Tuesday, June 27, 2017

End of Soccer

Eve successfully completed her first season of soccer on May 13th!



She played hard the whole season and we could see definite improvement in her, and the whole team!


Despite their efforts, these girls lost every game this season, up to the last.  When we showed up for the last game, we saw we were playing for a second time the team they played their first week.  This team did not look like 6-7 year olds; they were really tall and very good at soccer.  I was upset that we had to end the season playing them - the only team we had to play twice.  They killed us that first game and I was certain they'd to it again.


Boy was I wrong!  Our girls played extraordinarily well the entire game and came away with a much deserved victory!  Their one and only!


Eve seems to prefer defense and blocked many, many kicks at the goal during this game, and throughout the season.



Win or lose, we're so proud of Eve and all the hard work she did this season.  She loved having Andrew as her couch.  And she loved all her teammates.


The girls each got a trophy (which we didn't know about until that morning):


So proud of these two and look forward to many more seasons to come!


Friday, May 5, 2017

April Activities

Here's our stuff from April that didn't fall into any other blogs from the month....

Starting of April with more matchies!  Pj matchies!


Making popcorn!


The girls have been busy with the Lincoln Logs and come up with lots of creative structures!



Cute chicks outside of Halle's ballet class:


Cora's first time pulling herself to a stand!  So proud of herself!


Andrew and I attended the end-of-year awards banquet for the law school's 4 journals.  Andrew's been working on the ALJ (Administrative Law Journal) and was awarded the best comment (article)!  Only a few student articles were chosen for publication and Andrew's was first!  It was a 30 page wonder!  And apparently best!  :)  Also, he was officially announced as the editor-in-chief of ALJ for next year.  Busy, busy....so proud of him!


Playing red light, green light for family night!


This was Halle's final ballet class - they did a super cute little routine!



And this may or may not have been the only of the 10 weeks in the class that she wore ballet attire....a friend took pity on us and let us borrow it.  


First position!


Playing at the Science Spectrum with our friends, the Seegmillers!


Eve finally got to see the chicks and bunnies that her sisters had already seen twice?  Notice how much larger the chicks are....this was only a couple of days before Easter.



Cora gets a little too into her dinner sometimes....literally....


I got to last minute sub for Halle's preschool one day and enjoyed it, as usual!


Cora kept up the cuteness all month!


And Abigail's obsession with pill bugs continues....she brings them into the house, car, etc.  :(


Painting nails while Daddy's gone at school!



This girl's going places!  


More Lincoln Log creations - not easy with a baby sister constantly trying to destroy what you build!



Hanging out with Mommy at church!


Look at these beautiful loaves of challah I made!  They were so good!


Super Cora!  


"What's on my head, Mom?"


I love that Eve can read to her sisters now!  And they love it too!  Extra reading time when Mom's busy.


Exciting news for April - Andrew's parents received a mission call!  We got to watch them open it over Skype.  Andrew and Eve listened/watched over Facetime on their way back from soccer practice.  Drum roll.....they will be serving as office workers in the Sao Paulo East Mission for two years, leaving on September 11th!  

We're so excited for them, but dreading two years without them!


In April, we joined a babysitting co-op with families from our ward/stake.  We were in one for several months when we first moved to Lubbock, but that group disbanded when 2 of the 4 families moved.  The group we just joined has a total of 13 kids, including ours, and every 4 weeks, we watch them all at our house (Fridays from 5:30 - 8:30).  The other 3 weeks, they rotate going to the other families' houses and we get the night off.  So far, so good!  But we've only had to watch once....

Anyway, I think we'll do what we did last time and rotate keeping one of the girls with us for the evening for a special date with Mom and Dad.  Last weekend was Abigail's turn!  We did this to celebrate her first official day of being potty trained!  I've dabbled with potty training her a couple of times over the past few months with limited success, but last Friday, it just clicked for her.  In the past week, she's had only one or two accidents and does the whole bathroom thing completely by herself.  She uses the regular toilet all by herself, without being reminded.  Easiest potty training ever and I'm loving it!  I guess this is what happens when you wait until they're almost 3?

ANYWAY, she got to come with Andrew and I last Friday for a date night.  We started out at a scout fundraiser for the young men in our ward.  They'd set up carnival like games, a silent auction, and some yummy food to earn money for scout camp.  Abigail mostly just wanted to play on the play fort. 


But she also took a stab at fishing and a balloon pop game.  


After that, we went to Target and got her a new car seat, then picked up Mexican food to eat at home while we played games!  Abigail loves Trouble (shocker.....).



We had a great evening with this sweet girl!


And to finish out the month....Halle's latest interest is "decorating".  She basically takes everything she can find and stacks it up.  She does this every day, all over the house.  Sometimes in one pile like this, or other times by placing things in random places.  I lost Cora's shoe for a week because Halle had put it behind one of the picture frames.  Besides being messy, which I think I can deal with, the only problem with this new hobby is her resistance to cleaning it up when it's time.....

But I do love her imagination and creativity, so try to let her make full use of both.  My house will be clean again someday, right???

Halle's Preschool Program

On April 28th, Halle finished her first year of preschool!  She'd loved doing this 2 day a week preschool with her friends from church and I've loved seeing how much she's grown!  

Each of the kids got to recite their favorite poem from this year.  Each month, they memorize a new poem, and towards the end of the year, two poems a month because they were learning them so fast.  Nothing shy about this girl!  She loves to get up and recite in front of people and did a great job on her poem, "Turkey, Turkey."

Turkey, turkey, look at you.
Please be careful what you do.
Thanksgiving Day is almost here.
We eat turkey every year!
Run and hide, out in the woods,
And we'll eat pizza as we should!


I don't know why all my pictures ended up slightly blurry.....and why I didn't take a picture of the whole class.  There were 12 of them, but one girl moved a couple weeks ago, so 11 at the program.


I took lots of videos of the kids singing their songs, but videos and blogs don't mix well for me....

Halle receiving her diploma!



Mrs Bellingham and Mrs Seegmiller have done such a great job and Halle just adores them!  They selected a book for each child as an end-of-year present and Halle got "Just a Teacher's Pet".  Not sure if that's a good thing or not?


Thanks Shadow Hills Preschool for a great year!