Partying It Up

We had 2 days of Halloween celebrations this year, starting with the church Trunk-or-Treat Friday night. Games, hot dogs and chili, costumes and prizes--

these kids had fun doing it all. Bug won for funniest costume in his age group for his pineapple costume (which he came up with and designed and helped me make), and Bean won for best homemade for her interpretation of Snow White from Once Upon a Time.

The kids are starting to make friends in our new ward. I think eventually we'll stop thinking of it as their ward and it will become ours, but it's probably going to take some time.

Peanut had a lot of fun doing all the games. And he was very happy with his pumpkin costume. I had a hard time finding one in his size, and the one we finally got was not the oversized, plump pumpkin I was hoping for, but he was satisfied with it. I think next year I'll put the costume focus on him since so far, he's had mostly hand-me-down costumes.

The kids helped me make some cupcakes for the cake walk--

I thought these were so cute!

Then, Saturday afternoon, we finally got around to carving pumpkins.

I tried to talk the kids into only getting one this year and each designing part of the face, but Bug and Bean weren't happy with that, so we got two to share, which considering we didn't start until a little while before dinner, was more than enough.

Peanut wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.

Beans' tortuous pumpkin carving outcome--fun, but oh, the process to get there! We will not be doing Halloween afternoon carving again.

Bug and Daddy-o's traditional face (which was accomplished with a lot less drama.)

And now, my little huntress. I love how her costume turned out and it was mostly pieced together from things we already had.

Bug, the pineapple. I have no idea where he came up with this idea, but once I talked him down from his original idea of a quilted, stuffed top, we had a lot of fun making this one.

Peanut's pumpkin, which I already explained. That is supposedly a 4T, which is the size he wears, and it technically fit, sort of. At least he was happy. 

My little gang!

I actually got a costume this year, too--something that I can wear with Daddy-o's pirate costume, and to the Renaissance Festival when we go there.

And they're ready for trick-or-treating. Because the bucket of candy from the night before wasn't enough. They all did really well walking around a couple of streets this year. Peanut is almost ready to do the whole night. Even though I don't love the candy overload, I do love getting to walk through the neighborhood and run into friends and chat with neighbors. Wish we could do Halloween more often, without the candy.

Fall Photos

Every fall, I watch the leaves change colors and want to get some good pictures of the kids with the color of fall behind them. And every year, our fall schedule is packed, it rains on the free afternoons that we do have, and I keep not getting good fall pictures.

 

I still haven't managed a dedicated photo shoot, but I did take advantage of a couple beautiful days that the kids had off from school and we had outside plans. We headed up to our favorite apple orchard one day to get our Gold Rush apples.

And some silly pictures of the kids,

 

as well as a beautiful view of the mountains.

They have a gorgeous property up in Flat Rock, NC.

These three kids.

Sometimes they look like they love each other ;)

And sometimes they even hold still.

Back to their exploring. It was a quick trip, but a nice couple hours.

 

Then, there was an afternoon out at our friends farm where everyone was able to run wild for hours. These 5 kids have such a good time together.

 

They've been friends since these two were toddlers and it's so fun to see them still running around together, creating worlds and adventures and exploring.

 

I love seeing Peanut tagging along. He's big enough now that he wants to be part of the game, and these kids are pretty good at making sure he's included. 

These kids are warriors!

 

 

And yet they can be so sweet.

 

And of course we can't forget the 4-legged friends.

 

We had such a fantastic afternoon, hiking and playing.

These kids really are amazing friends. We were so lucky to have met them 7 years ago when we first moved to Charlotte.

 

They are all so curious, so inventive, so fun.

 

So I haven't gotten my picture perfect photo shoot, but I've got plenty of documentation of these three monkeys having fun this fall.

Black Cats or Broken Mirrors

I don't know if someone in our family crossed paths with a black cat or something else to bring on the crazy bad luck we've been having, but it's been quite the expensive couple weeks. Home repairs, car repairs, and people repairs are all necessary now.

Week one, Peanut hit Daddy-o with his head under the chin so hard that it cracked one of Daddy-o's teeth.

Less than 24 hours later, the transmission died on our van, which led to a one-car week, and then two more trips to the repair shop for subsequent issues.

Bug twisted his ankle at school somewhere in there, and then kept having problems with it in soccer.

Week two ended with a crazy half hour--Daddy-o stepped on a rusty nail while mowing the lawn, and then 5 minutes later, Bean slammed her finger in the door, recovered pretty quickly, but turned right around and cut herself with a pocket knife. Apparently between looking at the hole in Daddy-o's foot, and her own cut, she couldn't handle it, fainted, and cracked her tooth on the kitchen floor when she hit the ground.

As if the van and teeth repairs aren't enough, our dishwasher is finally giving out. It's been struggling for awhile, but I don't think we're going to be able to put off replacing it much longer. And unlike the microwave, which we've gotten along without for about 8 months now, I don't think we want to try life without a dishwasher.

We've really had to remember to be grateful for all the things that aren't going wrong. We're all alive and fairly healthy (other than the teeth). I got a clean-bill-of-health from the dermatologist after a few skin biopsies (and it had been years since I'd been in, so with my family history of skin cancer and my personal history of lots of time in the sun, that was kind of a big deal). As of his recent well-check. Peanut is solidly on the weight growth curve (between 10-25% for the first time since birth!) Everyone is doing well in school (I got to hear lots of nice things about all three of my kids this week at parent/teacher conferences). Things could certainly be worse (but I really hope the bad-luck streak is finally over.)

Adventures in Coaching

(Photo credits all go to my awesome team mom, who has made it possible for me to get pictures of my Bug playing while I'm busy coaching.)

 

In back of my mind, starting long before I actually had kids, I've always imagined that I would coach my kids soccer teams someday. I've taught kids of all ages in so many formats over the years that this seemed like a given. And then, neither Bean nor Bug really wanted to play. And life got busy with other things and we really haven't minded not spending every Saturday at the soccer field. I've had plenty of other ways to be involved with my kids and have only occasionally thought about the fact that my kids weren't playing soccer and I wasn't coaching them.

 

But, when Bug decided to play, and I realized that they actually needed coaches and it was my time to step up and do what I always thought I'd do, I found that I was actually pretty nervous and reluctant. What do I actually know about coaching a team sport like this?

Our first game, when I didn't know any of the kids except my own; when I had the challenge of making sure they all got equal playing time, rotated around the field to try different positions (and not knowing the kids, I had no idea of what areas they might be better at than others anyway), and had fun; when I was trying to show the parents, who were probably already frustrated by the delay of the start of the season, that this was going to be worth their time and money; we lost, and pretty solidly. I could see that some of the kids had definite skills, that a lot of them had played soccer before, and that at this age, hardly any of them really get any of the intricacies of the game (or even most of the rules, hahaha). And I'll admit I was pretty scared that I was going to have to be the one to teach them.

 

I googled away, found drills and games to play to work on certain skills and we practiced together, getting to know each other better. I quickly learned that my star player was not only a confident, somewhat aggressive player, but could also be guided to be a kind teammate. I discovered that some of these kids were great ball handlers, some natural defenders, and most of them so excited to play the game. I figured out which ones love to play goalie, who was going to need constant redirection, and that every single one of them would be disappointed when it is their turn to sit out a quarter.

 

With a couple weeks of almost solid rain, we had a slow start to the season, but we've finally had a few games now and I'm feeling like we are a team, and really enjoying the coaching.  I'm having fun working with them and figuring out what skill we should focus on each week and trying to explain to them how this will help them in their next game. Even strategizing how to set up my players each quarter has become more fun now that I know their strengths and can actually make a plan that helps us look like a team out there. 

We went from losing our first game, getting a tie, and now have three wins in a row. This last week, I'd decided that we really needed to work on passing because they were looking less like a team and more like a bunch of kids trying to all be the one who scores the goal (but only two of my players were doing all the scoring). My proud coach moment came in the first minute of the game when three of my players passed the ball back and forth and moved it all the way down the field. It looked like actual soccer out there! And then, later, my shooting star who has scored 75% of our goals, fed a beautiful pass to one of our more timid players right in front of the goal and he was able to tap it right in, which was his first goal, at least of the season, possibly ever. 4 different kids scored our 5 goals Saturday, which is twice as many kids as we've had score in one game before. And because it takes some team work, as well as improved skill, to make this happen, I feel like I've actually been able to teach these kids something about soccer and being a good teammate, and that's what I really wanted.

Founder's Day Parade

It's hard to believe that this is our third time through the preschool rituals (here is Bean's parade, and here is Bugs last one). And even harder to believe that this is our last time. Peanut got to celebrate the school's beginnings this last week.

 

It's funny to me that what is really such a small parade (about 30 kids and their teachers with hats and musical instruments) and short ceremony is such a big deal to them. It really is all in the perspective, and to Peanut, this was a large event.

 

He was so excited about making his hat and that he was going to get to wear it in the parade.

The scale of it all was probably perfect for him--he gets a little overwhelmed by large groups of people and noise, so for him, this was big, and I could tell he felt a little nervous about it all, but also pretty excited to participate. 

We absolutely love his teachers.

They are both phenomenal with the kids and so fun.

We will forever be grateful to these two women who started this preschool about 15 years ago. All of our kids have thrived in the environment they created.

The kids got to mulch and water the "school tree".

Then, they sang a couple of their favorite class songs for us. Some of the kids sang. A lot smiled and looked cute and let their teachers carry the music part.

And that was it. Yay for simple and sweet and letting the kids be a part of something that is fun for them and doesn't go on long enough to lose their interest.