The Daynes Family

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Another Athletic Achievement

Dec. 14, 2012 Carson just reminded me that I have neglected to post an important athletic achievement from back in early December; the SAS Intermediate School's Basketball Shootout. Carson participated in the prelims before school one morning, against any of the 150-180 (or so) third grade boys who were interested in trying out. He made it to the finals for the third grade boys. Our whole house was excited for Carson to participate in the Finals because we could all tell how important it was to him. He was so excited and nervous about it that he woke up at midnight the night before the competition and started getting dressed for school because he was so worried that he might miss the finals or be late. (The competition was held before school at 7:30am.)

For the finals the clock ran for 1 minute and the top 3 boys all shot at 3 different baskets simultaneously. It was pretty clear before the minute was up that Carson was the winner. He played the game very smart and shot carefully, always running as fast as he could back to the 1, 2 or 3 point lines. He was determined and smart in his strategy and it payed off. After he won he told everyone who could hear that he won...now we are working on humility. :)

Happy Halloween!

It's lucky for us that SAS has a pumpkin sale a couple of weeks before Halloween. Skylar and I were one of the first ones there to pick out our pumpkins:

I made these cute ghost cupcakes on Pinterest, my favorite place for fun and festive ideas!

I picked these up for Bailey one day at Giant while grocery shopping. They were mixed in with all the socks and weren't meant for Halloween. Who would wear these when it's not Halloween????

My friend Sonia sent me some great photos just recently from Halloween night at our house so I better post them.

Halloween night has become such a fun and predictable tradition at the Daynes home! We have mostly the same families over every year with a few exceptions. This year we had the Smarts (our South African friends), the Laus, Laurie Wiluan and her kiddos, the Lawlers and Lindsay Hancock (hubby Ben is in the U.S. now for his job).

We had our traditional soups, homemade bread, and pumpkin pies. We had thousands of pieces of candy to give out as usual. What was a bit different this year was our costumes!!!

This is what Mike brought home from work Halloween evening for he and I to wear:

It took some careful maneuvering to make it through the crowds in these giant shark costumes!

Skylar really loved Halloween this year. She was Tinkerbell but she didn't care who she
was...all she really cared about was eating all of the candy she possibly could.

Carson was Ironman this year. He and his classmates were definitely into the Avengers/Superhero theme this year:

Jack was Cole, the black Ninja from Lego Ninjago.

Jack was only a Mummy for a short while at his class party after I wrapped him in toilet paper!


I thought the Smart girls looked fabulous in their costumes. Sammy was pretty cute as a Newsie too!

Carson, Jack, Bailey & Sammy pumpkins (you can already see the mold growing inside!)

Here I am with the loot and my friend Lindsay. She really went retro with her hair for the event!!!

Bailey and friends were Little Miss girls. I like that Halloween in Singapore is for all ages!

The sweetest candy of the night was right here...yummy!!!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Athletic Achievements

There have been some memorable athletic achievements in our family lately among the 3 oldest kids!

First, Bailey won 1st place in the final cross country meet of the school year. This meet was the ACSIS meet with 12 international schools competing. There were 2 age divisions competing. 12&U and 14&U. Although eligible for the 12&U category Bailey chose to race in the 14&U.

Sarah Choi and Bailey after the race.

Here she is accepting her FIRST PLACE MEDAL!

Here's the gold, silver and bronze winners!

I had Skylar with me at the meet and spent Bailey's entire race chasing Sky around instead of Bailey. It was pretty exciting watching her heading toward the finish line though. She was very warmed up for the race since she came to the race straight from soccer tryouts. Good news for her is that she made the "A" soccer team. What a great week in sports for Bailey!

Carson did extremely well at the annual Santa Claus Swim Meet this year held at SAS. This is the biggest meet of the year with 8-10 international schools from all over Asia competing.

He got 3 First In Heat ribbons. He won the t-shirt he's wearing in the 50 Freestyle race because it was a "mystery heat." First in heat winners get a prize if they win a mystery heat.

Carson with his friend Cole Salyards between races.

Carson is never happier than when he's winning!

He swam in 4 indiv. races and one freestyle relay. He had 3 personal bests.

Carson's hair was a bit long for him at the beginning of the meet so Mike took him home between races and cut his hair. His first race wasn't great but after the hair cut he did amazing. Hmmm...

Carson also just recently went through tryouts for his school's traveling soccer teams. He made it onto the "B" team.

The last big accomplishment of recent weeks is Sammy making the school basketball team. She made it onto the freshman/sophomore combo. basketball team. I have no photos of her playing yet, although they've already had 2 games. But this one shows how she looks after school everyday lately. She comes home tired, sweaty and hungry. I love it!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Provo 2012 Part 1

While we were in St. George Mike took Carson and Jack on a vacation within our vacation. They flew out to New York City to see Monster Jam. It was a dream come true for Carson, Jack & Mike. They had a blast together and now I have to hear about Monster Jam 24/7. I now have a bunch of red-necked truck lovers on my hands.

After 2 weeks in St. George we were ready for the next leg of our U.S. adventure! My dad (g-pa) went all the way to Provo to get us a good deal on a rental car and drove it back from St. George for us, where we quickly jumped in and drove it back to Provo. It was an orange minivan. It was hilarious because I never lost the car in the Target parking lot.

We were so fortunate to stay in the home of some old friends of ours, the Oylers. They were in Beijing for the summer so their house was open. That was an awesome set-up because we were in and out of Provo all the time so we didn't have to check-in and out of hotels, etc. I'm so grateful for a large network of generous friends. The Stevens and Freedmans fams completely take us in when we're in Provo.

The Oylers had a beautiful yard so we tried to spend the evenings outside on the porch as much as possible. The kids went through a lot of popsicles and ice cream sandwiches in the evenings. It was pretty dreamy for me. Wish I'd taken some photos.

While in Provo Carson attended BYU football camp and baseball camp, Sammy BYU basketball camp and Bailey BYU soccer camp:

Everyday when I picked up Carson from football camp he had two popsicles in his hand: one for himself and one for Jack. Glad I got a photo because Carson is a great big brother to Jack!

This is one of my very favorite photos from summer break. When I picked up Sammy from her last
day of basketball camp I forced her to pose for a photo. I didn't notice Sky in the back until later. Look at little sister looking up to big sister. I love it!

Best BYU camp supporter right here!

Sammy went to her first ever EFY and was roommates with her cousin Jessica. They attended EFY University of Utah. These are the types of boys they hung out with...not to worry 'cuz they are from Bountiful! (Family joke!)

The other family who is so good to us in the summer is the Ozz & Lindsey Daynes fam. They live in Farmington so we see a lot of them in the summer when we stay in Utah. This summer we spent an entire day with them at LAGOON: I think it was the happiest I've seen Jack since the last time he went to Legoland.