Fall Days??

Fall is here but it seems like pleasant summer weather.  The windows were open for a couple evenings but that fresh, brisk air that feels so cleansing took a hike...and the air is back to running, which gives me some more time to figure out how to get some window screens in this house.  The weekend is always welcome around our house.  A break from the school work is just as much a relief for me as it is for the kids.  Keeping up on spelling, reading, math, memory verses sometimes makes my mind spin.  Spelling has been tough this year...Becca and I are getting pretty creative in our silly sentences to try and keep words straight.  Last week we had words that ending in EY and then just Y...or IE, totally confusing.  (the Monkey lived in the valley with the honey) thankfully only three with EY.  Brayden is into testing-always telling me he knows it...I am dreading the day when his tests are no longer multiple choice, I know it is coming! This week we begin learning States and Capitals...I really don't feel like learning them with him.  Andrea is actually keeping up on the reading front but not well enough to sit and get through a math sheet without help-somehow her sheet always sticks a lot of strange names in her math solving making it hard for her to read...quite annoying.  Brayden's goal for the week is to make it too Friday to play computer/electronic games. I decided to nix all computer and nexus non-education games during the week.  I was horrible at keeping track of time and the kids were never honest...and lets face it consequences stink for everyone.  So far this rule has been working great, although I don't seem much of Brayden Friday afternoon!
   This weekend was beautiful-I was most looking forward to Sat because it was one of the few Saturdays I found a sitter, the weather was sunny but not overly hot and there was a BIKE RIDE!!  Finally a ride I could do with Ron.  Turns out, I don't know what it better.  Riding by myself and working my butt off to keep pace but riding in peace and enjoying the beauty of the county.  OR riding in a pack of guys getting carried along at awesome speeds but having to listen to yelling-CAR BACK, CAR UP, HOLE...right in my ear.  It was a nice ride-a little fast at the end, and without an expected rest area it was a hard push to the parking lot, but nice to ride with Ron.

                               We rode 58miles in  3hrs and 11min...long enouph for me!


The kids had fun playing out at the soccer fields in the afternoon.  Brayden had lots of fun playing.  He loves the game and always comes off the field with a smile-a big one as his team finally won their first game.  It was actually so warm the kids jumped in the pool-I just love these days, the kids are relaxed and love just playing-they were spies/agents this weekend. (after watching spy kids)

Sunday was another beautiful day...I think we are all loving sunny days that don't leave us sweaty hot.  James managed his first church service with us-he was pretty excited.  After a troop meeting with the girls for AHG we all headed out to the baseball fields.  A perfect night to catch up with friends.  I wish I could have taking a picture of James' little buddy-he showed up in a full iron man costume ready to play with James.

Neighbors from our old neighborhood came out to cheer Brayden on and spend time with the kids-they are special people to our family and we miss seeing them more.

My life is complete.....

....this is what arrived in our driveway tonight.  Just what I have always wanted!

Well, it is not for the kids but for the city workers who have finally decided work on our drainage issue.  I have to say that I wanted this fixed for a long time but now that they have showed up I am having second thoughts-I think these diggers could dig out our hill and walls in no time and we would have nothing left!

Oh yeah...this is just my little worry-their next plan is to take this mess up the side of our house to lay pipe!  I think I just need to shut all the shades so I quite watching them all day.  Today, the digger broke, they had two huge conferences in the driveway with the head city guy all looking at the plans, and then they seemed to be re-surveying....did they dig in the wrong spot? I just want to know what's going on...ALL THE TIME-haha, just drives me nuts.

The fun thing this week was a day off!!  YES!  a day to forget our schedule and play.  We had a couple extra kids and just enjoyed a fall day.  Funny thing is that we had such a nice time that when 4:30 rolled around I completely forgot about practice and dinner prep-our typical monday routine, it was a fast turn around.  Sometimes it is nice to forget all that stuff!

 The kids found these huge weeds in the ditch and were all about making forts in the trees along side our house.

It was a perfect day for a bike ride.  We took our route from our house into jenks which uses a drainage ditch to bypass a busy road.  One of the boys was telling a friend at the park that we road in a sewer ditch....I told him to please tell his mom that it was a drainage pipe!

 Of course we had to ride to the candy store....a little contest is always fun.  Who can keep the cry-baby in their mouth!

Such fun times with the kids.  Yesterday James came home from school and told me,
"Mommy, know why my best friend couldn't come to school today."
 First of all, who is your best friend?"  I asked
"Mia"  (Yes, my little boy likes to play with the girls.)
"No, I have no clue why she couldn't come to school"
"Because, she is a real live dolphin trainer!

Fun Times

I am going to try to post some more snap shots again...I love having these to look back on, even though it is hard, I love being reminded of  things the kids did or how they acted/re-acted to things along the way of life.  Anyway, sports season has been underway for a while and I am just now getting a couple shots.  Fall Baseball season-short, is almost finished.  It has been a tough road, since this is the off season most teams playing are AA or AAA teams-meaning...THE BIG BOYS.  I find it hard to believe some of these boys are in our age division, same for both soccer and baseball.  Last week I think the opposing teams goalie could touch the top of the goal flat foot! And the first baseman had a little hair on his chin...totally nuts.  Anyway, the rays(baseball) are getting hammered in baseball-but they are such a great group of boys, still keep their chin up, pop some more sun flower seeds and keep on swinging.  Soccer is up a notch this year but Brayden loves it.  He seems short and can get out runned this year but loves the game.  I am so thankful for two wonderful coaches this year, and a good group of boys who all love the game.

This week the count down was on for the annual lock-in at church.  This year Becca was old enouph to go.  It has been such a chore with Andrea, getting her to realize that she is just not the same as Becca.  She is such a tough little girl, and is learning to be her own person-which is hard when so many things that Becca and Brayden get to do look like so much fun!  Anyway the kids had friends along and they were flying high when I picked them up from school Friday.  It was a long two hours at the house with them all waiting to head to church!

Okay, this is "smile for the camera" shot

Then, "funny, excited to leave" shot

James was super excited.  I picked him up from school and the first thing he asked was "is it the lock-in day?"  I took a second to prepare myself for the assumed whining that would come because he wasn't going.  I was totally surprised when his yelled and did his little dance YEAHHH!!  late movie night.  So glad someone was excited to stay home, not quite so much from Andrea.
 

Brayden never tires of playing, he still plays every day at recess at school.  It still doesn't bother him if he wins or loses, just if he gets the ball and can play.

The Girls are getting back into the American Heritage Girl troop.  Today their troop sponsored a "Touch a Truck" event.  I didn't know what to expect but we had a huge turnout.  So many girls to help serve those showing trucks and collect can goods for admission.  Becca and Andrea were more interested in playing around the pond, thankfully there was plenty of help.

This was the most fun...a chance to spray the firemans hose.

The girls thought this little digger was just the best-lots of huge trucks and this was what they thought was the best.

Last but not least, we could get in the pool today.  After lots of work around the house it was great to cool off, my guess this will be close to one of the last times we are in the pool.

A Surprise Visit

Every year we have a couple special chapels the kids attend and one is a special one for Grandparents.  Most of the time I am the one cheering and smiling for the kids but this year my mom was able to fly in for a couple days and enjoy their singing.  We actually didn't tell the kids and I ended up picking her up from the airport and driving to cyclocross where we surpised the kids.  They were all on the skate park and all got huge smiles when they saw who was standing next to me.  So fun to see them all want to ride and then not just myself and Ron on the sidelines to encourage them. We need to hit the ground running on our morning-hard for a non, morning person but Wednesday was so nice getting to school and listening to the kids sing during the special chapel for Grandparents.  James was pretty excited to have Grandma's lap to sit on.  We were able to visit each class-always a little hard with all the kids, by the time we made it to James' class they were on to their day-off to Motor Skills.  It always feels like a rush, but so good to see smiles on all their faces.

Thursday we had some time with James, always fun to have some down time-which I am finding takes effort to keep free!  James loves to feed the ducks so after a bunch of rain we managed to make it out and enjoy a little fresh/muggy air.

 We haven't eaten on the porch yet so James was pretty excited to be able to each outside with Grandma.  He was so excited he waited while I made his lunch outside, knocking on the window with a crazy grin on his face.

Thursday were headed back to school to take pics of Andrea's class-teachers are always asking for help and this was one thing that I actually enjoyed helping out with

Friday Grandma was still able to see the kids off to school-James complete with his bear for Bear day.

 Such a wonderful visit, too bad we still had homework and activities.  It makes me more motivated on keeping our schedule and priorities in focus!

James is already asking when Grandma is coming back!

Another Season of Cyclocross.

I didn't think we were going to be able to join Ron this year for cyclocross practice but the kids schedule got moved around and we were able to join him yesterday for another practice ride.  It is so fun to sit outside and watch all the riders and relax with everyone, I think it is just a nice change of pace from the frantic school, sports pace where everyone is trying measure up to one another-yes!  we are missing summer!! I am still trying to figure out why the world is so bent on making sure our kids are doing so much and not just letting them be kids. Anyway, The kids love just running around, although this year they are all about the skate park.  Not my favorite place in the world but having a bunch of bikers around and kids makes it a little better than just showing up and braving by ourselves.  This year Brayden is a bit old for the kids race so he tried out the C race.  I love listening to his thoughts that afternoon-every now and then he would ask a question, like how long the race would be...how old would the riders be.  I could tell he was thinking about it but didn't seem to stressed by it all.

 It is crazy how this sport is growing.  I remember coming out here with Ron and there being about 15 riders.  Now they have a C, B and A race all full of riders!

 The juniors ride with the C riders...mostly beginners riders although still looks tough to me.

 He had a smile on his face whenever he would see us on the side lines.  Ron rode with him for a bit just to give him a feel for riding in a pack of riders.

The bike looks a bit big for him when he was carrying it over the barriers!

First official ride, he made the full 20minutes and got off the course with a smile.  The other kids look like they are encouraging him...not really they are all fighting for the water. James was so ready for his race he refused to take his helmet off...even though we were there for a whole hour before the kids race.

Ron rode the B race, for 30min.  A hard ride in the heat but had a good ride.  Managing on legs still a bit tired from his New Mexico trip with Young Life.

Finally time for the kids ride.  James was beyond excited.  We had to go to the park earlier in the day because he wanted to practice!  It was a running start-pretty funny to watch.

It was a steep down and up, all the kids were so brave riding down and then trying to make it back up.

He was ready to race...I didn't think we was going to be so determined!

Becca always has a grin, but when she finished she told me that she couldn't believe Andrea was almost beating her.

Andrea is one tough little girl...funny because she whines the most!  She has the heaviest bike and I really didn't think the kids were going to do the barriers. Half way through their second lap I realize she is lifting her heavy bike over the barrier with no complaints-even a smile of determination..shocker!!

All the kids told the guy in charge they were wanting to just ride one lap....not James he wanted two, so the head guy make everyone ride two laps.

 It wasn't without some incidents.  This was what I saw and could about predict what was going to happen next.  James barelled down the steep hill head on collision with the little boy and his bike resulting in James going head over heals over his handle bars.

I expected lots of tears but he did his best to hold them is.  It wasn't untill Ron put him back on his bike and told him to just finish that he lost it.  I didn't really know what was the deal until he said he wanted to go back to the top of the hill and do it again...crazy kid.  Once he realized he could get back on the course and do it over he was all smiles.

I missed the finish but James and the other little boy both ditched their bikes and were running to the finish line...the last barrier, which James leaped over landing on his face.  But no worries, he popped up with a smile because he thought he had won.  It gave everyone a good laugh!

This is what the kids loved to do...Andrea was not too happy we were down and scooter.