Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We're off to my mom's in a bit to have a lovely traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Joining us will be my sister Pam and her two kids - Owen and Emma, my sister's friend Tim, and my mother-in-law Sue. Right now the kids and I are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I just love the parade. It's too bad it has so many commercials! Hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving today.

Homework

Last week I realized that Michael and Evan both spend so much time working on their homework and I've never taken a picture of them doing that. Here are a couple of pictures I took of Michael working on his health homework last week. He averages an hour to an hour 20 minutes a night working on homework. The week after Thanksgiving I'll snap some pictures of Evan working on his homework.

Michael works to finish his health notecards. He has one on each body system. They will use these to review for their test.

Michael is working on his health worksheet. He's working on the Orca Live television crew at school now, so he misses classtime several days a week. He is finishing up work that the class did in school.

Oh, the leaves keep on falling...

I may be a bit prejudiced, but I think these boys are very cute!

New Haircuts - Mohawks!

This week the boys got haircuts. Do you like them?

Michael can't wait to see his new haircut!

Evan does not believe that he's getting a Mohawk.

Well, we tried. Neither of the kids liked their new hairdos. We shaved off the mohawk and went with their regular good ole haircuts. We hope you all realize we were just kidding. We had no intention of leaving their haircuts like that. Everytime they get haircuts, Brenda (our hair gal) shaves off the middle last and we often joke about leaving it like that. This time we thought we'd take a picture and show the boys what they would look like. We're pleased to report that neither of the boys even remotely liked this look. Let's hope that continues :)

Michael's end of season soccer party

Last weekend we went to Michael's end of season soccer party. His team - the Lemonheads - all celebrated the end to a great soccer season. The party was at Out of this World pizza and play. Coach Don handed out the kids trophies after we all ate pizza. Michael and his friends had the other players sign their shirts.

Coach Don hands out the kids' trophies. Michael receives his along with a box of lemonheads.

Mo, Michael, and Kobe with their Lemonheads and trophies.

Michael with his Lemonheads soccer trophy.

Michael, Kobe, and Kalvyn get their shirt signed by their teammates.

Blazer Game

On Saturday, the Blazers had a special basketball clinic for cub scouts. It was held before the game that evening. Our pack had a number of boys in attendance. They gathered them together on the floor of the Trail Blazers basketball court. They then did some stretches and warm-ups. After that they rotated thru six different rotations of skills. The clinic lasted two hours. Then we grabbed a bite to eat before the basketball game. The game started at 7pm. It was over at 10:20pm. The Blazers won!

The kids all sit on the floor and the folks from the Trail Blazers talk to them about what they'll be doing.

Michael takes a shot at the hoop. This is his third shot. He was given some advice and pointers from the Blazer rep running this rotation.

Swoosh!

Now it's Evan's turn to get some coaching. He has yet to take a shot.

Evan is ready to take his shot. The hoop is way up there. They did not lower them for the boys. They are at the height that the Blazers play at.

Evan's shot goes in the hoop the first time! Check out the unusual position that his arms end up in.

Four of our scouts after the clinic. They are all hot and tired. They learned a lot about basketball today.

It's game time! We are sitting in our seats waiting for the game to begin.

The Blazers are ahead. Finally. They spent the first three quarters behind. (You do know you can click on the picture and it will make it large - right?)

The Blazers win! 97 to 93. It was a good game.

Soccer in the rain.

It rained here Saturday. A lot. It was wet. Really wet. Michael had a soccer game at 10:30am. In the rain. The pouring down rain. The kids are troopers. Some wore hats, some wore sweatshirts with hoods, some just wore jerseys. The field was a marsh. It had standing water. It had mud puddles. It was wet! Michael played defender and mid-field. He did an outstanding job. He took several shots on goal as mid-fielder. He didn't let any balls past him as defender. The lemonheads won their game 6 to 1. The boys were dirty. Very dirty. They were also wet. Very wet. It was a good game.

Coach Don has a meeting before the game. The meeting takes place under umbrellas. Why bother - they're about to all get soaked anyway.

Michael's wearing his hood. He's not about to let his head get wet. He has the ball and it moving it downfield. He's playing defender right now. Check out the ref's back. By the end of the game, he's completely covered in mud.

The game gets rough. Michael and another player run into each other trying to get to the ball. The ball is not in this picture. Michael has kicked it upfield.

Michael has total control of the ball. No one is around him and he's going to move it all the way down to the goal. He took the shot, but the goalie grabbed the ball.

For about one minute, the rain stopped. This is that minute. Michael is number 10 and he has just kicked the ball at the goal. It is stopped before it reaches the goal.

These are some of Michael's teammates. They are happy that they just won. They are also wet. Oh, and they are very muddy. Check out their socks - they were bright yellow. Their hair also tells a story. Michael refuses to take off that hood. It is going to keep him dry!

The Leaves keep coming!

Will it never end? Not only does it rain water here in Oregon, but it rains leaves! Our trees are almost bare, but our neighbor's tree still has tons of leaves. And he likes for his tree to share the leaves with the neighbors. The kids find great joy in having all these leaves in our yard.

Evan lays in the leaves. Isn't he handsome?!

Michael takes a turn in the leaves. Another handsome young man!

Evan jumps into the huge pile of leaves. They are wet, but he doesn't care. He jumps several times.

Evan is Matt's outside helper. He loves to be outside. Today, he helped to rake the leaves and suck up leaves in the bushes. The leaf blower/sucker is so heavy that his turns are short.

Matt needed something to push the leaves down, so Evan gracefully volunteered to be his leaf pusher. Matt puts Evan in the bag and he jumps up and down to squish the leaves down.

Family Game Night

Friday evening was family game night. We played Apples to Apples Jr. and Who Knew? I made rootbeer floats for everyone. As you will see, we all had a great time!

First, we start playing Apples to Apples. Evan picked out this game. It was fun!

Michael read the cards that describe the word that was given. The choices he has are hillarious!

Evan checks out all his choices to see which cards he is going to use.

Michael is getting a bit hungry. Evan told him to back off and find someone else to eat. So, I thought it would be a good time to surprise everyone with rootbeer floats.

My boys - having a good time. What sweet faces! (not that I'm impartial or anything)

We've moved on to a second game. Now we're playing "Who Knew?" It's a fun cranium game.

Michael shows us his answers from least favorite to most favorite. Game night was great fun!

A lovely fall day in Oregon

It is a lovely fall day here in Oregon. Evan decided that the leaves needed raking, so he went out and got started. I snapped some pictures of the boys outside on this lovely fall day - a warm 59 degrees here. Soon, we'll have tons of leaves to rake - mostly from the neighbor's yard.

Evan and Michael stand in their pile of leaves.

The boys humor me and sit for a picture. I just love fall!

See - their cooperation was short lived. Now they are tickling each other on the neck. Oh well - at least I got a couple of good shots.

Another braces update

Michael saw the orthodontist again last week. He goes for an appointment about once every four or five weeks. They change the rubber bands around his bands at each appointment, so he gets a new color often. He now has to wear his elastic on his left side all the time until his next appointment. For those of you who had braces long ago or never had them at all, an elastic is like a mini rubber band that Michael connects from his top teeth - just above the bracket to his bottom teeth - back at an angle. He's an expert at it by now :)

Michael plays soccer

Michael played soccer this morning. It was a wet fall day. It rained a bit on and off. Michael played goalie for the first quarter of the game and a forward for the last quarter of the game. His team wins the game 3 to 2! Two more games left in the season.

Here comes the ball. The other team has taken a shot on the goal and Michael prepares to catch it to stop the goal.

Michael catches the ball and stops the goal. The ball is wet and slippery, so this is a great catch!

Michael drives the ball downfield. He's playing a forward.

Michael goes after the ball. He tries to keep it from the other player while passing it downfield.

Michael uses his body to keep the ball for himself. You can use your shoulders as long as you don't push the other player with your hands/arms.

Michael gets to the ball to the goal and he shoots! It's stopped by the other teams goalie.

Trick or Treating

It's time for trick or treating. Kirsten and Biance came over to trick or treat with us. We met another group of friends and formed a big group of kids that went trick or treating together. The boys had a good time.

Kirsten, Biance, Michael, and Evan are ready to leave for trick or treating.

The group of kids that we trick or treated with in the neighborhood.

Michael and his friend Mo - who dressed as a voting booth.

Knock, knock - trick or treat!

Ahhh, yes, more candy :)