Allie's First Soccer Game

Allie played soccer (U11/12) for the first time this morning!  And she did pretty well, considering it was her first ever game -- I was talking with the soccer moms and made it known it was her first game (so they don't wonder if the ball gets kicked the wrong direction, you know?) -- and one of them whose daughter has been playing for 4 years said, "Allie?  She does good out there.  She's got it (meaning the game)!"  And as the game progressed,  I saw it too.  She's spunky and fast enough to hustle with the bigger girls on the field.

Her all-girls team is called Ghostbusters - because their uniforms are white and navy (so dark it looks black).  Allie wears jersey #12.  Today, they played a team that's been together for the last 5 seasons, so they lost!  It was fun to watch the hustling though, because they actually had some strategy involved and the girls play their proper positions and help each other out on the field.  I am glad Allie finally decided on her own to try out soccer this season -- in the past she was anti-ball!  It just happened one day when we went to get new cleats for Collin.  While we were picking out the new cleats, she said to me, "I think I want to do soccer this year, so why don't we get me soccer stuff today?"  Anyway I seized the opportunity and bought her the whole soccer get-up, then signed her up for soccer the next day.  I haven't heard her say she doesn't like soccer, even after being in the heat like that today -- she was just glad to hop in the shower when we got home, since she "showered in sweat" at the game (her words).  Hopefully she will stick with it the next few seasons!

First Dance Class

Milestone for Miss Maddie here!  This morning was her first day of dance class.  She's been excited about it all week, and today finally came.  At breakfast she asked if I was going to drop her off.  I said yes, and to that she said, "Oh I'm not going to cry."  Funny!  After her bath, she asked if she could have some makeup and lip gloss.   It was so cute the way she asked so I gave her a little bit of sparkly eye makeup and she insisted to put on lip gloss "all by herself".   When we got to dance class, she didn't hesitate at all - just went and did all the warm-ups with the other little girls.  I of course stayed for a few minutes and took some photos.  I wish I could have stayed and watched the whole time.  The class has 6 two-and-a-half to three year olds.  That was precious to watch.

As I drove home, I couldn't help but think about how different this experience was for me, compared to when Allie started going to dance classes!  I couldn't wait for Allie to go to dance, she seemed so mature at the age of 4 or maybe it was just because she's my first child and I wanted her to do everything early! Maddie, on the other hand, is still such a baby compared to Allie even at this age, that though I was excited for her to go, a little part of this experience tugged at me and I just couldn't believe that she is old enough for this already.  I am not sure I want her to grow up quite yet. I love being home with her when the older ones are at school -- she is so cute and so sweet.  She talks up quite a storm, wants me to play her favorite Primary songs on the piano while she sings along,  and still is my little snuggle bug.

Mother-Daughter Book Club

A couple of Allie's friends started a Mother-daughter book club last week.  We all got together and we did a fun get-to-know you night where we did introductions, enjoyed a quick game of Apples to Apples, and ate cupcakes and chocolate. The first set of books to read were introduced.

The book series the girls decided to read: 39 Clues!  There are 10 in the series, and these kind usually isn't on Allie's book choice radar -but after she got into it, she said to me, "Mom I normally wouldn't pick to read this kind of book, but I LOVE it!" (She usually likes books about mermaids, mythical princesses, fairies, and anything magical - like Wings, Spells, Philippa Fisher, etc).  Ah, the beauty of book clubs!
 

Allie read the first book pretty speedily  (she's a fast reader) and can't wait to read the rest.  One thing she likes too is that they have a cool website to go along with the books.  Our next meeting is in a couple of weeks and we can't wait to have more m-d time with her girl friends and their moms.  And yes, the 10 year olds thought of this whole thing and put it the book club together themselves.

Need Sleep

I am now only a few weeks away from my 3rd trimester, and the annoying round ligament pain (right side) pains are here.  Saturday night I was up for a few hours in the wee hours in the morning and had to be to church at 7:45 a.m.  Yuck!  Anyway, my right side hurt and contracted for three hours which kept me awake.  Two hours into it, I finally took some Tylenol to help it go away.  It worked and I got 1 hour of sleep before I had to get up to get ready for church.  Hopefully that doesn't happen again too soon, or definitely not on Monday or Wednesday nights (or I'll be grouchy at preschool!).   The only thing I thought of while I was awake was that even though it was annoying that I couldn't sleep, at least Kevin was around this time instead of being a state away.  That made me feel better.  He was up for an hour with me and waited for me to get back to sleep. I napped after church, for a long time, and slept well last night, but somehow today I feel like I'm still needing more sleep to make up for the lost hours on Sunday.  I had my dr. appointment this morning and I now have put on a whopping 18 pounds.  Yikes. And I still have 3 more months to go.   I got to teach Art Masterpieces in Collin's class this morning - fun! And I get to do it every Monday and Wednesday for the rest of September.  I don't have too much going on, but I feel that my energy level has gone down a bit, and needing more sleep.  It's a good thing I am not having to worry about cleaning today - Ali is here and cleaning my house while I chill and relax a little (well, before I have to go pickup the kids from school and take Allie to soccer practice).

Somebody is SUPER excited

Ever since I told little Miss that she gets to go to dance class, she's been asking to "pick her up" or "drop her off" at dance.  Wednesday I took her shopping for her dance shoes and leotards.  She was super excited about that.  She couldn't stop talking the whole time - she was too excited (yeah, like giddy excited) to try on the tap shoes and ballet shoes at the shoe store, and wanted to carry the bag out of the store.  Then we went to Target to find some leotards.  Of course the only size 3's left were pink. And flowy. And had sparkly things on them.  And hanging at her eye level.  She first picked out the pink one with flowers and handed it to me.  Then a few seconds later she did a double take, and admired the one still hanging there - the one with the sparkly butterfly on it.  She handed it to me and said, "I like this one with the butterfly better".  Then we were off.

Of course we couldn't help but go over to the clothes.  She picked out a green shirt and matching skirt all on her own, saying "oooh, I like this one, this one's pretty", "it fits mom", and "allie likes this one".  Then randomly she handed me a size 2T gray pair of pants that matched one of the shirts she picked out.  I said, "oh, you like these pants too? And look you got the right size!" I was totally going to buy it -they were cute! But she said, "no, I don't like those.  They're too big.  I got them for you."  I just had to laugh.  And hung it back on the rack - because when it comes to clothes, if she's decided she doesn't want it, she won't ever wear it.  She's stubborn like that.

When we got home, the first thing she did was try on her shoes.  She wore them all night.  Same thing happened yesterday.  She asked again if I could "pick her up" at dance class.  I told her dance was still 7 days away.  After eating breakfast this morning, she got dressed in her leotards and ballet shoes.  She asked for some lip gloss (yeah I know, she's ultra funny), and asked if I could put a pretty clip in her hair.  After that she wanted to look in a mirror to see what she looked like (like this: "I gonna look in a mirror, mama").  At this point I couldn't resist asking her if I could take a picture.  She said ok.  But the shoot was on her terms of course.  She wanted to sit on the pink chair in our school room, and after the third click, she said "OK I'm done!"

Can you feel her giddy-ness and excitement? 

Boots

Maddie decided to don tall boots after church yesterday.  It was too funny not to document how short her legs are for these boots.  Allie got in the action and showed her a few runway moves. One of those things we'll laugh at in the future.  Notice the onesie, pin on her shirt and the hat -- Maddie's choice of clothes for the afternoon.  Well, that is until she couldn't get to the toilet fast enough because she had to undo the snaps first.  She came running in with a whole new outfit on, and I found her "puddle" in the bathroom already taken care of.  Our little conversation went like this:

Me: Did you pee on the floor?

Maddie: Well....(pause) yeah, BUT I put paper towels on it!

Seriously, this girl might be too smart (and too sassy) for her own good. 

Collin

Fridays at school are dress-down days and the kids can wear jeans with their graphic ALA t-shirts.  Collin, upon finding his favorite jeans were holey (those knees!), asked me if we could get him new ones.  Lucky for him the Santan Mall is just two minutes away so we went after dinner and I got to have some one-on-one time with this little guy.  It was so fun to see all the different styles he likes and dislikes, like hi-tops - he liked those.  He was so sweet to pick out outfits for his sisters too, even though we weren't shopping for them.  After we got home we watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" which both he and Allie thought was so funny.  Those two have a really good relationship - the first thing he did when we got home from shopping (or from anywhere) was find Allie and show her all the stuff he bought.  They like to play Legos and school together.

Collin also just recently started his 2nd year in Let's Play Music, and although it's still hot out there, soccer season has started again.  He lost his blue soccer ball right before his first practice and almost went with Allie's pink soccer ball.  He didn't want to have anything to do with that! so we borrowed one of the coach's extra balls.

Collin likes school.  I found out the 2nd week of school that he is in the accelerated sections for reading and math.  He says school is easy - we'll see!  He is always so happy to tell me how many reward bucks he earned for the day (they call them hopper bucks at school) and what happened at school.

He is so good at packing his own lunches in the morning and enjoys reading picture books (more than chapter books, although he reads those, too -- favorites are Junie B ?! and Magic Tree House).  He has amazing attention to detail - and not just when he's building with his Legos.  One of his jobs is to wipe down all the glass doors and mirrors in the house. He came to me one Saturday and said he wasn't doing a very good job at it because they were still streaky. I checked and they weren't streaky, just missed a couple of small spots. He follows thru his "jobs"; he just goes down the chore list, checking off each one as he completes it - a totally different system than Allie's (favorite chores get completed first for her)!

Computer Whiz

Allie changes her blog settings all the time. I came upon it today and there is just one new little post, but the background changed again. And this one - I really like!

Her blog looks way cool, and she's always got either a new poll, a new background, or a new playlist.  She's pretty handy in Photoshop too - making new headers and banners all the time - if there was an advanced beginner Photoshop class for kids, I will be the first to sign her up!