Updates!

We have been so. busy. around here lately!  And I have to admit- I have been in a funk.  I don't know why.  It's lasted a little over a week.  No motivation, really tired, kinda cranky.  I think part of it is I'm doing too much where I have to be somewhere at a certain time, rather than being more go-with-the-flow with my free time.  I think another part of it is Stephen's travel/conference calls/local meetings have been INSANE lately!  Anyways, I'm trying to get a new attitude so I can get over this and get back to normal!

Ok, now that that's off my chest, here are some things we've been doing to keep busy lately!

awww...

A great day for soccer!  Sydney scored a goal!

Parker's fall pic from school.

Raegan came to watch Sydney (& Taylor) play!

Enjoying the new dentist in town.

Super cool... minus the hat.

Oh yeah, I had a bday, too!  My sweet card from my kiddos.

Taylor's cheering section!  

Raegan and Parker got to play together twice last week!

BINGO night at school.

Eating Chick-fil-A after soccer practice with friends for my bday.

Go Taylor, go!

Parker made his class' newsletter.

I even got a bday wish from my bestie on our game.

My neighbor and I swap clothes... she gives me her boy's clothes, and I give her my girls' clothes.  It. is. amazing.  These are the new clothes I got this week!  I counted, just for fun (you know you're a math teacher when...) I purchased 32 items in here, and there were 118 things!  Hand-me-downs rule!  (PS- These are all 4T clothes.  I have packed away the 3T, mainly because they won't fit in the closet!  Parker is so big!)

Cheering on our favorite cheerleaders!

Playdate with Taylor's best friend, Lena!

Annual family September birthday dinner!

Parker's awesome new birthday gift!

His other awesome bday gift.  He didn't want to put Spiderman down.

Their future's so bright...

Big boy got a haircut!  As always, we go next door for fro-yo to celebrate.

Sydney's school pic!  I love that it documents her having no front teeth. :)

Taylor's school pic!

My other bestie had her baby on Wednesday!!  Sweet Caroline Rose.  She is perfect.  Literally. Dimples and all.

Sydney is 7!

Sydney turned 7 this past Wednesday!

Her day began with waking up to a decorated room.  My normally slow-to-rise child came barreling into my bed at the 6 o'clock hour, wanting to get up, dressed, and fed.

For breakfast, she had a chocolate frosted doughnut (well, 2, really.  Nothing like sugaring up an already-excited little girl before school!).  

Parker, Raegan (who was staying with us today since she was on fall break), and I went to eat lunch with Sydney at school.  Sydney invited 2 friends to sit with her, and Taylor invited one.  We passed out some treats to Sydney's class.  Sydney came home with a giant pixie stick with a "Happy Birthday" sign on it.

Stephen came home from his trip in time for Sydney to open presents and then all of us go out to dinner!  We went to Chili's, and at the end of our meal, the waiters and waitresses all sang to Sydney and brought her an ice cream sundae.

I just noticed Taylor's face here... priceless!

She got lots of phone calls, cards, and love on her special day.

I can't believe I have a seven-year-old!

The birthday princess.

Parker- school

Parker and I have done some little lessons and activities since I've been home.  Each week, we'll have a color and a letter of the week.  I'll try to dress him in the color each day, and we'll do little crafts or songs or watch videos about the letters.  Here are some pics of some of the activities we've done so far (A-E):

A & Red:

Alligator

Ants

Red stuff

B & Orange:

Bunny

Butterfly

C & Yellow:

Clown

Cookies

D & Green:

Dinosaur

Dragon

E & Blue:

Eggs

Elephant

Earth

Soccer

The girls had their first round of soccer games this past weekend!  After only 2 practices, I was interested to see how the games would go.

Sydney's game was at 9 AM, and we got there around 8:15 AM to get uniforms passed out and all.  Sydney started the game off as goalie, which was pretty funny because she'd never practiced at that position.  Luckily, she was a quick learner and did a really good job with stopping the ball!  The other team was good.  They were bigger, faster, and, I found out later, that they had all been together on a team in U8 last year with the same coach.  I mean, Sydney's poor team only made it past half-field maybe twice!  I seriously think the score was 30 something to 0 at the end.  And it was really annoying, because the other coach kept yelling at his girls to play "DEFENSE!" when it was like 32-0.  I was giving him quite the evil eye (from 30 yards away, so intense) because I thought- come on, dude.  Let them at least get close to the goal.

Anyways, as bad as the score was, the kids really kept their heads high and had fun.  Sydney gets so excited when she talks about "almost scoring".  I wish that could count for something!

We went home after Sydney's game, and went back at 1:30 for Taylor's game!  Now, that game was cute.  It's a mixture of boys and girls, and they were usually kicking the ball in the wrong direction.  Taylor was hilarious!  She would skip out on the field, and then play tackle-soccer when running.  Even her coach made a joke about it after the game.  She'd run with her arms up like she was going to barrel over anyone in her path!  She scored twice... we think... the kids were all usually clumped together the whole time so it was a little hard to tell.  She had a blast!

We got to go see Sydney's friend, Isabelle's game, too.  She plays in the same league as Sydney and her game was also at 1:30.  Isabelle had gotten to watch Sydney's game that morning, because her big sister, Meredith, had a game at 9 AM.  Isabelle is good.  She scored 5 out of the 6 goals her team scored!  I think we play them this weekend... should be interesting.

Izzy cheering on Sydney as the goalie!

So far, so good!  We'll see how this season goes!