Sunday, September 29, 2013

Soccer Weekend

It was a 3 soccer game weekend. Tate had her normal game at 9am on Saturday, Smith had a game in the afternoon and again on Sunday.

Tate's game was fun. I love watching her run and play and get that determined look on her face. And I like how their coaches instruct them the whole time - but all positive stuff. The morning was very cool. Smith and I wrapped up in a picnic blanket, and decided we needed something much softer from now on.

Tate had a birthday party, so I dropped her and a friend off for that. I went to buy bat wing material for her future bat costume, then back home to get ready for Smith's game. His was a bit of a drive away, so off we went.

They did GREAT! They won 2-0 and played beautifully. They are such fun to watch! The evening couldn't have been prettier. There was one huge guy on the field, the other team, but our boys (specifically Smith) weren't bothered - that kind of thing would undo me.


Today, my parents and grandmom came to watch Smith's 2nd weekend game. Score was not so great, but you could tell the other team had some serious chemistry, like they had been playing together a long time. It was another great fall day.

I finished my first turkey hat the other day - will post some pictures soon. It's Smith size. Next up will be Tate's, then mine. Go Turkey!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Paintball Sunday!

Smith's team had no game this Sunday, so they went to play paintball instead!! Tate and I came at the end to eat lunch with them - they ended up having 15 out of 16 boys, and 7 dads. It was a great team togetherness event, and the place even gave them t-shirts - I'm sure they realized this was a lot of boys who could spread the word about their place...

The paintball place is gorgeous, in a remote area. We saw wild turkeys (NOT buzzards), and lots of cows and horses, and it was just the most beautiful day. We ended the day all our Sundays are seeming to go, watching something together on tv and eating dinner on the sofa - this time it was Lazy Susan dinner, with bread, cheeses, salami, avocado, etc, etc. It's kinda fun and different to have a tv night - I remember the tv dinners as a kid, so this is our version. The kids love it. We'll end up watching football and stuff as the season wears on.

Saturday, Tate had her game and she scored 5 goals! Smith was cracking us up because she also had 4 near misses, so every goal she got he would say, "Tate has 3 goals but she could have had 6". It ended with, "Tate scored 5 goals but she could have had 9." We got the trampoline all set up on Saturday and are now just waiting for the net to come in. Tate figured out her flip within an hour. I did a seat jump back into a standing position - go mom!



We should make an album of all Tate's photo bombs

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Hot Buns

Great marketing, huh? And so versatile - the three options on the side are High, Medium, and Low.


I did not buy this.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Last bit of catch-up photos

Last of the summer and into September!

We had peach picking on the agenda for August, but it was too late to pick them by the time we went. So we did Honeycrisp apples instead - so so good! I've made some applesauce with them, just delicious. So easy, too - some water, cut up apples, a little brown sugar and lemon. Done!





First day of school - 7th and 2nd grade! We've gotten into the nice habit of walking to school most days - sometimes Smith joins us. He suggested it for the first day of school.






 A dear, dear friend moved away - this was a going away brunch. Gonna miss her a ton. She is so silly and fun and ENGAGED with life! Such spirit. Love that Sonja.

September is Gold for Childhood Cancer Awareness - we are family friends with a family going through the scariness and awfulness of childhood cancer. One thing all this has taught me is to GIVE and LOVE as much as you can all the time. The outpouring of love for this family, from people all over the world, truly, has been amazing. It is really something to see, and a positive thing to come from this scariness. Go Team Mathias!


Tate's on Academy soccer now, pre-travel. She loves it - it's a great program, really play-based instead of win-based. Smith is her warm up coach :-)





While I would always choose for Sonja to still be living here, we are the lucky recipients of their trampoline! This was hysterical, driving it on top of Brett's truck down a skinny little road! David called it the Urban Sombrero. We were the flashing light car in advance of his truck, and the kids and I were almost crying we were laughing so hard. The faces on the cars we passed were priceless.



Hobby Lobby opened near us! We bought a lamp we didn't even know we wanted, but who could resist the 50% off??


Okay, now on to current events. Nothing new to report yet...except this weather is amazing. Loving it. I need a screened in porch - need. NEED. The weather this time of year is part of what makes living here so great!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Last Summer Hurrah

What? You say this is mid-September already? Why yes it is, but I am behind. Always, right?

Here is our last summer event for the 4 of us, Smith Mountain Lake. It was really fun, easy, relaxing, peaceful. Lots of jet ski (we found that Smith and I are perfect jetski companions, and Tate and David are perfect companions - her "WAVES! FASTER!" suits the two of them fine, while I love Smith's, "Mom, we are about to go over a bump!" is like music to my ears).

Love this place - it makes us all so happy to be there.

Smith just pushed his poor, poor sister in the lake







Relaxation

Mmm - dinner!

Shadow charades

Family hammock

Girl Scout Camp - 80s week!

Kids and I spent the week at a day camp for girl scouts. I was the co-dance instructor, Tate was a camp participant, and Smith was an aide. He got to do all the centers, too, like archery, tie dye, etc, while being one of a small group of boys with LOTS of 12+ year old girls. Not too shabby.

The theme was 80s week, as the camp was celebrating their 30th anniversary. My dance partner and I Madonna'd it up with our outfits.

It was a fun and EXHAUSTING week - mental note to self for next year, plan on getting NO paid work done (except urgent emails), figure out what kinds of easy dinners we'll do for the week, and remember how fun but tiring the week is. Worth seeing my kids walking up and down the paths, worth teaching 500+ kids how to Walk Like an Egyptian for an end-of-week flash mob, worth every minute of it!!!

Our studio for the week

Hi girls!


Yeah, that's me!

I'm on the left; we're doing the dance in front of 600 camp participants

Taters!!

Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania

Kids and I went with my mom and dad to Boiling Springs, PA, in mid-August. My dad's dear friend lives about 45 minutes in the other direction - so we met him there for some fly fishing demonstrations and a yummy Saga blue cheese hamburger lunch.


I can see the grown-up Smith here


Grandfather/grandson fishing demo

Two of the three amigos


I should work for a greeting card company with a picture like this!

We ended up meeting a family who was trying to free their duck - they found a random, un-mom-ed egg at that very lake, so they took it home for it to hatch, not knowing what kind of fowl would come from it. Turned out to be a white duck! They named him Omelette - but he was taking no part of being released from his humans. He kept following them back to their car - they apparently have a pool in their backyard, so he swims all day then is caged outside at night so he won't get eaten by some predator.
Omelette and his mom

He loved jewelry - would nibble my rings

"Best burger EVER!"





Sunday, September 1, 2013

Random Happenings

Some friends of ours that moved to Germany were in town this August, so we saw them a couple times. Once was a pool/park day, and the other was some zoo time. It's one of Tate's first friends here where we live - we started a playgroup of 3 of us that have the same age kids, which is somewhat unusual with a 5 year spread between them. Smith is the only boy of the group, but their eldest is really great, and they both hit it off just like old times. Same with Tate and her friend - love when old friendships need very little encouragement!



We also attended some of the Sunday concerts in town. This is my niece, brother, and grandmom (in background). As if I needed to call out that my grandmom is not participating in the lift.  Niece is a dancer, but brother is not - think he should probably work on his holds. 

Brother's cool bike with a back "seat" - it's called The Lamont, so he calls it the "Big Dummy" after Sanford & Son's "Lamont." Hysterical. Tate loves riding on it.

Winning a prize from the concert - we were with another family, too, and of our 4 kids there, we won 3 of the door prizes for kids! 

Stroll with friends for 7-11 slurpees

Garden bounty (after getting more butternut squash from neighbors/friends, I see some more of that delicious soup in my future!)


2nd visit with Germany friends - at the zoo. 







Next up are some beautiful pictures from a fishing/lunch trip with one of my dad's friends. Lunch was really the main event, but the scenery was gorgeous.

This summer break was 2 weeks longer this year due to the changing of county school schedules - it felt faster, though, but when I look and see all that we actually did do, it was very full!

Followers