Soccer

The girls have been anxiously awaiting the start of soccer season.  This is the one thing that they have really wanted to do.  So two weekends ago it finally started!
They are in the U4 division which only practices once a week on Saturday mornings.  There are 9 teams of about 10 kids each – so that is a lot of 3 year olds running around.  Fortunately only 3 teams practice at a time.

Meeting the three coaches – you may not be able to tell but the girls’ soccer balls have pink swooshes on them!

They got divided up into a small group with their coach Lindsey.  The little girl in the purple jacket is one of our neighbors Natalie.

Working on their soccer position

They tried to have a little scrimmage at the end of the practice.  They clearly did not understand the concept of two teams going different directions.

Audrey was in tears at the end because she did not score a goal during the scrimmage.   The coach did not help when she told her that she did score – as I had just told her that she did not score and that it is ok to not score. Oh dear!
Though overall they LOVED it!
We have only had one practice cause we have had so much rain here that the fields were basically underwater last weekend.  Hoping that tomorrow ends better than last week!

Frying Pan Park with Friends

 

A few Thursdays ago, we went to Frying Pan Park with our friends Kelly and “baby” Mae and Kate and Nathan and Abby.  The kids had a ball!  We played on the playground, took a tractor ride, saw the animals, and ate picnic lunch.

Listening to the directions before the ride

Sisterly Love

Looking at the giant pig.  It was quite a treat cause they got to see the pigs both tinkle and poop.  Banner day at the farm!

Petting a 2 week old cow

Audrey reaching in to pet the giant pigs

Audrey having a little conversation with the pig

Feeding the goats some grass

Riding on the pretend tractors

Audrey just really wanted her picture taken on the big rock.

Pet

The girls  have been asking if they could have a pet for quite awhile.  I am unable to keep our house clean without the addition of fur, so their pet options are seriously limited.  I told them that they could get a goldfish as soon as all our summer travels were over.  They were totally happy with that outcome.

So a couple of weeks ago we decided that it seemed like a good day to get the pet.  Brooke assured Audrey that she did not need to worry cause if the store did not have goldfish then we would just get a bunny instead! What??  

We went to a small local pet store and after a while ended up with a (much more expensive when you add in all the other stuff you have to buy) little baby goldfish.

Here are the girls posing in front of Goldy

Well a couple of days after we got Goldy all settled the girls were delighted to see that Goldy had sparkles all over her tail and fins.  And while they thought it made her look pretty, it was no good.  Apparently there were several things that the pet store people neglected to tell us. 

By  now you probably can figure out how this all ended.  Goldy only made it with us for a week.  The girls were super sweet as they gave her a flush away.  They both sang her songs and comforted her (it almost made me cry how caring they were being)

So now we have an empty tank but we will get a new fish. 

Gymnastics

After a year at little gym in a dance and gymnastics combo, we decided that this year the girls would just do gymnastics.  This decision was easy to make as each week toward the end of the summer, Audrey would announce that she hated dance class.  And that she would like the class if they would let her dance the way she wanted to.  So clearly, we are on break from dance.

They are taking their class on Tuesday mornings at a real gym pretty close to our house.  Their friend Tori (in the pink outfit below) is also in their class.  So far they seem to like it a lot.  Their favorite part seems to be dropping down in to the foam pit.  Not sure that is really gymnastics-y, but it does indeed look fun!  Also impressive (at least to me) was that after the first class they came home showing off that they can now do a seatdrop on the trampoline and pop right up to land on their feet.  Fun!

First Day of School

Today was (finally) the first day of preschool!  The girls are going MWF from 9 – 1.  And they are eating lunch there.  All I can say is that the house was almost creepy quiet today.

Before school with their friends Abby and Nathan.  Abby is in a different class this year :(

After school by the school sign.  I took a picture here last year and it is amazing to see how much older the girls look this year.

The girls think that it is HILARIOUS to hang their bags around their necks when they walk into school from kiss and ride….which they wanted to do today.  I was not ready for that, so I walked them in with the assurance that they could do kiss and ride on Wednesday.

So So Silly

 

Yes they are in winter PJ’s and yes that is an Easter basket on Brooke’s head.  All I can say is that D was working late.

Yes Audrey is wearing snow boots…and that same bunny shirt.  It just will not go away.

Labor Day at Virginia Beach

We had a great long weekend at Virginia Beach for Labor Day. We had never been to Virginia Beach before and so we were very excited to see what it was like. It is very much like Myrtle Beach (ie sort of red-necky.) No nice beach houses, just hotels and tourist stuff up and down the main drag. We tried to explain cruising to the girls but they didn't get it

We headed down there fairly early on Friday and came back on Monday. Here are some pictures of our trip...I am aware that it is insane that I have this many pictures devoted to one weekend at the beach, but to be honest I actually took about 180, so this is already greatly edited!

The girls on the beach, in front of the boardwalk, that ran behind all of the hotels. This is the hotel that we stayed it. Its biggest perks were that it was a suite and it was on the half-marathon course.

Audrey chasing a seagull. I am nervous (read frightened) around all birds, especially seagulls, so whenever they started to congregate, I would send one of the girls off to chase them away. Shameless, I know.

They were so so so excited to get to the water!

This one is the Baywatch shot of Brooke

Planning out the day's activity - digging a huge hole!

Say Cheese girls!

This is the life! This is also how I know that they are related to me...they loved to lie in their (pull-out couch) bed and watch TV and relax.

Rare Mom photos!

Have I mentioned how much the girls LOVE the water!

She cracks me up how she will pull her sunglasses up on her head.

My little mermaid Audrey

Our balcony was just big enough for all 4 of us to sit on and eat lunch. In conjunction with the rock and roll half marathon, there was a giant stage out on the beach - about 4 blocks down. And each night they had concerts. So we were treated to a free, and extremely loud (we can't imagine how loud it must have been in the hotels right by the stage as we could clearly hear every single word, even inside) concerts by Stone Temple Pilots and Brett Michaels.

Run Darren Run

D is currently training - hard core - for the DC Marine Corps marathon that is at the end of October. So as part of his preparation, he has signed up for several half-marathons. His most recent one was over Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach (which was nice for me and the girls as it meant one more summer hoorah - for which there will be a completely separate post devoted to their cuteness)

Basically D rocked this Rock-n-Roll half-marathon. He set a new half-marathon PR (personal record for those of us who are not hard-core) by over 4 minutes. Which is huge in running. Here are his stats:
Finished in 1:26:50 which is an average pace of 6:38 per mile
He was 10th in his age division (out of 742)
He was 120th OVERALL out of 11,275. I know. Impressive.

His cheering squad...waiting right outside the front of our hotel

Coming to give the girls high-fives at mile 3.

Coming to give the girls high-fives at mile 13, which was conveniently located outside of the back of our hotel. While D had to run 10 miles, we just sauntered through the lobby - stopping for the continental breakfast of course. The girls actually got high fives from the two guys in front of D too.

Post race on our balcony

The view of the boardwalk and the finish line (the black sign by the pier) from our balcony

Random Cuteness

They were hunting Gold Doubloons with their friend Abby.

Audrey just making a super silly face. Love her little freckles on her nose and cheeks!

Playing marching band. In my opinion, the girls are pretty good at the snare drum.

Audrey feeding her baby during her “morning movie”

Brooke – she has certainly mastered the smile on command skill.

At a sprayground with Abby. As it turns out, the girls don’t actually like spraygrounds.

A picture with D and Papa during their trip to SC.