Fall Soccer Wrap-up - Luke

I helped coach Luke's team this year and we had a pretty good, fun season.  We kind of split up the coaching at the games with me coaching the offense and the other coach coached the defense.  It took us a couple of games to figure out how to score but when we finally figured out how to play together as a team instead of a bunch of individuals, we started winning games.  We ended the season with 3 straight wins and ended up with a 4-4 record.  We've got a good bunch of kids and parents that don't get too emotional when the refs mess up a call or when we lose a game.  They are just there to have fun and enjoy the game.  Unfortunately not all of the teams we play have been that way and we had a couple of games where things almost got kind of ugly because of what the other team's parents thought they saw happen on the field...  It's really too bad that parents have to get so emotional about the game and think that coaches would intentionally teach their team to play dirty...

The other unfortunate thing about this season was the condition of the fields that the kids played on.  Between Kitty and Luke we played on fields in two different cities and there wasn't a game that went by that either or both of the fields were completely soaked with huge puddles everywhere - and remember, this is here in Utah where it hardly ever rains, so the puddles were caused by overwatering the fields...  What a waste of water...  (And we are always being lectured here in Utah on how we need to conserve water and not overwater our lawns...)

 If you look closely in these two pictures  you can see the water splashing off of the ground where one of the puddles was located.

Fall Soccer Wrap-up - Kitty

This was Kitty's first season playing soccer and you could definitely tell...  She looked so awkward out there at times and we really weren't too impressed with the way her team was coached.  I'm not sure that she learned much of anything at practices and it was a little frustrating.  Her coach was super nice but for some reason they didn't seem to accomplish too much at practice.  Maybe in the spring when M&M doesn't have marching band I can help out a little more with Kitty's team.  They only won one game the whole season and most of the games were not even close...  She did seem to enjoy herself which is good and somehow she managed to score a goal in her last game which surprised everyone and she was really proud about.  They pretty much played beehive ball the whole game and never stayed in positions so they were always tiring themselves during the game running back and forth chasing the ball around and it was incredibly hard to kick the ball anywhere because it was always hitting another player...

Pinewood Derby

Tuesday, October 16

Our ward had their Pinewood Derby this month and since I am the primary counselor over cub scouts I went and helped out.  I brought some treats and volunteered to help judge the cars.  Our cub committee chair printed out blank awards certificates on colored paper for each of the boys and I printed out a list of possible awards for the cars.  Luke volunteered to come with me and help me out.  We took our camera and took pictures of each of the cars and identified which one belonged to each boy.  Then Luke and I sat in the back and decided on awards for each of the cars and finished just as they were finishing up the racing.  In the past our pack has not given out any awards and I have always felt it was kind of a bum deal for all of the work that the boys and parents put into the cars.  This year we decided to give a first, second and third place ribbon and then give an awards certificate for each boy.  They were called up by the cubmaster and the award was read and they came up and showed their car to the group.  I think it was a good experience for everyone.

Viola

A few weeks after school started, the kids brought home fliers about school orchestra.  Blondie has been talking off and on over the last year about playing in the orchestra and this year she really, really wanted to join.  Being from a musical family myself I am not one who wants to discourage my kids when they express interest in learning an instrument.  The problem with a string instrument though is that there are many different sizes, based on the size of your child and I know very little about them (and neither does DH who came from a strictly band family).  My mom and sister played the cello but I still don't know much about it.  DH and I agreed that she could be in the orchestra but then we had to decide on which instrument and renting it.  

At first DH wanted to play the cello but after looking at rental prices we decided that that wasn't in our budget at this time - not only would we have to play a monthly rental fee for the instrument, but we have to pay for the orchestra class which is $200 for the year.  The beginning group meets Monday and Wednesday mornings before school so there is also a time investment on my part to take her to school early twice a week (and then drive her both ways on the days she is off-track).  I haven't been too impressed with the band program at the school since we have been going there, but the orchestra program is really good with an excellent teacher who has been teaching there for several years.

I took Blondie to a local music store one day after school to have her measured for an instrument and she would have needed a 1/4 size cello.  After we found out the monthly price for that we decided to look into violins and violas.  The 1/4 size cello was so cute that I was a little tempted, but it was about double the rental price of the smaller instruments.  I think Blondie was a little more hesitant to do the violin because there are so many kids that do that so we looked at the violas.  The size viola that she needed the store didn't have but we were told that they could restring a 1/4 size violin for her with viola strings.  At that size apparently it doesn't make a huge difference.  So after talking with Blondie and DH about it we decided to do the 1/4 violin with viola strings.  It is tiny!!  She will probably grow up to the next size next year so we will need to decide what we want to do then.  (The viola has the 3 lowest violin strings and then one string lower.  It is very similar looking to a violin but is typically a little larger and a little wider at the base.  And one thing that I didn't know before is that the viola reads the Alto Clef.)

I picked up the instrument when Blondie was at school and a couple of other things that she needed for it and she has been so excited!!  It is fun watching her get better at it and she enjoys telling us the things that she has learned each day.  They will have their first concert for the parents in December.

M&M soccer (spring 2012 season)

Pictures from M&M's spring season:

I love this picture with M&M's hair flying!!

Luke soccer (2012 spring season)

Pictures of Luke's spring 2012 season:

Luke's coach's wife and mother-in-law made these brownies for the kids on the team and gave a plate of about 8 of them to each kid!  They also bought little cakes for each of the kids that was decorated like a soccer ball.  Luke's started falling apart and melting in the car while we were at M&M's game and then I forgot to get a picture of it until he had eaten part of it.

Blondie soccer (spring 2012 season)

I just wanted to post some more pictures of the kids from their soccer season last spring.  Here are Blondie's pictures:

Kid talk

MJ and Luke were playing together with the toy kitchen in the family room.  Apparently MJ was pretending to feed Luke things and then I heard him say, "Ewww, yuck MJ!  That has spit on it!"  Then MJ pipes up and says, "Ewww gross.  What's spit Luke?"

Soccer Spectators - spring 2012

I'm a little behind on a couple of posts that I meant to do back in the spring about the soccer season.

The field where M&M played soccer in the spring is awesome for families because there is a nice playground at the top of a hill where the parking lot is and then the soccer field is down below, so you can let your younger kids play and keep an eye on them while you are also watching the game.  Here are some shots of the kids playing on the playground at that field:

Look at my shirt...

Thursday, October 11

MJ was playing downstairs with her siblings and at one point she said to me, "Look at my shirt, mama," and she was kind of laughing like something was funny.  I looked at her and didn't see anything that she might be showing me so I thought maybe she had spilled some water or something on it.  Well, a few minutes later I picked her up to take her upstairs for lunch and I felt something weird around her middle.  When I got upstairs I took a look and found that she had been putting things down her shirt and onesie.  This is a picture of everything that I found in there:

BYU/Rocky Mountain Invitational

Tuesday, October 9

When we found out that M&M was going to be performing in a band competition at BYU, DH and I decided that that might be a fun one to attend with some of the kids.  It was going to be on a Tuesday evening, but with the kids off-track from school it wouldn't be a big deal.  We decided that we did not want to take Kay and MJ with us so we gave Luke the option of staying home and babysitting them or we would find a babysitter if he wanted to come.  He decided to stay home and watch them and we took Blondie and Kitty with us.  Blondie we were unsure of at first because she had been sick the day before but she was feeling better on Tuesday so she came as well.

It was kind of fun being back at BYU and it was really nice being able to sit high up in the stands so that you could see the whole show and see better what formations the bands were making.  DH brought his camera and tripod and videotaped the performance and I took some pictures with our point and shoot camera.

Running on fumes...

This is what M&M's marching band schedule has looked like for the last couple of weeks.  And on top of that she still has school and homework.  Needless to say she has been literally running on fumes over the last little while.  They regularly have about 3 rehearsals a week for 3 hours each and then a competition and sometimes a football game.  They have really lucked out with the weather this year.  It has been a pretty mild fall season.  It seems crazy that the season is already almost over!  I think it will be a relief but at the same time I think she will really miss it!  She's already talking about and looking forward to next year and learning a new show!

• Monday, Oct 1 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 2 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct 4 - Rehearsal 6-9 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 5 - Homecoming Football game 5-10:30 p.m. (I helped sell T-shirts at this game for the band boosters)
• Saturday, Oct 6 - Wasatch Front Competition 12:15-6:00 (luckily this competition was at a high school in our school district)
• Monday, Oct 8 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 9 - BYU/Rocky Mountain Invitational Competition 3:00-11:30 p.m. (I picked M&M up as soon as school was over and took her straight to the high school)
• Wednesday, Oct 10 - Football game 5:30-9:30 (I still am not sure why this game was played on a Wednesday...)
• Thursday, Oct 11 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 12 - Rehearsal 6-9 p.m.
• Monday, Oct 15 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 16 - Davis Cup Marching Band Competition 3:00-11:00 p.m. (Again I picked M&M up from school and took her straight to the high school)
• Wednesday, Oct 17 - Rehearsal 6-9 p.m.

Primary Sacrament Meeting Program

Sunday, September 30

This year's program ended up being pretty crazy because of some crazy scheduling in the fall.  Our ward ended up having Stake Conference on September 16, the Brigham City Temple dedication on September 23 and then our primary program the following Sunday.  Because of that we didn't have a lot of opportunity to have the kids practice.  I wrote the program this year - one of my duties as the 1st counselor in the primary presidency.  Last year I was put in the calling at the very end of July and the counselor before me had already written the program and so I just had to make a few changes here and there.

Since we have Sacrament Meeting last we were able to practice with the kids all during our primary time and it actually turned out pretty well.  I was quite pleased.  We had the Sunbeam class sing the first verse to "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" by themselves and it turned out really cute.  I think the whole congregation really enjoyed that.  I gave all of the kids speaking parts this year.  We also had a new family move in that week and because of a few missing kids we were able to give them speaking parts in the program.  I think their parents were grateful for that.  And unlike last year we ended almost exactly on time (last year we ended about 10 minutes early).

My parents were able to come and watch the kids in the program and then they stayed for dinner afterwards.

Bridgerland Band Competition

Saturday, September 29

DH decided to go to one of M&M's band competitions that took place in Payson, UT.  It was his first time seeing the whole show.  The band ended up doing pretty good and finished 3rd in the 5A division (the group for the largest bands).  I stayed home to attend Kitty's soccer game and watch the younger kids.

This is most of the band, minus some that enter the field from the other side.  I think with the color guard and pit they total around 130 people.

Brigham City Temple Dedication

Sunday, September 23

The First Presidency canceled regular church meetings in Utah so that everyone could attend the dedication of the Brigham City Temple.  There were 3 sessions and since the younger kids (Kitty on down) were not able to attend, our family went in shifts.  I took M&M, Luke and Blondie to the 9 a.m. session and DH stayed home to watch the younger girls.  Then DH went to the 12:00 session and I decided to attend with him so that he didn't have to go by himself.  Later in the afternoon we went over to my parents' house for dinner.

More gymnastics pictures

Wednesday, September 26

DH was able to come with me to Blondie's gymnastics class and take a few pictures with his camera: