Last year of SINGLE digits for Elise

Elise picked out these cupcakes on Pinterest... LOVE them. Every year I try to find fun cake/cupcake decorations for her birthday (and Lauren too). It's the simple things that make them so excited and I hope this is something they will pass down to their kids... make birthdays special!!

I had to scramble and come up with ideas because the plan was to go to Sky Zone to jump on trampolines but Elise has a bad cold/cough and that wasn't going to be good for her Asthma.. so.. we had it here (which was a lot cheaper too). 

Making Halloween Frames

This game was really fun.. I put about 25 things on the tray and gave them 30 seconds to try to remember what was on it.. then took it away and they had to remember what was on it and write it down.  I think Natalie won with 10 items!

Shirley Temples.. Cheers!

From the Top: Lauren Wood, Sadie Monaham
Natalie Freundle, Elise, Paige Peterson
Lauren and Dudley

Movies and Popcorn...and had them all home by 9:30!

Happy Halloween!

This is our newest decoration for Halloween. I stole this idea from my sister who decorates her door every year.  Super easy, cheap and actually.. kind of cute. Now, if it would just warm up a bit.. we could leave the door open so the light can shine through!

Light the Night walk for Leukemia ~ Cheers

A few Super Heroes joined the Light the Night festivities

Lauren and Natalie... Tough Girls!

The Cheer Squads meet Super Heroes

Getting hair colored.

Kohl's Cup Soccer Tournament ~ October 12th, 2013

The Purple Dragons ~ 2013
Back Row: Coach Dad, Allie (speed demon), Ella (the slide tackler) Kennedy (the pusher) Katelynn (the power house) and Coach Dain
Front Row: Lauren (the go-getter) Lizzy (tough as nails) Olivia (tries really hard) and Ava (we borrowed her for the tourney..she did great!)

We had a nice sunny but very windy Saturday for the Kohls Cup at Racoon River Park. We played 3 games 10:00- West Des Moines, 12:00- Council Bluffs, and 2:00 Norwalk.
I have to tell this story because I am still just amazed at the behavior of parents for such young players.. not that it is ever okay but 7-8 year olds??? Really????
So, we played West Des Moines and they were really good but our girls hung in there and did a fantastic job, the parents were great and it was a fun game to watch.  The Council Bluff team was a team of 6-7 year olds, so they pretty much got smoked by our team. Here is the shocker, a parent from their team told their girls to punch our girls in the mouth.. no joke. Then they would yell at our girls for NOT letting them score or have a chance at the ball. They were screaming at the ref because they thought we were pushing.. he quickly chimed in and said that the girls were just dribbling. Well guess what? It's a tournament, and they signed their 6-7 year olds up to play 8 year olds.. they should have known they were going to get smoked. And when it's a tournament.. it's game on.. you win some you lose some...but we teach our girls to be good winners and good losers.  The final game was against Norwalk and I was shocked again when a really obnoxious mother yelled for her daughter or player to "push them back" numerous times. We have one player who does push a lot and Coaches have been working on it.. but we don't encourage it. Plus, most of the time she was yelling that, our girls were not even pushing, they were bumping shoulders and elbows.. it's allowed!
So I learned that I do have some self control and that no matter how much I wanted to get up in their faces and tell them what I thought of them.. I took the high road. I asked God what he would want me to do... and it was to NOT get up and say something. Those kinds of parents are not going to change and getting in their face or starting an argument (no matter how badly I wanted to) is stooping to their level. So... I ignored it and encouraged the girls.. (and then complained all day to friends and family about how obnoxious people are)  :)

The girls building forts between games.

WE SURVIVED!

A Beautiful October Day...

Lauren's 2nd Grade class went on a field trip to Jester Park. It was a gorgeous day! They were catching water bugs, snails and everything in between.. this was a big yuck factor for me.. I tried to be brave but don't care for the slimy stuff.
(Top right photo: Maisie, Kennedy and Lauren)

This stations they were sweeping for bugs.. instead we picked up every bur possible and I spent the entire time picking burs off of the kids as they were complaining.

This station was a nature hike and they learned about "decomposers" and found all sorts of treasures.. centipedes, spiders, beetles, ants,crickets.. you name it.. at least they didn't find any snakes!

Lauren's buddy from soccer and school.. Lizzy (Bean) Alsteen.

This station they learned about insects, made a masterpiece and played some games.

Lake Ahquabi Bike Race

Getting our numbers!

Warming up on the road.

The girls rocked it! All 3 girls were the first to the dirt trail.

This part was really tough and they did great. It was up and down hill with tight turns and on grass. It was really difficult to get any kind of momentum up the hills.

This kid was sooo nice. Lauren couldn't get up the hill well so he got off his bike and gave her a boost and said "good job".

You can see the course they had to wind through at the end of the race.

Getting her Silver Medal

Lauren was a little bummed she didn't get a medal. But in all honesty.. she was in second place the entire time and then when the windy stuff came along she kept trying to pedal up and all the boys ran past her walking their bikes up the hill... if they all tried to bike.. she would have been third if not second easily! So proud of them both.. they loved it.