25 posts tagged “party”

Show us an insturment you know how to play.

Guess I'd probably need some major refreshing to play a drum set now but I used to be 1st chair in band.  Out of the percussion instruments, my favorite to play was the xylophone.

I still play this one. But my favorite instrument is my voice.

Every summer, we have a BBQ on a Sunday evening at our house.  Lily thought it was called a Party-Q and since it's a BBQ and a party, I thought that was a great name for it!  We had a perfect evening with temps around 80 and a slight breeze.  Our trees are finally big enough to offer some shade so that's fun.  Not counting us, there were 7 families composed of 14 adults and 17 children.

We're home so we didn't get murdered in the Bates Motel.  In fact, we didn't even see anything exciting like Police Caution Tape. 

Rundown on the soccer games:

Jace Game 1:  This is Jace's first summer playing competitive soccer.  I hesitated to put him in since he's only 8 and he's playing at a U10 level but he definitely held his own.  They won the first game 9-6 and Jace even scored one goal!

Jace Game 2:  Tough opposition.  They lost 2-6.

Jace Game 3:  This was a very exciting game.  They came back from behind to win 3-2.  Jace played a little defense but mostly center in all of the games.  Win or lose, the parents always make a tunnel for the kids at the end of each game.

 

At U10, they all get participation medals and don't keep track of standings.

The boys voted on their team name.  The Ducklings!  What were they thinking?

Cody Game 1:  They lost 2-6.  Cody scored the only 2 goals.  The first was on a penalty kick and the 2nd was just a regular goal.

Cody Game 2:  At halftime, they were behind 1-4 and came back to end in a tie 4-4.  Cody scored 1 goal.

Cody Game 3:  This was going to be the scary one as it was against the team that throttled them at the tournament in May 0-10 where we didn't even finish.  They came out really strong and there was no score until the end of the 1st half when the opposition made one goal.  So, the halftime score was 0-1 which was amazing!!  Unfortunately, we were missing 2 of our players which meant we only had 1 extra to sub in and out and our players definitely ran out of gas.  (The other team had 5 extras).   They lost 0-5 but I still think that was a major improvement.

That's Ray & Grace at the end.  She came to watch his game.

Cody also thought he'd have some extra team spirit by having lightning bolts shaved into the side of his head.  (His team is Lightning).  Unfortunately, his hair is as light as his head so you can barely see them!

All in all, the tournament went better than I expected.  We took 2 extra boys with us so there were 7 of us in the hotel room!  For the first time, we took Rascal and he was such a little angel!  He would just sit on my lap during the games or play with the kids.  We found out mid-way through that dogs weren't allowed at the soccer complex so I just carried him and kept him on my lap.  The complex had a really nice playground.

 

 

Immediately after the last game, we took the kids and 4 of Cody's friends to an amusement park for his belated birthday party.  There, they had 2 games of laser tag, some arcade games, a round of mini golf, and pizza.  I wish I could've gotten in on the laser tag but many of the vests weren't working!

 

 

 

We got back into town just in time for Ray to drop the kids and I off at church for the start of Vacation Bible School.  I'll share about that later but boy am I exhausted!

On the last day of school, a classmate of Cody's held a year end party for the 5th grade class from 6-10 pm.  I was hesitant at first because this would be his first official boy/girl party.  However, I found out that several trustworthy parents would be present and Cody would miss the first half because of soccer.  Ray was a cool dad and picked him up in the Firebird.  The first thing Cody said when he got through the door was "we played Truth or Dare and J kissed M because they like each other and I was supposed to kiss J on the cheek but I didn't".  (Alarm bells were going off in my head).  On one hand, I'm glad that he felt free to share that kind of information.  However, it confirmed the concerns I had about the party.  I asked him where the chaperones were during this time and he said that the kids were behind the fence.  Then, I let him know that this kind of behavior was what worried me about the party and that kissing was not an appropriate behavior for 11 yo's.  He said, "oh".  I don't think I'm ready for this next phase of life. 

Show us your mother.

She's so beautiful!

Last night were the last practices for my children's choirs for the year.  We always conclude the season with a root beer float party.  They look forward to it from the start of the year!  I'm really proud of the year we've had.  In Chorister Choir, we have 26 kids and 9 in Luther Choir.  I only have one 6th grader that I'll lose and there are nine 2nd graders who'll move up so Luther Choir could potentially double next year!  Both choirs perform one last time this Sunday.

Things that are not so good:

1. The freezing cold temps that we had to sit through at the track meet tonight.
2. Cleaning house.
3. Hearing that Lily qualifies for speech services (hard to hear even when you know it's coming).
4. Kids who are refusing to go to bed and stay in their rooms!

Things that are good:

1. Cody taking 2nd place in the long jump.
2. Lily qualifying for speech services so her articulation problems can be corrected.
3. Root beer float party to conclude my kids' choirs for the year.
4. Eye sight that is 20/20 in the left eye and 20/15 in the right eye one year after Lasik.
5. A mommy who buys me things to enhance our new bedroom furniture.
6. The gorgeous 75 degree weather that was here until the track meet started.

We have an extremely busy weekend.  It begins this morning with Lily having kindergarten visitation.  She was very excited about that.  Right after, we go for her official speech evaluation. 

This afternoon, I'll be doing registration for the state freestyle & greco tournament which is here this weekend.  This closes out the wrestling season which always brings mixed emotions.  On one hand, I'm always exhausted by now as the boys have wrestling practice Mon, Tues, & Thurs from 5:30-6:30 for Jace and 6:30-7:30 for Cody.  We did a few tournaments in January and have been to one if not two every weekend since the last one in February.  I won't even begin to go on about our gas bill!  However, I do love wrestling and it's always a lot of fun.  At least we're onto soccer which I also love!  The boys wrestle greco tonight and freestyle tomorrow.  I'll be helping with awards and singing "The National Anthem" tonight.  I haven't sung it since h.s. and that was in a group of 6 so I'm quite nervous!

Lily has 2 birthday parties tomorrow.  Sunday brings church, two soccer games, and a church council retreat.  When in the world are we going to get Cody's new room painted?

On an unrelated note, night 4 was the best so far in the new bed.  The bad part is that means I didn't move around as much and woke up with a sore shoulder.  It wouldn't have been sore in a softer bed!

He opened his presents from us and grandpa & grandma in the morning.

 

 

We went to Perkins for lunch.  Then, the big party started at 5.  There were 12 of Jace's friends plus our family.   Craziness!

 

I bowled horribly, just a 106!  I wonder if the Wii is messing up my real bowling.  I rarely bowl under a 200 on it and my high game is 253!  The bowling alley has a bar next to it and they provide pizza & pop.  Then, we had cake.

 

 

 

I thought this was so cute.  They must've ordered Jace a Steelers shirt and it didn't come in time so they put this in the card with the note "to come".

The party ended at 7 but 3 of the boys came home with us to spend the night.  I was so wiped out.  Lily and I fell asleep on the loveseat at 9:15!  Can't tell you the last time I was asleep before 10.  Ray picked up Lily and took her to bed, then returned and carried me to bed!  Chivalry is not dead :)  I felt bad leaving Ray to fend for himself with the boys.  He said the last time he heard them was midnight!

What a busy, but fun day I've had!  It started with chauffering Lily's preschool class to the post office.  They each wrote a Valentine letter to someone and then got to buy a stamp and mail it.

Then, we got to watch them put the letters through a sorting machine.  It was really neat. How much do 14 preschoolers weigh? About 640 lbs!!  Who would've guessed?  They even got to sit in one of the mail trucks. After that, I got to read a book to Jace's 2nd grade class.  Then, I renewed my driver's license and did some shopping.  Picked Lily up from school and we went out for lunch with my best friend to Perkins.  Last, we picked up Rascal from the groomers.  We're under a blizzard watch for the weekend so we didn't have much cut off. Whew!  Now, to prepare for Jace's birthday party tomorrow night!