Soccer, soccer, and gymnastics

Both Erik and Carson are playing soccer this fall.  This means we have had soccer 6 days a week since mid-August.  Thankfully all the practice fields have playgrounds so the siblings haven't gotten too bored.  Erik is playing on a travel soccer team.  It's been a big adjustment.  He was on U8 RecPlus last year.  He was one of the older kids on the team, but the United States changed the age brackets for soccer this fall.  So now he was bumped up to U10; and is one of the youngest on the team.  Moving from RecPlus to travel is an adjustment; being bumped from U8 to U10 is also an adjustment (he is now one of the youngest on the team).

I was quite nervous about having him on a travel team as I knew he'd be a bit of an underdog (he is for sure).  But, on the team there is a Darrin (Daron), Kevin, and Colin.  All three of my brothers are represented and they all have unusual names!  I find that quite amazing and felt like it was a sign he was on the right team.

It's been a tough season though.  They've lost every game and Erik is an underdog, as expected.  He's had a good attitude, seems to have fun, and has a nice coaching staff.  We are almost done with the fall season.  They will play together through June.  We'll see if they have more success in the spring?

He's been doing an agility/speed class on Mondays with 5 of his teammates from last year.  He loves this class!  It's nice to do something other than formal soccer training, for sure!

Carson is on U6 soccer. I love U6 soccer!  It so fun to watch them play 4v4.  The kids who understand the game look like superstars.  Since Carson has been watching soccer for as long he can remember, he has done very well.  Almost no pressure and high reward (easy scoring) - very fun.

Lainey has been doing gymnastics this fall.  She is superhero strong and can climb anything with ease and does lots and lots of unbroken pull-ups.  It's fun to watch!  She loves the bars more than any other skill and is quite good at them.

This winter I plan to transition the three of them to swimming - haven't decided if this will be lessons or on one of the local teams.  Lainey did a two week trial with the "best" local swim team. She made the team but hated the cold pool - so now I'm not sure where I should have them swim.

My van has hit 71k miles -it gets lots of miles each week.

Lots of Visitors

This fall we've be blessed to have many visitors.  We also took a quick trip to Philadelphia.

Our visitors started with my Mom.  She came in just at the right time because I ended up catching a stomach bug (from work colleagues).  I was able to lay in bed for 24 hours which allowed me to recover and kept the foursome safe from my germs.  Phew!

Two weeks later, Victor's brother Mike and his boys came for a weekend.  The live in Philadelphia.  His boys are 5 and almost 7.  So they fit in with my clan quite well.  It was so nice to see the cousins together - it had been too long.   It rained a lot of that weekend so soccer was rained out.  We did get outside and visited AnnMarie Gardens for their "cardboard festival."

The following weekend we drove to Philadelphia.  My mother-in-law met us there.  We were supposed to go to Diggerland, but once again it was raining.  Instead of a fun amusement park, we spent time at the Franklin Institute and the Please Touch museum.  We saw Mike and boys again - it's been at least 2 years since Sandy had all of her grandkids in the same room.

Sandy came to our house later the week- through the weekend.  She spent lots of time at soccer and took us out to dinner.  She went back to Phili for a few days, then joined us again for a few nights.  She watched all four kids for me while I was at work (they had a day off of school) and tried to teach them how to make her special chicken.

We have a couple weeks off and then my parents will be back out here! Ha!

Lainey at 7 (overdue!)

Sweet, sweet Lainey!

Lainey is such a dear girl.

She is truly a big blessing to me!

She is a wonderful helper, kind, self motivated, honest, and responsible.

I'm really so thankful for her.  She's grown and matured a lot this year.

She had a wonderful first grade teacher last year and really enjoys school.

She reads well and over the summer has discovered the joy of chapter books!

She loves babies as much as I do and will fight me to hold any baby 

we get a chance to spend time with! 

She has many baby dolls and really loves them.

I bought her a weighted, lifelike doll for her birthday (6 lbs).

She carries her everywhere.

She takes a baby doll to every soccer session she dragged to (there are MANY) 

and often brings her back carrier or a carseat for her dolls.

I love seeing her be a little girl.

She's such a sweet, mature helper but still a little girl.

I'm glad to see her sense of pretend mature and develop.

She started piano lessons this year and is a natural.

She LOVES piano and never once have I had to remind her to practice.

She hates playing soccer (ha!) and sticks to climate controlled, non-running sports.

She loves both swimming and gymnastics.

She participated on our local swim team this summer and does about 1 hour 

of gymnastics a week, most of the year.

She is 49.5 inches tall and 53 pounds

She is STRONG and muscular!

She loves watching my crossfit classes and has a huge 

desire to be as strong as possible.

I must say, I'm quite proud to have my dear daughter watching me 

lift weights and fight for a healthy body.

She is much stronger than I am and can whip out pull-ups and 

do a legless rope climb with very little effort. :)

Lainey is a true blessing to me!

I am very thankful for her and hope she always knows how deeply she is loved!