September craziness

I have only had my camera with me once in the past two weeks!  Oops!  But here's what we've been up to lately:

Two weeks ago, Chris was in Italy all week.  It was the busiest week ever here at home, of course.  I somehow managed to drag the girls to two meet-the-teacher nights, a soccer game, two soccer practices, a ballet class, Katie's allergist checkup, and a tutoring session.  All after school.  We were wiped out by the end of the week.

But being the crazies that we are, we packed up Saturday morning to head to East Lansing for the ND-MSU game!  Chris drove straight from the airport to MSU and tailgated with us all afternoon.  Mom and Dad hosted a great party with tons of food, and we had a great time with them and all the guests.  Erica, Joe, and Stephanies flew in from Colorado, and Aunt Jenny, Aunt Christine, and Uncle Brian came from Ottawa Lake.  I didn't bring my camera, but Aunt Jenny posted some great pics:

Confused girls, decked out in part ND and part MSU

Joe's friends were great sports to play with the girls all afternoon.  They had fun playing soccer, ladderball, climbing trees, and slipping ice cubes down everyone's backs.  We all walked over to the stadium before the game to watch the band march in, and Erica wound up finding a pair of tickets for face value in the ND section, so she took Katie with her!  They had a fun time, especially being in the happy section of the stadium!  I drove jet-lagged Chris and overtired Meg & Jess home, and I listened to the first half on the radio, and watched the second half at home.  Yay Notre Dame!

Erica drove Katie back to our house on Sunday morning, and we enjoyed a full day of soccer.  All three girls had games, and all three did very well.  Erica stayed until Tuesday night, and we had tons of fun while she was here.

This past week was busy with three soccer practices AND three ballet practices in the mix.  Friday was the school's opening mass and was a half-day of school.  Jessica had a classmate's birthday party to attend, so I farmed out Katie and Megan to friends' houses for the afternoon so I could go to the party, too.  It was great to meet the other parents of Young 5's Fabulous Frogs!  And the girls were ecstatic to get playdates with their friends.

Friday night was the school's Fall Festival - fun times!

Jessi's first time rock-climbing

Jessi on more bouncy things

Katie tried the mechanical bull

All three girls got airbrush tattoos.

 There was also a photo booth, carnival games, horse-drawn wagon rides, a DJ tent, a cake walk, donuts and cider, and more.

Saturday was Chris' favorite race of the year - Dances With Dirt, a 50 mile trail relay race.  I have no idea why he likes to pay money to run through mud, but he does.  Here are his two teams this year.  They did great, and it only poured rain on one of his three legs of the race.

We had two soccer games yesterday - Katie's team won 4-0 and she played midfield very well, and Megan's team won 4-1 and she scored two goals.  Today we had two soccer games - Katie's team lost a close game 3-2 to a team that beat them 8-0 the first game of the year.  Jessi played tonight and had her lowest number of goals of the year, only six.  BUT she became BFFs with a little girl on her team, and they decided to "stick together."  They kept passing the ball back and forth to each other down the field.  It was the most adorable sight ever!  It is rare for 4-5 year olds to think about other players on their own team, they usually steal the ball from their own teammate without thinking twice.  So it really warmed my heart to see these two TRY to help each other score goals!  They kept looking for each other, calling each other's name, and kicking it to each other!  Just precious.

This week will have the usual afterschool craziness, but Katie's soccer winds down in just two weeks, so we'll survive.  Next weekend we have two soccer games per day, and Chris runs the Brooksie Way half-marathon on Sunday.  We can't wait for another fun weekend!

This weekend

Yes, I have lots to post, but I want to get these pictures up now, while they're fresh in my mind!  Here's what we've been up to this weekend:

Friday night, we had our first movie night in our basement!  I got "Over the Hedge" from the library, and we had a nice night together, snuggled up on the couches.

Saturday was soccer day.  Megan and Katie had their first games of the season.  Both teams lost (badly), but I know they'll do better.  Katie is playing on her school team now - big stuff!  Megan is still playing on the city rec level, but her teammates are almost all good friends from her school.

Also on Saturday, we baked six loaves of zucchini bread, thanks to the monster-sized zucchinis we found hiding in the girls' garden!  Chris left for Italy in the afternoon.  After the soccer games, I took the girls downtown for the annual Art & Apples Festival in the Rochester Municipal Park.  It's one of the largest art festivals in the state!  We wandered through the tents for a while, but then hunkered down in the kiddy area to do lots of art projects.  They got bit by the art bug!

On Sunday, we went to the DIA after church.  The girls wanted to do more art projects after doing the DIA-sponsored projects at Art & Apples.  They got to watch and try papermaking, and they did Japanese book binding techniques.  We also did plenty of wandering through the galleries, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch there.

Then we drove a few miles down Woodward to the riverfront.  Right in front of the Ren Cen, they were holding Navy Week!

The Navy is bringing lots of ships to ports in the Great Lakes to commemmorate the bicentennial of the war of 1812.  The big draw for us was the USS Brig Niagara, a reconstruction of the ship in the battle in Lake Erie.  We learned about the Niagara when we went to Put-in-Bay and saw the movie in the Commodore Perry monument.  It was so cool to get to go aboard!

After 20 minutes in line, we finally got close enough to see it!

Still in line, but still smiling!

We even got to go below deck.  The ceiling was so low!  The crew lives aboard the ship, and we got to see their bags (to left), hammocks, dining area, kitchen, etc.

Girls trying to shoot a cannon at Canada

Jessi posed all over the ship.  I have about 20 pics like this one, all over the upper and lower decks!

Katie with a mast behind her.  It was impossible to capture how amazing the ship was!

There were two other ships to tour right at the RenCen, but the lines were enormously long.  You had to go through airport-type security to get on these ones.

 Then Jessica had her first soccer practice and game.  She's on the blue team this year, and has a friend from her last year's preschool on her team.  There aren't any goalies at this level - just 3-on-3 running back and forth, scoring each time.


Jessica likes to keep a running count of how many goals she has in the game.  She likes to show her coaches, teammates, the other team, and everyone on the sideline.  Can you see that she has NINE goals at this point?

Her final tally was TEN GOALS today!!  She was a scoring machine!!

After the game, we went out to dinner at Pei Wei, and saved room for dessert at DQ for my soccer superstars!

Whew!  What a weekend!

Back to school!

I have lots of things to post about in the past week...Jessi's glow golf party, camping, Greenfield Village, etc, BUT I need to share these school pictures first!  They're just too cute to wait!

Katie started 5th grade on Tuesday, with a half-day of school.

Grown-up Katie on our front porch

Katie with her teacher, Mrs. Demarco.  Katie loves her already!

Katie unloading her supplies into her desk.  She is right across the hall from her classroom last year, so she feels very comfortable with the school, hall, lockers, etc.  She has most of her best friends in her class this year, which is great!

Megan and Jessica started school on Wednesday, with a half-day.  It was a busy morning because there were no buses today, so I did lots of driving between the two schools!

Megan the 2nd grader

Jessica the Young 5'er

Three girls in a row, all ready for school!

Jess and Meg in front of their school

Megan unpacking her supplies into her desk.  She has a lot of friends in her class, especially girls from her soccer team.  She's so excited to be with them all!

Megan with her teacher, Mrs. Kurkiewicz.  Megan said she is really nice and really funny!

Jessica by her coat hook

Jessi by her classroom door

Jessi with her teachers.  Mrs. Sgroi, on the right, is her main teacher.  She has been a kindergarten teacher in the school for several years, and took the Y5 job this year so she could work part-time and have more time at home with her young sons.  Mrs. Sutherland, on the left, is the assistant teacher.  She has a daughter in Katie's grade, and has known Jessi since she was a week old and I took her to Katie's kindy class.  Mrs. Sutherland's daughter was in that class, and has played soccer on the same team as Katie for a few years now.  So Jessi is very comfortable with her!

Jessi colored her frog picture perfectly.  Their classroom is known as the Young 5's Frogs, and there are frogs all over the classroom!

We had a great first day of school!  We lucked out with the "best of the best" teachers in each grade, as several people commented to me today.

Tomorrow will be a full day for everyone (except Jessi, who goes half-days all year long), and there will be buses - hallelujah!  We already packed lunches, snacks, and water bottles to make the morning easier.  It will be tough to get all three girls ready at the same time every day, but so far they are excited to wake up early and get dressed and eat breakfast quickly.  Let's hope it lasts!