I'm a soccer mom

We just completed our first week of soccer. I knew Scott and Avery would love it, but I am surprised to report that I had tons of fun at soccer as well! Avery is on a team with several of her friends, which is a lot of fun.

And she was actually pretty good!

Donovan had more fun making a bazooka out of this giant stick than actually watching any soccer.

Avery gets busy

After a relatively quiet first week of school, things really sped up the second week. It finally hit me that my life has changed forever. I have a school aged child now, with homework, sports and activities to boot. I may as well just put on a chauffeur hat right now.

Last week, Avery started dance class. This girl loves music and dancing. Her life is practically a musical. She makes up songs all day long and is constantly in movement. She is taking tap and ballet again this year. Tell me this isn't the cutest ballerina you have ever seen:

She also started her first year of soccer on Saturday. I don't know who is more excited about this, Avery or Scott. Saturday was a little training camp/scrimage and she had a ball. Several of the kids in our ward will be on our team, so I think it'll be a fun year!
Avery and Adrienne scrimaged on the yellow team:

Soccer is great!

Mmmmmm..... hot dogs after soccer, does life get any better?

Little brothers Coooper and Donovan. Cooper is on the 3 year old team and Donovan is a spectator. I think they both wish it was the other way around.

Avery came home from school one day last week and had a Weekly Reader. I have such fond memories of reading my own Weekly Reader in elementary school. Although I use the phrase "my own" fairly loosely, since I went to elementary school in Utah and had to share my Weekly Reader with 3 or 4 of my classmates. If I remember right, we took turns reading it, and also took turns with who got to end up taking it home after we were done with it.

Donovan goes to school

We decided to enroll Donovan in preschool for 1 day a week this year. I was worried about him being bored and lonely while Avery was away every day, but also nervous that he would hate it. He isn't a kid that's super excited about trying new things, and since his preschool is where Avery goes to kindergarten, we thought he may have an easier transition while she's at the school as well. We've been talking it up all summer long, hoping to make him excited for it. He has been mostly excited to use his lunchbox and backpack, but also loves talking about Miss "Joowee" (Julie) even before he met her. He did great on his first day. He woke up excited, talking all about school and his backpack. Avery starts kindergarten a half hour before he starts preschool, so we had to wait around for his class to begin. The whole time he was begging to go to "Dono school." When the time came, we took him to his class. The minute we stepped into his classroom, he got quiet and clung to our legs. He didn't cry, but wouldn't let Scott or me get more than a foot away from him. Finally, it was time to leave, and he still hadn't warmed up. I kneeled down beside him and told him that we were going to go, but we would pick him up soon. He let go of me and said goodbye - not a single tear or wail! I was so proud of him! When we picked him up that afternoon, he was super chatty, telling us all about his day, playing on the playground and saying that he really liked it. Hopefully this week will be as successful.

Showing off his backpack before school starts:

Playing with the play-doh before class started:

After school, with Avery:

And with best buddy Cooper. They are not in the same class, but got to play with each other at recess:

Baby Lilly comes to town!

Last week, my sister Merrilee visited with her two month old daughter, Lilly. My kids were in heaven with "Baby Willie" being here. About a hundred times a day, Donovan would demand to "hold it," which was fine until he started requesting to "hold it myself! Go way, mommy!" He didn't want help.


Avery liked holding her too, but wasn't so demanding about it.


We had a great visit with Mimi and Lilly, and her husband Matt joined us on Thursday.

"Kindergarten Baby, Born in the Gravy"

(The Lyman kids will get it)

So Avery is officially a kindergartener. The night before kindergarten, Scott gave her and Donovan lovely Father's blessings. I have fond memories of getting my back to school blessing as a kid from my own dad. My mom sent them each a new stuffed animal, a penguin for Avery and a lamb for Donovan, because those are their class mascots.

In the morning, Avery woke up to her alarm clock. I think she was almost as excited to get up with an alarm as she was to start kindergarten. She kept saying "I have never woken up with an alarm before!" She slept well the night before. I never seemed to be able to fall asleep the night before the first day of school as a child.

Avery is totally obsessed with HSM (High School Musical for those without school aged children) so she dressed head to toe in HSM attire. I would have been a little embarrassed for her if she didn't look so darn cute.

Obligatory front door photo-op:

Back pack (high school musical, of course)

Taking this shot on the stairs made me a little sad. Each year, we have lined her up on the stairs with her best friends. The first year, there were 4 of them:

Last year, there were two, and this year, she sat alone:

She has other friends in her class, though. These are the other two girls in her class (yes, there are only 3), Pia and Angelina:

We were the first ones there (yes, I know how surprised you all must be!). Avery was so excited to get into her class. The teachers let the kids check out the room for a few minutes before the parents left, so of course I took as many pictures as possible.

Welcome to kindergarten:

In her class:

The science corner:

This is my favorite part of the classroom!

She posed with Ms. Evans:

and Ms. Swahn:

And then we left. No tears from any of us!

Labor Day Fun

We started off our Labor Day festivities with a bang. Our friends, Trish and Ryan, who are really into this cool thrift store, Unique Thrift, informed us over the weekend that the store was having a 50% off sale on Labor Day, and even better, they were selling a practically new double jogging stroller that would also be half off. The only problem? It's in Maryland, so we got up bright and early and headed to Unique Thrift. Trish had warned me that it would be crazy busy. After all, who doesn't love half off of used stuff that is nearly free anyway? So I was expecting to have to elbow my way through the crowds a bit. I wasn't, however, prepared for what I saw. We pulled into the parking lot just as the store opened. Or, should I say, we pulled UP TO the parking lot just as the store opened. Although the lot was huge, there were easily twice as many vehicles in the lot as there were parking spaces. I immediately started to panic, thinking that we drove all the way into Maryland and the stroller would be gone. So I jumped out of the car in the road, and ran into the store. It was a madhouse. Luckily, Trish had told me exactly where to go, so I made a beeline for the stroller and it was still there. The next hurdle was trying to pull it out of there. Anyone who has ever pushed a double stroller knows that it is not a narrow thing to wheel around, and when you put 47 people per 5 square foot area, it becomes nearly impossible. I eventually made it out, but I don't know if I'll do any thrift store shopping in the near future. But Avery and Donovan love their sweet, sweet ride:

We spent the rest of the day in Old Town Alexandria. We had lunch at Cosi and walked around for a bit, just taking in the sites. We walked through the grounds of Christ Church, a beautiful church that George Washington and Robert E Lee attended when they were alive. It's a beautiful landmark.

We finished off our day with a trip to the Old Town Pool. Today was the last day it was open, and we will definitely miss swimming this winter.

As we were leaving, the ice cream truck was passing by, so we decided to let the kids get an ice cream. I have never let my kids get ice cream from the ice cream man before, does that make me a neglectful parent? I have great memories of the ice cream man myself and letting them order from the truck and eat their Sponge Bob popsicles was really fun. Maybe I'll do this more often.

Uh, maybe not.

We had to strip his sticky self down to his swim diaper. Although with this awesome physique, maybe we should let him wear this out more often!