Little A's

The boys decided they would give little athletics a go this summer. It was a very, very tough choice between this and cricket!

This is Ben starting the 100m race. His starts reminded both Nathan and I of a swimming relay start! Pity the kid still can't swim due to his ears! 

So far they are loving it! I'm not overly loving the $330 plus $90 in t-shirts it has cost us to play so far but I am sure by the end of the season I will think it was worth it!

 Ryan's run up for the long jump. He appears to have more aptitude for the field events!

 Ben loved the 400m but is even more excited about the 800m this weekend!

 Matthew in the 200m. They are slightly confused about which races they have to stay in their lanes and which ones they don't!

 Ryan was really good with a discus, quite natural. We are just praying it doesn't snap off his skinny twig like arm!

 Matthew's javelin throw. Thank goodness someone saw reason and decided not to give children sharp pointy spears to throw. Well not until next year anyway!

 Ryan's 200m sprint. He slipped over and was thrilled because even though he fell he still came second last because it could have been worse it could have been last!

Ben's long jump.

It was an interesting experience for Nathan and I! Firstly because we have three children and there are only two of us which meant that one child had to be by themselves. We reckon we walked kms each trying to keep up with all the boys and each other! We would wave at each other as we passed! Secondly not being heavily involved was weird! Usually Nathan and I would be at the center of all the action but we decided we can't do everything and we would sit back and just be observers of Little A's. And it killed us! We watched the other helpers measure long jump back to front! The running timing gates are a computer nerds dream! So I am thinking it really won't be long before Nathan is offering to do the automated timing and I will be in the sandpit measuring the jumps!

Aside from that the boys loved it and can not wait to go again next week!

Cross Country

It all started with the school Cross Country. All of the boys had been training with their classes.

 In Kindy it is all about participation. In fact, the serious racing doesn't begin until they turn 8, so Ryan is still yet to compete for a spot on the school team. Despite the "non-competitive' nature Ben still ran his fastest and informed me he came 2nd! The boy that beat him had been tousling for the first position for weeks with it being fairly even. I can see a very competitive "friendship" for these two boys in the future. They are very similar and currently it as a very friendly rivalry.

 The winner of the having the most fun race was absolutely Ryan!

 He was very impressed not to have come last this year. I very much think for him it is a case of the race being just a little too short! This kid is full of slow twitch muscle fibres. He certainly didn't get them from his father. His Grumpy ran a marathon so perhaps he inherited it from him......

 Matthew placed a lot of expectation on himself. He knew he came third last year and he wanted to equal or better it this year. He came third again! Which once again meant he was off to Districts. Do you remember what happened last year? His shoe came off in the first 100m and he ran most of the rest of the way in one shoe! Anyway so after last year we thought we had better have a practise to boost his confidence.

 So the weekend before the race we went out to Mt Stromlo forest where the carnival is held. Nice view hey! The little ants in the centre of the midground are Nathan and the boys.

 Funnily enough Ben won the practise. Although we did tell Matthew to not go flat out or he would be too tired for the real race! Daddy came last. He tells us his is NOT a land animal!

 The big day came around and Matthew was very confident. He took off like a bat out of hell and was coming fourth for the first 800m until he got tripped over! I'm not sure who I was prouder of, the boy who tripped him and stopped to see if he was ok or Matt who got back up and kept going even though he was definitely out of the places!

 In the end he came 16th. So very proud of him!

Now we only have to wait two weeks until it is athletics carnival time! Lets see if Matthew came make the treble, the swimming, cross country and athletics district carnivals? Good thing he is a sportmans because he told us after his writing NAPLAN test this week Sportstars dont need to be able to write expositions and when he grows up he is going to be a sports star!