Soccer Rules our Lives!

Soccer season is always busy. Henry loved playing last year so had to play again this year. That means two practices a week and a game every Saturday.  I was asked to be the assistant coach for his team and that has been fun but also time consuming. Henry's team is doing well this year. Last year he was on a team that lost most of the time. This year his team is undefeated and at the moment at the top of the ranks. Not that this proves I am a good coach. The kids just have pulled together as a team and play the positions they are given well. 

 Molly too decided to play soccer this year. And I was asked to coach her team.

 They had enough girls in her age bracket to form teams of just girls. So I get to spend time with these little ladies trying to teach them how to play soccer.

I am finding this age and group of girls quite a challenge.  These are very social girls who are mostly Kindergarden age with a few first graders.  Some have played before but mostly they are a new to the sport. I feel like I am "herding cats".  There are a few that especially don't listen and don't like to run. Molly is one of them. They loose every game. Good thing we don't keep score. But at least there is always a fun snack after each game.

Coaching both of these teams means I do soccer 4 days a week and most of Saturday mornings. It is starting to wear on me and my family looks forward to when the season is over and we can return to having actual meals and not thrown together stuff or just cereal for dinner

Ian's Empanadas

Ian started taking online classes with Williamsburg Academy. He is really enjoying the projects and such they they assign for him to do. They are studying Latin America in their Humanities Class and one of his assignments was to make Empanadas. 

 We decided to make both a savory and a sweet one. The savory one was filled with chicken, beans, onions, bell pepper and corn sauted with Taco seasonings. The sweet was filled with dried apples made into a pie filling. Both were very yummy. But we agreed that this wasn't a meal we would make very often. It is a lot of work to roll out the dough and prepare the fillings. Then frying them without them falling apart was difficult.

 But doing it once in awhile is alright and very YUMMY!

Our Kitty

 Our Kitty, Peezy, doesn't really like to be held. She usually squirms out of your arms the moment you try to pick her up but sometimes she will want attention and come to one of us when we are quietly sitting. Then she will make sure she gets right in the way of your book so you have no choice but to pet her.

Sophia's Birthday

Yes, September is Birthday month and just a few days after Henry's birthday we had Sophia's. How is it possible that she could be 14?

 She got some gifts, had cake and we took her out to dinner. But the best part was the Surprise Party her friends threw for her.

About 2 weeks before her birthday one of them called to ask if they could surprise her. I told them she would love it. So on the day of the party Sophie was taken out for ice cream while her friends arrived.

 Here is her reaction when she walked into the kitchen and saw all her friends there.

 One was even hiding in the pantry.

 Mostly they just sat around, talked, played a few games, listened to and danced to music and ate pizza and cupcakes but it was fun for Sophie and she loved that the girls thought to throw her a party.

Henry's Birthday

 Henry requested jelly filled donuts for his Birthday Breakfast. Since I get to drive to seminary I had the opportunity to pick up some for him. One wish fulfilled.

 He also requested pumpkin pie. He didn't want cake and since it is somewhat close to Fall it felt like a good time to make this pie.

He was happy with his pie and of course the legos he received as gifts. He also got a very light school work day so he couldn't have been happier.

Scottish Festival

 I know I called this a Scottish Festival and here are pictures of Romans. Well it was a big Scottish Festival and most of the stuff there was the same things we had seen at the Scottish Festival last March. We thought since this one was supposed to be bigger there would be different things to see.

The Roman armor was new. 

 We also saw some sheep dog trials.

 We saw lots of birds of prey. Falcons, Hawks and owls.

 There were clidesdales there and the kids were quite impressed by their size.

 There was dancing, lots of dancing!

Somehow I didn't get even one picture of the Kaber Toss competion or the bagpipers. I guess I just was too engrossed in the action. Either that or I was just trying to keep a little girl who "Just wanted to go home" busy or distracted.  But we saw some men toss the big pole. One even was able to get it to flip end over end. That really got the crowd excited!  We heard a number of bagpipe bands play  and even watched a drum major competition. So there were quite a few things that the other festival we go to didn't have. It was worth the trip. And thanks to a very nice neighbor, we got in Free and even had great parking!

My Grandma's house

We had an errand to run in a nearby but very infrequently traveled to city one day. While there and after completing the errand I noticed that we just happened to be in the neighbor hood of the house my Mom grew up in.

 This was my Grandma's house. It looks just about the same as I remembered it.  The neighborhood was not quite as nice. The park that we used to walk to from Grandma's wasn't nearly as clean and nice as I remember. 

I hadn't driven by this house since before it was sold. So it had been about 14 years and it brought back memories even if it was just a quick drive by and snap a few pictures.

One particularly hot day

Molly requested a ride on the carousel for her birthday but we never got around to going. So one particularly hot day this summer I took the kids to the mall to spend the afternoon walking around the air conditioned mall. I told the kids I only had 6 dollars in my wallet so that was all we had to spend for the afternoon. So we wouldn't be getting any food or any toys or anything. 

 Henry and Molly rode the carousel.

 Then we went to the arcade and played a few games of Skeeball.

 Played on the Mall playground.

And even got to say hello to spot.
Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Playing at the park

We went to the park quite a bit this summer. Even though my kids claim that the parks aren't as good as the parks we had "at our old house" they still wanted to go all the time.  Since Molly figured out she can ride on two wheels we often rode bikes to the park or around our city.  Mostly we just needed to get out. So early in the morning or late in the evening and sometimes even in the afternoon on particularly mild days.

We loved it when friends joined us to ride big wheels, scooters and such at the school playground.

 Sophie would make fairy houses most of the time.

 Molly usually had a stash of mini ponies to live in the houses

This girl can never get enough park time. Even when she is the only one at the park and it is 90 degrees she will run and climb and dance.