The McMahon Family

Complete fun in pictures here!

Diving.  Mac has been working on his diving technique, which thrills me to no end.  I’m fascinated with diving.  I could never do it as a kid but am in awe of those who can.  Today at the pool there was a teenager, who was quite good at it, doing cool dives.  Mac would watch for awhile then he would try it.  He’s getting pretty good.  This teenager even gave Mac tips on how to keep his feet together and how to improve his stance form (?).  Mac is still struggling with keeping the legs straight up and together, but I think he’s doing a pretty darn good job for never having any training or lessons.  Of course, that is coming from a totally non-biased person in his life who does not think he’s perfect in every way… 🙂

(On the diving board clips, he’s far away, but you can’t zoom with video on an iPhone, sorry!)

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We had a great day with a mini road trip…to Bloomington.  After 7 1/2 years, I decided it was time to visit the State Farm Park for employees.  First we did lunch at Chuck E. Cheese’s.  The boys loved playing the games.

And after spending what felt like an hour choosing crap toy prizes with their earned tickets, some kids came up and offered us all of their tickets!  So we made an executive decision and got each boy a bear instead of giving them more choices…

Then it was off to the pool at the park.  It was amazing.  State Farm really out-did themselves for their employees and it was a very enjoyable time even though it was very crowded!

The boys walking on the bridge that goes over the Lazy River. You can barely see them, but they were so cute!

And my baby. Just looking cute.

Patrick is 5.  He’s in the 30th percentile for height, so he looks quite small.  But he can swim.  So he’s allowed to go off the diving board and the water slides that empty into 12 foot.  He’s usually the subject of smiles and conversations of those watching.  And Nicki and I love to watch him jump in the deep and swim to the edge.  I finally caught him doing both! (He’s on the left diving board in the first clip and the red/yellow blur coming out of the slide in the second clip.)

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We went into the tournament knowing that first place received a trophy and the rest of the teams got medals.  Mac obviously had his heart set on the trophy.  Our team wasn’t the worst. But they also weren’t the best.  So, like any good mother who only wants her child to be happy would do, I prepared him to get a medal and not trophy.  I reminded him that it would be okay to not get first place, that it was very hard to do and we had some challenges as a team.  Shannon, Cheri and Mom Some would say I was being pessimistic and that wasn’t a good way to handle it, but it worked for him and he started the day saying, “I would like a trophy, but a medal would be awesome, too.”

When we got there, game 1 did not start off the best for him or the team.  Mac struck out three times and we lost.  I didn’t even think about the awards and Mac didn’t mention them either.  Game 2 brought a turn around and Mac was back to his great playing self and the team won!  Looking at the brackets, we had to win the last game to get second place!  AND the awards table was set up and showed that first and second place would receive trophies!  They played their hearts out and won game 3 for second place in the tournament.  WE WERE ECSTATIC!  This is Mac’s first earned trophy. I’ve always said I like it better when first place gets something more and it’s not just an everybody gets a prize situation. But man, when it’s your kid, you just want them to get something! Even unearned would be okay!  But I’m proud to say that he did in fact earn it and it would have been okay if he hadn’t.  Easier said since he won a trophy, I guess. 🙂

Final score of Game 3

Patrick wanted to show me his newest trick.  While I’m wildly proud of him, I was picturing him falling out of the tree onto his head.  He must have seen me holding my breath the whole time as he assures me ‘I won’t hurt myself, I promise’. Sigh.  If only it were that simple.

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And just for fun, all four boys in the tree.