You know I love Soccer Saturdays and another season has come and gone. This year Matt played soccer through the Texans Academy and wow what a completely different experience. Marlie played again on the Fairy Ponies and had lots of fun with all her friends! Doug and I are always proud of these two tiny people who look adorable in their uniforms!
The Texans Academy is coached by soccer professionals, so Doug was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the show! There were about 40 kids in the Academy and Matt had several friends that participated. They broke the boys up into 4 teams and I was so proud that Matt made the highest level team. Now let me say, the boys on his team were really GOOD. And the competition was good too. Most of these kids play soccer year round so it was hard for Matt to keep up. But in typical Matt fashion he worked hard and hustled like crazy.
Matt didn't have any good friends on his team but had fun making new friends. His main coach, Coach Ossie was adorable (although I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate that description). He is an older British guy and Matt learned so much. He was always yelling but with his British accent it always sounded sweet. He was very positive and joked a lot with the boys. Doug and I really loved the whole experience and Matt had a blast! He got to play almost every position and scored several goals. Sometimes he'd miss the easy ones but made the tough ones from the outside. He played goalie once and DID NOT like it, so he may have to practice that a bit more next fall. Great job 335!!
Then there's Marlie's team...oh boy...the Fairy Ponies only won 1 game this season. Marlie started the season off great!!! She scored almost every game for the first 7 games and was the only one on her team that scored. Then her coach kept yelling her to stay in position and that was it. He pulled her out once because she went to the other side of the field and then after that her feet were firmly planted in the ground...not the best for soccer. I will say that the team was made up of all her neighborhood friends and she loved being with them.
Marlie you did great this year. I'm always amazed at how fast your run. The picture below reminds me of how you like to out run the other team!!
I'm sad that this might possibly be our last year of soccer. We will see. Marlie loves dancing and it seems to be taking up more time every year.
A few weekends ago we were honored to participate in the Walk by Faith. All proceeds from this event go to the Addi Faith Foundation that funds childhood cancer research and also provides financial assistance to families who are caring for a child with cancer.
The two largest teams at this event were Team Teague and L3 and we proudly wore our shirts for both of these teams. Doug and Matt were on Team Teague. Teague is Matt's friend that he met through baseball who recently had a brain tumor. Praise God they were able to remove the tumor and after proton radiation his scans look good!! It meant a lot to participate in the walk with Teague and his family and the rest of the Hooks baseball team!
Marlie and I walked for the L3 team, Live. Love. Landon. Landon Ahrendt fought a tough battle with rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a rare soft tissue cancer. He went to heaven in May of this year and the L3 Foundation has been going strong to continue to help others kids fighting cancer. What I love about this Foundation is that it's run by kids, Landon's friends and family. Landon's older sister Teagan dances at Marlie's dance studio. Marlie fell in love with Teagan a couple of years ago when she was helping in one of her summer classes. We are so blessed to know Teagan who is amazingly beautiful inside and out. And you should see this girl dance!! We were honored to be walking for Landon and his family!
The kids decided they wanted to enter the 1K kid's run and Matt as you might expect was super excited. He made sure he was at the front of the starting line and was ready to race. He went out in a definite sprint, not realizing that a 1K wasn't really a full out sprint race. He got tired at the end and slowed down to give high five's to his teammates along the way, but still came in 3rd for the boys and 3rd overall!
After Matt crossed the finish line I turned my focus back down the track and guess who was leading the pack? Marlie!!! She finished really strong, with great running form and I was SO proud of her. She said she saw a shadow behind her at the end and kicked it into gear. She placed 2nd for the girls and maybe 5th or 6th overall. Please excuse the proud Mom comments in this video!
The kids were really excited about placing and they were happy to represent Teague and Landon!
After the 1K race we all participated in the 5K. Of course Doug and I walked and Marlie had fun walking with Skylar.
But the boys wanted to run and so some of the Dads decided to run with them to make sure they were ok. I think most of the boys petered out along the way but Matt didn't stop. Coach Raymond, Jayden's Dad said he tried to keep up with Matt as best he could but he lost him when Matt decided to sprint coming down the home stretch. Matt finished the 5K in about 30 minutes and I wish I would have seen him cross the finish line. He was extremely proud of finishing it with a good time. Matt is in the running club at school and was the 2nd kid in the entire school to reach the 26 mile mark.
Maybe both my kids will take after their Daddy and be runners after all. Matt with his intense desire to finish and Marlie with her amazing running form! It sure doesn't come from Momma!!
Halloween in our neighborhood never disappoints. Matt asked how many more years he could trick-or-treat and I told him as many as he wants as long as he had a good costume!!
Matt wanted to be something scary so he was beyond excited when he found a zombie football player costume!! I wasn't sure about the scary thing but he had so much fun with it that in the end I liked it too.
We tried so hard to convince Marlie to be the zombie cheerleader but she said it was too scary. She wasn't really too excited about anything. We looked online, we went to the store and she finally found this "lovely leopard" costume. When she put it on her eyes lit up and she was ready to go!!
Even though this was the first year of not matching I thought they were both really cute!
We party hopped a bit this year. First we headed to the Triche's to catch up with them. I always love to see the costumes the girls pick out. They were all so cute! The boys were too busy playing football that I couldn't convince them to stop for a picture.
Then we headed to the Patton's house. It was super cute...their grandparents sort of disappeared and then we heard a knock on the front door. They had snuck out and dressed up as sock monkeys! The girls thought it was hilarious!
After dinner, more football and cupcake decorating, we headed out! It was pretty much impossible to corral all the kids for a picture but we got a fairly good one...and with the sock monkeys too!
After years of trying I finally convinced zombie football player and Jeter (aka Caden Wellmann) that if they took their time, the fun would last longer. These two and Marlie and Avery strolled from house to house so it was much easier for the adults to keep up!
Marlie was so excited to see Ashdin along the way. We're so glad they are truly IN our neighborhood now!
Nene was our official candy hander outer until the kids came home...then they took over! They love handing out candy!
Overall it was a great night with friends and we just love seeing the kids all dressed up. Can't wait to do it again next year!!
I just love the fall season...soccer Saturdays, pumpkin patches, fall festivals and pumpkin carving...plus weather that is so beautiful that we can be outside without melting!
While Doug and I were in DC for a work event, Nene took the kids to the pumpkin patch. As always they loved it and managed to find a few odd pieces to bring home!
We had lots of fun carving pumpkins too. They loved pulling the guts out of the pumpkin although Marlie kept complaining about the smell!!
We tried harder patterns this year. Mom & Dad had to help some but the kids did a lot of it on their own. It will be fun to keep this tradition up and see if we can do better each year! I'm not sure...it looks like Matt is pumpkin stabbing, not pumpkin carving!!!
Both pumpkins turned out really cute and the kids were very excited!! Marlie hasn't wanted anything to do with anything scary this Halloween but wanted to take a scary picture with her cute pumpkin???
Matt has been all about "scary" this Halloween. So he and Dad went to the store and bought a giant Grim Reaper blowup for the yard. The boys put it up and Matt had Marlie close her eyes and he walked her right in front of it. It was so cute watching it all take place. Marlie screamed when she opened her eyes and then they had fun taking silly pictures in front of it! These moments are what I live for!!
And so many wonderful Moms from our school put on the best school County Fair ever!!! We only had about an hour or so before soccer Saturday started but we managed to take some pics with a few special people...Mrs. Gommels our favorite 2nd grade teacher...
and Coach A...our PE Coach, but more so an amazing role model for the kids here at Fall Creek Elementary.
The kids got to climb the rock wall and do flips on this cool bouncy thing. I wanted to try it but 1)thought it would be weird to be the only adult trying it and 2) I'm sure I would have hurt something.
I hope everyone is having a great fall and enjoying the season with their families!
