Busy Saturdays: Soccer & Book Festival

We had a busy, fun-filled weekend (which is pretty much what every weekend will be during soccer season).  Friday night we skipped the ward camp out to attend our street's final "happy hour" of the summer (basically a potluck dinner, with sparklers and a fire pit for smores).  Fun times.

Saturday morning we went to Lainey's "mini kickers" soccer class and Lizzie's soccer game. Ellie wore what she calls her soccer shirt (pretty much any BYU shirt) and we dressed Emma in her soccer onesie.  It was funny to hear the girls on Lizzie's team fuss over Emma and the little girls.  When Drew put Lainey on his shoulders while he was coaching, I heard some say "ah, she's so cute."  I fairly certain you wouldn't hear that from a team of 5th and 6th grade boys.

 Andrew is excited about coaching Lizzie's soccer team this year.  Last season's team won only one game.  One (and I'm pretty sure it was on a Sunday so Liz and Drew didn't get to experience it).  This season they have won their first two games and were five points ahead of the other team on Saturday that they had to play with one less player (as per league rules).  He kept commenting on how excited he was that the girls were passing and whatnot.

Lainey and Ellie sat through most of the game and when they were bored, they entertained themselves by posing for pictures or sitting on Drew's shoulders.

 Saturday afternoon we went to the National Book Festival as a family.  I thought it was fun, Drew is not so sure he wants to go again (of course he dropped us off and then spent 40 minutes parking so that wasn't a fun way for him to start his experience).  The little girls enjoyed meeting PBS characters and they all enjoyed listening to an artist/author's presentation, listening to books, and getting free books and another stuffed horse from Wells Fargo.  Lainey loved getting her map stamped in the states pavilion (I loved that Utah handed out mint truffles). 

 

2 months old

Statistics:

Head: 15 1/25 (85%)

Height: 22 3/4 (66%)

Weight: 12 lbs 8.8 oz (81%)

Social Smile and coos

 

Starting the school year!

Lizzie started 5th grade.  She felt nervous because she struggles with Spanish so much, but after the first day she reported that she really likes all her teachers. Liz asked if she could do both choir and band which was exciting for me because originally she didn't want to do band.  At first she planned to play the flute, but after her first class she switched to the trombone (she's playing Drew's from high school).  Other extracurriculars this year: piano, soccer (Drew's coaching again), and girl scouts (I'm co-leading again). 

Alaina started preschool this year (Tuesdays and Thursdays).  After two years of doing in-home "mom" school I was excited to have her go to an official school.  She's been in two weeks now and loves it.  Other extracurriculars for her this year: soccer and dance (her favorite).

Ellie also started preschool this year, same place, same days as Lainey.  She's supposed to be toilet trained and isn't yet, but the teacher has been nice about it (despite multiple accidents the first few days of class).  She also loves school and I'm hoping it helps with the training.  Ellie's extracurricular: dance class with Lainey.

Each preschooler was given a bag to decorate and use at school. 
 Lainey's class decorated theirs in class, Ellie did hers at home.

The night before school we had a fancy, candle-lit celebratory dinner with the kids.  They picked the menu: tilapia, rice, and grapes.  The girls especially liked using goblets for their punch.

At back to school night Lizzie's band teacher thanked us for letting her play the trombone.  Apparently she has 20 flutists and only 3 trombone players (one of which is Lizzie's same-sized friend).  Liz is small and she can't fully extend the trombone because her arm is too short (which I think is kind of funny), but the teacher is unconcerned (probably because she was so excited to have something other than another flute player).   

Last Sunday Drew gave Liz a quick trombone lesson.  All the girls took a turn actually.

Build A Bear party

Liz attended two Build-A-Bear parties when she was little, but I had never actually seen a bear made until we took Lainey to spend her Christmas money last month.  Lainey loved the experience so much that I decided to hold her birthday party there.  Also, it was much more affordable than I thought it would be (you only pay for what you make so you could do a party for six kids for as little as $60).

Lainey picked six friends to invite.  One of her picks was Lizzie's friend, Jordan.  Jordan has been so kind and inclusive to Alaina that she considers Jordan to be one of her friends.  At first Liz was bothered ("Lainey, Jordan is my friend"), but she quieted down when I pointed out that it would be fun for her to have a friend at Lainey's party.

The kids picked their animals and named them before they stuffed them.  The names were pretty sweet and girlie: snowy, princess, snowflake, and rose ("because some roses are white").  Ellie named her dog "Doggie Gawgo."

This party was soooo easy for us.  We've done out-of-the-house parties before but they were more work because had to figure out food and party favors.  Not at Build a Bear.  Food is not allowed and the bears are the party favors.  Done.  We provided blueberry muffins and juice boxes for the kids while we waited for everyone to arrive (those we were driving to the party location that is).  We handed the kids a cupcake to take home with them at the end.  Easy Peasy.  The night before I kept telling Drew that I felt like I was forgetting something because it was all too easy.  Really the hardest part was remembering where I had stashed Lainey's birthday girl shirt from the year before. 

The girls got to put one heart in their own bear and then they each added a heart to Lainey's bear.  There was a mad scramble for hearts when the party leader dropped them in the middle of the circle (much like a dash for pinata candy).

 The girls had to warm up the hearts and infuse them with a wish for Lainey.

 

Ellie is adding her heart to Lainey's bear:

 "Washing" the fluff off their bears:

 Picking accessories:

This was supposed to be our silly face group picture, but clearly only three girls made a silly face:

We sang a birthday song to Alaina, then the girls raised their hands and pledged to care for their bears (or love them or be good friends or something like that), the kids got the bear's birth certificates and we were done (we opened presents at home, with just our family--actually Ellie and Emma slept).