Fall Flag Football (say that 10 times fast!)

It's fall and for our family, that means Flag Football!  This is only Zach's 3rd year playing, but he absolutely loves it!  He has really progressed and learned so much in the last few years.  In fact, I would say he's the best one on the team this year!  Of course I am biased, so take that how you want.  It's been such a fun year, there are a bunch of kids on his team that are in the ward, that he knows from other sports, or that he knows from school.  

There have been so many times that we've watched him score touchdowns or throw/pass the ball as the quarterback.  In fact, I remember two separate games where he scored 2 touchdowns in each.  

In addition to being a fantastic quarterback, he's also really great at defense.  He has great reflexes and anticipates really well.  He was almost always one of the best at pulling flags to "tackle" the other team.  He's also had at least 2 (and probably more) games where he intercepted passes.  One game he led his team in touchdowns, interceptions, and tackles (although it was probably more, they just happened to keep count that game).

Even though we were trying to avoid it, because he was already coaching soccer, Jeremiah ended up being an assistant coach for the team.  He was mainly in charge of defense and it was fun to see him and Zach out on the field together.

Jeremiah is really a great coach and knows how to teach the boys so well.  He was always making sure the kids were substituted often, so that everyone got a chance to play equally.  The main coach and other assistants were great as well, we were really lucky to have such great coaches this year!

We only have 1 game left in football season and we're going to be sad to not go and watch the games.  Tate and Hailey have even enjoyed going and rooting for the Gray Flash too!

Way to go Zach, it's been a great season - we are really proud of you!

Movin' On Up - Scouts!

The last little while, Zach has worked really hard to earn quite a few important badges and at the last two pack meetings, he's been presented with them.

The first is the Conservation Award where they do activities to learn about conserving resources.  He loved the panda on it and was so excited to get it.

The second is the Leave No Trace Award where they do activities that teach about keeping the planet clean and "leaving no trace" of being out in nature.

Both of these awards were presented to him in September and after all of the awards were presented, the scout leaders had put together water balloon games that all of the kids were able to participate in.  Here's Hailey waiting her turn for the water balloon relay - they had to run down the field and then sit on a water balloon.  She had already had one turn and told me that her bum was all wet!

Here's Zach playing duck, duck, goose with water balloons - his head was drenched by the time they were done!

He's so cute to watch playing with his friends!

The bear scouts also displayed the birdhouses they painted for an earlier den meeting.

Zach's was the patriotic one.  I helped him draw the lines on the top, but he painted it all himself.  We also used a stencil for the stars.

The treat was watermelon and the kids were so excited - even though we've had tons this summer, they are always excited to have more.  This was Hailey's second piece.

And Zach's third or fourth, I lost count.

Tate loved it too!

At October's pack meeting, Zach received his Bear Award.  We actually had this passed off quite a while ago, but there were a few mistakes and they forgot to get it for him for the September pack meeting, so he was more than excited to get it in October.  Don't let that face fool you, he was thrilled!

He looked so grown up standing at the front with the Cubmaster.

Presenting me with the Mom pin of the award.

I was so proud of him!

He actually earned not only his Bear Award, but 3 more arrow points as well!

The theme of this pack meeting was "Hometown Heroes" and they had the local fire department and police come out to answer questions and talk to the kids and their families.  Our kids were fascinated by both the fire engine ...

... and the police car.  Zach took a seat in the back of the police car and I told him I had better never see him in that same situation again!

In addition to the fire engine and police car, they were also able to tour an ambulance and a police swat vehicle.  The firefighters, EMT's, police officers, and SWAT officers were great and we all really enjoyed learning about our local hometown heroes.  We had a really great time that night and we sure our proud of our scout - he is really loving scouts and earning his badges and awards so quickly!

Fall Soccer

As mentioned in a previous post, I missed the spring soccer deadline earlier this year, so I missed getting Zach signed up.  In an effort to make it up to them, we signed Zach and Hailey up for swimming lessons this summer and promised to sign them both up for fall soccer (instead of one each season as we previously planned).  After 2 months of 2 sets of practices and 2 games and overlap of flag football for half of the season, I can safely say that I will NEVER miss the spring soccer deadline again!  It has been crazy getting everyone to 3 different activities - what on earth am I going to do when Tate gets old enough to join the mix???

Well as crazy as it was, they both had a blast playing soccer.  This was Zach's 5th year and Hailey's 1st year playing.  I was quite surprised at how much Zach remembered and how fast Hailey caught on.

Here are the two of them the first week of their games, all dressed up and ready to go.

Hailey had to have on her pink soccer socks - she was determined to get this color, regardless of how many times I told her the jerseys were purple!

Zach looked so big in his uniform - we had to buy him a new shirt this year!

They were so happy and SO EXCITED!

Of course their little brother had to get in a picture too, he was so proud of his older brother and sister and so excited to go watch the soccer games!

We had some back luck in that both of their games were on the same night and since Jeremiah volunteered to be Zach's coach, a lot of times I missed all or half of Zach's game in order to get Hailey to hers.  But I did take my camera for one of the games I saw most of and got some great action shost of Zach playing.

He was very impressive as a defensive back - he has great instincts and was always where he needed to be.

He just looks so grown up out there!

Love this one of him backing up in anticipation of the ball coming down the field - looks like he's doing a new dance move! 

Zach scored 2 goals the first game and 1 goal the last one, but had numerous saves as goalie and defensive back - including an amazing slide tackle the last game that made his Dad very proud!  I had left by that point to get Hailey to her game, but I did see all of the goals he made.

I spent a lot more time at Hailey's games as mentioned above, and her Dad was able to make it to half of most of them.  Unfortunately, the games were played at different parks, so it was difficult to get to more than half of the second after the first one ended.

She was so funny, the first game she hovered around the perimeter of the "beehive" of activity, but after that first game, something clicked and she was right in the middle of it for all of the rest - kicking, following, and even elbowing everyone around her to get better position.

She was all over the place and followed the ball wherever it went.

She also looked so grown up - could be that it was just because she was head and shoulders above the rest of the players?

But no matter what happened, she had a big smile on her face - she was always happy to be out there playing.

Zach was funny sitting on the sidelines of Hailey's game and playing with his little brother for quite a few games - I had to get a quick picture just to capture that goofy smile!

Although it was insane and we were running around like crazy, we had a great time this season and the kids can't wait to start again next year.  Although, we'll be sure to split them up between spring and fall soccer - that should make our lives just a bit less crazy!

New Earrings!

You'll remember my post about Hailey getting her ears pierced not too long ago, well the required 6 weeks went by and she was counting the days until she could pull out her studs and change her earrings for the first time.  We even had the day circled in red marker on our calendar so she could see it and I wouldn't have to keep answering the "how many more days now mom?" question.

She was so excited to wear the feather earrings Aunt Kylie bought her right before she got her ears pierced and there was nothing that was going to stand in the way of her wearing those the very first day - regardless of whether it was church or not!  She had her outfit all picked out and we had made sure that it at least matched her fun and vibrant earrings.  Her studs were a little difficult to get out and I think that her ears weren't quite healed or had healed to the earrings, so we caused a little bit of discomfort and actually made them bleed.  I told her we probably needed to put her studs back in and wait a little longer, but to her, that was just NOT AN OPTION!  So we put the feathers in and hoped for the best.  She was so happy.

Yes, these earrings are definitely not ones I would have chosen, so it's good she has fun aunts to encourage her to be bright and vibrant.  Did I mention that I am quite the conservative?  Well, if not, then let me just say that I am so conservative I actually tried to talk her out of wearing these to church and I wasn't even the one wearing them!  She didn't listen to me though.

I do have to admit that they were so cute on her though.  Could be that it was just her smiling and beaming the whole day, but she was beautiful!

Unfortunately, after another day of having issues, we decided that we needed to let her ears heal just a bit long and we put the studs back in for a few more weeks.  Her ears were really sore and I think she was glad to do it.  But she was satisfied because she had had 2 days of new and fun earrings and she now knew what it was like to change them.  So far we are taking better care to rotate them and clean them (we thought we were doing it correctly before, but obviously not), so hopefully in another week or so we'll give it another try.  She's so happy about just having her ears pierced that she doesn't seem to care if she has to wait a few more weeks.  She's happy and so excited whenever she talks about them or notices them in the mirror - and that just makes me smile! 

First Day of School 2012

After a long and crazy summer, the 21st of August arrived and brought with it the first day of school.  The kids have enjoyed the lazy days of this last summer while playing with friends, riding bikes, and doing fun summer activities.  Zach was a little less than enthusiastic that school came so fast, but Hailey was more excited to get back to it.

It was exciting to go over the Friday before school started and look at the lists to find out which teachers the kids would have.  For us, it was the year of the "O" teachers - Hailey got Miss Oliekan and Zach got Mrs. O'Neill.

We have friends whose son had Miss Oliekan last year and had nothing to say but great things about her, so we were excited to know a bit about her.  On back to school night, she was wearing a pink shirt (Hailey's favorite color) and Hailey decided she was going to be a great teacher.  We also found out that there are quite a few girls and boys from the ward or other classes that Hailey knew, so she was going to have a bunch of friends right off the bat.  Last year she didn't know a single person in her kindergarten class, so this was a change for her.

We didn't know much about Mrs. O'Neill, but at back to school night, she gave out bags of microwave popcorn to the kids and if you know anything about Zach, you know that he loves popcorn, so she won major points in his book from that act alone.  Another fun thing she did is let them pick out their nametag and put it on whatever desk they wanted - so they were able to choose their own desk.  We found out that there are 3-4 kids from the ward and numerous others from previous classes in Zach's class this year, so he was excited about that too!

This is another year with something new for us because Hailey moves from kindergarten to 1st grade and hence is in school all day long.  Seems like the last few years have provided her with new opportunities each time with preschool, kindergarten, and now all day long in 1st grade.  She has been so much fun to watch and she has loved every bit about school from preschool on up.  She was a little bit nervous about 1st grade because her brother kept telling her how hard the math was going to be, but on the first day she came home and let us know that they had done a few math worksheets in class and not only were the very easy, but she finished them in school and didn't have to bring any home to work on.  So those worries were quickly put to rest!

Here are our first day of school pictures of our new 1st grader:

She chose this outfit from all of her new school clothes and just loved the ruffles on the shirt, so that was the one she thought would look the best on the first day.  She was also so excited to wear her new tennis shoes. We've had them for over 3 months and it has been a very long wait for her!

Here are our first day of school pictures of our new 4th grader:

He was also very picky about his first day of school outfit.  Of course he chose a sports related one (although we had plenty of nice polos to choose from)!  But I didn't think it looked too bad, so I didn't object.  He was also excited to wear his new tennis shoes that we've had just as long as Hailey's.  His old shoes are literally falling apart and we've just been babying them along to last the last few weeks before school started.

Love this one - although they were sad to have summer end, by the time the first day rolled around, they were excited to get off and going.

Tate did not want to be left out of the picture taking, even though he wasn't going to school.  He was so excited, he even closed his eyes for the picture! I thought the smile was so cute, so I had to include it.

We took another of him and although it's not much better, you can see his his eyes a bit better.

Here are our three big kids - a 4th grader, 1st grader, and 2 year old.  They are growing oh so fast, but I love each of them so much and are so proud of them all!

Later that afternoon, Zach and Hailey came home from school full of fun things to tell about their first days.  They both had such a good time, they couldn't wait for the next day to go back.  Looks to be another great year at school!

"I Be 'Casso!"

Translation:  "I Be Picasso!"

Now why would he say that?  Because of this:  

Yes, that is crayon all over his onesie!  I ran upstairs for a minute the other day while all of the kids were coloring and asked Zach and Hailey to watch Tate.  Apparently to them, that meant watch him color all over his shirt!  Guess we need to work on our babysitting skills a bit more.

I love that Tate enjoys coloring and wants to do it so often, we just need to concentrate that artistic ability onto paper or coloring books instead of clothing!  Thank goodness it came out in the wash - all I can say is those stain sticks are amazing!