Child/Parent Doubles and Tread

Tim and Michael have spent the last couple of months raising money for their TREAD race.  Our church was encouraging us to get people to sponsor us and to run the Tulip Time race to raise money to help purchase shoes for kids in Guatemala.  Tim and Michael took up the challenge and spread the word to our stacking friends around the world.  They promised that if $500 was raised they would do a live stream video trying to break 8.5 seconds in Child/Parent doubles.  They raised $680 and so on last Saturday they ran the 5K race and then stacked for an hour live on youtube.  They met their money goal and their stacking goal!!!



If you want to, you can even watch the whole hour of stacking here.

Post Orlando Trip

You'd think that after 15 hours of stacking last weekend, we'd be ready for a break, but not my boys.  This is what they have been doing this week:


And they are setting new personal bests!





Three years ago we went to our first Sport Stacking World Championships.  Becca was a newborn and I carried her in my Moby wrap all weekend.  We took this picture that is still framed in Michael's room.


This year we thought it was time for an update:

Orlando Trip Post #3

Our trip ended with the World Championships for Sport Stacking!  Wow - it is so much fun to get to hang out with team USA and all of the stackers from around the world.  Tim and Michael had a bunch of practices throughout the week and Jon even got to go along on some of them.  The actual tournament was Saturday and Sunday.  While only Tim and Michael got to stack in the tournament, Jon and Becca got to play around with the team in the practice rooms.


Here is a larger shot of the room where Team USA and Team Germany were stationed for the weekend.


My favorite event of the weekend was Michael's relay team.  It was made up of 4 stackers age 7 and 8 and all four of them are FAST!  On Saturday they competed in the age 10 and under division in head to head relays.  This is where two teams face off against each other to see who can complete their stacks faster and without scratches.  Michael's team was probably the 4th fasted in the division with two older team USA and one team Germany teams that had more speed.  Michael's team was coached to go fast but not their absolute fastest so the would not make mistakes.  Boy did it pay off - they came in first in the 3-6-3 and second in the Cycle races.  I was so nervous for them watching but SO proud of them.

Then on Sunday they competed in the timed relay event.  In the 10 and under division they came in third place.  AND they set a new age 8 and under record time!




Both Tim and Michael also set new personal tournament best times in their individual events.  Tim even came in first place in the 3-3-3 and Cycle which is fabulous especially considering the woman from Germany who holds all the records was there competing!

Sleepy Note

We are back from a week long vacation in Orlando.  It was tons of fun and I will spend the rest of this week sharing pictures and stories with you but for now I'm tired and want to nap so let me give you three things that are on my mind after our trip.

1. Our kids are amazing travelers.  We had a few whines from Becca last night while she was trying to fall asleep on the plane at 9:00ish and then again when I had to wake her at 10:00 so we could get off the plane.  That's it!!  They were fabulous the whole time.  We flew into Chicago and drove home, arriving at about 1:30 am.  Check out the sleeping kiddos:


2. 4 hours of sleep is not enough for me.  I hope that Tim is doing alright back teaching and coaching today.  When I was getting the kids dressed this morning at 10:00 I was telling Becca that we would: get dressed, go grocery shopping, come home to eat lunch, bring Jon and Michael to school, and then take a nap.  A few minutes later I couldn't find her.  Turns out she was in bed getting ready for her nap. Apparently she didn't get enough sleep either.

3. You'd think after 15 hours of stacking in the last two days my kids would want a break, but the boys have been stacking this morning and Michael for the first time stacked three 7 second cycles in a row.  If you'd like to see some of the tournament results check them out here.

New Fast Times

We are gearing up for the World Championships.  Michael is getting so close to a 6 second cycle.

Cup towers

I just realized I never shared with you some more snow day cup stacking pictures.  These aren't our normal stacking pictures though - this day they were in to cup towers.



After much work and parents telling him it wouldn't balance Michael got this.



And spurred on by his success, this...



But with one more cup...



It all came crashing down.

Connersville 2013

Last weekend was our first stacking tournament of the year.  We drove down to Connersville IN Friday after school and stayed in a hotel room so that we could be up and at the tournament nice and early Saturday.  All three boys in the family were going to be stacking and Becca and I were the video crew and cheering section.



We got to catch up with a friend Austin we met last year.  He is the same age as Michael and is about a full second faster than Michael in the cycle.  The two of them hooked up for doubles and in a relay.



Michael did well with his two highlights being potential world records in both of his doubles!




Jon did awesome at the tournament also.  He competed in the 6 and under age division and came in first place in all 3 stacks, including getting his first 11 second cycle that day.  He paired up with Tim and also with a 6 year old girl there to do doubles and came in 4th for both.  Jon also got to compete with some others in a fun 6 and under relay.

Snow Day Post #2

Yesterday I shared with you the videos from our Tuesday snow day.  Here are the pics.

As you can tell from the video we did a lot of stacking - especially these two who are gearing up for Worlds in April.


Jon and Becca and I had fun with some cool floor puzzles they got for Christmas.




And then there was stacking outside in the snow.  I love this picture.  Michael was working so hard at trying a cycle with the jumbo cups with sticky snow and gloved hands and do you see what Jon is gearing up for?  He's trying to pelt Michael with a snow ball.  Good thing for Michael, Jon is not good and putting a snow ball together yet.

Snow Day stacking

We had a snow day on Tuesday and the boys in this family all set some personal best times.  And Tim and Michael had a blast building and "down stacking" the cycle built of snow.

Gearing up for Stacking Season

We are gearing up for Stacking Season and Michael and Jon are setting some great person bests.  In fact, Michael is now officially faster at all three stacks than Tim.

Tournament Weekend

We went to the Indiana sport stacking tournament this weekend. It was Jon's first tournament where he got to stack and boy did he shine!!! We prepped him a lot because the tournament is all about going through the routine of two practices and three attempts at the same pattern, and we all know that Jon would rather mix things up and not follow routine. However, he has been playing with Michael's trophies for weeks now and talking about getting his own at a tournament so we wanted to let him shine.

When he went up to the table with the refs he was totally focused and excited to be there. When he saw that people in the stands were clapping and cheering for him he couldn't stop smiling and wanted to compete again and again and again. And when they gave him his medals he was simply giddy!

We have videos that will be coming quickly but here are some pictures from the day:

Michael and Jon stacked doubles together. Here is them in prelims. They made the top ten in the 7 and under division so they got to go on to finals. Our finals started a bit shaky though. When their group was called Jon decided that he wanted to use the green cups instead of the purples they had been practicing with. Michael felt that since they were doing good with the purples they should stick with them. This sent Jon crying. When I suggested to Michael that maybe they should switch for Jon he was crying too. So there I was (Tim was doing his stacking at the time) with two crying boys who were suppose to be reporting to the stacking table and holding a 2 year old who only wanted to get down and RUN! Some wonderfully sweet gentleman asked if I needed help, but I didn't think he'd really be able to do anything. After taking a break with the boys they settled on using the green cups (thanks to Michael being a fabulous big brother) and reported in with my apologies for them being late. Then I went off to tape Tim and came back to check on the boys just before their turn to find them both squirming saying they had to go to the bathroom. So off we were as fast as we could (poor Becca still in tow) and made it back just in time. They had two major fumbles but ended with a 23 seconds for their third attempt which if clean should give them a Michigan record together!


Then Tim had a blast doing parent-child doubles with each of the boys. Michael and Tim made the finals and came home with a first place in the event.




And here is Jon super excited to show off his 1st place in the 4 and under division in the 3-3-3, 3-6-3, and cycle. He brought them to church today and told anyone who would listen about them. Michael had the fun of meeting another 6 year old boy about as fast as him. They had a ton of fun hanging out together, but it meant that he only got one first place out of the three individual events.

Jon's Easy Peasy 20

Jon has been into stacking a LOT recently. He has gotten some 22s and 23s recently which is very fast for him. He completely frustrates Tim and Michael, though, because he usually stacks like this:
Hands on timer, fast up, up, up, STOP to push up shirt sleeves, down stack, down stack, chat a bit about the sound of the cups, finish fast, stop the timer.
Tim keeps saying how much faster Jon could be if he could get through a stack without getting distracted by something.

So the other day we got this: (Make sure to listen to his commentary at the beginning it's super cute.)

Getting back into stacking

OK, side note: You see it in this second video. Stacking for Jon is mostly about talking about it and less about actually doing it. Right now, this is how he is with everything: at dinner, when playing, when trying to get ready to go out.... He just talks and talks and does almost nothing.