Megan had 2 track meets in May. On the 5th, she ran the 4 x 100 (a favorite). She jumped 7' 0" in the long jump (I missed that photo opp). She ran a consistent 800 with a time of 3:32.
And, she ended the day with a fun 4 x 400 (I believe they got a medal for this one). She has a good group of girls on the team. Note - the photo bomb. Gotta love it.
On May 18, we had the big CYO final meet of the year. Each kid was only allowed to choose 3 events to make sure the meet didn't run into the evening. Megan decided that she wanted to choose all running events. Of course, the 4 x 100 was her first event. She likes to be the final leg.
Then, she ran her best 800 time with a 3:21.23. And look at the size of her competitors!
She finished her season as the final leg of the 4 x 400 relay.
When they combined all JV/Varsity and Girl/Boy scoring, QAS took second place at the meet (out of approx. 14 schools!).
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Track Wrap Up
Monday, September 16, 2013
April Track Meets
Track season was so much fun. Megan got to participate as a 3rd grader (shhh!). Her first meet was at Loyola Academy on April 21. The kids are able to choose their own events. She picked the long jump (she jumped 6' 3"), the 4x100 relay and the 800. Here are some relay pics (relays are the most fun):
And - my favorite event - the 800. She ran a speedy 3:34.
Their second meet was 6 days later on April 27th at St. Ignatius High School. We were able to grab a quick team photo:
She ran in the 4x100 relay again (she likes the glory of the anchor leg):
And, of course, here famous 800:
That photo was the start. Here is the final stretch (she ran a 3:37 on this day):
She had a good day at the long jump. She was able to go 8' 0" for a 7th place overall finish (earned her a ribbon):
Here's another jump:
The had a meet at Loyola the very next day, April 28 (oh to be young and have that much energy!). Megan ran the anchor leg of the 4x100 again:
And, long jump (6' 5"):
She ran the 800 in 3:31 for an 11th place finish:
And, she added in the 4x400 (it's tough to pass up a relay opportunity):
And one parting shot of the girls' JV team bonding at the end of the meet:
Friday, June 21, 2013
April 2013
Yep, finally getting around to April updates. So much for my good intentions. After getting back from spring break we had our April scout meeting on the 10th. We took them to Whole Body Fitness for a boxing workout with Sweet Pete and Coach Will. The guys worked them hard and they had a blast. Jake comes along for scout activities when the activity appeals to him. He definitely wanted in on this one.
The next day he was drawing a picture at the counter and this was what he came up with:
On the 12th, we had our Girl Scout overnight at Journey World. Talk about an uncomfortable night of sleep. I was definitely not prepared for this one. They had said to bring yoga mats to sleep on, but that space was limited so they didn't recommend air mattresses. I will not believe that next time. Here's the room:
Notice the tile floor and skinny little yoga mats that we slept on. In all fairness, the girls had a good time and the whole event only lasted about 11 hours. We were out of there by 8:15 the next morning -- and went straight to track practice. I had one tired girl that afternoon!
On Monday, we had to pick up a certificate from Chicago Costume and the kids scored some clown noses from the owner. I just thought this was a funny pic.
Since Jake has a summer birthday, he celebrated his day on April 17. He brought Groucho glasses for all of his classmates and apparently it was a big hit.
On Thursday, the 18th, we got so much rain that school was cancelled. Actually much of it came late Wednesday into the early morning hours, but lots of basements flooded and the expressway was closed due to flooding. I snapped this pic of the river when I ventured out that afternoon.
On Saturday, I went to the QAS Scavenger Hunt (Darin stayed behind this time around). My team did not win (not for my lack of trying), but we had fun anyway.
Megan had her first track meet on April 21 at Loyola Academy. Jake also had a baseball game that day. Busy Saturday for this household. Megan ended up doing the long jump, 800, and 4x100 relay. It was super fun for both us.
We drove Tatum and Logan home from school one day and I just thought this was a cute pic of Jake and Tatum waiting for their big sisters.
On the 24th, I took our scouts to the North Branch Arts Center to earn their painting badge. The paintings turned out great!
On the 26th, a few of our scouts collected money for Misercordia at Happy Foods. The patrons thought it was quite unfair to have cute little girls soliciting them. They really raked in some dough for a such a great cause!
We had a couple more track meets that I should write about, but I think those are worthy of their own post!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Bedtime Story
While I was putting Jake to bed the other night, he started talking about his birthday (this is not an unusual topic). Anyway, he said "So, I'm trying to decide if my party should be at Sky High or at home" and he put his hands in front of him like a scale and would raise one up at a time and say, "Sky High....Home". Then he stopped and said, "Wait, which one is the winner - up or down?". I started to explain that heavier was down and before I could get any further he said, "Whatever.....anyway, I'm going to invite so and so and...." (I'm leaving names out to protect the innocent). Then he added, "I'm not sure about xxx because he's pretty crazy". He cut me off when I was going to say something and said, "Wait, I'll see what God tells me to do". He turned around like he was praying, then turned back to me and said, "He's out".
This kid is a trip. It was all I could do to not bust out laughing at that one.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Road Trip!
Well, the Collings crew headed to the Twin Cities for spring break this year. We drove up on Tuesday of break week and returned on Friday evening. We pulled out of our garage at 8:25 on that Tuesday morning. We were just about to get onto I-90 at 8:31 am, when Jake said - and these are his exact words - "Oh, this ride is so long."
About 7 hours later, we pulled into Bloominton, MN where we stayed at the Radisson that was connected to The Waterpark of America.
Our hotel was about a half mile from the Mall of America, so we ended up going there a few times for meals and shopping. They had a fabulous Lego Store.
And, of course the highlight was the purchase of Lego sets.
Megan's highlight was the American Girl Store.
We had lots of fun at the Water Park.
Here are the boys in the lazy river.
I like this one.
The kids called this particular attraction "The Wipe Out" area (like the TV show Wipe Out). They were pretty fast at crossing that thing after a couple of tries.
The had one big Family Water Slide that I went down with the kids while Darin was working one day. It was 10 stories high and it got going pretty fast. Megan liked it and Jake did not. We decided that this image on the wall summed up our family's experience:
And one last shot on our way out:
We were able to see my friends, Kelli & John, and their two kids. They were kind enough to have us over for dinner on Thursday night and then Kelli and the kids met us at the Children's Museum on Friday morning.
Megan found some crutches to play with in the hospital area of the museum.
This particular crane exhibit was pretty cool. Jake was really good at operating it.
When I walked down the stairs of the "Steel Mill" exhibit, this is what I found.
Megan loved this little guy:
One last bubble for the road.
We hit the road right after the museum and were back in Chicago 6 hours later.
