What We've Been Doing

Here's what we've been up to lately.  Soccer, soccer and more soccer. Sister Bear is playing soccer this year and she is so excited.  She loves going to practice and always wants to know when her next game is.  There are 7 kids on her team, 3 girls and 4 boys.

Brother Bear is also playing soccer.  Or should I say still playing soccer.  Soccer never really stops for Brother.  This summer he played in 3 tournaments and now they are into league play. He has a new coach this year and is really enjoying it.

First Day of School

Well summer has come to an end. But not the summer like weather.  However, it is very foggy this morning just as it was yesterday.  It burned off around 11 and is then was in the high 70's.  As a result of summer break ending Papa Bear and I officially were parents of a 7th grader and a kindergartner.  I can't believe it.

Both were very excited to go to school.  Sister was a little nervous though.  I told her she'd have lots of people watching out for her.  Most of the teachers and the office staff know that she is Brother Bears little sister.  Brother Bear is now at the junior high and he wasn't nervous at all.  The one thing that I really like is that they keep the 7th graders completely separate from the 8th & 9th graders.  Also, one of Brothers good friends dad is one of his teachers.

Sister is only in kindergarten for 2 1/2 hrs a day during the week which is just enough time to get things done or grocery shop in peace.  She also only goes to school every other Wednesday which is kind of nice because we can still spend some special time together.  On Wednesdays, Brother starts school 2 hours later which is nice because we can sleep in a little.  The trick now is remembering the Wednesday schedule.

Longview Champions

We had a baseball tournament in Longview one weekend.  The first game of the weekend was supposed to be played Saturday at 8am.  That means you are at the field at 7am.  We awakened nice and early to a gray rainy sky.  If it was a soccer tournament it wouldn't matter what the weather was like. But not for baseball. We spent about 4 hours hanging out downstairs in the breakfast room to find out when we would play.  Delay, delay, delay.  I felt bad for the people who worked at the hotel.  It was filled with baseball teams with no place to go.  Finally we all went to pizza and bowling.  At 8pm we finally played our first game which ended with a win.  The next morning we had even more delays.  We didn't end up playing our first game until 4pm.  The day finally came to an end  a little after 11pm with winning the championship.

Summers Almost Over

I can't believe that the summer is almost over.  I haven't written anything all summer on this blog.  Well since I'm about to be the parent of a (gasp) 7th grader I guess I'll write about Brother Bears last days of 6th grade.   Brother participated in a Math Relay with other 6th graders in the district.  He was a peer buddy helper with the special education track meet.  A student favorite is always field day where he plays capture the flag and flag football all day.  There was a student assembly for 4th thru 6th graders.  Brother received the Presidential Gold Academic Award which only abou 10 kids recieved.  He also received the Presidential Citizenship Award that he was nominated for by the teachers and principal.  Then there was a 6th grade only assembly and parent reception. On the last Friday of school they had a 6th grade party after school with a dj and pizza and games.  I always pick brother  up on the last day of school, per his request.  We go out for a special lunch, just the two of us.

Sister Bear Turned 5!!!!!!!

She wanted an ice cream cake

Sister Bear turned 5 this spring.  She celebrated at school with all of her friends. On her actual birthday we went to McDonald's with a friend and then had a birthday dinner that night with Gramma and Granddad.

This year Sister didn't have a party.  Her gift from us was an American Girl Doll. We went up to the store in Seattle to pick it out and then we had tea in their restaurant.  If you didn't have a doll to use the restaurant let you borrow one to sit at the table with you.  They had little chairs that hooked to the table and little doll size cups and saucers. Sister Bear had a great time and told me thank you over and over in the car on the way home.

Waiting for our treats

Giving Kate some tea

Yummy treats.  I had tea and Sister had pink lemonade

Snow-maggedon and Ice-maggedon 2012

Morning snowman by Granddad

It started snowing on January 14th.  Just flurries and depending on where you lived nothing was sticking.  I remember we had a light dusting and I went down to the store and there wasn't anything. Still snowed off and on the next day.  Dusting and then turning to rain and melting away.  It snowed enough over night that the snow and ice caused a late start for school due to bus safety.  Some areas get really icy.  By Wednesday we were now on to no school.  The Thursday everything had turned to solid ice. Power was now out.  Thankful to have a wood burning stove.  Unfortunately our propane was empty on the BBQ and our camping stove.  So PB&J sandwiches and cereal it was.  My parents didn't lose power so on Friday Papa Bear took us over to their house.  That was quite a slip and slide on side streets.  All day long on Friday you could hear limbs cracking and falling off of the big evergreen trees.  At about 9pm our neighbor (who has a generator) called to tell me the power was back on.  We were lucky.  Many people were without power for 5 days.  Ive gotten plenty of firewood from the area behind my parents house.  Tree service companies were busy for weeks.  When it finally got nice, the line at the yard waste section of the dump was outrageous.  Our neighbor waited 2hrs!  We lost a whole row of trees that separated us from our neighbors. A high school boy cut everything down and took it way and then Papa Bear dug out 17 stumps.  The trees were at least 20 years old.

Watching it snow

Snowing

And more snowing

Now its turning to ice

Covered in ice.  Currently this tree is now bent over sideways to the left.  

these were sharp icicles

Ice. These trees bent down and almost touched the ground.  Luckily they bounced back up

Solid ice

Bent over from snow and ice.  See the after picture

About two weeks later.  Poor trees are no longer with us.  

12 Years Old

Brother Bear turned 12 this year.  A few months ago but I should still write about it.  He wanted to have the party over at the university like years past.  Which that is fine by me.  No mess in my house and there were 10 or 12 boys total who ran around for about 4 hours.  They played floor hockey, flag football, whiffle ball and basketball.  It started snowing that day and snowed for about 5 days.  So by the time Brothers actual birthday rolled around school was cancelled due to the snow and very icy roads.

cupcakes and ice cream and presents oh my

Floor Hockey

Getting his spanking from Sister

blowing out the candles

Snow day for the actual birthday

Baseball

Wow two posts on one morning.  Woohoo!

Opening Day

Brother and Coach aka Papa Bear

Brother Bear has been busy playing baseball this year. He's been playing Cal Ripken Baseball since he was 8 years old.  In the rookies he was the Blue Jays for two years, the minors he was the Angels (much to my happiness) and the majors he was the Phillies for two years.  The week after the regular season is over with they have a tournament for their league.  This year Brothers team finished first for the regular season and then they also won the tournament.  The Phillies went 16-2 this year (13-2 for the regular season and 3-0 in the tournament). His last year on the Blue Jays they also won the tournament.

Catching the first pitch from the mayor

We won this game 2-1 and Brother scored both runs!

Getting his trophies

He's played baseball with most of these kids the entire time whether it be on the regular season team or All-Stars.  So he has some pretty good friends out of this experience.

These four have been the core for years