Way To Go Allicia!!!!!!!!!!!

This year Pinewood Elementary started something new call the 100 book challenge. Each child was evaluated at the beginning of the year to see what book level they should start at.  Then they have to read at least 1 hour a day, a 1/2 hour at home and a 1/2 hour at school, working their way through each level.  As they work their way through each level they graduate to a new level and get a special prize and a metal!  Allicia finished her first level and is really starting to enjoy reading!  Way to go Allicia!

Trip to Oklahoma!

Back in early September Ava and I rode with my Dad down to Oklahoma to pick up my sister Joni and her little boy Houston.  They were down their visiting her husband Tommy’s family while he was on leave from the Army.  Joni and Houston made a longer vacation out of the trip and came home with us to Minnesota. It was a fun road trip with Grandpa and Ava was a perfect little girl in the car.  We didn’t hear much out of her, unless her Elmo movie needed to be restarted.

The whole trip took us about 12 hours, but we split it into 2 days so it wasn’t too much time on the road in 1 day. 
On the way down, we made it all the way to Oklahoma before we stopped for the night.  The Vikings played their opening game that night, so we decided to call it a night to watch the game.  Here’s Ava in her Viking jersey relaxing with Grandpa watching the game in the hotel room.  The next day we had breakfast before heading down to meet Joni.  We only had about a 3 hour drive, so it wasn’t as long as a drive as the day before.
Finally we arrived in McAlester and Ava could finally play with her little cousin Houston.
 
As you can see they have a lot of fun together.  We only spent one night in Oklahoma before coming home, but we were able to meet a lot of Tommy’s family over supper.
The next day we hit the road fairly early, but didn’t make it as far as we did on the way down.  The trip was much more difficult with two little ones…and it took a lot out of us adults.
Below are a few pictures taken on the ride home. Thank goodness for Elmo!
The trip home took 2 days and was full of lot of fun.  Some of the excitement included me winning 4 rounds of the Alphabet game…..without cheating, even if Joni thinks I did.  Joni spilling her entire glass of pop on Dad’s breakfast, Houston and his phantom poopy pants which included a lot of loud grunting, and Ava not sharing her toys. 
Below are a few more pictures from the trip.

Family Night at Target Field

For Father’s Day this year I bought all the Dad’s tickets for the entire family to go to Target Field to see the Twin’s play the Cleveland Indians.  It was an awesome night to watch a game, despite the 6 blocks I had to go on crutches, both before and after the game.  It was a lot of work, but thankfully I had a wheelchair to get around the stadium and special wheelchair seating once I was there.  We tried to drive to an entrance so I didn’t have to crutch so far, but with all the one ways, and traffic we had no clue how to get there.  So despite the work it took to get me there, it was worth it. 
But as you can see from the pictures below, I look pretty worn out.  Yikes, huh?!?!?
I think the Dad’s really enjoyed their Father’s Day present!
Oh and I almost forgot to mention that a guy fell right on top of me spilling his entire beer on my lap.  I guess he didn’t see me and my bright cast sitting in my wheelchair.  Oh the excitement, huh???

The End to an Undefeated Season

Saturday Kyle’s football team ended their undefeated season with a upsetting loss.  The game went into overtime with a score of 0-0.  Yes, you read it right, they went the entire game without anymore scoring a point.  Well, actually…our team did score 1 touch down, but it was called back because of a penalty.  Yes, we were all very upset.

The rules for overtime are there is a coin toss to see what team will be on offense or defense.
Our team lost the coin toss, so the other team was on offense first.  They had 4 plays starting at the 10 yard line to get a touch down, which they did, in addition to making the kick for the extra points.  Then it was our turn and because of another penalty we had 4 plays starting at the 20 yard line to get a touch down.  Thankfully we got the touch down, but the game ended when we missed the kick for extra points to tie up the game once again. 

It was a huge let down for the boys, but they didn’t play to their highest potential, and unfortunately, the other team wanted it just a little bit more than we did.  I think it was a loss these boys needed, hopefully next week they will be a little less confident and come out ready to play hard an win.

First Day of School

This year Kyle is in 8th grade and Allicia is in 4th.  They were excited to start school this year….especially since the end of the summer was pretty boring since I broke my leg and couldn’t get around. 

Allicia wanted to do something special with her hair for the first day of school, so we braided her whole head they day before, leaving it full of crimpy curls.

Before

After

 

Below are Kyle and his friend Austin in their pink WEB leader shirts.  They volunteered to be WEB leaders, which means they spent the first day and several days throughout the year helping the new 6th graders get acquainted with being at the Middle School.

And here is Allicia, her friends Jade and Ashley…all excited for their 1st day of 4th grade.

Kyle’s Football Season

So far Kyle’s team is un-defeated…up until last week they hadn’t given up any points.  So needless to say, it has been fun to watch him play.  This is his last year of youth football…next year it will be onto the High School team.  It seems crazy to think he is that old already. Stay tuned for updates on the rest of the season.

I'm going to attempt to be back!

Well, you would have thought with all the time off I have had with my foot; I would have been better about updating my blog. One would think that would be possible...but I guess I spent too much time resting and watching MANY hours of Sprout TV with Ava.
So what have we been up to the past 10 weeks or so??? Personally, a lot of sitting around with my foot up, but the kids have kept busy, and hopefully I will get some new posts up to update you on all of them.

We have started a new school year, so the kids are busy as always and Ava is growing like a weed. Stay tuned for posts about all we have been up to in the last 10 weeks.