Feliz Natal

Skateboards * Little Miss Muffins * Ninjagos * Covertable Mittens  * Webkinz * Nook Tablets * 1 lb. Peanut Butter Cups

And the pièce de résistance?  Video Soon.  Along with some serious catch-up.


Merry Christmas!

Eight is Great

This post may be two weeks past due, but she's so cute it's worth the wait!

Chemistry set: Awesome!  Nailpolish: not so much.  (Not really, just the funny story the pictures tell)

There's no picture, but record must be made of her excitement over her color-changing alarm clock and how cool she thought it was Grandma B. remembered she wanted it during our trip to Target in August.

Oooh, but wait. She had a party. Her first friend party, ever! She was very excited and since we only had two RSVP's, we may have tried to make up for the potentially small gathering by doing things we never do. Namely, a piñata. (Last year's was courtesy of her aunt.)

And as you may be able to tell, more than just the two RSVP's showed up. 

All Hallow's Eve

This year, the kids thankfully kept their requests largely free of requiring my sewing my skills. Al historically has not fully appreciated my attempts to provide her with an awesome homemade costume.


For instance, last year's Athena had awful, too tight sleeves. 

And the 2009 Hermione robe didn't close up the front and the Gryffindor badge was a paper printout pinned to the aforementioned non-closing robe. 

A couple years before that, was the beginning of it all with my poorly constructed Ice Queen costume. And I will concede that one, being as we had just moved to CT, Natalie was still tiny, Jay was still recovering, and I for the first time could not rely on my mother making the kids costumes and thus had to buy a sewing machine and wing it for the unsuccessful Ice Queen costume.

So when she initially decided on Vampiress with the absolutely required long, flowy sleeves, I may have broken out in hives.  And lucky her, I did what I never do:  I bought it.  At DI.  For $15.  But look at those sleeves!

This year, we also have the Wicked Witch of the West, Hiccup (How to Train Your Dragon), and Dorothy (one of the previously mentioned Grandma-made costumes).


And as of two days ago, talk of next years costumes has begun.

Soccer Soccer Soccer Soccer Soccer Soccer Soccer

Monday: practice--Lee  
Tuesday: game--Spence
                game--Lee
Wednesday: practice--Allie
Thursday: practice--Spence
                   game--Allie
Friday: FREE
Saturday, every other: game--all of the above

That was our September--not counting multiple dentist appts., cub scouts, activitity days, birthday parties, ect., ect., ect.


So what was the fruit of our labors this year?


Allie had a young team this year, they only won game and she didn't score this year which in her way of thinking means she's not a good soccer player.  And for reference, her team scored about 7 goals all season, 4 of which occurred during the single game Allie missed, which was also the only game they won.


We try to help her perspective and remind her since she spends half of every game as goalie, her chances of scoring are half of all the other girls, but she doesn't seem to get it.  Maybe one day.


Regardless, she had a fun season and I'll tell you, she put up a fight against some pretty big girls this years and came out on top.  In fact we gave her credit for one goal because she successfully fought three girls in row to keep the ball, passed it, then a score off her pass.  She may take after her mom and find midfield is where she belongs.


No videos this year.  We have them, they just aren't cooperating.

Spencer had one heck of a team.  I think every game but one was a shutout by like 6-0.  They had several players that I think could take on Allie's team.  While they did an awesome job, Spence was one of the smallest, youngest, and inexperienced.  But he still had a lot of fun and a couple of almost goals!

 If you recall, Leah spent a lot of the two last year picking the grass, doing handstands, and falling down.

This year she came into her own.  Like, in a big way. Like her coach nicknamed her "goal-scoring machine."  Like two to three goals a game.  Like she scored all her teams goals this year save two, I think.


Although, she still can't stay on her feet to save her--which I think is why she is so adept at the slide tackle.  Yes, Leah can execute an awesome slide tackle which I think she taught herself as self preservation method since she is always falling down.  If she's going to fall she might as well make it useful.   

Supposedly you're not supposed to slide tackle (supposedly because Spence's team did it all the time, so I'm calling this as a no for girls/yes for boys discrepancy) and she had a goal not counted because it was scored with a slide tackle.  But I am not going to discourage her use of it simply because I never got the hang of it and it will come in handy in the future.

Leah in ACTION!

Now on to October and wrestling!

BYU Triple Crown

Last week, BYU Track and Field sponsored their annual one mile elementary race,  a competition between schools with the schools earning points in a complicated system of finishing place and time of the runners schools which I don't really understand.


Lee came home with he flyer declaring she wanted to help Westridge win the trophy this year. And since Spence is the energizer bunny, we encouraged him to run as well. Al wasn't interested. 

So over the course of a few Saturdays, I took Lee and Spence out to train and the Saturday before we timed them on the Provo High track: Spence clocked in the fastest at 9:16, Al at 9:50-ish (we told her she had to do a fifth lap if Spence beat her--I know, we're such encouraging parents, huh), Nat finished in 14:15, and Lee petered out after 3/4 of a mile.


So going into this, we knew Spence would do good, and Lee would do okay.  And after the fact, let me just say I think my kids are awesome!

A little pre-race warm-up

They started every five minutes by grade and gender
and here comes our 1st grade boy!
(somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of a mile)

And now our 3rd grade girl!

Spencer came in at 8:41--eleventh place overall in his division (78 runners) and second of the boys from his school which in that complicated scoring system earned his school points!  

He missed a spot on the stand by one and we won't go into the two boys who cut across the field, made the top ten, and didn't actually run a whole mile.  But my boy has a competitive streak in him--he wouldn't let anyone pass him by kicking into gear when he heard somebody behind him.


And Lee came in with an awesome 10:07--21st overall (52 runners) and fifth for the 3rd grade girls in her school!


If you're as interested as we were, here are the results with the individual school results at the bottom as well.

And now it's time to take a break and wait for the final results.

And in the end, their school won several divisions, including First Grade boys--Yay!!!

And all those individual division wins culminated in the overall win for Westridge Elementary!

*This is not all the runners from our school, just those that stuck around.  The only reason we stuck around was because after the snafu regarding Spence's race, the director said Spence would get a ribbon (awarded to the top ten), only to have the director change his mind after all was said and done.  At least we were there for this in the end!

One of These Is Not Like the Other

Another soccer season has ended (more on that later) and with that comes city provided medals for participants. One for each of three children: Al, Lee, and Spence. 

But all is not as it seems.

Luckily, Lee is just weird enough to take it all in stride.

The last several weeks, I've traded my Saturday morning runs for a bike ride with Jay. But these bike rides aren't just for exercise, they are dual in purpose. You see, we plan our ride around yard sales and last week we came across a tripod for $5.

Of course, the kids thought it was pretty cool.