Skagit Firecracker Tournament

These are some pictures from this weekend that were on my phone.  I have to go through the ones from my camera still.

Saturday morning by our tent between games.  Both girls won first place in the tournament.  Alex with her U14 Ranger team ( a mix of Blue & Gold players) and McKenzie with her U12 Ranger team.  

 Alexandra's team did not let a single goal through the whole weekend!  All four games they played, no one scored on them!  That was amazing!  The scores were pretty lopsided also.  The first game was 7-0 on Friday night.  Saturday her games were 6-0 and 3-0 (the closest game all weekend!)  

They won the finals 4-0.

After game one!  Pretty happy to start off the weekend with a win! :)

What is a Firecracker Tournament without Firecrackers?!  On Friday night, they had a fireworks show for everybody.  Usually we go home before the fireworks, but this year we camped down there to cut down on travel time back and forth.  Especially with the traffic already backed up from the bridge being gone.  The fireworks were pretty.  

McKenzie's team also did very well!  They only had one goal scored on them all weekend!  Their first game was a 9-0 win and their second game (against the Rapids) was a 7-1 win.  On Sunday they played their third game with a 5-0 win and then in the finals they played that team again with a 6-0 win.

It was fun camping.  Not a lot of sleep to be had and now I am sick, but worth it!  They girls really enjoyed themselves this weekend and they played really, really well!

During one of Alex's games, the coach pulled her aside and told her that since she got bumped up from the Royal(which is now called the white) to the Blue team, she is playing really really good!  He was amazed at her skills and how well she was playing!  Alex was on cloud nine!  :)  It is nice to be recognized for playing well!

This picture was not from this weekend, it was from last week.  I took McKenzie to soccer practice and I had the boys and Elizabeth with me.  I took Aiden out of the car and my front door was open.  Aiden said, "Look Grandma!  A spider!" I said "Yeah?  Where?"  Then I turned around.....WOW!!!  That was some spider!  Aiden told Ryan to put it in his pocket....I said "NO!!!"  :)   Alyssa thanked me later! ;)

Today is the last day of school!  Next year I will have two middle schoolers.

Soccer weekend

This is the group shot of the U14 White team and the Bellingham United team after the game today.  Alex played with most of these girls last year.  It is a new team this year but they let Alex shag balls with them at the game.  She had fun!

Friday night Alex had a team in the Meridian 3v3 tournament.  I was their coach! :)  Crazy!!  Alex really wanted to play in the tournament, so I told her to get some kids together and I would be the adult in charge.  She knows more about soccer than I do, they just needed a coach.  After many team changes...we finally had a team.  Alex, Carmel and Emma D (all from Rangers) then Kyle and Jada (from school) and the final team mate...McKenzie! :)  McKenzie was a last minute addition because of a mix up of who was considered a Ranger and not a Ranger.  

The six of them did really good!  They had tons of fun and played really well.  They didn't win any of their games, but they did come close on two of the three.  They were all very glad they played.

Saturday, it was McKenzie's turn to play on her team.  She had a group of girls that she has played with in the past and some are on her team now that they split into three teams and they played.  Her team also had fun and played well, but didn't win any of their games.  

Her Ranger team also had a fundraiser going that we helped with.  They did Goalie Wars and Speed Kick.  

Long fun day.  

Sunday, we went to the United game.  They won!!  Great game!  They scored the game winning goal in the last 10 seconds of regulation play.  Very exciting!!  Alex got to be a ball shagger with her old team.  McKenzie and I got our picture taken with our Meridian 3v3 t-shirts on.  Everybody that wore a Meridian 3v3 shirt or any youth that wore their soccer team tshirt got into the game for free.  Everybody with a Meridian 3v3 tshirt got to be in a group photo with the United team.

The first soccer tournament of the summer is now over.  There is 6 1/2 days left of school. Our second and third soccer tournaments are this weekend and next weekend.  We are just exchanging one busy for another! :)

Papa and Nana and Jordan came down for the weekend to visit, but I am still going through the photos, so will post more on that later! 

Washington DC trip

Alexandra has officially signed up for the Washington DC trip next April with her school.  Alyssa did it in 7th & 8th grade and had a blast!  She fundraised and fundraised and made enough money to go.  She really enjoyed both of her trips.

Alex has decided she wants to go next year.  We talked about it and she is going to raise most of the money.  We talked about different fundraisers that she could do.  When she needs to do them and how much she needs to raise by when.  Then signed her up!  Her first fundraiser is to sell these little guys.

We call them Whozits and Whatzits.  :)  

The one on the top left, she made into a puffer fish!  (She said I can keep that one!)  She took them to school and sold two of them today and got orders for about 12 more!  We will see if people show up with money though!  She will be very busy this weekend!  Between soccer, her group project with school, and making lots of these little guys....one busy girl!

We have also agreed on a little scrapbook to make for her and her friends.  It is going to be either an "All about me" or a "Things I love..." book.  I will make the inside pages and have two or three color schemes for them to pick from.  They will assemble them and decorate them. Now we just have to agree on a good date and advertise for it!

We are off to a good start!  :)  She is going to have so much fun!

Monday!

Alyssa and Richard's house is getting so close to being done!!  They are painting the outside, they have doors, windows, and drywall.  It is so exciting!!  They are supposed to be in around August, which seems like forever away, but is really just a couple of short months!

On Saturday, I got the kids for a bit while they worked.  Ryan wasn't feeling very good, so he was pretty snugly.  I caught him resting on the couch, petting Merlin (who was snuggled up with Alex's laptop!).  I sent this picture to his mommy since this is her cat and she loves to snuggle him too! :)

Ryan and Merlin

Little Miss Elizabeth and grandma got lots of snuggle time in too!  She is already 3 months old.  She is getting so big!  She holds her head up really good and loves to look around.  She is reaching for and grabbing onto things.  She love to sit in her Bumbo.  She can stand for longer amounts of time (if you are helping her!).  She loves to pull her head up when you lay or sit her down.  Pretty soon she will be chasing her brothers!!

We went on a walk to the big home.  These are the boys at the beginning of the walk...

Halfway there and they were both out!!  Ryan wasn't feeling very good, this was his 3rd or 4th nap, but Aiden was just plumb tuckered out!  :)

Alyssa opening her new door on her new house with her new house key!!  :)  So exciting!  

Fun at Grandma's!

The kids came over a couple weeks ago and we had some outside fun!

He wasn't doing anything wrong! :)  Aiden got a bucket of water to give the spiders a shower...

Here are the spiders getting their shower!  I think Aiden had more fun than the spiders.

Ryan loves to Hula Hoop!  He kept swinging it around saying "hoop, hoop..."

He loves airplanes!  

Bye Bye Airplane!

Aiden loved to jump off the slide!  I loved taking his picture! :)

The sprinkle is always fun!  Especially when you are in charge of the hose! :)

And Miss Elizabeth slept through most of it! :)

Happy Memorial Day!!

Thank you to all that have served, are serving or will be serving our country!  THANK YOU!!!

This week has been busy!  I have so many pictures to go through, upload, delete, and share...it is CrAzY!!

McKenzie and her class went on a field trip Thurs/Fri.  We went to Washington Park in Anacortes.  It is beautiful there!  There were supposed to be rain and thunder and terrible weather, but it was Beautiful!!  We had a little wind and a couple of sprinkles, but mostly it was overcast or sunny and it hovered around 60 all day.    

I had the kids on Saturday while Alyssa and Richard worked on the big home.  They have drywall inside and they painted the outside this weekend!!!  Yippeeee!!!  So exciting!  They are looking to be in around August.  Aiden really wanted to go camping and since McKenzie just went camping they decided to camp in our front yard.  (All the pictures are on my computer, but I can't get to them yet.)  I have a small play tent they set up and Aiden found some sticks and built a campfire in my driveway so they could roast smores. They had so much fun!!  It was kinda warm and not rainy so they filled up the pool a bit and played in it while Ryan and Elizabeth took their naps.  After nap time, Teresa and I took 12 children to 7-11 for $.49 slurpees.  We walked there and back.  Alex decided to go a different way so as not to be seen with us...crazy teenager!  We are sooo cool! :)  

Aiden and Ryan still wanted to play in the water when we got back.  With all their clothes on.  They are still drying out!  :)  If you look close, you can see their shoes and the bottom of their pants are wet.  About 5 min after this photo, the rest of them were wet!  Except for Aiden's new shirt.  He kept that up out of the water.  :)

Elizabeth was very happy!  She got to ride all the way to 7-11 in the stroller!  

 This is the back of my van before the camping trip.  I volunteered to do the Costco shopping...for 28 kids and 14 adults!!!  My backseat was just as full!  I barely had room for our sleeping bags and clothes!  Good thing it was just one night!

This is all the kids (except for two kids that didn't go because they were sick and one went home sick :( )  

sitting on the beach listening to their lesson.  They are studying tidal creatures and this was a fun way to get some hands on learning!

On this trip, Thursday morning to Friday night, I took 1109 pictures!!!  So crazy!  I went through them and deleted a bunch of blurry and duplicated ones and narrowed it down to 700.  Then I went through them again and got it down to 556.  I could probably narrow it down some more, but I am uploading them to Shutterfly right now so I can share with the parents.  Of those 556, I won't be sharing them all.  I have a ton of McKenzie and her friends that I won't be sharing all of them with the class.  

My fun weekend is now over and it is back to work for me!  The girls start soccer tomorrow!  The start of another year of Ranger's times two!!  Fun times!  :)

Soccer Sunday...

Today was a soccer Sunday.  McKenzie had her end-of-season party with her Navy WDL team.  They had it at one of the coaches houses.  Lots of fun!  I am uploading pictures right now, so there are none to share except for the cake, which I took with my phone camera.  They had swimming, volleyball/soccer, hot tubing, BBQ/potluck and lots of fun!  

After that soccer party, we went over to the Bellingham United Soccer game.  McKenzie's new Ranger coach plays on the team.  Teresa and Emily also went to the game, so we sat with them. Actually, McKenzie and I sat with them, Alex found Jordan (who is on her new team) and sat with her and some other Ranger players she knew.
The Bellingham United played a tough game, but lost 3-0.  The first goal scored was an own goal. :(  Not a very happy team.  They just went down from there.  They played hard, but could not score a goal!!  (in the right net)  ...and they did try....and try....and try!
Maybe next time!

After the game was over, we ran (ok...we drove!)  quickly to Ferndale where McKenzie's meet the new team party was going on.  The party didn't really start until the coach got there and since he was at the game, we were in plenty of time!  :)  We met everybody, filled out a ton of paper work, paid a lot of money, tried on uniforms, the girls played together and got to know each other, and the parents listened to what we signed up for! :)

I think it will be a good group of girls and they will have a great year.

This week I should hear from Alexandra's new coach about her new season.

I now have two Ranger players.  McKenzie U12 Gold and Alexandra U14 Blue!!  Very exciting and crazy and super busy! :)   We shall see what this year holds!