2 March 2014

 We had lots of Battle of the Books excitement this week.  As we expected, Abe and Helen's teams met for a battle on Tuesday.  It was Abe's team's second battle and Helen's team's first. All of the photos are from Tuesday, but there were battles all week.  Abe's team won this battle, sending Helen's team to the losers' bracket.  Abe's team remained undefeated throughout the tournament and made it to the final battle.

 Helen's team steadily advanced through the tournament.  They beat two fourth grade teams and a fifth grade team and also made it to the final battle.  The school librarian called their success the upset of the century.  No one expected to see a third grade team competing for the championship.  Abe's team felt nervous about going up against them the second time.  Helen's team had won so many improbable battles, it seemed like anything could happen.

 Abe's team won the final, with a score of 45-25.  The scoreboard in the photo is from their earlier battle.  Both teams were very good sports.  Abe and Helen were supportive of each other, helping each other study and sharing books.  The library only lets the kids check out 2 books at a time, but with 2 kids checking out, they could have 4 books between them.

 Most of the battles happened during class time.  Gibson is in first grade and his teacher's daughter was on Helen's team.  His teacher sent Gibson to watch all of the battles that Helen competed in.  

 Here are the champions-- Abe, Ashton, Jake and Spencer.  Their team name is "Practical Prodigies."

 Sofi dressed up all week.  One day was Camo Day.  Becky joked that this wasn't really a dress up day because half the kids at school wear camo every day.

 

Joey helped Sofi sculpt her hair for Feb-u-hairy day.

Here is a view from the top.

Sofi's most extravagant costume was for Tribal Day.  A costume designer friend let Sofi look through her costumes and pick something out.  Sofi found a head from The Lion King and an outfit from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Here's a close up of the head.  The base of the head is a bicycle helmet.  It's built of paper mache.

 We had a nutty adventure on Saturday.  Brandan's niece, Kaylee, mailed us a Flat Stanley paper doll.  We are supposed to take a photo of Flat Stanley and mail him back.  We all thought Crater Lake would make a great backdrop for the photo and it would be fun to spend an afternoon at the lake.  The reality, however, was Saturday was busier than we expected.  We ended up driving to Crater Lake where it was freezing cold and the lake was fogged in, jumping out for a quick photo, finding out we were one coat short (Gibson wore the lining out of Becky's coat,) then driving home again.