I Love Soccer!

Austen and Peyton are in season for baseball and softball right now, and Peyton is also doing swimming but there's nothing I love more than watching my kids play soccer.

Hailey plays in a great program called Lil Kickers and she loves it. She's got some skills and coordination at a young age and she has to keep up with the boys!

Peyton likes soccer too but it may be because she sees her friends and gets snacks afterwards! I coach her team with all her friends and it's a great group of girls and families. If there is one thing I'm working on with them it's throw ins and not kicking the ball in front of the goal! It drives me nuts to see kids on Austen's travel team not making proper throw ins and crossing the ball in front of the goal when they're on defense!

As for Austen, that kid just wants to play more soccer. He woke up this morning at 6:30am so we could leave by 6:50am so I could drive him 40 minutes away to a game today where he was just a sub. Talk about dedication! They lost in the final 1-0 and came in second in the tournament for the U11 age group. It was a great experience for him.

Tomorrow we're back in it with 6 soccer games between the three of them within the next week! Go team!

The Dinosaurs

Since Sadie is still in recovery mode, I try to buy her a few new toys every so often so she won't get completely bored since five weeks post recovery we still can't play with her and she can't run. Her walks are also limited although she can go a bit farther each week. So I brought home two new dinosaur toys for her to play with and I couldn't understand why Hailey was upset about it. Then I figured it out when I found Sadie's toys in Hailey's room and her playing with them as if they too were her own stuffed animals. Talk about taking what's not yours! After a few days I got her to give at least one back to Sadie but the green one she's keeping in her bed and she clearly doesn't want Sadie drooling on it. Seriously, I thought it was Sadie we had to worry about taking our kids' stuffed animals, not the other way around!

Mother's Day

On the way to Austen's soccer game. Check out Hailey!

Mother's Day for me started on Friday. Every year for the past couple, a group of women (moms of a few 4th graders) in my town get together to tour the Hinsdale Historical Society's Kitchen Walk. We start out at 9am for a little pre-party breakfast at one of our friend's houses and then jump in our cars to tour these fabulous kitchens. We round out the tour with a fun lunch. This year, the weather was perfect and it was nice to sit outside and catch up with friends, and not have to worry about picking up a kid at school or rushing off to some practice. Us moms just enjoyed our time together without our kids.

My day didn't end there though, that night I met up with my mom for our annual spa evening topped off by dinner. This is a tradition we started several years ago and have continued as we can never tell what Mother's Day will bring with the many games and practices.

On Mother's Day, Austen did in fact end up having one soccer game at a field close to Grandma Lou's house so she stopped by to watch him play. And, it was a perfect day to watch soccer! After the game, home we went to get some things done and then Austen was off to a baseball practice. It was the perfect low key Mother's Day started off by a great Friday with some special moms!

Being silly! Happy Mother's Day!

Where Did Austen and Peyton Go?

This is the question that I hear every day now and sometimes multiple times a day. Hailey goes to school and when she comes home she knows that Austen and Peyton are at school but when they come home from school she expects them to be here at home. Their schedules are busy so she's often asking them to play when they need to settle down and do their homework before they jet out the door to a baseball, softball or soccer practice or even religious education classes. "Where did Austen and Peyton go?" she would ask me. When I would tell her they were gone, she would respond with a pouty, "But I wanted to play with them!" I feel for her I really do - it must be terrible to wait for your brother and sister to come home all day long and then when they finally get there they either can't play or are running off to some activity. I, for one, certainly don't know what this feels like as I am not the youngest child in my family.

Just this past weekend, Austen had an evening birthday party and Peyton had her first sleepover with one of her friends. When Hailey saw Peyton packing her suitcase, she insisted that she also pack her own suitcase too. When Peyton left, Hailey broke down crying saying "I wanted to go with the girls too! I'm big!" Heart wrenching! After dropping Austen at his birthday party, we took Hailey out to get ice cream, but it probably still wasn't that satisfying for her as ice cream is always better when shared with your siblings.

Even more heart wrenching - later when Tom opened her suitcase he found she had just packed her blanket in it. That's it. Nothing else.

I guess that's the life of the youngest child. Hopefully, we make it up to her in other ways and she sees the benefits of her being the youngest as she gets older!

Peyton Loses Her First Tooth...Finally!

I don't know many almost 7 1/2 year olds who haven't lost a tooth yet so I was starting to get a little worried that Peyton's teeth weren't even beginning to show signs of loosening.
However, last week she finally joined her First Grade class in adding a tally mark to their classroom chart counting the number of teeth lost this school year.

It was just a few days before when she noticed that one of her teeth was loose enough to wiggle. And, she kept on wiggling it, eating apples and other things to get that tooth to come out. And come out it did, just a few short days later while she was brushing her teeth.

The Tooth Fairy visited that night with a $20 for her first tooth (I guess she didn't have any change) as well as a toy (fidget spinner). Looks like she has a few more loose now too so I predict by summer she'll be missing the top 2 and the bottom 2 so she'll look very cute!