Soccer, Minnesota and HOMEWORK

The boys ended their soccer season a week and a half ago, and it was a great season - only 2 losses. They had fantastic coaches - really professional, invested guys - who we've had for 4 seasons and we are really going to miss. In the spring the boys need to either "move up" in soccer or drop that sport. Time will tell . . .

They had an end-of-the-season pizza party in which the coaches awarded trophies and gave a nice little talk about each of the boys. It was a proud moment for Mark and I. The head coach couldn't say enough about Noah and Jack - I wish we would have taped it. He said Noah was the best listener, most obedient, soft-hearted guy on the team and that every other kid could take a lesson from his behavior. :) And he said Jack was by far the most determined. Big shocker. He said Jack was "never say die," never, ever gave up and didn't EVER want to quit playing. Yep, that's my babies!
This is Jack, winding up to kick the ball (or do you only wind up to throw?? whatever.)

And Noah

A week ago, we headed to Minnesota to spend some time with Mark's family, since the kids had a long holiday weekend. It was good to get AWAY from our crazy routine. We mainly relaxed, the kids jumped on the trampoline, and of course . . . . some cards were played.

One day we made a quick trip into Minneapolis to Dave and Buster's (think Chuck E. Cheese on steroids with gourmet, grown-up food). Spent 3.5 hours there stuffing our faces and playing all manner of games. Totally fun.

Three generations playing skee-ball. Doesn't get any better than that.

Anyway. Flag football finished today - the boys ended the season with a great win. We are now sport-free. I may or may not be totally over the moon about that. (I'm not mean - it just helps with the schedule).

Somewhat.

What does NOT help our schedule is 3rd grade homework. Oh my word. I distinctly remember a bunch of us girls asking our 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Darnell, if she wouldn't PLEASE give us some homework (we were unenlightened at the time and really thought homework was a sign of being grown-up and cool. Oh the innocence of childhood). Anyway, she assured us we would NOT be recieving any homework until 6th grade.

Well.

Times have changed.

Both the kids came home with HOURS of homework this weekend. Over the WEEKEND. Is nothing sacred anymore?!? It's unreal. I'm just trusting all of this homework at the age of 9 will result in two Rhodes Scholarships.

In other sporting news, it's a rough time to be a Vikings fan. Although today they got a little pick-me-up with a win over the Cowboys.

As for me. . . . . I'm drowning in the book of Isaiah. DROWNING. But there are certainly worse places to be. :)

Fall in Full Swing

Sometimes I stop and think about how FAR away summer seems now and it makes me sad. It was only a month and a half ago that we were basking in sunny poolside days at Hart Ranch and yet it seems like FOREVER ago. Our crazy routine kicks in and I can hardly remember what it was like to have days filled with nothingness. I subsequently have reached the conclusion I'm probably never going to figure out the elusive concept of BALANCE. :) But yet I'm so thankful I have two crazy kids to chase around and the most amazing husband on earth to support. So, insane schedule or not, I truly have a life filled with blessings from God and wouldn't trade it for anything . . .

Noah started out the school year with a major project on a state of his choice - he picked Alaska. Both mom and dad helped him out and he was pleased with the results (and got an A!!):And his mid-term report showed straight A's. I'm a proud mama.

Jack's doing great in his new school, but he has no time for it. Even while he's there. I had a chat with his teacher this week about how he's always in such a hurry to finish his work, his writing is nearly illegible. He maintains he is NOT going to have homework so he IS going to FINISH his work in school, no matter how it looks when he's done. :) We're now working on this.

After a really bad experience with a trial run at full-contact football, Jack and Noah are back in the NFL Flag Football league run by the local college. Lucky for them, I have a friend who works at the college, and happened to put together the teams, and also happened to know they are huge Viking fans, so she made sure their team was the Vikings. Needless to say, they were HAPPY. Jack has somehow manipulated the coach into letting him play quarterback 90% of the time.

Here's the cute thing. Noah is the one who can catch nearly all his passes. You can tell they practice together. ALOT.

Love love love this picture of Noah (below). That's my baby, scoring a touchdown!!!!

Here's Jack, seconds before scoring. Reminiscent of his track pictures - the feet hardly ever touch the ground.

Running through the parent tunnel at the end of the game - celebrating a hard-fought FIRST victory. :)

And we are really on top of things this year - we already went pumpkin shopping. Sadly we didn't have ANY pumpkins last year because we'd just got Murphy and I was a little preoccupied with all things puppy. So we decided to make up for it this year and get first pick at a cute nursery in Spearfish.

The boys take their pumpkin-picking very seriously.

Thankfully, Grandpa and Grandma were on hand to assist with the evaluations. And had more patience than mom and dad. But that's what grandparents are for, right?

We ended up taking home 8. Who's going to carve all those??

I love fall. :)