Soccer Season

Sorry to my loyal reader (i.e. mom) for my lack of posts.  Really no excuses, just busy with the day to day craziness called life.  I had this idealic image of both girls going off to school full day and me blogging daily, having a pristine home, home baked dinners each night and 2 hours of exercise completed daily.   Instead it is a bit more like keep the house just above hazardous waste level, the hope of 2 sit down dinners a week, weak attempts of exercise a few days a week, and a blog that hasn't been updated in almost a month.  The majority of my day seems to be consumed by PTA/school volunteer craziness.  I enjoy it all and feel blessed to have the time, energy and passion to give to the school but I am hoping for a bit better balance in October....
Another thing keeping us super busy right now is soccer.  Both girls are loving it like always.  We have practices for one or the other 3 nights a week and then at least 2 games a week, sometimes 3 if Madison has a weeknight game like this week. 
Madison is playing 4/5 grade soccer and with this new age division comes the FULL SIZE soccer field and goal.  They are huge and it requires a ton of running for the girls.  The good thing about the larger field is that it really forces the girls to stay in their positions and make passes, no more of the "hive" mentality for sure.  Madison has decided goalie is her specialty position which gives me so much stress.  The pressure on a goalie is huge, I don't know how she is so casual about it.  And at last night's game she was so aggressive when an opposing player was charging the goal, Madison didn't back down at all.  The other player ended up getting called for illegal contact for running into Madison.  Not only did Madison go after the ball aggressively, but she STOPPED the gal from scoring.  She produced a shut out in her half as goalie.

Nora is playing with the same team on K/1 soccer. She is in a different league that does things much differently than  Madison had at this age. A bit simpler and smaller. Nora is disappointed that they don't have the goalie position but is still having a great time. The first game she was so focused in staying in her correct position that she didn't get as involved in the game as normal. This past week she figured out how to stay in position yet still be active in the game. She had 2 great assists during the game.

After taking a season off, Coach Tom is back in business taking the lead of Madison's team.  He is really a fabulous coach and takes the position quite seriously.  The girls respond well to him and I think he is enjoying this older age group where they can work on more specific skills.

As for me, I am soccer mom.  Organizing snack schedules, sending out emails and schedules, taking over practice duties when Tom is unavailble and being THAT mom on the sidelines who may yell just a bit too loudly:-0  I can justify it in Madison's games as being the assistant coach, no excuses for Nora's game though.

Crystal Mountain

Since we spent so much time on Crystal Mountain this winter we decided to take a visit to see what it looks like in the summertime.  We took a lovely ride up the gondola to the top of the mountain for stellar views.

Riding back down the gondola seemed a bit too easy.  It sounded much more fun to hike down the mountain and have a picnic lunch.  It is only 3 miles and all down hill, how hard can it be?   The hike started off quite well.

But then quickly got a bit difficult.  Our peaceful picnic lunch got a bit sidetracked with a swarm of mosquitoes, flies, giant ants and more.  We ate quickly and continued to head down.  Nora then had some bathroom issues to tend too but we got that straightened out too.  The most difficult thing about the hike was the footing.  The trail was all covered in loose rock, gravel and dust that made it difficult to get good footing going downward.  There were a numbers of slips and falls and a few whines and complaints.  But luckily we all rallied (with the help of daddy's emergency candy supply) and we made it to the completion. Of course, there weren't many other options.  By the time we realized how difficult it was, the climb back up to the gondola would have been just as difficult.  This was definitely a bigger adventure than we intended but we felt very accomplished (and sore and tired) at the end.  It was fun to see the ski runs without the snow and talk about what lifts we ride on.   Looking foward to the upcoming season all ready!

First Day

I am now officially the mom of a first and fourth grader!!!  Please pass the tissues:-(  I actually made it through yesterday quite well, but maybe it is because I was at school 4.5 of their 6 hours.  Today may be a different story.  Don't get me wrong, I have a huge to do list to tackle and plenty to keep me busy.  But it is still sad to think of my girls growing up and not being home with me during the day.  

The girls started the morning with Daddy's best pancakes (I am not allowed to make pancakes in our house since the girls claim I burn them).  In celebration of the first day he made the numbers for their grade levels.

Then they were off to the bus line.

I greeted them off the bus at school and thought I would be helping them settle into their classrooms, but they left me in the dust for their friends and I just stood there waving goodbye as they didn't look back. 

 Madison had a great first day with lots of positive things to say about her teacher.  Nora's quote was it was "good but boring" and she pointed out to me numerous reasons that full-day school isn't that great.  The number 1 and 2 issues for her is that she doesn't get much time to play with her toys at home or have playdates.  She also isn't thrilled with having to wash her desk everyday after lunch.   There may be a bit of an adjustment period for the young one.  I recall Madison had a tough time adjusting the first few weeks of full-day first grade too with many tears at the bus line.