Soccer Season and Life Update

You know fall is here when soccer games officially start! (More on that later in the blog) First a little chit chat and then the fun stuff - pictures!

Here's a quick update on us and what we've been and are going to be up to in the coming months. We have all been quite busy! The kids (and thus I) spend four nights during the week at soccer practices. They both have school and homework, soccer games on the weekends, and weekly Cub Scout meetings and activites. In October, Michael has a weekend at webelos woods. He and Matt will spend the weekend at Camp Merriweather meeting the Boy Scout Troops that Michael may join. Then Matt's off to help with Boy Scout lodge clean up day another weekend in October. Our pack does this so the boys can go sledding up on Mt. Hood in the winter. Also in October, Matt has his Scoutmaster leadership training on a Saturday. Matt's looking forward to a little rest and relaxation by means of a comedian. He and a co-worker have tickets to see Carlos Mancia - a comedian. What better way to relieve a little stress :) This is yet another October event. The boys are already looking forward to their annual trick or treating get together with friends. They've chosen their halloween costumes. They're going to be Star Wars clone troopers. That should make for some great pictures.

I've started volunteering in school this past week. I'm going to spend Tuesdays in Michael's class and Thursdays helping Evan's class. I've also volunteered for some booster club events - sorting cookie dough, helping at Bingo night, helping with the spaghetti dinner, etc. In addition, I'm going to help with some TAG events during the day and after school. Whew - see, I told you things were crazy here. And I still have to find time to fit in all those fun household tasks like laundry and grocery shopping (which I normally do on Sundays), not to mention packing all those school lunches. The boys will not take hot lunch, not matter how much I try to bribe them! Of course there are also dentist appts, orthodontist appointments, haircuts, etc etc. For a little relaxation, I continue to scrapbook with friends monthly. It's great fun getting together with a wonderful group of people. Once a month I also have dinner with some moms who I've known since our youngest kids were born - over 10 years now.

Michael spent the weekend at two birthday parties. We've hardly seen him since Friday. He rode the bus home with his friend Daniel along with some other friends. We picked him up at 8pm Friday evening. On Saturday, both boys had soccer games - Michael at 9am and Evan at 12pm. We stopped by the Intel recycling event in between soccer games and picking up a teammate of Evan's. Matt left Evan's game early to drop Michael off at another friends birthday party. This one was at the Aquatic Center. It started at 1:15pm and he was home about 8:30pm Saturday night. As I type this, he's now at yet another friends house. He seems to enjoy spending more time with friends lately. I guess that's what we'll start to expect as he hits these pre-teen years.

Now back to the soccer season. Michael's team is the LemonHeads. They've played two games - one they've won (6 to 5) and one they've lost (6 to 7). In both games, Michael has played goalie. He's got a great team this year with 17 boys on it. That's a lot of boys for one coach! Evan's team is the Blue Ninjas. They have also played two games - two wins (1 to 0 and 3 to 0)! Evan rotates to either a forward or a defender. He has a natural inclination to be a defender rather than a forward. His team this year has 9 boys on it. The next several weeks, the boys have overlapping games, so Matt and I will switch off taking them to their games. I like being able to watch both games each Saturday. I guess we've been lucky til this point.

Michael and Evan before their first soccer games of the season. Michael is on a U11 boys team and Evan is on a U8 boys team.

Michael saves the ball from going into the goal. He starts to tell his players where to move to so he can either kick or throw out the ball. This is a picture from week 1 of games.

Evan moves the ball down towards the goal and prepares to shoot the ball. This picture is from week 1 of soccer games.

Michael stops another goal! Week 2 of games.

Michael boots the ball down to midfield after stopping another goal. He's got quite a nice drop kick! This is from week 2 of soccer.

Evan kicks the ball downfield to a team mate. He's got quite a long kick which will be great as he continues into soccer. This is from week 2 of soccer games.
Evan moves the ball dowfield with his opponents coming after the ball. This is from week 2 of soccer games.

Back to School

The boys went back to school on Tuesday September 2nd. Michael started 5th grade this year (he's getting the attitude to prove it) and Evan started 2nd grade. Evan got right out of bed and dressed as soon as his alarm went off. Michael was a bit more relaxed and took his time getting ready. We drove the kids to school the first morning and went in to get them settled into their classrooms. Then we were off to start our day - Matt went to work and I came home to clean the house. It took over a week to get the house back in order from the summer chaos.

Evan and Michael are ready for their first day of school this year. Their lunch boxes have their names on them this year - much better planning on my part.

Evan is excited to start second grade! He's looking forward to a fun year with new friends and a new teacher. Michael put together this memory box over the summer. The entire fifth grade was to each create a box to bring and share with the kids during the first week of school.

Evan is in his classroom. He's all the way down the hall at the end this year. He finds his desk and is going to unpack his supplies.

Evan has put away all of his new supplies, his backpack, and his coat. He's ready to start the day in second grade!

Michael arrives at his classroom and takes off his coat. This year, his class has tables with "desk drawers" under them for their class supplies. When the teacher rearranges you in class, you just take out your drawer and take it with you to your new spot.

Michael chats with his friend Zach the first morning. It's good to be back at school and have some good friends in your class.

Recapping the Summer

Sorry for the delay in posting, but summer just caught up with us. After we returned from our trip, the kids were busy with lots of fun camps (and I was busy as taxi-mom). We also spent some time camping at Crater Lake and had our annual family BBQ. Here are some pictures of how we spent the rest of our summer.

Michael at soccer camp. The camp was at Brown Middle School.

Evan moves the ball at Soccer camp this summer.

Evan had a great time and learned some new footwork skills at this weeklong camp.

Michael works to score goals during scrimmage time at summer soccer camp.

Emma sits with Uncle Matt and eats her toys while Uncle Matt reads an engineering journal.

Michael, Maurice, and Kobe spent a week at Camp Invention. They invented this Rube Goldberg Machine. On the last day the parents came to see all the kids inventions.

Evan shares some of the inventions that his team made at Camp Invention.

Evan learns how to use a BB gun at Camp Ireland this summer. The camp is for Tiger scouts thru Weblo scouts. Safety is number one!

The Flying Dutchmen take a break from practicing their skit for camp. Their Pack was so big that they had to split into two dens for camp. Their skit was telling Pirate jokes and singing in between "Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me!"

Evan learns how to use a bow and arrow at Camp Ireland. He has a difficult time pulling the bow back far enough to get the arrows to reach the target at first. He gets better as he practices.

Michael practices using his bow at Camp Ireland. He's quite good at it, if he could only get the arrows to move a bit to the left.

Michael uses a BB gun at Camp Ireland. He tried sitting up and laying down and was a much better shot laying down. He worked hard and earned a special patch for his shooting skills.

We're at Crater Lake camping for a long weekend. Michael makes friends with a little chipmunk that came right up to him and said hello.

Evan, Michael, and Matt look at Crater Lake. The smoke is rolling in and it's getting hard to see all the way across the crater. The sky is getting hazy.

What a beautiful day today! The winds are not bringing smoke into the crater today. A biker offers to take some family pictures of us. She does an excellent job!

These are the Vidae falls at Crater Lake. The boys - Michael, Evan and Matt decided to hike part of the way up the falls.

Evan and Michael at Crater Lake.

Back at our campsite - Evan and Michael stand by our tent. The campsite had bear lockers and all food and cooking items had to be locked up whenever you left your site and at night.

What is camping without roasting marshmallows and making s'mores? Michael built a fire - he did a great job and we used it to roast marshmallows. Yum!

The boys can't resist being silly! It's time for bed and the boys are still having a great time. Brrr - it got down to 36 degrees this evening. We had extra blankets but it was still very very cold!

A very smily Miss Emma. How can you not love that face?!

It's time for our annual BBQ. We invite the playgroup and some close friends including my sister and her kids.

Mo, Michael, and Kobe enjoy their BBQ food :)

Lizzy and Evan enjoy some yummy cupcakes for dessert.

All the kids together and smiling. Wow - how big they've all grown. It's been 10 years since our playgroup first started getting together.