Cats, Cooking, Creativity, and Gaming

Play time is a real thing in our house.  It is sought after, worked for, and sometimes claimed as a right.  There are many shapes that it takes such as X-Wing Miniatures 2.0, Perler Beeds, Lego set ups and battles, and Star Wars 3.75" figure and ships set ups and battles.  Brett didn't have many days off in January, so his attention for battles and games was highly requested on those few days.  

In the meantime, the cats continued to take great pictures and be a topic of stories from each day.  Joy found time to finish another beautiful painting to hang in the master bedroom.  The boys and Joy continued to make amazing dinners to bless our pallets with.

X-Wing 2.0 with all four boys playing at once.

Kylo and Anakin have become cuddle buddies.

Garrett made Shepherd's Pie, one of Poppy's favorites from Brett's childhood.

Qi'ra watches as Joy paints a snowy sunset.

Another delicious dinner creation.

Star Wars 3.75" figure set up before the battle.

The staging area for the invasion fleet about to attack the kitchen table base.

Star Wars Clone Wars version Risk--a new purchase and challenge.

Bryce listens to music and sets out the perler beeds to make his 3-D creations.

Now that we have worked the kinks out on apple pies, let's try some berry pies!

Qi'ra works on her school--preCalculus already?

Zoom chat with Jake while playing Brawl Ball.

Star Wars Lego set up and battle.

Bryce begins his Mandalorian and the Child number box painting.

Joy's snowy sunset painting.

Anakin and Kylo in the cat version a double decker couch.

Special burger creation and fries night.

 

Christmas in January

Due to COVID and wanting to be able to safely see Grammy and Poppy, we had not gotten together for our Christmas gathering with the Jungingers.  So when they were celebrating with Eric's father and were out our way, they swung by for a backyard gift exchange.  We always wish we could have more time to hang out, but Brett and Joy had a training session for the virtual debate tournament judging and Brett was working early the next morning.  We received a great COVID gift package to remind us of all the crazy parts of the past year along with some other appropriately picked out items.  We gave them some playing cards with memorial pictures on them from our fun together over the last two years.

 

Public Performance for ICC in Ripon

The boys are required to have public performances of the speeches in order to qualify them for tournaments and to move to the next level at ICC.  Joy and Melanie arranged this outdoor venue in Ripon on a beautifully sunny January afternoon (not that that was guaranteed when they picked the date, but we thank God for His blessings).

Griffin introduces the next speaker.

Bryce and Garrett perform their duo speech based on "A Single Shard."

Griffin and Jake show what it takes to demonstrate "The Trumpet of the Swan."

The socially distanced audience watches and listens.

Garrett and Bryce bring "A Christmas Carol" to life.

 

Day 2 of the ICC Competition--Broadcast and Speeches

The first on-line competition of the year for ICC was an international event requiring us to get up by 5:30am in order to check in and compete by 6am.  This was a quite a task for our kids who are mostly used to getting up closer to 8am, Garrett being the exception getting up by 7am and sometimes 6:30am for his classes.  For the second day, Brett drove Griffin to Ripon to arrive by 6:30am for check-in at his location for his morning at Jake's where he was set up with his own room for his broadcast and informative speeches.   All three of our boys qualified for Nationals in at least one category with the areas of competition being Radio Broadcast, Round Table Discussion, and Interpretative or Informative Speeches.

Celebrating the invitations to Nationals!

 

Day 1 of the ICC Tournament-Round Table

Each of our boys was all on-line at the same time as a part of the Round Table Discussion portion of the tournament.  This included Brett as a judge.  Fortunately, our internet and WiFi held up for all four devices on at the same time early in the morning.  Shoes were not required.

 

Practicing For the ICC On-Line Tournament

ICC has been generally geared toward live audiences, so normally there are decent sized stages or areas on which the boys are performing.  For this on-line tournament preparation, the boys worked with Joy and other coaches to fine tune their positioning and prop use to maximize the effect for an on-line audience.  This took a lot of preparation and running through the performances to work out the kinks.  We then also recognized that with three devices running live video feeds and another one for the adult in the house judging, our WiFi was put to the test and failed a few times.  You don't want glitches on a live performance to be aired, so Griffin went to his friend's house since he was going to have to duo with him anyways in one location...

Qi'ra enjoyed our new potterman's bowl for Single Shard and curled up inside for a nap.

Practicing positioning and spacing for the on-line tournament.

Look what I found in my bowl.

Bryce trialed this location.

Garrett choose Mom and Dad's room for the peace and quiet.

Griffin's location of choice was the school room to accommodate his Robert Bunsen display, but this would not be his final location due to a test run WiFi issue.

Joy watches Griffin on-line, live.

As parents we also had rounds to judge, just not with our kids or chapter involved.

 

An Afternoon of Literary Interpretation

The boys needed a virtual audience for their ICC chapter for presenting their duo speeches and so Joy worked with Melanie to set up an afternoon for seven of the ICC students to present their speeches in an on-line platform on zoom hosted by Joy and Melanie.  Jake came over to our house since he is partnered with Griffin to present their duo.  Hannah, Isabella, and Rachel joined virtually from their respective houses.  There was an audience of 17 families watching the presentations.  Garrett and Bryce performed "A Single Shard" and "A Christmas Carol."  Griffin and Jake brought "The Trumpet and the Swan" to life together.  Overall, a good performance with lessons learned to apply to their next venue.

Bryce, Griffin, Jake, Garrett pose with our masked deer.

Griffin and Jake in the midst of their show.

Acting like a swan can be a difficult accomplishment...

...after all, you don't want to come across as a quack!

 

Bryce and Garrett perform their duo interpretative speech.