What Sunday Looks Like in Our Family

Every Sunday we have two footballs games. Mark spends four hours coaching.  I am becoming a pro at setting up the tent (for Maggie to hide under the rain...it is a Sportsbrella) and the chairs. I call my BOB jogging stroller my sherpa. I may still bring the Bob when I am there to cheer on Maggie. This week was a test of fanhood with it raining horribly. Thankfully the kids had fun. Frances even had her friend from school come and cheer for her....well she the little girl hid in the tent with her brother and her mom and I cheered. Such is the life with sporty spice kids....

Little Timbers Fan Club

The kids are part of the Little Timbers Fan Club. They have an annual event where the kids get to play on the field and meet the players. Unfortunately Henry had a soccer game right during the event, so Frances and I got to go alone. She had so much fun - my little Timber believer! 

Annual Swift Night

We made our annual trek to see the Swifts with Brookie and Oscar and Lesley and Olivia and Mason. Oscar made up this fun game of running off...and then Maggie and Frances would go and get him. It was kind of funny how funny they thought it was. Totally missed getting pictures of the birds....oh well....

Anne & Amie Vineyard

After a busy day of kid stuff, Mark and I had a glorious date night at winery in the Willamette Valley. It was the winemaker's dinner and they had one of our favorite chefs out there --Cathy Whims. The food was AMAZING and the view from up there is incredible. 

Let the Fall Games Begin!!!

With two sporty spice kids, are Fall weekends are now sports weekends. Thankfully, Mark and I actually really like sports and most of the games are at schools with parks for Maggie. I know I am singing praises now.... pre-rain....and pre-it lasting for two months, but I may as well look at the bright side.

On Friday nights we have kinder soccer and I get to be coach. We have 12 girls....and just me....so I had to enlist reinforcements.......Henry and another 3rd grader who has a sister on the team. It was actually really really fun. They are very sweet girls and Frances has already made some good friends. The only slight disaster was an attempt at a scrimmage....epic fail....in a funny way.

On Friday night the 1st grade coach called and asked if Frances would play on their team. Given it was during Henry's game, we agreed. So, am game for Henry, pm game for Frances. She had a ton of fun.....and scored a ton of goals....the girl is an animal. Today she has football....yes, regular flag football....she is the only girl......and Henry has football too. 

So - if you are looking for us in the next month, look on a field or our mini-van :)

I heart these soccer cuties

No words needed. So cute.

Big Milestone for Frances!

Frances hit a big milestone today and is officially a kindergarten student. As my poor friend and family know, we heavily debated whether to keep Frances at Opal one more year or have her start at Henry's school. We finally decided to "jump in" to the public school experience and are thankful that she got the same teacher that Henry had for kindergarten. When Henry was in her class I volunteered a lot with Frances in tow, and so thankfully she already knows the classroom and has declared she "loves Mrs Ford". Her first day went off in Frances style -- with energy and excitement and kindness. She reached out and made friends and offered to help other students within the first ten minutes. I am so proud of my little nugget and simply adore that little five year old heart. Probably her FAVORITE part of the day was riding the bus home with Henry. IT was pretty awesome to see them step off the bus together. On the walk home, Henry whispered all the "news" he got from Frances on the bus. Pretty funny.

Within a Week, It is Clear that Summer is Over.................

This was our write up of our fun summer events....

And this is our write up of the first full week of school.

Let the games begin!

3rd Grader!

I seriously can't believe it, but Henry is a 3rd Grader. WHAT???????? This year when he thinks about what he wants to be, it is a professional soccer player. (Sticking with sports, last year it was a football player). He is very excited because his best friend in his class. He came home the first day and said "Yup Mom, this is going to be a really good year". 

Labor Day

My parents made it back in time to go to their club for Labor Day. Amazingly we have not been to their club this summer, which is slightly tragic given it is GORGEOUS in the summer. It was a perfect way to round out the weekend. 

Lovely First Night in September

Usually we are at the beach for Labor Day, but we decided to stay home and get our house in order before the school year began. It was such a great weekend of quiet time with each of the kids and family time together. While Mark and Gordon golfed, Frances and Maggie and I went to Jamison to play in the water -- the place we always start summer and the place we end it. We met for dinner in the Pearl and went to an awesome OUTDOOR film festival in Fields Park. The movie was Growing Cities and was an inspirational film about urban farming.....hello Portlandia. We didn't get to see the whole thing, but the kids loved the mystique of just getting to be outside and see a movie. 

The family that paints together.....

Last Spring we had to cut down one of our favorite trees in our backyard as it was going eventually destroy our neighbors fence. We were SO sad. So, we asked the person who cut down the tree to make little rounds that we could use to make art work. This weekend represented phase 1 -- painting the rounds. Can you tell which ones Henry, Frances, Maggie, Mark and I did?