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*)

Becoming a Sports Family

We have dabbled in sports off and on since Matt was in kindergarten soccer (aka butterfly watching) but this year we dove in head first.  And I'm so glad we did!  While our schedule is crazier, it's been fun to watch the children interact with new friends while learning something new.  And it takes care of physical education.

Matt enjoyed archery in March and April.  I was really impressed with the instructor and the class itself.  Matt excelled in the program and is looking forward to taking more classes in January.

Ben and Anna enjoyed playing spring soccer.  Ben played one year in kindergarten, but didn't really "get" it.  He tried again this spring and loves it.  He'll be playing in a more advanced league this fall.  Miss Anna proved to be quite the little soccer pro and may have found her sport.  And she looks rather adorable in her pink and red soccer gear :)

Ben and Anna also played baseball this summer.  Originally, Ben was supposed to be in a tball league, but it was cancelled due to a lack of players.  He played pee wee ball instead and he's is quite the natural!  We're already looking forward to next summer when he moves up to the minor league.  Anna took a baseball class called Little Sluggers (she's in the middle of the group pictured above--the one with pigtail braids).  It took her a bit longer to grasp the sport, but by the end she had the mechanics figured out.  She will be playing tball next summer.

Poor Matt--he has spent a good part of the summer at ball diamonds and soccer fields, but he always manages to find someone to play with or something to do.  Or bugs me to play Angry Birds :)  Next summer he will be taking a tennis class.  We missed the sign up for this year's class by a week.

And while we enjoy watching the kids in sports, we're looking forward to mid-October when we can take a 2 1/2 month break before archery starts!

March Birthday Celebrations

We celebrated two birthdays this month and decided to keep it low key.  We're not really party animals around here anyway :)  Ben celebrated his 8th birthday by playing with a bunch of Legos, going out to eat at Perkins, eating brownies, and having a movie night.  We had planned a trip to Illinois, but the winter-that-will-not-end put a stop to it.

Anna's sixth birthday was yesterday and she is rolling in the dolls!  Her favorite movie is Frozen, especially since the princess is Anna, and she received several different types of dolls throughout the day.  We took her to the Disney store (where she bought more dolls) and then to Red Robin, where the wait staff bought her.....another doll!  We couldn't believe their generosity!  She enjoyed the yummy cake pictured above for a treat and we watched Frozen in the evening.  She was happily surrounded by all of her dolly friends, new and old.  And today she's very tired :)

The Trip to Legoland

*Note--I haven't been updating much at all for various health-related reasons, but I plan to do more updates this year*

A few weeks ago, Legoland Discovery Center in Schamburg had a give-away on their Facebook page.  Four free tickets if you merely commented on what you planned to do with Legos over Christmas break.  I never enter their drawings, but decided on a whim to enter.  Lo and behold, they decided to give four free tickets to EVERYONE who entered!!  Since Rob had a long break from work, we opted to go asap.

I did a whole lot of planning for this trip:  maps to each location, plans for a mall visit so Anna could see the Disney store, reservations at PF Changs (gluten-free friendly restaurant), etc, etc.  The kids had Christmas money to spend as well.  Most of my planning went well.  I also asked for some advice from a friend who had been there in the past year.  We were set!

We took off after breakfast on Monday morning following our Google Maps directions, which had never failed me yet.  We had two minor problems with the directions, as they missed putting two turns on it.  Thankfully we have brains and knew to continue following the same highways but it was irritating not to be warned that turns were coming.  We opted for the "Bob's Road" route (see the movie Twister for the reference) so we could avoid tolls, hence our lengthy and confusing directions.  We made it in good time and found Woodfield Mall.

Anna was so cute when we entered the Disney Store!  She bounced all over the place and found all of her favorite princesses.  It was very difficult for her to narrow down the list, but she settled on two princes, Kristoff from the Frozen movie, and a drinking cup with straw.  She has almost all of the princesses and they needed princes!!

Rob took the boys down to the Lego store.  We had been told that Legoland's store wasn't as well-stocked at the mall store and Matt had a particular set he wanted.  The boys (all three of them) had fun selecting various Lego items and it was so cute to watch them walk out, each holding a Lego bag.

We got to PF Changs right at our reservation time and the kids loved the food!  Their children's plates are only $3 and there was plenty for our big eaters.  Rob and I enjoyed our food as well.

And then we had to find Legoland.  It's right across the street from the mall, yet somehow Google Maps managed to get us lost.  And I don't handle getting lost very well!!  We finally found it after turning around three times and my three darlings got very quiet in the back:  all three of them praying we'd find Legoland and that Mommy would calm down.   Aren't they awesome??

Rob dropped us off at the door so we wouldn't have a long, cold walk w/o coats.  Good thing we ditched them in the van b/c it was PACKED and HOT inside!!  There were two lengthy lines and the nice people in front of us informed us which was which.  Because I had purchased one advance ticket and had four free ones waiting, we got to enter earlier than the poor people in the walk-up line that wasn't moving at all.  Legoland was at capacity so those people had to wait until others left.  It's $5 cheaper to order your tickets ahead of time--so glad I planned ahead!! 

The first three rooms were models of the city of Chicago, jungle animals, and Star Wars.  The city was pretty cool and some parts of it were moving.  The jungle animals were equally as nifty, our faves being the baby tigers.  The Star Wars models weren't as impressive to our family, as we're not huge Star Wars fans, but we did like the stands at the pod race.  They were filled with more mini figures than we've ever seen in one location!

We rode a rather (boring to adults) ride and shot rocks out of bad guys hands with lasers.  I told Rob afterwards, "Wow!  That was about as exciting at the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland!" which he knew instantly meant "I was bored to tears!"  But the boys loved it and that's all that matters, right?  Upstairs we found a 4-D movie (tons of fun), a little "tour" of how Legos are actually made (fun and informative), and then the nutsiest room in the whole place.  There was a large play area, multiple building areas, and another ride.  All of them filled with children!  ACK!  Our kids played in the playground for a bit then got on the ride.  By this point we had been there for 2 1/2 hours and had seen/done nearly everything.  The kids were happy to troop back downstairs for a visit to the Lego store.

I'm glad we took the advice of others and did not depend on the Lego store for what Matt wanted.  They did have some older sets which led us to believe it's more like an outlet-style store.  The kids all found things they wanted (as did I) and we headed out the door and across the lane to Jamba Juice for a treat.  After that it was back home following the wretched Google map directions which were missing three turns this time.  Somehow we missed one highway in Wisconsin and ended up in Fort Atkinson instead of Watertown, but as I know how to navigate from Fort to home it was no problem.  The kids actually felt relived b/c they KNEW Mom could now get them home!!

We had a great time overall and I'm so glad four of our tickets were free.  Rob and I agreed it was not worth the $15 admission price per person for what they offer.  The kids, on the other hand, said it was worth every penny!  Go figure :)