Fall Sports Report: Joey

Joey decided to play soccer for the first time this fall.  He did one soccer camp this summer, but that was the whole of his soccer experience thus far.  And our verdict is:

 

Joey is an awesome athlete:)

 

He picked up on soccer really fast, and always played hard.  He had a couple of friends on his team, which always helps; and he had a great father/daughter team for coaches.  They really knew the sport, and although they weren't the most laid-back of coaches, they pushed the team hard and really did teach them some good skills.

 

In 2nd grade boy's soccer, there is no score-keeping.  But rest assured -- the boys know the score, and they did have a winning record:)

Grace also played soccer this season, and their games were usually at different times, so each would have to be at the fields twice in one day.  Plus a football game the same day... but that's another story (that I'm still recovering from).

Joey would make good use of his sideline time during Grace's game by practicing.  Not practicing soccer, but football.

Joey has a weird cute habit of dancing around a little bit while playing sports.  It's hard to explain.  You'd just have to see it.  When he gets ready to throw a ball, or when he's changing position or concentrating on the ball, etc., he wobbles his arms and legs around in a kind of seizure.  That's the best I can explain.  To people who don't know him that well, it may look like he does it on purpose, but I'm pretty sure it has become involuntary.

Joey was very good at throwing the ball in from the sidelines.  He listened to his coach and did it just how he was supposed to, even if his feet did cross the line occasionally.  It was almost a legal throw-in!

Joey takes after his dad.  He was never afraid to go after the ball, and put his body in the way!

He went for a goal in this shot, but it bounced off the pole!

 

 

 

 

And this is my favorite "whiff" shot of the season. Even Joey laughed:

 

He was a corner kick pro, too.

 

And best of all, here he is getting a karate-chop back treatment from a teammate on the sidelines:

Ten Eleven Twelve

I love it when the date is funny.  Today is 10/11/12, and I think that's awesome.

 

Our day started VERY early, when Haley came in my room at 6:13 requesting that I draw a mustache on her face.

 

So I rolled my bottom out of bed, grabbed my eye liner, and went to town.  She now is Pedro, and McKenzie is Napoleon Dynamite.  What a pair.  We even fashoned a bolo tie out of a shoe lace and an old cub scout slide.  It was awesome.

 

 

***

 

Next, we got the kids ready for school, dropped off most of them, and then Ben took Matthew to preschool while I took Andrew to the ENT.

 

And now he has to get his tonsils and adnoids (I had to ask the doctor what the heck those were) out next month.  Hopefully he'll be able to breathe like a normal human being after that.

 

***

 

Then came what Matt has been waiting for all day!  I picked him up from preschool (where his teacher told me he had been VERY excited all day about his playdate), and we went home to wait for Emily.

 

We had a quick lunch, made some pudding (which is still jiggly because I used coconut milk), made some foam jack-o-lanterns, and played outside.  And it's super cold today, but pouring water on rocks is just too much fun to miss.

 

And we still get to go to the school ice cream social tonight!

 

 

School Photos (sort of)

I've been a little ornery about school pictures lately.  I just don't see the point of paying almost $100 just to make sure I get one 8x10 of all my kids.  If they'd just put those sizes in all the packages, I'd probably buy one.  But they don't, so I won't.

 

We just set up the backdrop, and did it ourselves!

 

Grace and Joey are pros, so their pictures all turned out nicely.

 

 

Ben decided to help during Andrew's photos, and he was trying not to crack up the whole time.  He couldn't always hold it in.

 

And Matt.  Well, he takes a little bit more work.  To get this:

 

We had to first get these: (I told him to smile -- my fault)

 

I am amazed at his ability to squeeze his eyes completely shut.  It's quite a talent!

Grace's Teeth

Grace has been in need of a frenectomy for quite a while now.  We finally got 'er done, thanks to Doctor Townsend!  It was a really easy procedure.  He just numbed her up, cut her lip open, and pulled it out.  He said she had enough in there for several people.  She did get a little nervous when he was putting the needle in her mouth, but I went over and held her hand, and she got through it okay. 

 

The doctor stitched her up, and noticed that her front tooth was loose (she lost the other front tooth in an elbowing incident with Matthew).  He asked her if she wanted him to pull it out, which she replied emphatically, "No!".  But being the awesome doctor that he is, he looked over at me, and I mouthed, "Do it!".  So he did it, pretending that he was just wiggling it.  She was so numb she didn't know the difference.

 

Then he asked her again if she wanted him to pull it.  She again said, "No way."  And then he said, "Would you be really mad at me if I already did it?"  She said, "Yes."  He just laughed, opened her hand, and dropped it in.  She wasn't really mad.

 

She didn't even ever ask for any medicine at all, never complained about it being painful at all.  She was a champ!

 

 

And someday (after many years of orthodontics), she will have perfectly straight teeth!  We're already saving for that.

Birthday Parties, Round 2

In May, we always have a big round of birthdays.  Haley, Ben, and Matt all celebrate theirs within a week of each other.  It happens again in September, with Andrew and Grace.

 

Andrew is always happy to combine his birthday with her, because then he doesn't have to wait a whole week to get his presents.  He is always gracious enough to offer to do that for us.  What a guy.

 

I was feeling bad about being a boring mother, so we added an activity to this birthday party.  We bought some canvas, printed out their names in vinyl lettering, and then finger painted over that.  We then waited for it to dry, took off the lettering, and it ended up being a cute finger painted canvas with their names in white silhouette.

 

Now I just have to hang them all up (it's only been a month... I'm working on it).

 

***

 

Matt had been excited all day to share (leftover) birthday hats with everybody.  He had them on the front table, ready to go when people walked in the door (except nobody wants to wear them because they hurt your neck and are super annoying), but they humored him anyway.

 

By the way, that's grandma Jane in the background, trying to escape the picture.  I could have cropped her out, but I didn't just for the sake of it.

 

 

***

 

Now, on to the presents.  Grace only requested a few things this year, including: makeup (daddy is not happy about that one), a jump rope and hula hoop, and (most importantly -- she reminded me every day) COOK BOOKS!!

 

She also received a few surprises, like her Harry Potter wand that has an actual light at the tip of it.  You just have to wave it, and it turns on.  Super cool.  She thought so, too, as you can tell.

 

She also was super happy with her new pajamas and sleep mask (more on that later).

 

***

 

Then it was Andrew's turn.  He had been really excited to unwrap the gigantic gifts he got, until he noticed that he had a gift the exact same size as the one Grace opened, that had contained the Harry Potter wand.  So he went straight for that one as soon as we gave him the go-ahead.  I should have faked him out and put something different in there.  Maybe next year.

 

He also got lots of Lego's and Ninjago stuff, which he has since put together and are now sitting on his shelf.  (That's our neighbor, David.  He lives here, mostly.)

***

 

Now, for the cake(s).  Grace wanted chocolate cake, and Andrew put in a special request for carrot cake.  So like the awesome person that I am, I made both.

 

Grace was in charge of the candles.  She put 11 on for Andrew, and 6 on for her.  There were some extra in the box, so she put those on the leftover cake, too.

 

 

(Notice Matt in the background trying really hard not to help blow out the candles.)

***

 

And then we went out front to try everything out!  Grace and Joey are working on their jump-roping skills.

 

***

 

Later, I found Andrew sleeping with Grace's new pink Sassy sleep mask.  I'm glad he's confident enough in his manhood to wear this.

 

Random Pic of Haley, and a Bountiful Garden

For some reason, Haley had to have a picture with an animal for a school assignment.  And I think it was for English, if I'm not mistaken (which makes it all the more weird).

 

But whatever.  Far be it from me to argue with an assignment, so off to the backyard we went.  Luckily, we have an animal, and this is how it turned out:

 

 

Not too bad!

 

***

 

In other news, somebody please make our garden stop!  Nobody wants this much zucchini.  Nobody.

 

But thanks to Lowes, we had not one zucchini plant, but TWO -- all because they had their plants labeled wrong.  And I'm too dumb to know the difference, so I bought what I thought was 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, and 1 butternut squash plants.  However, once they started growing, we found out that the butternut squash was in fact a zucchini.  The zucchini was also a zucchini, which is the big problem around here.  The cucumber was a butternut squash, so that worked out okay.

 

But nobody in their right mind wants or can consume this much zucchini, even if they do have 5 kids and a big fat dog.

 

Ben wanted Matt to sit up on the counter to show how big the pile really was.  But Matt didn't really want to, which is the reason for the sourpuss face.

 

***

 

P.S. I have killed the zucchini plant.