Seasonal Change

Spring is upon us and it feels GOOD. I'm hoping for a good rain this weekend to help wash away all the dirt and brown lingering from winter.

Daylight Savings Time can bite me; I think I speak for my whole family when I say that. While we have enjoyed the sun hanging out later into the evening, we're all dragging this week. Our first colds of the season aren’t helping any. However after seeing the latest pollen count I'm wondering if we are suffering from allergies rather than a run of the mill cold.

We also kicked off our regional practice schedule this week. Certainly these (kid less) coaches have no idea what crappy timing this is. Sure, it is necessary and I'm sure they are also feeling the effects of the time change. But it's a whole new ball game when kids are involved. So for a few weeks we've got swim team practice on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday... intense! I'm thankful this isn't our regular schedule... yet.

I'm also very thankful that Basketball season, for all three kids, is over. It was great fun while it lasted but juggling those additional practices and games with our swim schedule was a bit much.

This intense swim schedule leads up to the big Regional Swim Meet in Minneapolis. Abby qualified to go to regionals. It is a huge honor and accomplishment to do so, particularly your first year, so of course we are going. Unfortunately Ellie didn't quite qualify. She was super close and super disappointed because it was so important to her. The interesting thing about all this is that swimming is a really big deal to Ellie. This is "her thing" and Abby really just jumped in for the ride. Ellie really pushes herself while Abby takes a more laid back approach... their personalities totally shining through.

While Abby was beyond thrilled to qualify for regionals, it really wasn't a big deal for her. She's recently commented that she'll be okay if she doesn't get a ribbon (or whatever their awards are) at regionals. At first I'm thinking whoa, wait a minute. But then I got to thinking about it more. We've been preaching all season long about doing your best, having fun, and being proud of that. She's practicing hard. She's very excited to go swim at regionals. She wants to do her best. But if her best doesn't earn her an award, she's okay with that. I think that is way cool and a very healthy approach. While I'll be the parent screaming in the bleachers as she is swimming (even though she can't hear a thing), I won't be the parent telling her how she could have or should have done better.

Just a couple of weeks ago we went to their State swim meet. I had volunteered to be a timer, which is a really tiring and very wet job! But it is so cool to be right behind the blocks watching the kids swim. Right after Abby hopped out of the pool in one of her events she was so discouraged, and it wasn't about her time or what place she ended up in. She was upset that she had goggle problems during her swim and she felt like she didn't swim as good as she could have. Unfortunately it was supposed to be her best event and she missed placing by one spot. But that's not what she cared about in the moment. It was a good learning experience about doing your best and pressing on even if things aren't going quite right.

Once regionals is over we have an opportunity to take a short break before summer swim team starts up. We also have an opportunity to do a short session where their coach will work on stroke techniques and endurance. We'll have to really think about what is best for us. Right now in the midst of this intense schedule, a break is really appealing. We'll have to see what the girls think.

As we change seasons so many other activities are also changing. Basketball is over! Girl Scouts will be winding down as we near the end of the school year. My PTA schedule for the current year is winding down but the planning for next year will kick into full swing before I know it.

Things are really just gearing up for Spencer with swim lessons starting last week and baseball season kicking off tomorrow. He is so dang excited for baseball season to start! I can't wait to see what team he is on. I really hope he was placed with his buddies!

He particularly loves batting and he begs for Carie (she is much more accurate than me!) to pitch balls to him. We've discovered that this isn't an option anymore. Long ago she decided it was only safe to pitch the softer balls to him. But already once this season he's nailed her really good with a line drive, leaving a bright red mark on her neck. That pretty much ended the batting practice at home! We've since discovered a batting cage and he absolutely loves it and asks to go to there every day. I found a really great deal through Groupon and now of course we are sucked in! I can't believe it, but I think we'll get him a membership to the batting cage once we are done with this punch card. It will be much more economical than paying per visit!

So that's our life right now... swimming and baseball.  Right now this is a really great fit for them.  It will be interesting to see how this evolves as the kids get older.

"Busy"

I really dislike that term yet I find myself using it all the time.  What does "busy" really mean?  We all have the same amount of time granted to us each and every day.  Its not like it's a race to see who can be busier.  I suspect each persons perspectives on "busy" would differ based on where they are at in their life.  It's just an easy term to throw out there when life has you on the go.  On the go with all things that we've agreed to and enjoy I might add.

Speaking of, I just cracked open a book titled "Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life" that our Principal has loaned to me.  I'm only a few pages in but it looks like an interesting read.  Sadly, I'm not one to enjoy reading as a hobby so I hope I stick with it!

It's always been a priority for us to not over schedule our kids.  Sure, we want them to be involved in organized sports, activities & clubs.  But we also value the opportunity to be spontaneous and free.  We've always avoided overlapping activities.  But at the ripe old age of 8, it seems like we've hit the magic age that this gets more complicated.  Seriously, EIGHT!  It seems like the activities are more intense and have a greater time commitment.  Thankfully the girls only have an interest in swim team!  It feels good to have found a sport that they really are passionate about.

We're also trying to balance the needs and schedules so Mr. Spencer isn't drug all over the place due to the girls schedule.  That's a tough one that we are still trying to figure out!  At times I feel at peace with our efforts and other times I've got huge momma guilt.

The girls had their first fall swim meet this past weekend in Norfolk.  It was a great day of swimming!  It was the first time we've ever had to get the entire family up and out of the house at the crack of dawn.  Due to the above mentioned momma guilt we went back and forth on who would actually go to this event.  Not to mention our newly added responsibilities of Mr. Mason.  But in the end it ended up being a great decision for all of us to go.  Spencer enjoyed a really long day of playing various pickup games in the gym.  He had no qualms about asking the big kids if he could play whatever they were playing and he made some friend along the way.  I know he loves the time we shoot hoops or play kick ball in the gym.  He finally had met his match and these kids were in it for the long haul, far longer than I would last!

I know for other families it may be a regular occurrence to get the family up and going in the wee morning hours, but for us it is not.  We regularly have a hard time making it to Sunday School by 9:30. :)  For this day, our goal was to leave by 6:45am and we were pretty darn close!  It all went much smoother than we anticipated.  The kids thought it was weird to go in their jammies!  One of the highlights of the morning was watching the sun come up.  Of course by the end of the 12 hour day we were all exhausted, particularly the adults.  The kids of course didn't crash until their heads hit their pillows.

PTA related... I've just made it through 5 big events since the start of school with 1 more small event and 4 more really huge events coming up in the next few weeks.  November is my key event, one that I added to our calendar just last year.  It's a month where we focus on Healthy Lifestyles with each week of the month taking a different theme.  I'm hoping it will go as great as it did last year!  Once I get through November we'll be set.  Thanks to school breaks we've got a nice little break from PTA stuff in December and January.  We can't be fooled by these breaks though!  The February deadlines sneak up on us rather quick!

In our down time we are enjoying the College Football season!  It's a time of year we always look forward to but not always have we been able to kick back and enjoy the games.  As the kids continue to get older we find ourselves able to enjoy such luxuries while they thoroughly enjoy their down time with hobbies that are of interest to them.  Which means that they either are reading or have covered the dining table and a solid 5' perimeter in various art materials.  It's worth it though! 

Ready. Set. GO!

This is the the week that starts the craziness.

For a family that likes to not be over-committed, in this moment it feels like we have sure committed ourselves to A LOT for the long haul.

Sure, we are always on the go. We like to get out and do things and explore things... on a whim! When the calendar starts filling up I start to get overwhelmed. There's a lot less "on a whim" time!

I know a lot of families with way busier schedules than ours. It's not really a competition. We've intentionally avoided signing ourselves, our children, up for that intense schedule. I know it will all work out. I'm actually looking forward to every single element. It's just... cumulatively it kinda freaks me out right now.

So what's going on?

Swim team started this week. The girls are way excited and so are we. But this is a huge commitment! They have very lengthy practices 3x a week. During their practice Carie and I are able to get a good workout in, a bonus. Spencer and I also get some great time to hang out and shoot hoops together, something we really enjoy. Oh and then there's the swim meets that are one weekend (Saturday?) a month. I'm hoping we'll get these details soon!

Spencer starts swim lessons this weekend. He's SO excited because he gets to go up a level. We could have (should have?) taken the easy route and signed him up for the same place A&E are in swim team. But the swim team program is different than the swim lesson program and we REALLY like the place we've been taking lessons for years. The kids love it there and we love it there. So, we went back even though it will make things a little more challenging for the next 8 weeks.

This past weekend we were invited to a BBQ by some friends. It turned into a reunion of sorts. There were quite a few (same sex) families that we used to hang out with more frequently. We hang out with a few of those couples semi-regularly. But someone decided we should ALL get together more often, like we used to. So it looks like monthly events are in our future... we're hosting the next one. This would be optional, but it would be quite a bit of fun and it would be good for all of us.

We also just discovered that our girls are old enough to participate in the "Tween Scene" at our Church. Boy did that surprise us! Us? We have kids old enough? Why yes, yes we do! This group meets once a month for "fun, fellowship and mission projects". The first event (at camp) looks like tons of fun and totally something our kids would enjoy... which we fear will open us up to more events at this camp! But this will be a great family day! So I've added this recurring monthly event to my calendar. Gotta love how easy that is!

It's also (past) time to re-new our family membership to the Rose Theater (performing arts for children and families). Thankfully I'll get it submitted in time that we won't miss the first performance! But it's a GREAT family activity that our kids really enjoy. We'll get to go to 7 performance this season which is nearly 1 performance a month. So I've carefully selected our show dates and times and I'll hope for the best! (If you're keeping track, that's now 3 different events that each take up just 1 weekend day a month... in addition to swim stuff)

Tonight we'll sign up Spencer for early-bird basketball, which also means there's a 2nd round of basketball after that. He's SO looking forward to playing. That schedule is totally unknown. All I know is that we've got another 6 weeks before it starts... I think. Hopefully he'll go right from swimming lessons into basketball. It can be that easy, right?

Oh, and yes I almost forgot. The girls, Abby in particular, really want to join Girl Scouts. I've finally caved and sent an e-mail to the leader today to find out more details. I don't know how in the world we would do this, but I'm looking into it as promised.

Let's not forget that I continue to be the PTA President and I've got quite a few huge events planned for the academic year. It's really a rewarding position in that I get to plan and do things for our school. But it's a heck of a lot of work and far too many parents have no idea what we do for our students. I'm already feeling knee deep (heck, chest deep!) in this area and we're just getting started! There's just so many amazing ideas up in the air and so many things on my plate all at once. Once a few of those things get resolved I'll be good. I just need to make it through November! Thankfully I've got an amazing team of parents that will help pull it off. More events added to the calendar!

Oh and yes, Carie started a PT gig with our school district this academic year so our home schedule has shifted. It's all good, really really good! (Side note, unfortunately no- she's not making anymore $$ than she was before.) She has signed up for some classes through work. They are all really cool classes, they are all free to us, and they all provide credit towards what she does. She's really excited, as am I. Just one more thing added to the calendar.

But this weekend... THIS WEEKEND... we are taking a family trip to our favorite apple orchard. It better not rain! Oh and we'll also be watching college football, of course! And doing swim lessons, swim team & Church.

What A Cheeseball

Last weekend was Spencer's final t-ball game of the season. He seemed to really enjoy the experience!

I barely got in position to take this picture and completely missed other opportunities. When it was his turn he would select his bat pretty quickly, get in position, and his coach would tell him to go for it whenever he was ready. One time I heard him say, I'm ready coach! Then with one quick swing he hit the ball and took off running.

In prior weeks the bat selection process alone gave me more than enough time to get ready to take all the pictures I could ever want.













Running the bases...












Heading towards home plate. What a cheeseball!

Weekend in Pics

Gymnastics Love

To say that they are enjoying gymnastics would be an understatement.

They asked me to take pictures last night. So here they are! The parent area is off of the gym rooms and unfortunately large glass windows separate us.

Abby & Ellie are in one room and Spencer is in another room. We setup camp in the corner and can watch all three of them do their thing. Every now and again they look over at us with the biggest smile ever and we exchange a thumbs up.

Spencer went right into class again without looking back. He did grab a teachers hand for their first activity, but that is what she did the first week and I think he really likes her. It appears that the feelings are totally mutual. Historically he’s wanted us to participate in his events and having us watch on the sidelines hasn’t been acceptable to him. Perhaps he is getting over that phase? He’s totally growing up!

After class last night one of Abby & Ellie’s teachers sought us out to tell us how they love our girls and how they are “good seeds”. It was really sweet of her!

Doin Great

We are here and doing great!

I could say that there really isn't anything going on and I don't feel that I'd be lying. In the next breath I could say that we are damn busy and that would also be quite true.

As predicted, March 14th marked the beginning of our new/spring routine with many scheduled kid activities... swimming (currently A&E - S has asked to swim next session), soccer (A, E so far S starts soon), gymnastics (A, E & S). When I put our schedule down on paper I think holy sh*t. But in reality, it doesn't feel bad at all. And I think we are doing great at balancing activity time, free time, family time, and homework time.

Looking ahead, it doesn't slow down until mid-late summer (depending on their decision on baseball)... just in time for a good breather before school starts again. This has become our normal spring and summer cycle which is exactly why we took that break over the winter months.

But the activities are much enjoyed by all and we are having a great time.

Grandma also continues to improve each day. Carie, Spencer & Yia Yia stopped in to see her on Wednesday and it is amazing how great she is doing. While she’s anxious to get out of there, she’s also now realizing how sick she was and how much she needs to be there.

Spring break is next week… just in time for the 6” of snow we are supposed to get!

Kid Activity Hiatus

The month of January (with 2 full weekends still ahead of us) has been filled with family activities. We’ve had some new experiences and some of our old favorite experiences. So far we've been ice skating a couple of times, swimming, and roller skating. It has been really nice to have this hiatus from typical kid activities and schedules to do fun family things... active things. Never fear though, the kid activities kick into high gear come mid March!

Ice skating has been our new experience this season. The kids were really excited to give this a try and it has been great fun. We go to an activity center that offers great opportunity to run, jump, climb, slide, and everything you can imagine to burn up their energy. Then in the winter they also offer ice skating. We can easily spend 4-5 hours there at a time!

Carie was reluctant to go skating and I thought she was brilliant in holding back. I wanted her to skate if she wanted to. But she was a bit nervous and worried as it seems that the Walles women can jack up their backs without effort. I offered to take the kids skating under one condition, they had to take turns. I'm very much a novice on skates myself and I couldn't imagine all 3 of them hanging on me all at once. We compromised and I started out with Abby & Ellie. They rocked! They didn't really even need my help. I gave them a few tips that I was figuring out as I attempted to stay standing on my own skates. They took those tips and they were off. Their independence shines through again!

I went around the rink a time or two to help out with my own comfort level before getting the boy out on the ice. It was all his idea to go skating and he was adamant about giving it a try. Once out on the ice he insisted that I "hold my hips momma!" Now, he's a very tall boy but I'm also on the tall side and (my back) could have benefited from being a bit shorter. But hold on to his "hips" I did and he had a blast. I think his favorite parts were wearing the skates, stomping on the ice (in his skates), sitting on the ice, and groovin' in his skates off the ice.

Our 2nd attempt at skating went even better. Carie opted to join us this time and she did fantastic. The girls stepped out on the ice and took off where they left off the prior week. It was truly amazing to see them do so well. Spencer did fantastic and I didn't even have to hold his hips! My back praised him! He often requested to go faster and then we'd hear him yell "I'm a big kid now".

I'm sure the girls' had their fair share of falling but it didn't seem to faze them. Carie didn't fall at all. I managed to fall once on each of our trips and man, those are hard falls. The first weekend I fell just as Spencer and I were about to get off the ice. We were near the exit and suddenly I was on the ground. It happened so fast I have no idea what happened. The second weekend I again was doing just fine until the end. I had decided that I'd skate until the break (10ish minutes) when they were getting the Zamboni out. Ellie and I were skating along together when she made a sudden move and cut right in front of me. Next thing I know I'm on the ice and I feel the back of my head hit the ice. My sunglasses flew off and landed about 3' behind me. Man that hurt! I helped Ellie get up and then I made my way to the exit. I was done for the day. Both Abby & Ellie though, they skated their hearts out. We had to practically peel them off the ice when it was time for the place to close. While both of the girls have really enjoyed skating it seems to really hit home for Abby. It is so fun to watch them enjoy and excel at something so new.

A lot of pictures for your enjoyment... all taken the first weekend. Ellie is in the pink hat and Abby is in the green hat.

Basketball Finale

The highly anticipated trophy! This was perhaps the most important part of the season… if you are 3 ½ years old.

Spencer's last basketball game of the season was this past weekend. That was a good thing.

He was so dang excited to play basketball. We heard about basketball nonstop leading up to the start of the season. Then it was time to play and the excitement was covered up in nerves. He did play, he played a lot, he had a great time, and he did awesome!

But we saw the same patterns we saw with swimming lessons. He talks like he loves it but when it comes to actually doing it, the love doesn't show. Even as we were pulling into the parking lot for the last game he told us he didn't want to play. But he went in on his own free will (as always) and he had a great time (as always). We won't be signing him up for the next session of basketball. Maybe we will do it again, someday. But not next month.

But really, his hesitation is only part of it. I was disappointed with the group of kids he was with and even more so the program. This is only our 2nd experience with the Y and I have to say that I was way less than impressed this go around. I need to speak up and let them know!

His whole team really struggled. There were 9 kids on his team and I'd be hard pressed to find many that really genuinely wanted to play. Carie and I coached one week and it was hard! That was a really hard hour to get through! Thankfully that particular week the coach on the other team was awesome and we had similar ideas... like not tackling each other for the ball or stealing the ball from the other team or more importantly your own players. I mean yeah, stealing the ball is what happens in real basketball. But these kiddos are just learning how to dribble the ball.

There were so many kids who truly did not want to be there. Nerves, maybe? But even when they were (willingly) on the court they seemed like they could care less. Like they just didn't want to be there. My focus was giving them high fives for being vertical! It's hard (and dangerous) to play basketball when you are lying on the court. Unfortunately, for one of the boys it seemed plausible that the parents signed him up to get him active. He just wasn't interested in moving his body! It took both Carie and I to get the kids moving and then moving in the right direction was the next challenge. But a welcome challenge!

So, this is the temporary end of organized basketball for us. Who knows what is in our future!

The preferred method of playing basketball...

Sideline entertaining lead by Carie...

He Shoots, He Scores

Basketball started today for The Boy. We arrived to discover their team name is the Gators and they get green shirts. Green happens to be Spencer's favorite color!

He's been talking about playing basketball for months. Any chance he gets he tells anyone who will listen that he signed up for basketball and the coach is going to tell him which way to go.

Once we got there he left all that excitement at the door and suddenly he wanted us to “play with him”.

This isn't a new tactic for him. We saw this when we attempted swimming lessons last winter. We then opted to skip swimming for a while to give him time. We see this at Church when he goes to the nursery for part of the service. We play with him, get him settled, leave and all is well. We saw this with the start of preschool. We then talked about how preschool was a special place for him, his new friends, and his teacher. We talked about how much fun he would have and how it worked with drop off and pick up. It went GREAT. He really has no problem being away from us. He is actually better if we aren’t there. And now we are faced with it at basketball.

We are friends with the coach and Spencer knows her daughter, Jenna. The first 1/2 of the time was practicing... yeah, practicing basketball with seven 3 & 4 year olds… a few of which seem scared of catching the ball. The coach didn't have much of a voice, kids were going everywhere, and Spencer really wanted us to play with him so I offered to help out. Once the game portion started I took the sidelines. It was kinda funny, Spencer didn't want to get on the court when it was his turn and Jenna didn't want to get off the court. I'd walk Spencer out and Carie would pick up Jenna off the floor and carry her back. Abby, Ellie & Jenna's sister Alexis had a good time!

The thing is, once he got on the court he did fine. He got to shoot the basketball a couple of times and made both of his shots!!!

Here is a photo of one of his shots. Yep, it went in!

I just wish he were more able to get out there and have fun. He wants to so bad. I don't know why he holds back.

We also quickly discovered a benefit to soccer. There may be days that it is cold, but it is much quieter! Oh my, it was noisy. I'm attributing part of it do the craziness of the first day. I guess we'll see!

Fabulous Family Weekend

Mixing some spontaneity with a partially planned weekend = a crazy busy and fabulously fun family weekend.

Friday night after dinner I was talking with a friend of ours when it hit me... hey, why don't we meet at the park? And so we did. Except, we didn't take into consideration just how early the sun is setting these days. But they did get to play for a bit. The kids were so cute and there were some wonderful photo ops... but not only did we not have our camera but it was way too dark. After the park we decided to continue the play date back at their house where we all had an incredible time but stayed entirely too late.

Saturday morning met us with swimming lessons. I'm so thankful that we selected a mid-morning slot! Abby & Ellie have really enjoyed taking swimming lessons at the High School. Last week they learned the "dolphin dive" and this week they learned how to dive standing up. And... they are in the 11' - 12' area of the pool! It has been so fun to watch their lessons. This week Ellie did fantastic on her diving... shocked the socks off us, her softball coach (whose daughter is in their class), and apparently her swimming teacher. Her teacher asked the other 3 girls if they saw Ellie's dive and then asked Ellie to demonstrate it again to her peers. It was definitely one of those proud mom moments!

Saturday afternoon while the boy napped, the girls had a play date at our house, and we worked on some house projects. Basically, the continuation of previous efforts to get things trimmed up and cleaned up outdoors. It seems like it is taking us weeks to get this stuff done, but a little at a time things are really shaping up. It is nice to be able to visually see the benefits of our efforts. We then ended up having a fantastic... political... conversation with Malien's mom when she came to came to pick her up. That was quite refreshing!

As soon as Abby & Ellie's friend had left we loaded up in the van and headed out to Mahoney State Park or (Ma)"honey SteaK Park" as Spencer called it... repeatedly. We couldn't hardly correct him he was so dang cute. We met up with some friends (same as Friday night) at the indoor activity center. It had been far too long since we have been there and we need to make sure we make this a frequent stop over this coming winter. The kids had such a blast running and playing with their best buds. We have totally reached a stage where we can say... "Do not go past this area without Mommy or Momma knowing!" And totally trust that they do. They were able to run, climb, slide, and just have fun. We were able to sit back, enjoy watching them be kids, and have a great time talking with our adult friends. We closed the place down before heading home for the ever so needed showers, a good snack, and off to bed.

Sunday morning we had planned on skipping Church in favor of checking out the new Acorn Acres area at Fontennelle Forest. It opened to the public on Sunday and they were having a large celebration with tons of activities and it was all FREE. One of the soccer moms works there and we were lucky enough to find out all about it. So that morning we met up with some other friends (who we convinced to skip Church with us!) to have a great morning of playing in nature. They were only open from 8-5 and we wanted to get there before it got crazy busy. We also had the treat of ridding on Ollie the Trollie from a nearby (overflow) parking area to the entrance. The kids thought that was pretty special!

After about 3 hours of playing, going on trails, making acorn necklaces, painting, tagging butterflies, making rain sticks, leaf prints, petting snakes, turtles and salamanders, it was time to leave and get some lunch. Not knowing really what to expect, we couldn't have planned it any better.

After lunch it was time to head home for the boy to take a nap. The girls' were also ready to veg out a bit. Carie and I would have loved to veg out as well, but we pushed on. We got some power cleaning done in a short amount of time before some visitors stopped over. Come dinner time we decided that ordering out was in our best interest. The rest of the evening was vegging out, chatting with neighbors, and playing outside in the nice cool breeze.