The Final Soccer party

We finally had Amanda's end of season soccer party. Unfortunately it conflicted with Sam's indoor soccer game so Shaun, Connor and Sam weren't at the party, just me and Mads. It was held at a great little restaurant called Pat and Oscars.We enjoyed good food and good friends!Instead of trophies this year the girls got t-shirts. Amanda looks excited to get hers. I think the thing she was excited about was her mother yelling from two tables over "Amanda, look over here and show me her shirt so I can take a picture!"

Amanda with her friend Corissa showing off their new t-shirts!

Wrestlemania

Connor just stared a new sport...wrestling. I never thought this is a sport that anyone in our family would participate in. Apparently Poway has a really great wrestling program.People move here from all over the state to be involved in it. Quite a few of the high school boys from church are in the program and many have been to our house to have Shaun check them out, before and after matches. I think this is where Connor's knowledge of the sport even came to be.I have to admit I really like the boys that have been to our house and their families which is why I even considered letting Connor wrestle.

This weekend was his first tournament. Two of his buddies from church are also in the program and they have a blast together!

Connor getting ready for his first match. THat's his weight class on his arm.

Being a good sport!

Here he is in all of his singlet glory with his medal from the tournament.

As a mother who has had many children play many sports this is definitely the toughest. It's much harder to send your son out to battle one on one with someone than sending him out with a whole team behind him. We'll see how much longer he does this, but so far he loves it!

Black Friday

On Black Friday we decided to avoid anything that had to do with retail so we headed out to Poway Lake. I love that we have this Lake basically just down the street from us and decided we need to take advantage of it more often. We started off by feeding the ducks all of our leftover Thanksgiving rolls.Those ducks sure love Lion House rolls!

This was our favorite duck. He was very stylish with his Mohawk and curled tail feathers.

After feeding the ducks we went for a hike around the lake.

Connor ran ahead of everyone the whole way!

After a hike we rented paddle boats and peddled around the lake for awhile. This is how one boat stared out.

Mads didn't sit still for long and soon their boat looked like this.

Then this.

And then this.

When Amanda could no longer hold on to her we had to pull along side of them and put Mads in our boat. She is really fun to take tooling around a large, deep, cold body of water. That girl has no fear!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

We did not take many pictures on Thanksgiving this year. It was pretty low key. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but we were supposed to be moving this weekend so we hadn't really made any big plans. My younger brother Logan came into town and that was definitely the highlight. We sent him home with our family's favorite party favor, a cold! It seems like every time one of my brothers come to visit we get them sick, they need to build up their immunities a little!We did want to make the cute turkeys we made last year but I searched high and low and could not find candy corns anywhere to make the feathers, so we had to make do with a little red frosting.

Soccer parties

The Rec soccer league ended just before Thanksgiving for the three older kids. For Connor's team party we went to Roundtable Pizza and Connor got his cool trophy!For Sam's party we went to a restaurant called Kaminsky's and it was very yummy! It was at the end of a very muddy rainy cold day full of soccer games. You can see Sam still has wet hair because she only had time to jump in a shower and get out quick and head to the party!

Sam getting her trophy. Sam's team did great this year. They took first place, were undefeated and in fact they did not give up a single goal the whole season!

Signing the banner to give to the coach.

Flowers

I've been seeing these cute rolled fabric flowers everywhere and had wanted to learn how to make them. Luckily Amanda went to a birthday party this last weekend where they made some, so she came home and taught Sam and I how to do it.We went to Walmart and got some fabric and started cutting, rolling and gluing. They are very easy, inexpensive and a great way to keep my girls busy!
These are some of our first attempts .

As you can see we just kept going. We have attached most of them to headbands, bobby pins, and alligator clips, so the girls can wear them in their hair. I'd love to make a ring or necklace with some!

Soccer Girl

Madison started soccer this week. She has done a couple of sessions of "Mommy and Me" soccer but this is her first time doing it on her own. It's pretty much the same as mommy and me, except I just watch instead of participate.They don't play competitive games, they just play fun games with a soccer ball. A lot of red light, green light and stuff like that.
She has been anticipating this for quite awhile. I think she just wants to be like her big brother and sisters and go to soccer!

Her first class happened to be on Friday and the kiddos didn't have school so they all got to come. I think she thought that was pretty great, everyone watching HER play soccer. She has certainly sat ( I use the term "sat" loosely) through her share of their games!

This post is rated PG

This week we had Thursday and Friday off for Veteran's day. On Thursday Sam had the opportunity, with her Girl Scout troop to go to the Gemological Institute of America. It's a research facility and a campus dedicated to the study of gems. I guess it's pretty cool. The only one like it in the world. It was pretty high security to even get in. They wouldn't allow many chaperone's so I stole these pictures off the girl scout leaders Facebook page!
Sam said they had a pretty good time learning about and seeing all kinds of gems.

All the girl scouts I talked to said this was the highlight of the tour. This picture is also the reason for the PG rating of this post. The Victoria Secrets jeweled bra. Apparently this institute is in charge of constructing it every year for the Victoria Secrets fashion show.

Star Helper

This last week Madison was chosen as Star Helper in her preschool class. She was SOOOO excited! The night before you would have thought it was Christmas Eve, she could hardly sleep!There are many perks to being the Star Helper. You get to ring the clean up bell...

...you get to share about your family (Madison has the biggest family in her preschool!)...


...you get to sit in the teacher chair...

...and then you get to draw the name out of the bag of the next Star Helper.

You also get to pick how high you count before the good-bye song. Mads counted to two because that is her favorite number!

Part of the reason I posted the little video is because at the very end her teacher thanks her for being the Star Helper and for using her "loud voice." So funny because apparently at school she doesn't talk and if she does it's a mumble or a whisper. At home we are CONSTANTLY telling her to use a quiet voice because she is so loud!

Trick-or-Treat

On Halloween day this year we went to a pumpkin patch that was more like a mini carnival. The kids had a blast going down the big slides!

After the carnival we headed to our church for a Halloween party and trunk-or-treating. Since we didn't trick-or-treat on Halloween night the kids were very excited to hand out candy! They never get to since we're usually out and about. I thought that would make for a relaxing Halloween night. I was wrong. Connor and Mads were both sooo excited to hand out candy that they spent the evening arguing over who got to hold the bowl and whose turn it was to put candy in the kids bags.

Connor's enthusiasm for handing out candy petered out before Mads did. She sat on that stool WAITING for Trick or treaters. At times she would just head down the sidewalk yelling for them to come. She loved it! We all had a blast sneaking out the back door and around to the front of the house posing as trick or treaters!

And the Oscar goes to...

Last week Amanda had her Evening of Excellence in Young Women's at church. It is an evening set aside to recognize all the goals they girls achieved throughout the year. Our Young Women leaders are exceptional. They make this night so incredible for the girls. This years theme was"The Academy Awards". I wish I had taken pictures of all the decorations and everything they did. Here's a picture of Amanda and her cute friend Rachel with their Oscars!