Soccer or Keep-Away?

At half-time of Emma Jo's soccer game on Sunday, Gracie and Cooper decided to have a game of their own. Gracie thought they were playing soccer so she set down the ball and tried to teach Cooper how to kick it. Cooper tried for a couple of minutes, but they he decided Keep-Away was a much more fun.

Pumpkins

This past weekend we picked our pumpkins from Grampa's Pumpkin patch. As I was looking through the photos I remembered posting last years pumpkin photos on this blog. That made me realize I started this blog over one year ago! I can't believe that I missed that milestone! When I started it last September I had no idea how it would go, if I'd remember to post and if anyone would read it. Now, just over a year later, I don't always remember to post and I don't know if anyone reads it, but I love having this blog. It makes me happy to know that the kids have a recording of their childhood, complete with pictures and even some videos.

Here are the pictures from this weekend's adventure in Grampa Pumpkin Patch.








Here is a flashback to last year's pumpkins:

Fw: Just looking good...

Another email from Grampa:

Hanging out…What did you have to eat today?

Fw: Gracie

An email I received from Grampa today:

She is moving the ball until attacked by another player…

Long Week, Short Weekend

This week was just one of those weeks. For Mommy it started with a long drive to Oakville followed by several hours of meetings (budget are no fun), then a drive back to school and more meetings. More meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday were rounded out with a night of no sleep on Wednesday. By the time Friday afternoon rolled around I was DONE.

The weekend started with dinner at Grammie and Grampa's. While visiting with them is always nice, it was especially nice this week since Uncle Bud and Aunt Nancy are visiting from Indiana. We don't see them very often and it was so great to visit with them.

Today was dominated by soccer. Grace's game was at 9:30 and Emma Jo's was at noon. Both teams did great. It was fun to see Gracie sticking in there and fighting for the ball. In the past she has sort of hung out on the fringes and watched and waited. The Purple People Eaters played together as a team! It was nice to see them applying the soccer skills that Coach Rob has tried to hard to teach them.

When soccer was over, the girls decided the best way to recover from the 90+ degree temperature outside was to run through the sprinklers.

More soccer and expected hot weather tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it (after hopefully a good night's sleep tonight).

Purple People Eaters 1st Game

This weekend marked the beginning of the Purple People Eater's season. They had a game on Saturday afternoon and a second on Sunday morning. Emma Jo got to play mid-fielder for the first half of Saturday's game and played Goalie for the rest of the weekend. Saturday's game was against a tough opponent. Most of the girls in Cloverdale have played together for many years since they have a very small league. In fact in the Under-12 division they only have one team which means they get to travel to Windsor to play against our teams. Sunday was another game against neighboring cities with the PPE traveling up to Healdsburg to play on their soggy field.
We were thrilled to have Grammie, Grampa, Mays and Dallas in the audience this weekend. John and Tracy were at a wedding, so Grammie and Grampa got to babysit twins. Gracie and Cooper loved having their cousins to play with, both at the game at at the playground afterwards.

Father-Daughter Campout

Last night, First Baptist Church and Windsor Christian Academy hosted their 11th annual Father-Daughter camp-out. This year, Jason was the first dad to sign up. Friday was a beautiful day in Sonoma County with temperatures reaching into the 90s. While I was home with Cooper, enjoying a quiet Mother-Son evening, close to 150 people turned to the event.

Around 4 o'clock this morning I was awoken by the sound of thunder. It was long and loud. Not long after there was a huge flash of lightning followed by more thunder. As I listened to the unexpected storm, I thought about Jason and the girls. I knew that the plan had been for the girls to sleep in the tent and Jason to sleep on his cot under the stars. I wondered if they were waking up to raindrops and I prayed that lightning wouldn't touch down on that field of tents.

This morning Grace was scheduled to have her 2nd soccer game at 8:30am. As Cooper and I started our day I wondered if the game would be cancelled. A quick glance outside showed that it wasn't raining and the ground barely looked wet. The thunder had mostly stopped by 6am so the rain must have stopped then as well. I called the field hot-line and found out the fields were tentatively open as long as the rain abated. I went about getting ready for the game.

Around 7:30am Jason called to confirm our plans for the morning. I naively asked him how he liked his 4am wake-up call. He quickly let me know that the thunder and rain had actually started at 1am. He also let me know that they had failed to put up the rain shield on the tent since the weather had been so beautiful all day. Emma Jo got very little sleep due to the storm. Jason got hardly any sleep at all due to Emma Jo's shoes under his sleeping bag. Gracie on the other hand was oblivious to the whole ordeal and slept through the night.

Throughout the day today I heard many reports about the night. Grace loved the campfire and s'mores. She said the fire was a little big and scary so she let other toast her marshmallows. She did like when Darrin poked the fire with a stick and it got "huge" with sparks flying everywhere. Emma Jo loved that she had a birthday party in the middle of the evening that had a firetruck in attendance. She was impressed with the firefighters and that they turned on the flashing lights for the girls. Jason enjoyed the fellowship with other members of the congregation and parents of the students. He also liked getting home and taking a shower and putting on dry boots.