Therin's New Bike

Biography Night: Matthew Henson

Tried to load the video but I never have luck on blogger. Guess you'll just have to watch it on my camera.

The 2/3 classes at SOTA put on a little display and production about some famous historical people last night. Almost all of them I had heard of but I few were new, like the one Therin researched. The kids did a really good job on both their informational pizza boxes and the lines they rehearsed to tell us about their character. One more reason to love this school....

Therin Wrestling

Therin wrestled in Holmen today and took 2nd. He is 10-4 for the season so far. I am feeling like we have a teenager already. He complains about having to wrestle so early and I swear it takes him a match to wake up and get with it. Maybe we have produced another night owl. I told him I feel the same way about running but there aren't a lot of races that start at night either. Becky has some good pictures from the La Crosse tournament on her flickr page and on her blog http://www.rechlife.com/.

100th Day

In honor of the 100th Day of School.....

Yes, he has 100 Lego figures! I'm sure at least 1 uncle is proud of that!

Grandpa Rick picked Therin up from school and took him ice fishing. Obviously it was a success! Fish fry on Friday!

Birthday Boy

It was a wonderful birthday and celebration. Therin had 5 friends over for dinner. They played football, Ghost in the Graveyard, and sat around the fire telling scary and silly stories and eating popcorn. It was a beautiful night. A few of the boys spent the night in tents out back. In the morning the boys were busy playing with Legos, a new game-Crossbows and Catapults, and watching Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Although, this was the longest party we have had, it was the least amount of work. I was happy to see my boy so happy but wondering where these 8 precious years have gone so quickly? Happy Birthday Bud!

Brewers Game

Grandma and Grandpa Smith took Therin to a Brewer game as an early birthday gift. The Brewers played the Astros and won 5-4. Despite the heat, sounds like Therin had a wonderful time!

Jewelry making

Therin made these earrings at an art class at The Pump House this summer. He really enjoyed the class (which consisted of a lot of other things besides jewelry making) and some of the women in his life got a beautiful gift! He is SO thoughtful!

Blue Bombers

Wrestling wrap up

Well, we finished the 2010-11 season on Saturday at a meet in Caledonia, MN. Practice has been over for two weeks but Therin was in fine form, crushing his competition (and they were very good wrestlers). Travis and I were a little shell shocked. Travis had taught Therin the 3/4 Nelson and Therin tried it in two of his matches but didn't have it quite tight enough. He finished the day in 1st with 2 pins and a win by a tech fall (16-0). It was impressive, a great way to end the season.



The tallest trophy yet. Grandma asked if we were going to need to build a shelf for Therin's trophies, at this rate, maybe a room!



Therin and his biggest fan. Kya is so supportive and proud of her brother. She enjoys going to his wrestling meets and never complains about the hours we spend at these tournaments. We all feel lucky she has such a great attitude about it!



After we got home, there was a package from the Cornell Coach, Mike Duroe, in the mailbox. I was so impressed and appreciative that he sent Therin the hat he promised and a note. It really makes an impression and motivates these little guys. I am excited to say the 2012 DIII Championships will be in La Crosse again next year; so, I'm hoping they put the clinic on again. We sent Coach Duroe a thank you note.



Therin finished the season 12-3 with 4 or 5 pins but as always we are most impressed with his hard working and humble attitude. Keep it up Bud!

2011 NCAA DIII Championships Youth Wrestling Clinic

I was very disappointed in the pictures I took. In every group picture I got, Therin was blocked by someone moving at exactly the right time....

Exhibit A: Someone's headgear up in Therin's face.


Coach Mike Duroe from Cornell with the kids.

Exhibit B: Therin behind UWL Coach Dave Malecek's leg.



Exhibit C: Didn't have a chance.





I was so excited to take advantage of the opportunity to do this clinic with top coaches from around the nation. Coach Mike Duroe of Cornell College took down Therin's address to send him a hat for guessing the correct number of national championships his team had won. I read in the newspaper that the DIII National Championships will be in La Crosse again next year; so hopefully, we'll have the opportunity to do it again and maybe study for any trivia questions! =)

Lessons at Mt. La Crosse

Gundersen hosted a night out at Mt. La Crosse so lift tickets were offered at a considerably reduced rate and lessons were free. I took advantage and the kids had a blast. This was Kya's first ski lesson and Therin's second snowboard lesson. I thought about attempting to bust out the snowboard myself today but made the right decision and just watched and helped the kids (I kept busy and got enough of a workout running up and down the hill to help Kya.) I think we'll be ready for the chair lift/bigger hills after another day on the bunny hill. You could tell how fatigued the kids were after an hour and a half because it got harder and harder to make it up the tow rope; so it was time to head home for a hot shower and food!! Both Therin and Kya were complimenting each other on how well they did on the ride home. I was proud of them both and wished Travis could have been out there with us on such a gorgeous day!!! It was 50 today in La Crosse and so I had the kids wear rain pants and rain jackets instead of their usual winter gear-it wasn't nearly as water logged to bring home!!

Champ

Therin competed in a wrestling tournament in Tomah on Sunday. His first match was against a kid from Tomah who he lost to last weekend. Therin was a little nervous to wrestle him again but beat him by several points. He won his other two matches. I was even more nervous than usual because this was the first meet Travis was not at to coach Therin. I warmed up with Therin (which I had never done) and was amazed by the kid's power being only half my size. Sorry, there aren't more pictures but I had to record the matches for Dad and since I've had so much trouble loading a 30 second video, there's no way I'm trying one that's 5 minutes! Next weekend we head to Wausau and will wrestle at the Warrior Invitational.

Behind

Well, I am finally getting back to the blog this week. We have quite a few things to post about: a live video of Therin playing a song on his viola, Valentine's preparations and crafts, Wednesday afternoon skates, etc. Today, we went to Therin's first wrestling meet this season in Westby. All of Therin's matches were against tough opponents and the matches came down to the wire. He walked away with 3rd place and we were proud.




I am still battling my cold. We are dog sitting, Max, for the weekend. Tomorrow we are excited to watch the Packers in the NFC championships! Go Pack!

Check out this blog to see pictures from our visit to the McHenry's in the Cities January 8-9th. http://mcblogsblog.blogspot.com/

All I want for Christmas.......

is a tooth. Therin wiggled it out today in math. We'll see what the tooth fairy brings.....


Therin and his best friend, Nicholas, lost the same first tooth within 48 hours of each other!

A knight story by Therin

One day a nite was wocing out of the kasl and he saw a dragin. The dragin bloo fire. The nite swung his sord. The dragin floo awway. and the nite went bac in the kasl. and then the necx day the dragin cam bac and then the kadplt fird. The dragin doj it. Then the dragin floo awway. Then the nite fownde the dragins cav. but the dragin wasint thar. and they lived hagle ever aftr. The end.

Overtired Kicks

What you do for entertainment when your surgeon father is REALLY overtired:



Unfortunately Travis dodged the picture of him doing this same thing. It was priceless, let me tell you.

Birthday Encore: Onalaska Skate Park

Turning 7!!!

I think Therin had a very nice birthday including:
Star Wars cookies to bring to school for a treat
Taco Bell for lunch per his request
Two of his best friends at Farmer's Market to play football and eat dinner with
Attending a local high school rivalry football game with Dad and staying up past his bedtime
And looking forward to putting the mid-size Millenium Falcon he got for his birthday together tomorrow

More things to look forward to this weekend:
Celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa Smith
A trip to the skate park
A neighborhood cookout
Apple picking at Fergusons with family friends
Watching the Packers first regular season game on Sunday