Noah - Math Pentathlete

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today was the day of Math Pentathlon.  Noah has been going every Tuesday in preparation for today.  He had to play all 5 games.  There were around 25 elementary schools from around Austin represented.  We left the house at 7am to take him.   Rachel and I took separate cars.  Rachel dropped Evan off with Darius because Evan had two baseball games today.

The actual Pentathlon was in northeast Austin at a basketball gym shared by several Austin high schools.  The kids were on the floor and the parents were up in the stands.  There was one "monitor" for every two kids.  The monitors were parent volunteers.  They did not act as a referee but rather handled a "challenge" where one of the players felt their opponent violated the rules.  Noah and I got there at 7:30 but we really didn't start until after 9am.  It was a lot of waiting and getting set up.  Each game was scheduled for 30 minutes although if the game was completed in less time, the kids could come back to the stands.

Noah lost his first game.  He came up to me and he put his face in my chest and cried.  I felt so bad for him.  We talked about it and I said it's just one game.  And he can't think about it any more.  I don't know if that made him feel any better or not.  But he went and crushed the kid in the next game he played.  I think he took 5-10 minutes in beating the other child.  This time he came back and he was very happy.  He won the next two games as well.  Both fairly easily and he was really happy. In the fifth and final game, he tied.  The game is very much luck and it's a long game that almost never completes in the 30 minutes.  Most times that game ends in a tie.  Each win was worth 3 points, a tie was worth 2 points and a loss was worth 1.  Noah ended with 12 points.  That got Noah a bronze medal.  He was so happy.  They had an awards ceremony where they called each kids name grouped by their point total.  So anyone 10 points and under got a certificate.  Eleven total points got them a certificate with an honorable mention.  Twelve points was a bronze medal and a t-shirt.  For 13 points, they got a silver medal and a t-shirt.  Fourteen points was a gold medal and a t-shirt.  And 15 points, which was perfect, got them a gold medal, a t-shirt and a "Hall of Fame" declaration of some sort.  There were probably 400 or more kids there.  It took a long time.  But Noah was really really happy and we were so proud of him.

Meanwhile, Evan played two games.  He told me he played really well in both games.  He got one hit today and walked every other time he came to bat.  So he was on base every time today.  The Bucs lost the first game, but Evan walked to drive in the winning run in the second game.  He was so excited to get a "walk-off walk".  He told me his friend on the team, Carter, pretended to interview him after the game on his game-winning walk.

He and Darius' family stopped at Whataburger on the way home.

For dinner, we just had pasta.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...