Working in the yard with Daddy.

Ryan redefined helping daddy work in the yard.

Cassidy was just standing at the window yelling for him so he opted for this solution. She really enjoyed it. She was outside with him for about 45 minutes and not once cried. Ryan said she just jabbered as she rode along.

Game On!

We started Lacey and Aidan in soccer for the first time this year. They are on the same team. They have had 2 practices and 1 game. At the first practice during one of the water breaks, Aidan asked me how much longer of practice. I asked if he was tired and ready to go and he said, "No, I love this!" I could tell he was in heaven. He talks about soccer constantly. He aggressively goes after the ball and is so engaged. Lacey on the other hand runs after it some and then dilly dallies around some. She likes that she is playing though and that she is involved in something. She also like her pink shoes.

At practice the coach walked the kids in a row around the lines of the field to talk about each part of the field and what happened there. As they walked around each section, they pretended to be different animals or people. The first was soldiers, and then monkeys then tigers. When asked for another suggestion, Lacey said, "Let's be stars". I thought the coach would ask for another suggestion but no they walked around saying I'm a star, I'm a star, leaping and making jumping jack motions. I was laughing so hard because that is SO Lacey to suggest being STARS! She has a good coach to accommodate her free spirited mind.

The game was fun to watch. Both did great! They also both had the chance to be goalie. I don't know if this is the beginning of a long road of soccer games but we are sure enjoying the beginning.

Camping Party

As you have seen on previous posts we tend to do something fun Friday nights. Be it a movie and popcorn, a trip to McDonalds, or just making forts. Well, we have upgraded our fort to a real okay, semi real tent. It was $10 at IKEA and would save me the headache of creating a fort all the time. I love it. Well, the kids wanted to sleep in the tent. So I upped the annie and said, "Let's have a camping party." I suggested smores and a campfire. The kids took it from there. They wanted to cut out grass, trees, bushes, the moon, and stars. I told them that I could dress up in dad's fuzzy jacket and pretend I was a bear. I got shut down on that one.

We were all really excited for Friday night. Lacey and I did our shopping that day and were so excited when we found glow in the dark stars to put on our ceiling. I was about to cut out stars and paint them with glow in the dark paint but this was even better. Once Aidan got home from school the cutting and gluing and taping began. They loved it. Then we set up the tent and decorated. Cassidy got into most of it but we did what we could. We had a blast. I especially loved how our campfire turned out.

The smores were good as always and we loved the stars glowing in the dark. It kind of made me home sick. Some of you may not know, but in the room I had for most of my time growing up had a sky blue ceiling with white clouds painted on it and also glow in the dark stars. So during the day it looked like the sky and during the night it looked like the night sky with all the stars and even a big E.T. moon that glowed in the dark. My mom spent hours putting the stars in constellations on the ceiling initially for when my older sister was living in the room. I loved falling asleep to what seemed like the real sky. It was magical. They still glow to this day. So I did my small rendition of some constellations and put each kids initials in "our sky".

The best part of our camping party............I still got to sleep in my own bed. My kind of camping!

The Office

While we were in Seattle the kids were introduced to the workings of an office. Ryan's mom was in the middle of tax season and has several employees working for her in her home office. The kids, especially Lacey, fell in love with office work. I don't think I saw Lacey from 9 to 5 because she was working with the girls. She used post it notes, worked on the computer, carried around a pen and notebook and even made a name tag for her desk. I was shocked how much she loved being in the office. I really hope she wasn't much of a burden to them. As the days went on my kids started wearing a pen clipped on their shirts just like Grandpa Arden did.