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.

Fun (Ninja Warrior Style) and Games (Quidditch and Soccer)

We had some fun times this week!  On Wednesday day we went to the annual Harry Potter day at the library.  The event was complete with sorting into houses, hunting for ghosts and dragon eggs, practicing spells and potions, a story time, and a double decker bus that took kids to a quidditch game.  I took the girls to the event and Merrick went with a friend, hence why my only pictures are of the girls.  The girls and I had lots of fun.  Merrick had less fun than in past years but I think that was mostly due to the bus ride that resulted in him getting a migraine and getting lost.

On Saturday, per usual, both kiddos had soccer games.  Elsie was a good sport through both games, but by the end was more than content to just sit in the chair and listen to Baby Shark.

After the games, Jeremy took the older two kids to an urban warrior gym.  They got to try their hands at American Ninja Warrior obstacles.  The warped wall was a big hit.  Carrigan worked really hard to make it up the 8 foot wall, Merrick made it about 12 feet, and Jeremy made it to 16 feet but couldn't pull himself up.  The whole experience was awesome.  When the kids got home they couldn't wait to show me their pictures and videos and are already asking when they can go back.

Settling In

The kids have been back in school for four weeks now and I have been back three.  I feel like we are all now settled into the routine. Tuesday through Thursday I go to the preschool in the morning and the other days I stay home with Elsie.  After school the kids come home and we do homework, play, do homework, and have soccer practice.  Overall our week was routine and boring but comfortable.  Here are a (very) few pictures from the everyday.

Carrigan has been good about entertaining herself when I need to help Merrick with his homework and really enjoyed her puzzles this week.

At soccer practice I have yet to get any pictures of Merrick, but both kids are working hard and learning a lot.  The girls love to go to Merrick's practices and play with the sibling of other kids on the team.

I am working on updating the website for the preschool (long overdue) and so I have been taking pictures of the kids during the day.  I have been trying to get pictures that don't show the kids faces for privacy reasons.  Most of the pictures have been of play, but I really liked this picture of the kids hard at work.

That's all for today.  Elsie is waiting for me, not so patiently, so do something else.

Catching Up

Since last week was all about Merrick and his birthday, there were a few happenings that got neglected.  Today I am playing catch up.

Early last week, before Merrick's birthday, we celebrated Tala's 40th birthday.  Since it was a big one Emily and I decided to go all out on the cake.  Emily did the baking and was my assistant for the decorating.  I have never worked with fondant before but since I heard it was a lot like playdough, I wasn't too concerned.  If there is one thing I know, it's playdough.  I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  We had a surprise party for him at a Happy Valley Station (a collection of food trucks).  Everyone had a great time.

Also that week, after we finished celebrating Merrick, Jeremy and I snuck away for the evening to see Cake and Ben Folds.  We are not really concert people but we bought ourselves tickets for our anniversary.  Jeremy has always wanted to see Ben Folds (we tried once but only ended up making it for like two songs) and I really like Cake so it worked out.  It was a really great concert, despite the fact that is was outdoors and it rained almost the entire time.  We had brought chairs to sit in, but ended up standing almost the entire time and it was really cool because we were able to get up really close.  I still don't know that I am much of a concert person, but I really did enjoy myself.

The other big new is that this week Carrigan lost her first tooth.  We waited all though kindergarten for her first missing tooth and it never came.  So, she was over the moon when she wiggled it out during school this week.  The plus side of it not coming out for so long was that her new tooth is already halfway grown in.

And since this is such a random post anyway, here are a few other random pictures that were too cute to pass up.

Until next week...