Monday, September 21, 2015

Another week is in the books

Our week was your typical week.  Full of homework and activities from church and home and scouts and the like.  It was busy.  It was also full of strange weather.  Sunny and windy and cloudy and monsoons.  Made for interesting soccer.

 The kids took advantage of the monsoon type weather and played in the puddles.  They loved it!   Especially Haley who made herself comfortable and got good and wet.
 Because Caleb is now in middle school he has a late start on Fridays.  Haley loves this time with Caleb.  They usually read together and do a craft before he goes to school.  Here they are showing off their scarecrows they made.
 Caleb came home Friday afternoon sporting this awesome apron that he sewed himself in his class at school this week.  He did a great job for a beginner.
 As I said earlier, this week was full of soccer.  Caleb had 3 games, William had 2 and Peter had one.  Plus I made Caleb practice even though it was raining and his original team practice had been canceled.  I am mean like that.  Peter's game was again a blow out, with a win of 9-0.  Go, Rainbow Chickens!  Yes, that is their team name.
 William took a turn at keeper and then on the field as defense.  He prefers evening games because they are not so hot.   But he does great no matter what!  He had one win and one loss.
Caleb.  This is his team name/logo.  And as close to a photo as you will get from this week.  Wednesday's game was tough.  Caleb made some great saves and the whole team did incredible at the second half.  But unfortunately they ended with a loss of 3-4.  We had to rush from soccer that night to get to the court of honor for scouts where Caleb was awarded 2 rank advancements and many, many merit badges.  He was a busy little beaver that day.
Thursday we had another game and this one was much less rough.  We won 6-0, with Caleb earning his second shut out of the season!
Saturday and it was game day again.  This time we knew the team would be harder and the sun had come out again to toast things up.  But our team was ready to shine.  Caleb made some excellent saves, has a great defense to back him up and we won 3-2!  The last minutes of the game seemed crazy long, wondering when they would blow that whistle.  After we scored the winning goal the other team took their keeper out of the box to give them an extra man.  They had several goal kicks in Caleb's box and even with the extra man our Glory team was tough and took the win home!  It was a crazy, good week.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Moments of goodness

Today had some good moments to remember.  Most of it happened because of music.  There is music that inspires and music that connects you to something better and higher.  I am grateful for that time today.  In church we welcomed home a very good missionary and the family brought music into the meeting and sweet feelings into my heart.  Feelings of how awesome my kids are, that I cannot believe the age of missionary work will soon enter our home, and that my kids are good.
Then this evening at bedtime we turned on some music in the boys' room.  The lights were out, life was calm and peaceful, and the spirit came into their room.  Haley came and sat in my lap and we were together, with the love of Heavenly Father, and it was perfect.  It was goodness.  It was a moment of heaven on earth that was ours.  I am thankful for that moment.  I am thankful that I was there to be with my kids and let them feel that love.

A little bit of family fun

 A week ago we took a trip to Silver Lake.  It was stormy on the way up, but great for us while we were at the lake.  It was a beautiful venue for walking and enjoying time together, plus great places for little kids to explore and enjoy nature.  Added bonus......
 MOOSE SIGHTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 Seriously, I could not have asked for anything better.  I, Diedre, was hoping to see a moose.  And it worked.  A little too well.  We were walking along the path, came around a corner and Caleb wide eyed and excited comes up to us saying there is a moose eating leaves not far away.  Sure enough, there was a bull and cow moose eating leaves not very far.  In fact, several people were mere feet away from this beautiful, powerful animal taking it's picture.  In fact, my boy was one of those (unknowingly) who got really close.  My boy, name will go unmentioned, was walking down a path and I stopped him a scant few feet from walking head long into a bull moose.  That got my heart racing!  But it was amazing to watch them, at such a close range, and to see them with my kids.  We watched them eat and then at the end of the night they crossed the path right by us and went on their way to a new patch of vegetation.  It was AWESOME!
 We had packed a picnic for the trip and, as I mentioned, I was hoping to see moose.  So, our dessert was moose brownies.  Brownies cut in the shape of a moose head with white frosting antlers!  Kids loved them.  Haley claimed at the end of dinner that she was full of moose (she did eat 4 of them).  Great times!
 So good that we came home and the next day Haley set out on  a little project during school time to make he own Silver lake.  Materials included felt, buttons, glue and sprigs of pine tree.  She is very a very cool girl.
 Fast forward a week to last night and our Gray Family Mini-Carnival.  The kids wanted to know why it was just our family, I told them I did not have enough supplies for a neighborhood carnival.  Small and simple but fun, that was our goal.
 We has the cup knock down game, which included water is some cups.  A fun one.
 We filled some water balloons up and had an "Egg" and spoon race with them.  Good fun times.  Other games included tossing beanbags at buckets to get points for getting them in.  Shooting balloons with darts (which was a nerf gun loaded with a toothpick taped on the end of each nerf dart).  They liked that "carnival" game.
 And their favorite was eating a donut off the string.  Slightly out of reach to make it fun.  Peter got a reeses peanut butter cup because he is anti-mini donut.
There was laughing and fun and running and lego carnival prizes afterward.  It was a success!