We just came from our second homeschool track and field day. The last one was in the fall of 2004, so this was a long time coming. It’s Yanni’s last year of eligibility. Next year she can go and help out, but not run, so she wanted to make a good showing.

Our play group came out in full force: Annette and the girls were there, Julie and her children, Maureen and her children, Sherese and her children, and Miriam and the kids were all there. I almost didn’t make it. Joy woke up with a sore throat and was generally cranky and sleepy all morning. I had her take a morning nap, and she woke up feeling better, but was crying about her mouth hurting after she ate lunch. I called Sherese and asked her to take Yanni and Xay to the meet.

Almost as soon as they’d left, Joy said her throat didn’t hurt any more.

I still fooled around the house, doing hair, trying to put Esteban down for a nap, laundry, etc., but when it was clear that Esteban wasn’t going to sleep, I packed everyone up, and we headed across town to the track meet.

By the time we got there, Annette was getting ready to go, and Miriam quickly loaded all the children in the car to catch an appointment. I got a chance to give her a quick hello. I talked to Annette and Julie and Maureen briefly, as all the children filed off the field for the awards ceremony.

I noticed the last time we’d gone to track and field day that the ‘dynasties’ dominate the award ceremony. The dynasties are the several *large homeschooling families. They have children in virutally all the age groups, usually finishing first, second, or third. It was no different today, but I was pleased to see how well our play group finished.

*(There was a family with 10 children there, as well as a family with 11 children. There were also families of 7, 6, 5, on down. It adds up fast).

Rose and Lavender each won a couple of ribbons in the 5-6 year old girls’ category. Jeffrey won a ribbon or two in the 5-6 year old boys’ category. Liesl won several ribbons in the 7-8 year old girls’ category. Sage, Jack and Isaac each won in the 7-8 year old boys’ category. Unfortunately, none of our people won in the 9-10 age group; that was the group with the stiffest competition.

Xay won third place in the softball toss for the 11-12 year old boys, despite stiff competition from several dynasties. (btw, I was told that I have myself a dynasty already; I think it’s more in the making–watch out when Esteban is bigger!) Xay threw the softball over 94 feet!

Yanni won the same two ribbons she’d won last time: 3rd place in the 100 yard dash, and 1st place in the relay race.

Tyler dominated in the 13-14 year old boys’ competition, placing in all the events. His mother pointed out that there were only 4 boys competing. Gotta love that motherly support! To his credit, Tyler is a good and competitive athlete. It would be nice to see him have more competition to show that.

I was sorry that I’d missed all the competition, but I was very pleased with how well our group did. I wonder what it would be like if we actually practiced for track and field together?