Catching Up

These days it is hard to get a picture of Andrew without him playing in a sport.  One weekend, we actually hung out together more than usual to work on a project for school.  Anyway, Phil and I have noticed how much taller Andrew is getting.  He use to be about a head shorter than Olivia.  Well, Olivia is a little taller than me but I wanted to see how close he is to me with my height.  Olivia took the picture and as you can tell, he is catching up with me. 

Social Studies project

Happy Halloween

Grandma Ann came up over the weekend and brought the kids a goodie bag FULL of Halloween treat for the kids.

Clare wanted to be a pirate this year for Halloween.  Of course I had a pirate costume for her to wear when she was younger but never wore it.  So we bought a new one.  Since I had a mini-pirate costume at hand, I thought Ruth could use it.  Ruth could have been a princess with all of her dress-up clothes and she is a girly girl.  BUT she quickly agreed to be the same as her sister. 

Clare's friend went Trick-or-Treating with us.

Football Isn't Over Yet

Just when the fall sports started to wind down, we received news that Andrew was 1 of 26 boys selected to play on the Johnston Youth Tournament Team.  This is a first for the organization.  This past week Andrew had 4 days of practice for their first tournament in Ankeny.  The first game against Ankeny went well but it was a struggle to move the ball.  Andrew scored a touchdown on a field kick return, running about 50 yards in the play.  The final score was 20-6... Dragons win!!!

Then today, the Dragons played the Lincoln Rails.  Another tough opponent but was able to pull off another win.  Final score 17-6. 

The next tournament will be this coming weekend.

Andrew position is running back.

#12 is Andrew

Came in first place out of 4 teams.

Proud for how his team played in the games this weekend.

Color Run

On Sat. I participated in the Color Run downtown Des Moines.  I was inspired by my good friend Amber when she did this event in Kansas City this past summer.  I found out it was coming to DM in the fall and thought it would be a ton of fun.  And it was a BLAST, despite the 40 degree temps.  It was chilly walking up to the start and then again walking back to our car.  Otherwise, I didn't notice the coldness.  Maybe waiting with the other 27, 000 people and the excitement kept me warm. 

Here we are before, all clean and lots of white.

Heading downtown

Ready to start the FUN!!!

The finish line and splatted with LOTS of color.

After shot

My sister-in-law and I

Date Night

Where Have I Been?

I noticed it has been over a month since I have been able to upload pictures or even blog.  I've been in school for 5 weeks now but with lesson plans to write, implementing a new math program, responding to emails for school, organizing my running club, doing all the daily things here in the house, plus taking the kids to their weekly activities and also going to their games, there has been NO time to blog.  When will life slow down????  The weeks are going by in a blink.

Here is a recap of what the kids are doing in the evenings.

Olivia plays on the 8th grade volleyball team.  This week she had 3 nights with games and practices on nights w/o games.  Olivia is also taking two dance classes.  Tues. night I went to her game and then went straight to dance.  We didn't get home til 8:30pm. 

 Clare has been playing fall softball for the 8U Johnston Jaguars.  Two nights a week practicing and then the games are on the weekend.  Only a couple of weeks left til next spring when it starts up again.  Clare is also in gymnastics one night a week.  

Andrew is playing football.  He has practice two nights a week and games are on Sun.  He plays several positions but often the quarterback.

Andrew tossing the ball to a teammate.

And as for Ruth....she goes to most of her siblings events.  I don't have pictures of her there but luckily she entertains herself easily and does well at the games. 

Clare's 8th Birthday

 Clare's birthday is today.  We celebrated it with family on Sat. with a BBQ.  She wanted a softball themed birthday but there was nothing out there softball related.  I did make a banner with softball scrapbook paper but didn't take a photo of it.  Clare had a great day celebrating with her family.