How was your weekend? Was the weather as gorgeous your way as mine?
I took the doggies for a couple of walks, but mainly I waited on the sofa for the ex to send videos of the Team Teal in action at the National Skipping Championships … and then cried every time I watched them.
I’m very, very proud of those four girls for skipping their hearts out. They showed so much passion and determination, it blew me away.
It was such a different scenario to the State Skipping Championships, when the youngest was so ill she couldn’t even remember her solo routine.
(I may also have been a bit teary because life’s oxygen stealers are getting me down. It feels like I’m walking in heavy gravity. But I’m not gonna dwell on that when sooooo much cool stuff happened.)
Let me start at the beginning of the fun, which involved a yummy teriyaki lunch on Friday in the sun at a cafe near my house. Because the world is too small, a former skipping dad runs the cafe. He’s Japanese, same as the head coach of the youngest’s skipping club, and they’re mates. Actually, the head of the youngest’s skipping club is quite the New Age man. He’s a primary school teacher, the President of whatever the hell the world skipping organisation is called, a hairdresser (which comes in very handy when competitors need their hair French braided) and a ceramacist … who made all the teriyaki bowls at the local cafe.
I kid you not.
Anyways, that was followed by the opening of our local area art prize … where the eldest took out runner up in the Youth section for her lino print. Very proud mum!
A cute boy weating camo gear took out first prize and the eldest was completely horrified when I started raving about what beautiful, talented children they would have if they should happen to fall in lurve.
She thought I was being completely gross.
Anways, she won a $150 bag chock full of art supplies. Go her!
The next morning, I dragged her out of bed at the ungodly hour of 9.30am to go to brekkie with her oldest friend Ava, who she met at work-based childcare as a toddler. We had a lovely time at Centennial Park, with the eldest channelling me in the ’80s in an outfit that included a studded leather jacket and fingerless gloves.
Just before brekkie, I got the news that the youngest came top 10 in her age group for speed skipping. She scored a personal best of 76 jumps in 30 seconds. Awesome result as speed isn’t her strongest event. But she was determined to make up for her blow-out at States.
(When I drove the team home from their final training session on Thursday night, they were chattering in the back seat about how zen they were about their medal chances at Nationals and were just thrilled to be attending the competition … bless them, though they did say they fancied going to Worlds so they could get an Aussie team tracksuit … I’m not sure that should be the primary reason for dragging your parents all the way to Shanghai …)
Getting into the top 10 meant the youngest was eligible to do her solo routine, which was solid, but not a medal winner. From what I saw at the State Championship, some of the kids spend their whole routines doing mid-air cartwheels and the like. It’s quite dazzling to watch. The youngest’s routine is a bit more grounded.
On Sunday, videos and messages came through telling me the team were medal hopefuls for their four-person freestyle routine and three-person Double Dutch, which brought a few more tears to my eyes when I saw them. It was also lovely to be fielding messages from proud parents of other team members about what a cracker day the kids were having.
So … drum roll … here are the medal results for Team Teal in the 11-12 years category:
Double dutch speed relay: Bronze
Four person freestyle: Silver
Double dutch three-person: Gold!
Team Teal overall: Silver!
I got a little over-excited and decided it meant they were going to Worlds next year, but that’s still up in the air because there’s no 11-12 category at Worlds. They need to qualify in the 12-14 category. That will be tough. I have my fingers crossed, but no cigar.
Ah well, geez they looked stoked on that podium yesterday arvo. My heart swelled so big.
Here are some photos from the past few days:
housegoeshome 
Bloody marvellous. Well done all
Fantastic effort. $150 worth of art supplies should keep the eldest busy for a while.
She’s very stoked with the paints, apparently good quality stuff. But the next project is another lino print for my brother in law because he owns a flooring franchise!