Kayda's Volleyball

Volleyball games started a few weeks ago.  I ended up coaching for Kayda's team and I'm having a lot of fun with it.  She loves it so far, though her intensity fluctuates a lot.

 Ariana and Kayda have been best pals for several years now.  Ariana only played because she was going to be on Kayda's team.

 Left to right:  Kaylee, Me, Kayda, Adryana, Arelly, Payton, Ghianna, Ryann, RaeLee, Kennedi, and Ariana

 The games really come down to who serves the best.  Every now and again a ball will be returned and on a very rare occasion it actually goes back again.  The girls are still figuring out the game but seem to be having a good time doing it. Thus far they've won 2 of 3 games.  The first one (the one we lost) the other coach wasn't familiar with the rules.  Each girl can start serving at the 10ft line, if the get 2 in a row they move back to 15ft, 2 in a row back to 24ft, and 2 more in a row and they are at the end line.  Once they move back they are supposed to serve from that point for the remainder of the night.  I meticulously recorded where each of my girls were supposed to be serving from.  Meanwhile the other coach was starting them back at the 10ft line every time they came up to serve.  I didn't realize it until the third game (I do NOT do well keeping track of anything when I'm coaching the girls).  So we were at a severe disadvantage.  I firmly believe my girls would've gotten it if the other team was playing at they should've been.  Needless to say I now speak with the other coaches EVERY game to be sure we're on the same page.

Dillon's Soccer and the Last Game

We got some pictures of some of the other games from his teammates so I'm putting those in.  Dillon is really disappointed that soccer is done.  There was talk of doing a weekend tournament but they couldn't get enough kids to even put the tournament on.  Then there was talk of indoor soccer but it looks like that won't happen either.  Hopefully we can work something out soon because he LOVES this sport.  

 Back, left to right: Coach Houser, Coach Austin
Middle, left to right: Braden, Jack, Landon, Dillon, Kayden, CJ, Lucas
Front, left to right: Aiden (Houser), Aidan (Long), Zack, Alex

His last game was pretty cold! As far as weather we really lucked out this season, only a couple windy and cold days and a couple rainy, one of which was just on and off rain.

 Carson stole Daddy's sweatshirt because he was cold.  Too cute not to take a picture.

The next day we had his banquet.  The coach pointed out that they had found "his position" as goalie and lamented the fact that it wasn't discovered sooner.  One of the other parents was expressing her frustration about NOT having him in goal because he does such a good job there.

Excuse the quality, it was taken with my phone but here is a quick clip of one of his blocks.

Carson's Last Soccer Game

Carson loved soccer.  That's really all there is to it.  He's kind of disappointed because next year they don't play coed anymore.  He was amazing out there!  It was the only really wet game of the season which was nice for parents but it sure is fun watching them get muddy!

 Left to right: Blake, Joey, Hadley, Madison, Carson, Kylee and Caroline.  With Coach Scott.

He had his end of season banquet last Friday.  The coach called him "Mr. Shy Guy".  By the end of the season he had definitely warmed up to everyone and was starting to get sillier with his teammates.

Here's a quick clip of one of his goals!  He's in the blue coming up the left side.  

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

We have to wait til pretty close to Halloween before we carve pumpkins because they tend to get moldy and gross pretty quickly.  When I finally told them we could carve pumpkins on Saturday after soccer they were quick to clean up and make it happen. 

 Dillon desperately wanted a dragon on his pumpkin so we found one but I ended up carving most of it for him so he got to carve Daddy's pumpkin.  Next year I just need to load up on pumpkins.  The farm I got them at had them on sale for a dollar so I could easily have gotten everybody two.

 When trick or treating roller around the kids were SO excited to go.  They had so much patience while we took pictures.  Dillon was a "dragon ninja", Carson was a "hungry werewolf" and Kayda was black widow.  If you asked the boys what they were they HAD to have the adjective.  They couldn't simply say ninja or werewolf!

They came back after about 45 minutes and took a little break sorting candy.  Then they went back out but with me this time.  They didn't even make it all the way around our neighborhood.  They were worn out so we finished about 8.  They started about 6:30.  It was nice to have a pretty nice Halloween.  It sprinkled a little but Kayda is the only kiddo that even wore a coat this year!  If only every year could be this way.

They're slowly plodding through their candy.  We'll see if I end up giving a bunch away again!

I actually kept tally of how many trick or treaters we had this year.  There were 128!  Crazy!  We didn't run out of candy like several of the other homes did.  Part of that was the kids having stopped in the middle to sort candy.  Daddy took the candy they didn't want and handed that out too.  I think we would've been ok even without it though!  It was quite a night and the kids actually went to bed really well despite the excitement.