The zoo--we have a membership that is about to expire. My kids seem to never tire of the zoo, however, so we will be renewing it. We have gone many times this past year, often just for an hour or so when we needed to kill some time. My little ones ask many times a week if we are going to the zoo. They especially love the giraffes.
Halloween--this was our first year ever of having a family theme. We were prehistoric Moores. As Jon would tell the trunk-or-treaters who came to our trunk for candy, we were a family of cave people with a dinosaur petting zoo. Jon used Styrofoam to make the back of our van into a cave. Brishen climbed inside and handed out candy. He is still mourning being too old to trick-or-treat himself, but such is life. Jon and I were also cave people, while the younger five were dinosaurs. Oh, how I wish I could share pictures of the little ones. They were very, very adorable in their snuggly dino costumes. I planned on taking the kids out for a little trick-or-treating after our church event, but we were all sufficiently worn out and full of too much candy, so just Jon and Basia ventured out into the neighborhood. We had a ton of trick-or-treaters at our house and had to turn out our lights sooner than we would have liked even though we bought tons of candy. I can't believe how much harder it is to be ready for Halloween when six kids are involved instead of two! I never even thought of bags for trick or treating until moments before the festivities began. All-in-all, it was exhausting but fun!
The Renaissance Faire--it has been a few years since we made it to the Las Cruces version of a Renaissance Faire, but I knew it was time to go back since I have two kids obsessed with history. I was right. They both loved it and could have explored and enjoyed it for many more hours. Basia really like the rat-a-pault, which is shown above. Brishen was in his element once he found the booth selling real weaponry.
Each one brought their wallet with many months' worth of savings from commissions. Brishen spent it all on the battle ax pictured above with protection for the other spectators at the Faire. Basia chose wooden versions to buy with her money. They both plan to save up for more purchases next year.
This was our first time booking a hotel room for the whole family. We agonized over how exactly to arrange things. At first we planned to rent a house, but that fell through. I tried to book a couple rooms at a few hotels that had suites, but they were all fully booked. Finally, Jon took over and decided to book us a single suite to share as a whole family. We were scared about how it would go but willing to try it. We were amazed by how well it worked. There were no big issues with getting kids to sleep at night. We stayed busy during the days, so the one room was just fine.
The tournament was on Saturday, so we went up early on Friday to visit the aquarium. I am so, so glad that we chose to go to the aquarium! The little kids absolutely loved every second of it! Miss Personality is petrified of pets, of zoo animals, and of farm animals but couldn't stop saying, "Look! Look!" at each and every sea creature she saw. She showed not a drop of fear the entire time, even as sharks swam close by over her head. It was so nice to see her so excited instead of fearful. The other little ones were also notably excited about it all. It was one of those experiences that makes all the difficult times really worth it.
Basia was very insistent that I get her picture with one of the three sea turtles. They were her favorites.
Then it was tournament day. I was admittedly a little nervous for my kiddos. Basia didn't even know her entire form the week before the tournament, and neither kid practiced their form as much as they usually do in the week before a tournament. Basia was first doing her form, and she did really well. I don't know how she can go from not knowing the form one Saturday to performing well in front of judges and crowds the next Saturday, but she definitely did. She beat the first boy (there were no girls competing in her age/belt division). I watched the next two boys go against each other and could definitely tell that one of the boys was really good. I was worried. It was then time for Basia to go up against the boy who I knew was good. She did really well. He did really well. It was up to the judges. Two of the three voted for Basia. Whew! We were so excited!
It was then Brishen's turn to do his form. He has known it for months. He's the one who worked and worked with Basia to get her to her victory. He does it really well and impresses our super-tough TKD master with how he does it. He first went against a guy who was doing a later form, a guy who messed up on two stances and one block (according to one of our masters). Brishen did really, really well, but the judges gave it to the other guy. Brishen didn't get another shot against the other competitor. He got third. It was heartbreaking for him and for us. It made our masters mad. There really isn't anything Brishen could have done better that any of us can figure out. It seems that our school values certain things in forms that the judges do not, and it is impossible for us to know what the judges want that Brishen isn't doing. Oh, well. We think he'll add board breaking in the next tournament to see if things can better go his way in that event. I really hope he continues to compete in forms even if it doesn't go his way. There has to be a good life lesson in there somewhere.
Excuse the glare, but can you see Basia's tournament weight? 50.200000000000003 pounds! I seriously have no idea where that number came from. That seriously cracked us up. Every other weight we saw was quite normal.
And then there was sparring. Oh, my, goodness. Most of Basia's sparring matches are moments that I want to replay over and over again. That girl is something else. She was disappointed when she found out on tournament morning that head shots are not allowed for her age at this tournament, since head shots are something that have won her previous matches. Man, I still can't believe that I am the kind of person who cheers when her little girl repeatedly kicks another adorable little girl in the head! Anyway, Basia didn't like that news. It turns out she didn't need head shots to win.
She was a different sort of fighter than I have seen previously. She started her matches by kicking the other girls like crazy, and then, get this, Basia backed off, really listened to her coach, let the other girl come to her, made her miss and then retaliated. Over and over again, keeping the other girls from scoring while Basia's score got higher and higher. In the championship match, Basia seemed to have made a personal goal to get the other girl off the mat as many times as possible right away. The girl couldn't stop her. Basia came and came and came until the girl was off the mat, three or four times in a row. Then Basia slowed down and calmly controlled the rest of the match exactly as her coach called it. She is starting to mature as a fighter, and it is a beautiful sight. She had many spectators and coaches compliment her after her match, but she takes it all in stride.
We did realize that we really didn't think ahead when we chose this sport and this size of family. They do not mix very well. It is tough keeping this many little ones happy at an all-day tournament. It is even tougher to afford to take our kids to tournaments. If the kids were in soccer, they might have to travel across town. In TKD, you have to travel all over the place if you really want to be competitive. There are absolutely no tournaments in El Paso. Nationals in 2013 will be in Chicago. 8 plane tickets to Chicago, anyone? Maybe not. A 12-hour road trip with a van full of infants and toddlers to get to the tournament that gets you qualified for nationals, anyone? Maybe not. 8, 10, 12, 15-hour road trips every couple months to get some good competing experience, anyone? Hotels, entrance fees, restaurants. It adds up quickly. So far we have skipped out on tournaments farther away than Albuquerque, but we know the kids would love to join their teammates at these bigger competitions. We may have to start getting creative.
Today we finished out our trip with a visit to the Natural History Museum. My little ones love dinosaurs, and even the bigger ones have gotten back in to the dinosaur craze a bit since they are now forced to watch an episode of Dinosaur Train most days. The kids were scared by some of the realistic noises that were piped over the museum speakers, but they mostly enjoyed the museum. Basia was most in love with the Mars Rover replica, and Miss Personality even learned how to say, "Mars Rover." I have been to this museum many times, and it brings back lots of childhood memories. I love the parts of the museum that remain unchanged after all this time. They also get some great volunteers who are truly passionate about sharing their knowledge of the subject matter. We only went to this museum this time because our first choice museum didn't open until noon, but I'm glad things worked out how they did. It was fun to share this experience with a new group of kids!
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