Soccer Mom!

Ben and Anna are playing soccer again this fall and the schedule isn't quite as nice as the spring season.  Both have games on Saturday mornings, but Anna plays at 9am and Ben plays at 11am.  That means we have an hour to kill between games, but only really a 1/2 hour because Ben has to meet his team at 10:30.  Sitting around and chatting as a family isn't so bad.

But then there is practice. 

On Wednesdays, Ben has practice from 4:30-5:30.  I drop him off, then go home to feed Matt, Anna, and myself and get them ready, Matt for church and Anna for her practice.  The daughter has to pack a bag with her church stuff inside.  We take dinner to Ben at 5:30 and he eats while we wait for Anna's coach to arrive.  She has practice from 6pm-7pm.  Once Coach Scott shows up, I take Ben home for a shower and he changes for church.  I take the boys and our neighbors and drop them off at church, then turn around to pick up Anna from practice.  She changes in the back of the van (because she thinks the bathroom is too nasty) and we get to church about ten minutes late.  Since her group is in gametime first, she's not really missing anything and she doesn't play anyway.  An hour of soccer practice is enough for her!

We have three weeks left of the soccer season and this mama will be happy to hang up the cleats!

Matt Turns Ten!

I'm a little late in getting this post written, but better late than never, right?  Matt turned ten this summer and we celebrated in ten-year-old style.  I was gone at a convention over his actual birthday, so I told him he could turn ten a week early, not just celebrate early.  He was pretty excited about that because he has a friend with the same birthday so he could rub it in a little about being older. 

We took Matt to the Lego store where he bought a couple of Lego movie sets with all of his money.  Yup, he's at the age now where he just wants money.  Makes gift-giving a whole lot easier!

We wandered over to the Build a Bear factory just to check it out and he decided with the rest of his money that he would make a Super Puppy. 

If you can't have a real dog, make one!  We always let the birthday child pick a place to eat out and he chose P.F. Chang's.  They have a great gluten free menu and Matt loves fried rice.  We actually fed the entire family there for only $20!  I'm sure that will never happen again.

Afterwards we went home so he could spend the rest of his day building his Lego sets.  We also had a yummy dessert of chocolate cake with cool whip topping.

Matt is such a fun guy to have around.  I'm so glad we didn't sell him when he was an over-active toddler!

(That's a joke, folks.  I would never sell my kids.  *wink*)