Low grocery week! Can I keep this up! Also: AMAZING KID RESULTS

 Before I rest on my grocery saving laurels, I should note that we also did a Target run for cleaning supplies and a trip to the local grocery for wine, cheese, and salads-in-a-bag, and I don't know how much that cost because Ben went, and I hate checking my account balances. #badatadulting. ALSO, we spent all of the money eating all of our meals at restaurants last weekend because SO MANY KID THINGS. (Srsly we had lunch and dinner out Friday-Sunday, which is very much not like us, but was necessary.)

BUT! I only spent $308 at the grocery store! That;'s unheard of around here! 

Menu:

Sunday (yesterday LOL): Burgers, chips and veggies and dips, green beans, peanut butter cookies (I had a Costco chipotle black bean burger wrapped in lettuce, and it was SO DELISH).

M-W: SO MANY options! Sandwiches and crudite, breakfast sandwiches, eggs, pancakes, and fruit, pizza, spaghetti, deli fried chicken-- I will fully commit to being a short order cook as we get through another week full of kid things. Also there is a very good chance that takeout is in the cards tonight because Minnie and Cooper have to come to campus with me for a 4-6 thing.

Thurs: Grilled chicken breasts, baked potatoes, broccoli, salad. 

Friday: No clue! Maybe tacos; maybe spaghetti. We'll see where the wind takes us.

Weekend: Dorothy has a Chicago dance convention/competition, but Ben might take her because she has only one dance (it's only for the company dances, and most of hers compete at the club level), and she wears her hair down for it. Soooooo, I could be home alone with everyone else-- meaning I will probably throw money at my feelings.

KID STUFF (aka THE GOOD PART)

Jack had his state speech competition on Saturday. He competes in a category called special occasion speaking, and in WI, this (funny-- think mini stand-up routine built around a specific topic to a fake audience) category has 3 prompts that the students can choose from. The prompts are determined at the state coaches' meeting in July, so kids theoretically have from July-December to work on their speeches, but Jack? Decided to write his 6-minute speech the week of the year's first tournament, where he placed 4th and then took off like a (non spaceX) rocket! 

He has won so many competitions this year, and he was so happy heading into state (hosted at his very own school no less!) This year, students could choose from a motivational speech by a coach, a villain monologue, or a welcome-to-camp speech. Jack did the camp speech, and it was HILARIOUS and BANANAS. SO much physical humor! SO many dark jokes about middle schoolers! He did a cartwheel In a suit! And did a Russian jump that was always higher than classroom desks! 

He was elated to make semi finals (he has never broken into out-rounds at state before). Coop and I went to the high school when the semis were over to wait and see if he made finals because we planned to watch. Well! Jack's coach could not contain his delight and told Jack he was the top speaker going into finals before the postings had even dropped. Jack was SO EXCITED. To make things even sweeter, 2 of his teammates also made the final (it's unusual for schools to have HALF of the final round, so the whole team was thrilled, and anyone not in their own round came to watch.) 

Jack was AWESOME in the final round, and the whole round was just ridiculously funny. Kids! They're so smart and talented. Jack got to speak in his AP history classroom, and the room was stuffed to the gills with people sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Jack got the most laughs for sure, and he was clearly so happy and proud of himself.

The whole fam came to school for awards, and JACK TOOK SECOND PLACE IN THE WHOLE STATE OF WI! His teammate got third, and his other teammate won. It was SO COOL!

Also happening this weekend! The AAU Red-White-Blue national dive qualifier! PHEW! Okay. SO. AAU has a national tournament that you qualify for with a certain score at regular season meets. Coop has already hit that mark, meaning there's a CA summer tourney he can attend where the top 2 in each event get to go to London to compete. But then! AAU has a more prestigious tourney that you have to qualify for where the top 3 in each event go to Croatia and also become part of the AAU national team. That's the one Coop qualified for this weekend (yay!!!), and he will compete at nats in Charlotte, NC, over Memorial Day weekend. He has ONE MORE national qualifier series coming up for a chance to compete at the USA Diving junior nationals (this is the big kahuna of national tourneys) also in CA this summer. I don't think he will go to both AAU national meets, but we will have to see where the USA Diving chips fall.

He had platform on Friday (3rd!!), 1-meter on Saturday (8th-- a real bummer, and he hopes a qual for that event bumps down to him by kids who finished in the top 6 deciding not to go to the tourney-- this is a thing that happens because some kids are USA Diving-only competitors, so we will see), and 3-meter on Sunday (6th! A qual!). His age group was STACKED with USA Diving national finalists, so these finishes were a BATTLE. And even though he dove poorly on Saturday (it was baaaaaaaad-- he got 3.5's on a dive or 2), he was able to come back strong on Sunday-- a very big thing for him. Also, he has a poorly timed dive birthday because he will be 14 at the end of 2025, but he has to dive with the 14-15 boys all year, even though he is a teeny little 13 y/o 7th grader, and some of these kids are full MEN and already 15 years old.

Here I am watching the meet with a state runner up

Coop was WINNING THE MEET for 2 rounds on Saturday before the wheels fell off (he got EIGHTS):

Listen to me at the end of this dive

But! This was awesome from Friday:

And here is where he punched his nationals ticket

Look how happy!!