 other amazing math students that happen to go to his school too. That's why people go to Harker; they want to be around other gifted students! 

Track officially started last week, but the rain has really put a damper on what they can do, especially because they run on a dirt track. They have 200 students between 4th and 8th grade who registered. Phoenix is old enough to participate. She hopes to qualify for 3 events at the track meet. I am not sure which events they will be, but Axel is going for the 400, 800 and 1200. He ran a 4:05 1200 so he will for sure represent Harker in that event since no one is even close to that time. The kids are a little stressed trying to figure out how to manage track and swim and school with the rain. It wouldn't be so difficult if we had sunny days every day and track didn't get cancelled. 

Keith has been in Japan the past few days. He is adjusting to the time and settling in. Tomorrow is going to be interesting. Poor Axel will be at the pool for 5 hours because I have to drop him off early to get Rubix to his soccer game on time. Axel then has to wait an additional 2 hours after his practice while Phoenix and Rubix swim. The perks are he can take a warm shower and there is free wifi to do homework! We are gearing up to join Keith in Japan. We leave in 1 week! I plan on posting shortly after we get back so check back in mid April and wish us luck as we venture over seas together as a family for the first time.

All Star Swim Meet and end of basketball season and more

Last weekend (Feb. 25th and 26th) was the Pacific Swimming Association All Star Swim meet in Santa Rosa. Phoenix and Rubix qualified for the event, but Rubix was too young to "go" with the team. We dropped Phoenix off at Gunderson High school at 11 am on Saturday, for her to take the team bus to Santa Rosa Junior College, where the team was scheduled for warm ups later that afternoon. Keith, Axel, Rubix and I headed up in the car after dropping her off. As you can see she was very excited.

Here is Phoenix with her instant new friends/team mates waiting for their turn to warm up. Apparently, it is very difficult to orchestrate all 5 zones in Northern California so the kids had to wait more than an hour and a half to get into the water. 

The kids were brought into the locker room area to get their swim suits on. There they received their All Star sweatshirts and swim caps. Here is Axel helping Rubix. 

Rubix was a bit nervous and timid. 

Rubix lightened up when he was getting into the water!

And had a ton of fun with his new friend Cayden from MAC. 

They managed to take a team photo after practice and before heading to dinner. 

After the team practice there was a team dinner that we were allowed to attend because we where "chaperoning" Rubix. It was pretty exciting getting a free dinner :). Phoenix roomed with 3 other girls who were 9 and 10 years old. She had a great time and the girls woke early the next morning to make it downstairs to get bussed to the team breakfast. They managed to go to breakfast and get back in under an hour. I witnessed them leaving and was surprised to see them back before I was done with riding the Peleton.

Rubix was able to sleep in until 7:45 am and we headed to the meet at 8:30 am in time for team warm ups. The kids were able to complete the Medley relay BEFORE the rain began. Phoenix did amazing and did her 50 breast leg of her relay in 40.5 seconds, which was a PR and only one second off of Far Western Time Standards. Rubix did his 25 fly in 17.6 seconds, also a PR for him. Unfortunately, the rain started during the individual IM which was the next event and lasted the entire meet until it ended. The timing system broke before Phoenix's 100 IM and to make a long story short she ended up waiting outside wet with just a towel in raining 45 degree weather for more than 25 minutes and was completely numb and cold and she had a really tough race fighting through a body that she couldn't quite get to cooperate. She was incredibly frustrated to not only not shave off the .2 seconds needed to qualify for J.O.'s, but to go 3.5 seconds slower than her personal best.  

Good news about this meet is that there was an indoor building for the kids to hang out in, in between races which helped them stay warm. We also tried to stay warm in our tent with the sidewalls up. You can see us all bundled up, thanks to Axel taking a photo with his phone. Axel actually joined his Alpha Star Academy 2 hour math class under the tent in the pouring rain.

We arrived home after 5pm on Sunday and had a quick turn around to get ready for the school/work week. Phoenix had her last basketball game last Wed, March 1st. You can see her here jumping to block the shot. 

Phoenix had the game of her life. Keith made surge to capture our small parent cheering squad. 

And the 5th grade and intramural basketball team cheering section.

Keith's photo is a bit blurry, but you can see each player had a cheering sign made for them. Phoenix's is "Rise of the Phoenix". That is exactly what she did this game. 

She made 2 beautiful free throws and 2 other shots. She scored 6 of the 10 Harker points to help them take the win. It was her free throws that turned the game around as they were down by 4 points. 

Here is the basketball stud herself!

Daddy and Phoenix!

The happy group of girls celebrating their win. They went 3 and 3 for their first season!

Many people have asked if we were having snow. We did not get snow at sea level, but we did have snow very low to close to a thousand feet. Keith and I hadn't been able to ride up the hill because of the weather, but we finally had dry and warmer 59 degree weather that allowed us to ride up the hill. We were surprised that their was still snow.

We are expected to get another cold system coming in with even more rain and snow. Crazy weather! We really are looking forward to the start of Spring and warmer weather here.

On Friday the kiddos had Spring pictures. I tried to snap a photo of both of the kids before school. This is often the look or attitude we get from our 10 year old. You would think she is already a teenager. I am thinking we are going to get lucky and she will grow out of this phase before she is a teenager, but I know this likely won't end until she is an adult, from what I hear from other parents. :)

Our little handsome Rubix wearing Axel's hand me downs. 

On Friday night the kids tried out for Santa Clara Swim Club. All three of them absolutely loved it. Phoenix and Rubix went to practice on Saturday while Axel was at his Mathcounts competition. They went back again tonight (Monday) and literally all of them got out of the water beaming with happiness. This first picture is Axel's group. 

This picture is Rubix's group at the end of practice during 5 minutes of social kick. He fits right in. Phoenix's practice was before the boys, so she was already at home. 

It is pretty awesome to have the kids in such a fine program. We are really excited for what the future holds. This is where the meet is held this weekend, so it will begin to fill like home soon as we spend hours at the International Swim Center each week. 

Axel was so excited to make the Mathcounts Team. He worked so hard. He ended up not making states as only the top 10 make it, however, he did get 11th out of the 99 students who were there. Harker did very well and won the competition. Here he is doing math! Axel had nearly a 20 hour math week as he did a 4 hour math competition on Wed., did a 3 hour prep on Thursday, 7 hours on Saturday and another 3 hours at Alpha Star on Sunday. This does not include his math class he has at school and the PreCal he is doing on his own. This kid amazes me at his determination and drive to do better. 

Sunday Rubix celebrated his birthday with a 4 hour playdate with his BFF, Kian. 

The boys played extremely well together all afternoon. 

They enjoyed some lunch and..

cupcakes!

Please do not blow out my candles!

Here is Rubix on Saturday night helping me prepare his cupcakes.

This is a fun trophy that Axel got for his math teacher, Mrs. Kadam, who hates getting 2nd place at competition. He gave it to her last week and she loved it. She had a good laugh. 

I forgot to mention that between posts, Keith was in Taiwan. Here are a few pictures that he sent during his trip. 

He had wonderful tropical weather there. 

And lovely food!

He worked hard going from meeting to meeting and preparing for all of his customer visits, but he felt it was worth the trip. 

While he was gone the kids and I were busy with lots of fun activities. One of them was Axel's first senior open meet on March Feb. 18th. The meet was at MAC's pool, which was Milpitas high school. It was so different to be around huge high schoolers and athletes who were trying to make the National Team and eventually Olympic trials. There was about 4 or 5 males and females who had times that made the cuts for both Nationals and Olympic time trials. Axel had a phenomenal day taking seconds off all of his events, the 500 free, the 200 IM and the 50 free. I was so proud of him. 

We are gearing up for the next two weekend of swim meets, soccer games and Axel's birthday party celebration before Keith takes off to Japan. I hope to get another post in before we leave for Japan, but definitely check back mid April for a post of our first International travel as a family to Japan! Until then.....