Newest Craze: Cup Stacking

One evening at dinner Owen told us that in PE (which, BTW, they call "phy-ed" in MN) he was learning how to stack cups. Liem and I were a bit perplexed but thought it was just another localism that we hadn't heard of yet. The next day Owen came home and asked for $25 so he could buy a set of cups. I offered him a stack of Solo brand party cups from Target instead. He proceeded to stack the cups into various configurations resembling pyramids. We were amazed, but still confused as to why this was part of the PE curriculum.

Owen continued to ask for the cups, complaining that the plastic cups were breaking and hindering his speed. When I saw the official "Speed Stacks" cup set on clearance at Toys R Us, I grabbed the last box. Since then, both Owen and Miles have spent many hours stacking and "down-stacking" cups. It's impossible to explain exactly what it is. To check out the World Cup Stacking Champion, Emily Fox, click here.

On the instructional DVD that came with the cups, there is a segment that highlights Emily Fox. She has now become the biggest superstar and hero at our house, for the time being. Owen continually asks when and where the next stacking competition will be because he wants to enter. One evening while googling "cup stacks" I discovered that Emily Fox plays basketball for the University of Minnesota. There happened to be a home game last Saturday against Wisconsin. So we took the boys, along with two of their cups and a marker, on a mission to get Emily Fox's autograph.

After the game we asked around to see what our chances were of meeting Emily Fox. It turns out she's the star of the team (she scored half of the Gopher's points on Sat). We were told that the athletes usually aren't around after the games and our best bet would be to write to the team for an autograph. Although they were disappointed to hear this,Owen and Miles didn't want to give up and go home. So we went back into the arena and waited quite a while to see if Emily would come back out to the court. The boys' patience paid off and they were thrilled to meet their Speed Stacking Idol and have their cups signed. Mission Accomplished.