Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Fall Sports and other Fall Craziness - CHECK!

This fall has been the busiest time of my life.  I knew the extra curricular chasing would be crazy at some point, and this year hit us like a ton of bricks. If you can't sense it, I am hugely relieved to have fall sports behind us and get to more of a maintainable pace.

The biggest time commitment was Andy's tackle football.  There are things I love about him playing such an intense sport.  I love the hard work and dedication.  I love the sportsmanship and teamwork, but I am so relieved to have my son back. They usually don't have playoffs for the youngest boys, but this year we got a bonus week because they made it to playoffs as region champs.


Ali and Johnny are just two of Andy's biggest fans.  We all really enjoyed watching him play on Saturdays! That is one family activity that Caleb doesn't even protest going to.


Caleb had his final year of flag football.  He's talking about playing tackle again next year, we'll see.  I'm relieved that flag football was only one night a week with practice 30 minutes before the game, but he did miss out on the other important things that playing an intense football season bring.


In the spring Josh took Cara and Caleb to a few lunchtime volleyball games with some guys he works with.  Cara LOVED it and has been begging me to figure out how she could play on a volleyball team.  I'm excited that she has interested in a sport.  She had a blast playing for six weeks with North Peak Volleyball.  She improved so so much. It made her life really busy with volleyball twice a week and dance twice a week!


When I signed Cara up for volleyball Caleb insisted that I sign him up too.  He didn't love it as much as Cara, but he had a good experience. I think that taking the time to learn lifelong sports is worth the effort.


Whenever I wasn't chasing kids the past few months. I was happily planning a Relief Society retreat.  This is the only picture I took, but it was a huge success!! We had almost 50 sisters attend one day or the other with about 30 spending the night.  The best part was providing an environment where the ladies in our ward could uplift and bless each other.  


I took a lot of ideas from the Academy for Girls Counselor Reunion I went to last spring. Here is the invitation and agenda for my friends who will be planning Relief Society Retreats in the future. It was so fun for me to plan!  It tapped into my strongest natural gifts and despite the many hours it took I was glad to have to opportunity to plan it.
 


It was fun to have a bumper crop of fruit on our trees this year.  We had enough nectarines to feed a small army and loved sharing them with our neighbors and friends.


This is the sunflower Ali gave me for Mothers Day.  It did quite well!!


Ali is lucky to have a dress designer for a sister. I love that Cara and Ali have each other!  The other day Ali invited me to her room to look in her closet.  Her shirts were hung perfectly in color order.  It was like a dream come true! Cara said, “I gave her the idea.” Isn’t it wonderful that they give each other such great ideas?!


Andy started scouts.  We did some Indian dancing for his first pack meeting.  It reminded me that the 18-month break from Cub Scouts has been nice! I love that Andy is so excited about all things scouts.  He has been in for about a month and has already completed all of the requirements for 3 of his 6 required belt loops.  It makes my heart sing that he wants to work on his requirements and check them off!!


Sometimes school projects make me a little crazy.  One of my least favorite 5th Grade projects is the NOVA Rocket assignment.  I think it is optional, but my children never present it to me that way. Luckily Josh is really good about pitching in on the artsy projects, where I am lacking in skill and mostly in desire to help. Cara made hers out of Rice Crispies, frosting and marshmallows. The desire to eat it drove her siblings and classmates crazy. 


Ali and Taya getting into some of the Fall Craziness! Now I just have to survive Halloween!!



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