Gooooaaaaal!

Nora and the rest of the Bears had their first soccer game on Saturday. In this league they don't keep score, but both teams had a good number of goals. Even our Bug, who had never played a real game before, scored her first goal. She also earned a "best defender" sticker from her coach. There are no goalies for this age group, but the kids take turns defending the goal from just outside the box. Nora did a great job. We were so proud of her. She stayed engaged in the game, and when she accidently kicked the ball in an opponent's face, she stopped playing to go check to see if he was OK. Most of the kids are younger than Nora, but size wise she fits right in. As you can see from the picture below, snack is very popular at half-time.

A day with the ducks

Ok, it wasnt' a whole day. More like an hour - maybe. Last week when grandma and grandpa were here they took everyone to the park to feed the ducks. It was COLD and windy, so there wasn't a lot of playing around. Ahren did take time to teach at least one duck to jump for it's dinner.
I had my day care kids so I didn't go on this outing, but I was told all about the event. Evidently soon after this picture was shot all of the ducks decided it was time to head to the pond, at the same time. Nora said it was scary, Ahren thought it was pretty cool, Ed said he went between having "the Birds" flashbacks and just hoping none of them needed to poop.


When I was a kid I can remember there being about 12-20 ducks in this pond. Just enough to feed, but not enough to keep us from swimming in it. Now there are hundreds of them and the water is murky and kind of green. This day it was so cold no one would have considered getting in the water anyway.
The kids had a great time and came home wanting hot chocolate. Which grandpa and grandma ran to the store and got for them, with extra marshmallows, of course!

A visit from our CA cousins

This week Ed's parents came up from CA. They brought Ed's sister Jennifer and her kids, Elijah and Katie. Ahren and Nora were surprised to see their cousins. Ahren Saturday night when he answered the door and saw more than just Grandma and Grandpa at the door. Nora didn't get the full surprise untill Sunday morning. She tried to stay awake, but just couldn't make it. We even woke her up to say hi, but she had no memory of that. This picture was taken Monday afternoon. My kids have half days this week, so they were home kind of early to enjoy extra playtime.
On the swingset are: Elijah, Ahren holding Brock ( he's one of my day care kids), Katie in the baby swing, Nora, Tori ( Brock's big sis) and Ahren's friend Bradley from down the street. The kids had a great time running around. I was lucky to get them all in one place for the minute it took to take this picture. The photos below are of the epic battle that insued. Truly George Lucus worthy.

The Bug

This is our Nora. Last weekend turned out to be pretty special for her since her brother decided he needed to have a little alone time with the tv, and hanging out with the family at Costco and going to lunch is not his idea of fun. After the Costco feast of samples we headed to the 48th Ave. Salon for hair cuts. Ed's and Nora's, not mine. Nora was really tired of her long hair. She has an incredibly sensitive head, so I was all for shortening the every morning hair brushing battle. As you can see it turned out adorable.

In the above pictures our little ladybug is enjoying the wonder of chocolate gelato. After being closed for over a year, our favorite little Italian restaurant, Russillo's, has reopened at track 29 on Yakima Avenue. I love their pizza salad, served in a pizza crust bowl with the dressing of your choice and almost every pizza topping you can think of. Nora had her favorite, spagetti noodles with parmissan cheese, and nothing else, which she ate enough of to earn the gelato.

After lunch, it was off to the bowling ally. For this Ahren graced us with his presence. Nora loves to bowl, but she loves the nachos more. She is pictured below picking out the perfect bowling ball. Having a small child bowl with you tends to increase everyones score do to the invention of bumpers. Where were these things when I was a kid? Ahren likes real bowling because he can usually beat his sister, unlike in Wii bowling where none of us stands a chance against her.

Bug just had her first soccer practice, so look forward to upcoming post featuring shin gards and cleats (with pink stripes, or coarse).