Something from the "good mamma" files!

Meghan wanted to do a special birthday party with a friend who may be moving away soon.  So... the girls got pampered then we went to the mall to "hang out".  They got to roam around, untethered to a parent.  They shopped at Hot Topic, got ice cream and I am assuming, giggled a lot.  
 
Some quotes from Meghan, while she was getting her hair done:   

Why does my hair have to be so beautiful?

It's hard work being pampered!

Scenes from a Photo Booth

More from the Bad Mamma files

After doing some much needed tree trimming and other yard work, we moved the trampoline around and, well...

End of the season

Both kids are finished with their respective fall sports. Meghan's team manager never did get around to scheduling team pictures, so a half hour before we left to turn her gear in, we snapped this - it'll have to do!

Bryce's football team lost out in the first round of playoffs.  It's really too bad, they should have won, but I think we were ALL ready for football to be done.  It wasn't a very enjoyable year for us.  The Huskies did draw first blood in the playoff game - here's Bryce's reaction:

Catching up

Whew!  Time flies when.... well, when you have no excuse for updating the blog.  Since the last post, I've taken a trip to New Mexico with my Friendly Friend (See the pics here), Meghan had an opportunity to play up a level in soccer with the U12 girls team and finished the regular season with her U10 team.  Bryce finished his soccer season and his football team is entering the playoffs this weekend.  Busy Busy Busy is my only excuse.  Busy wading through the 2500+ pictures I took in New Mexico, busy transferring ALL my pictures to a new, bigger hard drive and of course, Halloween and even more sports pictures to sort through too.  Sigh...

Anyway, here's a random assortment of stuff.  As usual, you can click on the kids jerseys to the left to see all of their sports pictures.  Be patient - I'm still sorting and getting them all up there!

Soccer pics from the weekend

Meghan had a tournament at Sonoma State University this weekend - don't know if Lon will come back with any photos or not.  Bryce had a scrimmage against the girls during the week (they lost 3-0 this time - I guess he's not the soccer king after all!)  Today he had a game in Miranda.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, it was a pretty slow game, action wise, but here are a couple to share.  The header is from the scrimmage with the girls, and thestill shot is from today.

No, I didn't know...

Last night at dinner we were goofing around (not having appropriate table behavior AT ALL) when Meghan made some smart alec comment about something I had done.  I looked at her and moved a little closer to her chair.  She moved away.  I asked why she was moving - was she afraid?  And she said.... DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR FACE LOOKS LIKE?

I had to leave the table.  I am a power to be reckoned with in my family, I tell ya!

PS: the rest of the night involved comments about what my face looked like.  Sigh...

Puppies

Meghan's friend had puppies today.  Well, not really Meghan's friend, but the dog that belongs to her friend.  The mamma dog is a registered yellow lab.  The pappa is a bull mastiff/pit bull cross.  They are going to be some kinds of big!  Anyway, the final count was 12 puppies - some yellow, some white, some brindle, some black... a regular ol' melting pot of puppies!  Meghan got to skip school this afternoon to watch the big event.  I figure it was either a lesson in Natural Science, or a great idea for birth control!

Here is Meghan's favorite puppy.  Rosie was such a good dog, letting the kids hold the puppies.

Recently overheard

At the football game on Sunday, between parents:

Parent 1 "Did you know that Bryce plays soccer too?"

P2 "Really?  At the same time as football?"

P1 "Yes, he's on the same team as T.'s brother"

P2  "Does he go to practice?"

P1 "He comes early, and leaves after about 45 minutes, but according to T. he really doesn't need to.  He's the best on the team."

From Bryce's soccer coach:

B. "Can Bryce come to the scrimmage on Tuesday and stay for the whole thing?  We are playing the DIII (next level) girls and we really need him to redeem ourselves."

Me "Ummm I'll have to check with him and his football coach.  I take it the outcome the last scrimmage was not good?"  ***Bryce missed the last scrimmage between these two teams because he had f'ball practice***

B. We really need him.  We only lost 2-0, but the whole team came up to me after the scrimmage and said that if Bryce was here, we would have creamed them.  He really is an integral part of this team, whether he realizes it or not."

Me "Okay.  I'll check with Bryce and see what he wants to do, and clear it with his football coach"

So, today we are skipping football practice completely (it will likely cost him playing time this weekend, but it's a choice he made) and scrimmaging the girls.

I think the boy has a few fans in soccer, don't you? Now if only he could keep his tongue in his mouth!

Football

The kids had a hard game in football yesterday - the opposing team, lets just call them the GIANTS, scored on their first possesion.  Then again. Then.... our boys finally settled down and the game became pretty level.  The giants ended up winning with a touchdown in the last 4 seconds of the game.  Sigh...

Bryce played pretty well - he made some good tackles and had a couple of balls thrown his direction.  You can see all the pics from his game by clicking on the football jersey to the left.

Meghan and Bryce both had soccer games today.  Bryce's team won 5-1 - again he was goalie the first half and forward the 2nd.  He is really enjoying soccer this year, and his coach is teaching him a lot!

Meghan's team tied the "team to beat" today.  It was a very physical game, with lots of body play, pushing and shoving.  One of the girls even got a "yellow card" warning to lighten up.

You can see all the pictures from today's games by clicking on the respective jerseys for Bryce (green) and Meghan (blue) to the left.

Life at our house

Football premier

Scenes from Bryce's first football game can be found here: www.aaahuskies.shutterfly.com. He had a really good game - played both offense and defense, almost had an interception and got a few ball carries.

Meghan's soccer

OK, the slide show thingy isn't really working for me.... visit www.ervgirls.shutterfly.com to see all the pictures from Meghan's game.

Meghan had a great game - she finally got to play forward for part of the game! Her team won 4-2.

I love when she runs all stretched out like this!

Bryce's soccer game today

Sorry, there are too many pictures to pick from - there are over 100 in the slide show....

Look who I saw today!

Captain Phil Harris and his boys, of Deadliest Catch fame, came to Eureka today to support a local family. Captain Phil's brand of coffee sells in Ray's supermarkets throughout the Northwest. The manager of the Ray's supermarket in Arcata was diagnosed last year with a brain tumor. Captain Phil pledged a dollar from every bag of his coffee sold between June and September to this man for his medical bills. The manager has since passed away, but Captain Phil made good on his offer, and presented a check to the family today.

I went in and bought a bag of coffee and snapped a few pictures, but the line for autographs and meeting the Harris family was really really long. So I skipped that.

1st day of school pics

Ok, so I'm slow... It's only been a week and a half!

Soccer, part deux

Bryce had his start in soccer today. He was goalie the first half of the game, then alternated between offense and defense the 2nd half...

Saaaaaave

Goooooaaaaaallllll!!!!!

Fair 20009

The last hurrah of summer... the kids had a great day at the fair. They both had buddies to pal around with and rode rides all day long. Neither complained too loudly about the 9:00 bedtime for school!

Football begins...

When the days are long...

... and your kids are making you nuts, it's good to look back on simpler times!

1st soccer of the season

The girls team played a tournament this weekend - their first games of the season... They did well, all things considered, and improved each game. They will be a force to be reckoned with by the end of the season! Meghan played defense all weekend - she really wanted a crack at the forward lines, but didn't have the opportunity this time around.

A little bit shorter now...

Softball 7/28/09

Click here to view these pictures larger

kids and cameras

How we spent our summer vacation

I can't speak for anyone else, but since June 28th I've put almost 5000 miles on the car. YIKES!
Below are some sneak peeks of the vacation - I'll add some more in as I wade through the 700+ that were taken.

June 19 - June 26: A trip to Yuba City. The kids hang out for the week with Gramma and Pappa. They do some work for Great Grandma, and lots of swimming at the park!

Happy Birthday, Gramma Lynda!
Happy Father's Day, Pappa Steve!

June 28 - July 2: A quick trip through Kennewick on the way to Spokane to drop the kids with G'ma and G'pa. The kids are headed to Wyoming. G'ma andG'pa put them to work... there's a little fun mixed in!

Screening rocks

Meghan takes some instruction from G'pa BobA little Annie Oakley in the making

Cool Hand Luke - shot the center out of the target - repeatedly!

G'pa shows 'em how it's done!

July 6 - July 12: Lori heads towards Wyoming. Lon flies in on the 12th.

Gathered up to 4-wheel in the Pryor Mountains

G'ma Jude

C'mon you guys - hurry up!

Bryce was sure Lon was going to hit me!

I wish this one were in focus - Bryce took it!

Meghan took this one!

Why are you looking at me like that?

I seeeee you

...as close as we got to the Pryor Mtn Wild Horse herd

Can we ride waaaaayyy up there? Pleeease?

A small band of Big Horn Sheep living on the range

A baby...

July 15 - July 19: A brief stop in Kalispell to visit the little brother and his family. Another brief stop in Kennewick to visit more friends on the way home. We leave Bryce with the Dennis family. The town will never be the same!

Look at those rubber band wrists! don't you just love them?

Why oh why did we not get a picture of all the kids together? Oh yeah! They were never still long enough....

Damian - King of the Hill or innocent bystander?

Visiting friends....

Many thanks to the Ward's for letting us crash their pad!

Meghan's hilights

A chick with an attitude!

Thought this would be fun for my 100th post!

Summer vacation has officially begun...

Friday night - Meghan sleeps at Lexies
Saturday night - Lexie sleeps here
Sunday night - Lexie sleeps here

Friday night - Bryce plays Xbox - completely beats one game
Saturday afternoon - Bryce is bored
Saturday night - Bryce antagonizes girls
Sunday afternoon - Bryce is bored
Sunday night - Bryce antagonizes girls

Ahhhh...... the joys of summer!

Remember when this was all the summer fun you needed?

A proud mamma...

Middle School track and field day

Bryce had field day at his school today and this is what he came home with:

1st place - 100 meter dash - 15.84 seconds
2nd place - 4 x 100 relay - 1.04 minutes
1st place - long jump - 11'11"

The final 3rd grade field trip

This has been the month of field trips for Meghan's class. First, beach clean-up day, then the Environmental fair and finally, a trip to the redwoods for some "camping" fun. I led a group of 6 kids through their activities....

First, they made leaf imprints on t-shirts using plant matter and bleach water. Some went a little heavier on the bleach than others.
Then, they roasted weenies. At 9:00 in the morning. Yum. Or not....


Next they built a tent, tore it down and sat in another tent and told ghost stories and knock knock jokes. In the meantime, Meghan took about 40 pictures of this car, not realizing my camera wasn't set to take a shallow picture. Nice Subaru!

After that, they got to make s'mores. At 10:00 in the morning. Yum.... or not.


Then we played down by the river, collecting water bugs and throwing rocks. Unbelievably, no one went in. After that, we took a nature hike. We found a burned out redwood that fit everyone in very nicely! And yes, Preston was the only boy in the group. He ate it up!


Next we toured the visitor center and went on a wildlife scavenger hunt, then dissected owl pellets. (sorry no photos here - no reason other than I was too busy).

All in all, a good day spent in the woods. No one got poison oak, no one got burned in the campfires, and no one fell in the river. What more can a person ask for???

Meghan makes the front page of the paper

A trip to the College of the Redwoods Environmental Fair

Meghan's class took a field trip to the CR Environmental Fair yesterday...
The Zane Middle School students had an"Air Fair" - everything there was powered by air, or created with air, etc... Wild Things Animal Rescue brought in some critters to look at.... and there was a plant study in the greenhouse.

Brown Lemur


Black Throated Monitor Lizard


Lunch, with Mom "spying" on her


Red Kangaroo


Zane Air Fair
Hovercraft