God's Girlz takes 1st place at 2014 Southwest Region Competition!!!!!!!!!

 The girlz on the first day of quizzing (pink shirts).

 The girlz on the 2nd day of quizzing (Regional shirts).

 The girlz with their 1st place trophy (& medals).

Breaking News:

God's Girlz took 1st place in the Southwest Region (in case you couldn't tell from the title!).

All season we had 2 teams because there are 6 girls. Only 3 can be at the table at one time so in an effort to give all the girls time at the table, we split into 2 God's Girlz teams. They combined at State into 1 team. Three of the girls' families decided not to go on to Regionals in California last week. We went with one other family to San Jose. All 3 girls were also in the top 10 for individual high points-Hannah was 4th while the 2 others took 3rd & 9th. Their record was 13-2.

We struggled with whether we should go or not. After much prayer,a little stress, & an anonymous vote, we obviously decided to go. Other teams with more experience at this "A" level of TBQ told us (in a nice way) that we shouldn't expect to do well at our 1st time at Regionals. These girls studied extra hard in the weeks between State & Regionals to learn a lot more info than the 8 books they had already memorized and it showed. We are so proud of them!! They earned a spot at Nationals but due to costs, we can't afford the week long trip to Florida in July. But it IS quite an honor to have earned that spot.

We took the long way home and made a vacation out of this trip since we were already in CA. More pictures coming of a visit to a cool tide pool,Pier 39,Knott's Berry Farm, and Coronado Island.

Compass Kidz at State 2014

 Compass Kidz with their coach

Joshua with all his awards this year:
Three 2nd place high points ribbons

One 3rd place high points ribbon

One high points medal

One 1st place trophy

One 5th place trophy.

Joshua's team, Compass Kidz, went to State competition last Saturday. It was in Tucson so we went down Friday evening. His team and another B league team had to compete against A league teams for the first time. One team dropped out so there were 7 teams competing that day. Their team came in 5th place which is really great for their first time against A league teams. In fact, they came very close to beating the team that went undefeated that day. So close!! We only had one team mate in the top ten for high points at State. Joshua wasn't that far out at #13. Joshua said he had fun so that's all that matters:)

God's Girlz at State 2014

 God's Girlz combined teams.

 Having fun!

God's Girlz combined into one team to compete at State last Saturday. A couple other churches with more than 1 team combined also so there were only 4 teams competing. Two didn't come at all. It was a tough day for the girls. They won 4 and lost 5 which is not what they're used to but you can't win them all! The questions were undeniably tougher than regular season questions. Regionals will be worse! They came in 3rd place at State. 

Some of the other awards you'll see in the pictures held or worn by various girlz are:

1st place over the regular season to God's Girlz Grace Keepers (that's also Hannah's team)

3rd place over the regular season to God's Girlz Kingdom Seekers

3rd place for God's Girlz at State

One girl earned a bronze award (medal) but I forgot how much she quoted to her coach.

Five girls earned the gold award by quoting all 8 books they memorized to their coach with 4 mistakes or less per chapter.

Hanah earned a 3rd place medal for high individual points over the regular season AND at State.

Hannah also participated in some extra "just for fun" one-on-one competitions after quizzing. She did that last year too. She and two others (one was her team mate) tied for 1st place in the Quoting Bee as the quoting was going on and on with no mistakes so the judge called it a 3 way tie. 

We're just missing one plaque in the last picture but you get the idea. 

Regional competition will be in San Jose in May! The girls have some work ahead of them and I'm sure they'd appreciate prayer support.

Andrew Shaw-My new favorite Blackhawk!

Joshua wrote a letter to Andrew Shaw and sent this picture of them from Halloween. He asked Andrew to sign the picture since Joshua went as him and Hannah went as the puck that Andrew took to the face during the Stanley Cup Finals game when they won the cup. Not only did he sign the kids' picture but he also sent TWO signed hockey cards that we did NOT send him. What a great guy!!!

St. Patrick's Day & golfing

Here's a few pictures from playing mini golf on St. Patrick's Day.

Copass Kidz Meet #4

 The team before quizzing.

 Joshua and his awards.

Joshua and his team had their last regular season meet on Saturday. They go to State competition and compete against "A" league teams in April. As first time quizzers, we're in the B league.

Meet #4 stats were pretty similar to past meets. Joshua came in 3rd for individual points on the day. He had 3 team mates in the top 10 again. The team went undefeated again at 6-0. 

So over the season the team went completely undefeated with a record of 24-0. WOW!! The team had 4 quizzers in the top 10 over the season for highest individual points. The pictures show Joshua with the team trophy for 1st place over the season,his 2nd place high points medal (over the season), and his 3rd place ribbon for high points at the 4th meet. 

Here's how the 4th meet matches ended up:

Round 1: 160-50

Round 2: 275-10

Round 3: 300 to -10 (ouch)

Round 4: 290-0

Round 5: 275-0

Round 6: 255-0

Keep in mind that all these kids are first time quizzers. It is simply amazing. I am sure other teams are glad we'll be moving up to the A league next season.

Here's some overall stats:

Compass Kidz placed 1st with 6160 points. The 2nd place team came in at 2325 points. In fact, Joshua's team mate came in 1st place in high points at 2785 points over the season. He could have won it by himself! Over the course of the season, Joshua had 1710 points. This is all pretty exciting to them but we are preparing them for their first loss (es) when we go to State. No matter what happens at State, it was a great season for these 1st timers. 

Hannah stood in for me and Todd as an official each meet so she rocks too!

We can't wait for a visit with Grandma & Grandpa next week and Hannah's State competition later this month.

God's Girlz Meet #4

God's Girlz had their last meet of the regular season on Saturday. Hannah's team went undefeated in six rounds. I forgot to get the stats on the other team. Boo on me! We did not get the individual stats yet but I do know Hannah had 610 points on the day so she averaged over 100 points per round. I think they moved ahead into 1st place over the regular season as they won against the 1st place team. That will be confirmed later.  

State competition is near the end of March. Hannah is relieved that there is no new memorizing at this point. Now it's just review of the 8 books she now has memorized. Amazing feat if you ask me. She rocks!!

Joshua will have his last meet of the regular season in March and then State competition in April. He rocks too!

Man, I love those kids:)

JBQ Meet #3

 Compass Kidz

 4 members in the top 10 for last meet and this meet. #1 and #2 spots were the same with Joshua in 2nd.

 His two 2nd place ribbons for meet 2 & 3.

Me and #2

Joshua and his team had their 3rd meet of the season today. They came in first place and went undefeated in 7 rounds of quizzing. They are undefeated all season so far. They had 2130 points as a team. The 2nd place team had 455 points. No contest. They have knowledge of the questions but aren't quite fast enough on the buzzer to interrupt and beat the A league teams. They have more than 900 points over the 1st place team in "A" league but they don't buzz in as quickly. Once they go to State, they'll be competing against A teams so they'll suffer losses then-probably. But for now they are enjoying their success as first time quizzers.

Here are the results by round:

Round 1: 290-0

Round 2: 320-0

Round 3: 310-0

Round 4: 245-60

Round 5: 330-0

Round 6: 330-0

Round 7:295-20

Amazing! While a part of me feels bad for the other teams, the other part of me knows our kids are working HARD to memorize their questions. I can't help it if the other teams don't put in the amount of time & effort to learn the questions/answers. All "B" teams are 1st time quizzers. Actually, some of them did compete in the Pee Wee league so they knew how it worked AND knew the 10 point questions.

We went out for pizza with the team afterwards. 

Hannah has her 4th meet in February. She also started theater last week so she's a happy girl.

Spelling Bee

 A quick picture from TBQ Meet #3

Hannah and her Spelling Bee trophies.

Hannah was in the spelling bee a couple days ago with our homeschool group.She came in first in her group and then had to spell against the winner of the other age group. She came in 1st in that too. She could move on to District,County, and Final (State, I think) BUT when checked out the Final date, it's the same day as TBQ State. TBQ takes precedence so we gave her spot to the 2nd place speller. I guess we could have had her go as far as she could and bow out of Finals if she made it that far but it just seemed more fair to give that spot to someone who knew they could make all the dates. Joshua is contemplating doing it next year after he saw the trophies. Hannah will be too old which is too bad because she's a great speller. 

Joshua has his 3rd JBQ meet coming up. Hannah starts theater next week. Everyone's looking forward to Grandma & Grandpa visiting later this month. I'm looking forward to seeing the Blackhawks play here in February!

TBQ Results Meet #3

God's Girlz had meet #3 this weekend. 

Here's the stats:

Team Stats:

Hannah's team (God's Girlz Grace Keepers) went undefeated at 8 wins/0 losses. Woo Hoo!! Just so you don't have to scroll back through old posts to remember their total record over 3 meets, I'll tell you they are now 22-2. They are in 2nd place overall after 3 meets. How can they be in 2nd place with only 2 losses you ask? Well, the 2 losses were to the same team who is in 1st place and that team has 195 more points than us. But 22/2 is an amazing record, dontcha think?

Hannah's sister team, God's Girlz Kingdom Seekers, went 5 and 3 at meet #3. Overall they are in 5th place with a total record of 14/10. 

There are 9 teams in the "A" league.

 

Now for some individual stats:

Hannah had 930 points on the day. She was the 3rd highest quizzer of the day. The top quizzer of the day was her team mate on the sister team and the 4th highest quizzer was her team mate! So that's 3 God's Girlz in the top 5 on the day. 

Overall, Hannah is in 3rd place for individual points with 2510 points. Her team mates are also right around her in 2nd & 4th place overall. 

There are 31 quizzers in the league.

Now she has a little over 1 month to memorize 1,2,3 John. The 4th and last meet before State is in February. 

Next up-Hannah is in a Spelling Bee & Joshua's JBQ meet #3. Oh, and Hannah is counting the days till the spring semester of theater starts. She's super excited to have 4 shows this May. FOUR!!!!

New Year's Eve Eve.

Hannah and friends had a New Year's Eve Eve party ay a friend's house. They played games and ate snacks. I played a new game with them that Hannah loves called Telestrations. Although there is drawing involved (yuck) it was still pretty funny.

Pin collection

Here's our new way of displaying all of the kids' pin (Todd's too). Now we can all enjoy them as we walk down the hall instead of them hanging on a hook or in a drawer. Uncle Fred might recognize a few he bought the kids in Hong Kong.

Christmasy stuff

 Some people do the "Elf on the Shelf". Our family does things our own way. Over the month of December, either the Hobbit Lego characters or some Disney characters got into mischief around the house. The Hobbit & dwarves are snacking on our gingerbread house while Gandalf plays Santa. They have also surrounded the pizzelles,used Todd's cell phone,climbed his phone charger,watched "their" movie, and visited baby Jesus at the manger.

 Here's some treats I made for a Veggie Tales Christmas movie party at church. Cool, huh?

 See, Woody & Sulley were playing Uno. Buzz & Woody also tried to use our phone and plunge the toilet.

 Christmas Eve day we stopped at Montezima Castle & Montezuma Well on the way to Strawberry. We got a "school day" in on this little field trip.

 Montezuma Well

Hannah and her gifts.

 Joshua and his gifts.

We stopped by the Strawberry Schoolhouse and couldn't resist a picture by the outhouse. Todd needs to go....just kidding.

Here are some pictures from December. Most of the captions tell the story. We've got 2 Bible Quiz matches this month and then a visit from grandparents.