Soccer Time

This weekend we wrapped up yet another great soccer season.  We had a remarkable year with VERY few rainy practices or games.

This year Merrick took a step away from goalie.  He also rarely played forward.  It's not that he doesn't love those positions, he does (especially forward), but he really excelled at defense this year and his team really needed him there.  He was a monster at defense and while he didn't play goalie, he made the goalie's job considerably easier.  This might be Merrick's last year playing soccer, and if it is, I have to say I couldn't be prouder of how he developed and how hard he played.  He left his heart on the field each and every game.

For Carrigan, this year she showed a tremendous amount of growth.  Last year she was so timid on the field but she has really started to come out of her shell.  She has really developed her ball handling and dribbling skills.  She still hangs back from time to time but I can see how far she has come.  She is already talking about next season and can't wait to see the development that that will bring.

Here's to a wonderful year!  Now on to basketball!

Busy, Busy

This was a really busy week and, while I have about 150 pictures from the week,  I only have a few to share.  The big project for the week was finding, organizing, and photographing over 100 pieces of artwork that Carrigan created during preschool and kindergarten.  We have had a couple drawers we have been keeping them in but the drawers were at capacity and things were starting to get smushed and ruined.  Like I said, this week we decided to get everything out and photograph it.  I then put together a 20 page hardcover book of all the photos.  It is being printed and should hopefully be here sometime next week.  It has been an undertaking!

Carrigan also had a birthday party this week for a boy in her church and school class.  It was Pokemon themed and she enjoyed making Pikachu ears and a stress ball out of a balloon and flour.

We also had a busy week of wedding prep.  We went flower girl shopping on Monday and finally settled on dresses.  Then on Friday, I went over and helped my mom work on alterations.  Carrigan's dress is almost done.  My dress in almost done.  Becca's is underway but needs a bit more work, Emily's still needs a lot more work and I don't think my mom has even started her dress yet.  It is less than a month and a half until the wedding and there is still tons to do!

With all the wedding prep and other things going on, Elsie has become really good at entertaining herself.  Sometimes you have to really immerse yourself in something to really get the full experience.  Elsie is figuring that out already.

Merrick's big excitement of the week was/is select basketball tryouts.  He already had the first day of tryouts today and they wrap up tomorrow.  He will find out Friday if he made a team and which team he made.  I have no picture and no idea of how it really went because parents were not allowed to watch tryouts.  He felt like it went well though and that he did his best.  We will just have to wait and see what Friday brings.

It has been a full, busy week.  It's just the beginning of a couple of busy months ahead. 

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we made our annual visit to the pumpkin patch.  For the last few years our schedule has been tight with soccer games, parties, etc so we really haven't had a full day to spend at a pumpkin patch.  Because of this, a few years ago we tried a new farm closer to home (Fir Point Farms) rather than venturing all the way out to the patch we used to go to (Bauman Farms).  This year, when I asked the kids where they wanted to go, it was unanimous that they wanted to go to Fir Point again.  Merrick really likes the paint ball shooting and Carrigan loves just about everything.

This year did not disappoint.  We did paintball shooting, slides, a cow train, bounce houses, rope swing, hay ride, "bull riding", pumpkin bowling, tetherball, badminton, played in the nut house, corn maze, and saw all the farm animals.  Whew!!!! We spent three hours there and it went by in a blink of an eye.  Merrick continued to love the paintball shooting, Carrigan loved the slides, and Elsie loved the bounce houses and "bull riding".

I know I have said it before, but growing up in Arizona I never really got to experience Fall.  Since moving here, the Fall festivities are some of my favorite.  I am so thankful that my kids get to experience these things.

Fun Run

This week the kids had their annual Fun Run at their school.  This is really the one fundraising event of the year for the kids.  They encourage them to collect pledges in the weeks leading up to the event, but my heart was not in it.  As the day approached I fully intended to just write a check and call it a day.  On the day before the event though, Merrick told me his teacher had talked to them about stepping up to support their school and he told be he wanted to go out and collect pledges. Unfortunately it was raining, but I just couldn't tell him no, so out we went.  In the end, the kids ended up with $95 for their school.

On the day of the event, the sun thankfully came out and it was just about the perfect day.  We live in a quiet town so the local police department was able to spare not one, but two officers to get our fun run started.  Carrigan ran 4 laps (about a mile) and Merrick ran 5.  Elsie and I cheered and walked a bit with each of the kids.  Elsie especially liked the two popsicles that she got.

It was another great  Fun Run.