Sports Updates

 Look, we put our kids in sports for all the right reasons: health, exercise, perseverance, teamwork, overcoming adversity, etc, etc.  But....it sure is a lot of fun when they're also really good at it!  😄

Matthew is a rockstar at football.  He makes amazing plays on both offense and defense, encourages his teammates, gives the other team a hand when he knocks them down, works enthusiastically at practice, and listens to his coaches.  Plus, he's so stinking cute!

He's number 21, with the bright blue socks.

Matthew is on the right of the screen to start.

Micah's times in cross country have continued to improve.  His latest was on Tuesday at a home meet, where he got 12:20 for two miles!

His soccer team is also undefeated, mostly due to the fact that for the first time in years they are playing in a division that's appropriate for their age and ability level.

But the biggest shocker (to us, at least), is that Hannah is killing it in cross country!!  She agreed to try running mostly to appease us, but found that she has a lot of talent.  It's even brought out a bit of competitiveness in her that we haven't seen before.  On Sunday she placed 6th in an invitational (running with 11- and 12-year-old girls).  It was 1.5 miles, and her time was 11:09 (that's a 7:26 pace).  Today there were 75 girls, ages 9-12, and she placed 4th!  It was a two mile course; her time was 15:40 (7:50 pace).

My People

 On Labor Day weekend we had our small group over for a cookout, with the primary purpose of recreating a picture of the kids from four years ago.  😆  Here you go:

June 2017

September 2021

Then we told them to pick a new pose, and we'd make them recreate it in four more years. 😆

At some point during the night the kids decided to do "the squat song" and other workout activities.  Yes, they're weird, but at least we're weird together.

One of the many Covid-cancelled trips last year was my annual retreat with my college suitemates.  (And it was our 40th birthdays, so it would have been a special one!)  After many delays, we were very careful with testing and travel, and we were finally able to make it happen!  We stayed in an amazing rental house in Pittsburgh.  This was my room!!

The views were just as amazing from the rooftop patio and the breakfast deck.  

Honestly, I wasn't quite ready to come back, but the owners kicked us out. 😆  Three straight days of talking, eating, drinking, dancing, laughing, crying, and talking - it was just what the doctor ordered.

Lastly, the past weekend I hosted a baby shower for Sarah Hay.  We did a Harry Potter theme.  I had a lot of fun using my creative juices again, and it turned out wonderfully - a candy trolley, golden snitch cake pops, butterbeer, owls, and more!  Unfortunately, you're going to have to take my word for it, because I forgot to take any pictures until afterward.  😭

But before I cleaned up, I snagged a shot of the deck.  A few weeks ago I told Scott that it would be fun to do floating candles out on the deck, but it probably wasn't worth the time and effort.  To my surprise, he said it was a great idea, and that he would help!  He and the boys rigged fishing line and hung battery candles.  It looked amazing!!

Hannah's 11th birthday

 For Hannah's birthday this year, she invited a few friends to a pottery place.  It was so fun to observe the girls being silly and having fun together.  Although they are from various parts of Hannah's life (school, soccer, church, neighbor, etc.), it was cool to see how many of them overlapped and had connections together (schools, sports, dance, camp, etc.).  They had plenty of common ground and lots of inside jokes.

Hannah made a very colorful cake with a fondant elephant on top.  Even the inside was colorful!

Hannah's finished project: a Neapolitan hedgehog piggy bank  

We opened presents and celebrated her on the day before her birthday, since we were all home for Labor Day.

More Matthew

 Matthew wanted to run the 5K on Memorial Day, and I told him no.  My compromise was that if he practiced running longer distances over the summer, I would sign him up for a race on Labor Day.  Without any pushing from me, he kept up his end of the bargain!  Several times this summer he either asked me to run with him, or he got one of his siblings to take him out.  So, this morning, he ran his first ever 5K!  He didn't walk at all, and he finished around 31:15.  Super proud of him!

Also, the other football moms have shared pictures, so I wanted to share a few more of my favorites.  In Saturday's game he had a touchdown, and extra point, and caused the other team to fumble!

at practice - they look so little!

celebrating with a teammate 

ready to block for his buddy 🠉🠋

...then helping him up after the play.

All the youth teams got to go down to the field for a high school game.  They were so excited to cheer for the high schoolers coming out of the tunnel.  

(Matthew is bottom right, just in front of his coach.)

Fall Sports

 I'm not entirely sure how we let this happen, but somehow our kids are participating in 5 sports this fall.

Micah is back playing soccer with his Tallmadge team.  They have started the season with two wins!!  Although they are in a U15 league, the other teams they've played so far have been similar in size to our boys.

The ref didn't show up, so that guy 🠉 got roped into doing it.  He was one of the better refs we've ever had, except he wouldn't make any calls in my kid's favor!  ;)

Micah is also running cross country for school.  He worked on running most of the summer, but we were concerned about him trying to bounce back after being wiped out with covid.  His first meet was an invitational, where he placed 25th out of 200 boys with a time that was not far off last year's PR.  His second meet was a dual meet, where he placed 4th overall with a new PR of 13:02 (for 2 miles).

In preparation for Hannah going to Tallmadge Middle School next year, we strongly encouraged her to run cross country with the youth program so she could start meeting girls in her grade.  Then her previous soccer team was no longer an option, and she bravely decided to join the Tallmadge team, giving her more opportunities to meet people.  

Turns out, there is not a single 5th grade girl on either team. While it did not go according to plan, we are still very proud of Hannah for stretching out of her comfort zone and being brave in new endeavors.  

For cross country, they had a "mock meet" (just their team) last night.  Hannah was first for the girls and third overall with a time of 12:31 for 1.5 miles.

Quick side note: in my experience, cross country kids are the nicest.  Before the youth ran last night, both middle school and high school had a meet.  Not only did the older kids enthusiastically cheer for each other, they stuck around to support the elementary kids!  There was a little confusion with the finish line for the youngest group, and I heard some of the high schoolers yell, "Quick! Human tunnel!"  They stood like this and yelled for each kid as they came through.

They also helped with timing and directing on the course.  Several of them ran with Hannah's group to make sure the kids knew where to go.  A couple of them stayed with the slowest boy for the entire race.  In this picture, the boys in yellow shirts are high schoolers.  The rest of the kids are teammates of the last finisher who went back to be with him so he didn't have to run alone.

Lastly, Matthew is trying out a new sport this year - football!!  He is absolutely loving it.  His coaches are fantastic, and the program at Tallmadge is very well-run.  They had so many second grade boys that they were able to make two teams, which means Matthew gets lots of playing time.  At his game on Saturday he played the entire game!  On defense he made a bunch of tackles as a corner.  On offense, he plays running back, and he got a touchdown!! 

This picture is both teams.  Matthew was pretty pumped to get Todd Gurley's number 21.

This video is from a scrimmage.  Not bad for his first offensive play ever!

He doesn't get a ton of yards in these, but it's fun to see him doing spin moves and breaking tackles.

We're spending a lot of time hanging out in random fields, and we eat dinner at 5:00 most days, but we're having a lot of fun.