Soccer Begins

Has fall really arrived? The beginning of soccer usually means the beginning of fall and last year it meant the beginning of winter as we had 3 games cancelled because of snow. I can't hardly believe it. I'm not ready for snow again. I've loved summer here in Colorado! No snow! Maybe we'll have a mild winter this year. Of course, my first winter in CO was the worst in many, many years.

This year my baby...Ryan started soccer! I can't believe it. He's a little more athletically inclined then Ethan and so he was super ready to play soccer. He's been trying on his uniform for weeks. The big day finally arrived and he was ready. It was hilarious to watch a 3 year old play soccer. He spent most of the time chasing his shoelaces and chewing on the string to his shorts. If the coach gave him a chance to kick the ball then he stayed in there at least until the other kids took the ball away. He's playing with kids that are 4 going on 5 because I wanted him to play on the same team as his friend from church, Jackson. Jackson missed the first game but we're excited to have everyone next week.

Ethan is getting better and better every year. I count it as a good game when Ethan doesn't cry and he stays on the field the entire time the coach expects. :-) We discovered last year that Ethan has poor muscle endurance and so he gets tired much quicker then other kids his age. He was in physical therapy for almost a year but graduated. Now we just try and keep him active. Honestly, I think he'd be better suited behind a piano because he is very musically inclined. Or maybe a stand-up comic microphone. Hmmm.....

A GOOD Labor Day Weekend...

I must admit...Labor Day weekend is not my favorite weekend in the year. It's the end of summer and traditionally has been a "bad news" weekend. So I was happy to have my mom in town this year and to be able to have an enjoyable time.

We started the weekend by attending the Colorado Springs Hot Air Balloon Classic. They had 81 hotair balloons all take off at 6:30 in the morning. We dragged the kids out of bed because we knew they'd love it. And they did....except Ryan thought it was a little loud when we were right down in the middle of the balloons and spent most of the time with his ears covered. Ethan was his usually self when he's super excited about something...full of constant chatter. You can tell by the pictures that he couldn't even stop talking long enough to have his picture taken. He looking, pointing, talking, and getting his picture taken!

After the balloon festival we went to Ihop for breakfast. Ethan has been dying for smiley face pancakes for weeks!

Next, we took the boys camping! I haven't been camping in years. I've wanted to go but didn't want to take small children. I was excited when the boys started talking about wanting to go camping after setting up their Star Wars tent in the bedroom. I asked mom if she'd like to go camping with us. I definitely didn't want to be out camping alone with just the boys and I. Even having two women and no men attracted attention from fellow campers. :-) We had a camper on the right come over and let us know if we needed anything just to let him know and a camper on the left that came over and started our fire! I will admit that our fire was being stubborn and because of the weather not really starting well. He came over with newspaper and lighter fluid...I'll remember those next time. ;-)

We arrived at the campsite in the middle of a horrible rain storm. Fun. So we all sat in the van and played Uno for an hour. I was amazed at Ryan who is 3 years old! He played right along with us and for the most part understood the concept of the game. Finally the rain subsided and we pitched the tent. The boys were beside themselves with excitement. We got the tent pitched just in time for the storms to come again. The boys stayed in the tent and mom and I sat under the back door of the van. The wind started blowing pretty hard and the boys were screaming with joy. Ethan said "get down it's a tornado!". I took a picture just for the visual. Mom and I were laughing. I was secretly thinking it was time to go home. But the weather subsided and we had a wonderful rest of the night.

The best part about the storm was the rainbow! We actually had a double rainbow. I've never seen anything so beautiful. We were all pretty excited about the rainbow.

It was a great deal of fun to go camping but I was glad it was only one night. If I'm going to do any amount of camping I'm going to need a much more comfortable sleeping arrangement!

So that's the story of my GOOD Labor Day weekend! Hopefully, there will be a few more of these in the years to come. :-)

Kitchen Blog

I'm getting a new kitchen! Isn't that every girl's dream? I know I've been looking forward to it for about a year. We bought the house about a year ago. :-) Here are some fun before and middle pictures. We took out the wall seperating the dining room and kitchen and closed off the door into the kitchen from the front door. The end result is a nice big open space that will be super fun when it's finished. I'll post more pictures later!