Trying New Things

Middle schoolers have the opportunity to try out the cross country team. Last year Victoria couldn't because the meets were on the same day as her dance class. This year she dances on Mondays, so we were able to sign her up for the 5 week season of cross country. She is loving it, even though she is pretty busy. The nice thing is that practice is right after school, so she gets home the same time as everyone else, since her school day is earlier. The first meet was against another school and she was 14th for the girls, but third within her school and the next week was just amongst her school and she was third for the girls again.

She's looking real good!

I finally signed up Erik for soccer. We have had at least one kids doing DACA soccer every year (except last year) for the past few years and Erik hasn't wanted to try it. He loves playing it at home and with his friends, but refused to let me sign him up for a team. This year, I just payed the 35 bucks and decided if he didn't end up playing it would be no big loss. Luckily, a lot of his friends are on his team, or the opposing team, and one of his coaches is the Red Bell cook (and the Primary President at church), so he knows her too! Well, he is really getting into it and Jason and I love watching him do it. Austin is doing it too and getting pretty good. It's the perfect program with 30 minutes of practice and a 30 minute game right after wards every Saturday for 5 weeks. They get fruit snacks and a juice box after each game, which adds to Erik's excitement. It's great to try new things!

Erik's first day

He wasn't afraid to get in there!

Austin got to play goalie like his dad.

He also got to be a forward.

Ready for the next game!

Steelers Homecoming

It's been a whirlwind for Steelers cheer leading since school started. They had the opportunity to cheer at the high school football game with the Salem cheerleaders 10 days ago, then last Saturday it was the homecoming game. It was supposed to be later, but for some reason was bumped up about a month, which made prepping for it more urgent. Karissa had to go to extra practices, including a 2 1/2 hour practice before the actual game! Yes, JV is pretty intense!

Karissa is the flyer in the middle.

JV squad. She's right in the middle.

 The morning of the game they had a quick practice and then went to breakfast with the football players. I drove back and forth between cheer and dance on Saturday while Jason took the boys to soccer. Not to mention, I was on the homecoming committee, so I got to help decorate as well. Karissa had to miss the BYU game-watching party at our friend's house, who host at least once a season, to go back for the 2 1/2 hour practice before the game. Well, she didn't miss much at the BYU game :(.

The Steelers didn't have a great game either, and their star player snapped his wrist just before the 4th quarter- OUCH! But, the cheerleaders were great and always fun to watch!

Jason and Karissa running out the the 50 yard line before the game.

After meeting me at the 50.

Passing out candy at the half.

Karissa's nickname this year is Peanut. There are three 5th graders on the squad and the rest are 6th and 7th graders. Considering she is about the size of an 8 year-old, you can see where she got her nickname. She didn't end up flying for homecoming, though. There's another girl who wants to fly and can't be at competition this year, and Karissa can, so she was a front spot for the stunts in the performance. It's so fun to watch her really get into cheer!

They changed into "80s" attire (leg warmers and all, though you can't tell since they're black) for the big performance at half time.

Here's the routine. She starts in the middle and spots the stunt on our left.

Go Steelers!

Where or Where Has the Summer Gone?

Can you tell I'm teaching preschool again? Everything has a song to it. We started back last week. I have been awful at blogging recently, but I have to say it was probably the best summer with my kids ever! We had those great vacations I blogged about and in between we had some great activities going on around here. Even when we were at home, the kids played great with each other and we all really enjoyed being together. The girls played a lot of Our Generation Dolls together and they made some YouTube videos. The boys enjoyed playing in the front, Austin on his roller blades and Erik on his bike. All four of them played many rounds of Cover Your Assets. I played with them a few times too, but it was nice for them to initiate some "real" game playing on their own.

Their doll set up.

Cul-de -sac riding

Waiting for butterflies to land on them in the butterfly house at the zoo.

Roller skating

Splash pad

Archery!

 Austin went to scout camp and I got go with him one of the days. Victoria went to girl's camp and Karissa stared cheer in August. All except Victoria took swimming lessons. Luckily, Erik ended up winning a rubber ducky race and we got free lessons for him because he decided half way through that he didn't want to do them anymore. I was a little worried about what that would mean for all day kindergarten this year...

Well, here we are on day 5, the 4th full day and he's loving it! He has the same teacher Karissa did for kinder, which is nice. She's a great teacher! He has snack in the morning and snack in the afternoon, plus they have some quiet time after lunch. So far, each day he has come home, he has eaten all his food! He even commented how he was able to play cops and robbers at school because he had eaten all his food and felt so good.

Open House with his name for the class.

Kindergarten playground

Austin is thriving in 3rd grade with a fabulous teacher who Victoria had for science when she was in 4th grade. Austin walks Erik up to his class and waits with him until the first bell rings after I drop them off. He's being very responsible!

Karissa is the big shot 5th grader at Gallimore and is so responsible about her schedule for school and cheer. It makes me happy to see her thriving!

Just off the bus.

Good facials!

Victoria is continuing on with early morning orchestra playing the violin. Her dance classes are on Mondays and Saturdays now, so we decided to try cross country for the short 6 week season since she will be able to make the Wednesday meets now. She'll be pretty busy the next 6 weeks, but hopefully it's fun for her. She's loving cross country so far!

Picture day!

Grandma Pat and Grandpa Jim came for a visit right before school started. It was nice to spend the last of the summer with them and have them help finish up a couple of projects and get ready for school.

Farmer's Market

Game time

Building a soccer net with Grandpa.

Showing Grandpa how to play mine craft.