Last set of banquet pictures

 These were the kids who earned the Master Memorization Award (MMA) or what used to be called the Platinum Award. That is the award for quoting all of Romans & James in 50 minutes or less with less than 7 mistakes. A mistake can be as small as saying "a" instead of "an" or adding an "s". Even a small stutter on a word is a mistake!

 All 3 God's Girlz earned it this year. They tried last year but didn't make it.

 At the end of the banquet is when they announce where Nationals will be next year. I was hoping for California or another bordering state. Not so lucky....

 More of pretty dresses before they changed to watch the Match of Death & a couple more last hours of games.

 The picture above is of all the Southwest teams. Three from AZ and one from CA.

 The girlz with a friend from another AZ team.

 I don't know how to get pictures in order when they fail to upload properly without deleting them all & starting over which I'm not willing to do! I figure most of you can deal with it & see where they should have gone. These pics are the SW teams sporting their "W" for the West is Best and other goofy pics.

After the banquet was over the girlz made a quick stop at a photo booth where they got a strip of pictures that we'll laminate so Hannah can use it as a bookmark. Then they changed clothes for the more "fun" part of the evening/morning. Around 10:30pm everyone gathered to watch the "Match of Death" where the top 8 quizzers in the nation compete in a match with completely off the wall weird questions. This took about 1 1/2 hours & was hilarious. After that the kids broke off into smaller groups and played games one last time. We made it to 2AM but then headed home.

The Match of Death was something the girlz had been looking forward to. Hannah tried to explain it to me from videos she saw but I didn't get it till I saw it. The questions were still based off Romans and James but the question writers got to have fun with it. Questions like quoting all the verses that had typos and pronouncing the typos as they were mistakenly printed. There was a question about quoting all the words that were hyphenated in their books. Yes, someone got it. Another was answering a question in one breath which is hard to do when some of the answers are super long. Another question required the quizzer to jump up while answering & run over to the quizmaster & take a selfie with him while he uploaded the picture to Facebook. There were others that I can't quite remember so you'll have to trust me that it was weird,hard,and so very funny. 

So that's it for Nationals. Acts is the next book. Joshua is joining his JBQ team mate in participating in the "Acts Experience" which is an intro league to TBQ. It's not as intense or scary to get started. He will only need to memorize 4 chapters over the whole season-just one at a time and one per meet. There's no review over past chapters like there is in the "A" league.

Hannah missed 3 Honk rehearsals that week so she jumped right back into it this week with 3 rehearsals before tech week starts next week. Then 2 weeks of shows. I love Honk and can't wait to see it several times but I'm also looking forward to the break we get in August. Just a short break though because the Fall theater semester starts later in August. 

Hannah & I go to the homeschool convention this weekend. The boys will go bowling and who knows what else while we're gone. Hannah & I will get to join them at a Rattlers game with our Pogo Pass on Saturday after the convention. We'll just walk over to the arena. It's that close.

Nationals Banquet

 Joshua with Hannah before she & I left for the banquet. Just for Todd & Joshua to attend it would have cost $80! Hannah & I were "free" because she was a quizzer & I was an official. Plus the boys don't dress up or eat fancy food. Well, I don't either but I can dress up easier than they can or will.

 The girlz dressed up all fancy:)

 At least they didn't mess up the salad too much. Hannah only had to pick out cucumbers & I passed on the salad and ate rolls instead.

 OK, so this pic is out of order!

East versus West competition. 

The banquet officially ends Nationals week. On Friday, everyone dresses up and watches special awards given,eats gross overly fancy hotel food (or doesn't eat!),and watches a special East vs. West match with the top quizzer in each region. So you've gotten a glimpse of the girls in their beautiful dresses and there will be more coming. 

The food was less than appealing to people who don't like sauces or weird stuff done to their food. This is why Todd & I had pizza delivered to our wedding reception! I guess it's too bad for you if you like things simple. Hannah & I watched jealously while the kids at another table got chicken strips & fries. Well, we prepared for the disappointment by eating before we went & packing snacks for later. Once I found out the veggie plate (for Hannah) had quinoa, which she likes, I got her that plate instead of the sauce covered chicken & mashed potatoes but they sure messed up plain quinoa. She couldn't even handle the smell of the mix. 

More about the East/West match. The top 8 quizzers in each region compete in this match. Faith was the top quizzer in individual points in the Southwest region. I may have forgotten to mention in previous posts that Faith was 21st, Hannah was 30th, and Kenzie was 36th. So even though she was nervous to do it, she represented the SW and even answered one question. The west won! Chants of "west is best" echoed throughout the hall. More pictures coming....

A few misc. pics

 Going to see Inside Out. Photo ops in the lobby? Yes, please!

 After Cold Stone ice cream & on our way back to the hotel to.....yes, play more games.

So I lied in my last post that banquet pictures were next. On the night of the last day of quizzing (Thurs) it's tradition that all the teams do some sort of outing. Well, this year they chose a baseball game. Snooze......None of us like baseball and some of us hate it more than other if you can guess who. So we decided to go to the movies instead. We saw Inside Out & got ice cream afterwards. Once we got back to the hotel & other kids got back from the game, there was time for a few rounds of Telestrations. 

Nationals Part 3

 This is a picture of the group picture. If you care to squint & find us, we're on the left side near the back. Joshua is on the very edge in a hat & a minion shirt. I'm wearing a melon/pinkish colored shirt.

 This is a picture of the team photo. Todd is an assistant coach so that's why he's in it.

 Joshua can't resist photobombing us.

 This is 2/3 of God's Girlz. If you look close you'll see the girl in the middle isn't one of "ours". She's from a different AZ team.

 This is the score between the top 2 teams as they battle to see who gets 1st place. As you can see, it was close & required overtime. The winner ended up to be Ozark,Mo for the 3rd year in a row.

 Proud of our girl with her 12th place plaque.

 After the 2nd full day of quizzing, the girls won 3 & lost 5. So after 2 full days they were 7/10. They would finish off their last day with only 2 rounds. They were 1/1 on that last day. So their final tally was 8/11. There was a 3rd place tie for 12th place so it's broken by who has more points. Right on our heels was another AZ team who ended up in 13th place which was a spot improvement for them over their placement last year at 14th place. 

I was told that 12th place was the highest ranking any AZ team has ever placed. I said before that there are 40 teams invited to Nationals (or that earned the spot,actually) and 153 quizzers. I asked the coordinator how many "A" league teams there were in the nation but he didn't have an exact count. He said between the intro league,middle school, and "A" league, there were over 700 teams in the nation. I'm guessing at least half of that number is "A" league. People who have been going to Nationals for years were amazed & shocked this was their first year. It was an amazing accomplishment and we are so proud of all the girls and all the hard work they put in for one whole year memorizing Romans and James. 

Next up, banquet pictures....

Nationals part 2

 Family picture on the first day. I didn't get one every day because we were quite busy so I forgot. Gasp!!

 When Hannah went to Nationals in 2012 with the JBQ version of God's Girlz, I bought her this same keepsake candy bar. We only keep the wrapper-we eat the candy,duh! It's just something for her scrapbook. They aren't listed as God's Girlz. We're under North Scottsdale Christian as they let us fall under their "umbrella" since none of us go to an Assembly of God church. That tidbit is in case you're wondering why you can't find our name.

 Playing games after a long day of quizzing. After the fierce competition is over, it's all forgotten in the name of friends & fun:)

 God's Girlz looking fabulous in their Nationals t-shirts.

 Our cuties (above). The biggest game of Catch Phrase I've ever seen (below).

 I think they're playing Dutch Blitz.

 A little night swimming. I got a few pictures out of order. Stupid technology!

After the first day of quizzing in the championship bracket (slate was wiped clean from Monday's prelims) the girls had what is a rough day for them. They won 4 and lost 5. They are used to having more wins than losses but that is what happens at this level. Others who go to Nationals say that's about right for their first time or even after a couple years. I think it's a great record for this level.

Even after tough days of quizzing, all is forgotten when it comes to hanging out & playing games. Fellowship with kids from all over the U.S. was half the fun at Nationals.

TBQ Nationals 2015 in Phoenix,AZ>>>>>God's Girlz placed 12th in the nation in their debut appearance!

 Sunday 6/28,1st day,Quoting Bee (for "fun")

 Hannah's grouping for the Quoting Bee. There are 153 quizzers at Nationals but possibly not all wanted to participate in the Bee. Either way there were too many kids to all be in one group so they were split into 4 groups with the top 2 in each group moving on to the final.

 It's hard to know how far Hannah would have gotten had she not been called wrong on a verse. I didn't catch nor did the judges but she said she quoted the right verse but because of a typo she was called wrong. The same thing happened in another group to an AZ quizzer. By the time it was caught, it was too late to do anything about. Oh well...

 The girls before their first day of quizzing in the preliminary rounds which determine if you're in the championship bracket or challenger bracket.

The big news is in the title but you can read on if you want the little details.  We got to the Hyatt downtown on Sunday morning for a celebrations service followed by the Quoting Bee. After the Quoting Bee we went for lunch and headed home for our luggage & food since I didn't want to have cold stuff sit too long while we waited for our room to be ready. 

We had told the front desk we were there but knew our room probably wasn't ready at 9:15am. They said they'd call when it was. By the time we left to go home for our stuff we still didn't get a call. By the time we got back to the hotel, still no call. By now it was past check in time so it should be ready & we think they just forgot to call. We found out the the guests before us hadn't even checked out yet. So instead of fixing this problem a few hours ago, the front desk now has to fix it while we wait in front of them. We got another room rather quickly & the clerk got my drift when I asked about an extra fridge in the room and offered to have a second fridge brought up at no charge for the week. We were nice & patient but he understood I wanted that for the inconvenience. It came in handy with our cold foods for lunches that week & all the water we went through. 

So we get to our room & settle in and kill time. There was an ice cream social that night and then the officials meeting where I'd find out where to go the next morning for the first day of quizzing. 

Monday is the day of preliminary round which determine if you're in the "championship" bracket meaning you will place 1-20 or in the "challenger" bracket meaning you'll place 21-40.  The girlz won 6 and lost 1 on Monday which put them in the championship bracket. Their one loss was to the team that had won Nationals last year and the year before. We didn't know it then but it was also the team that would win this year as well. A 3-peat for them. No biggie as the "worst" they can place is 20th which would be an amazing feat for a team at their first appearance at Nationals. I would have been thrilled with 40th place because there are hundreds of teams in the nation & being one of the top 40 teams is an accomplishment in itself. But 40th is not good enough for the girls so we press on. The next 2 days of quizzing will be tougher and more losses will be experienced. More pictures & info next....

JBQ Fun Day

Joshua's coach promised the team a fun day during the season and we finally got around to it in June. Sisters tagged along for bowling,laser tag, and Barro's for lunch.

Our dove family

 The mama & daddy dove that visit our middle pillar on the back patio every year & then leave without staying finally picked a different pillar and stayed! The pictures are of the mama & babies. Daddy stays nearby & babysits when mama goes off. We watched that happen while we were in the pool so I assume he does that regularly. I got these pictures a few days before the babies were ready to fly the coop. We also watched the whole family hang out on our back fence & the neighbor's trampoline. Now they're pretty much gone. But now either another mama or the same one is back sitting on the nest. Yay!