A Week of Sports

Our Monday got started early as we had soccer camp. It was a cooler morning and a nice morning to run outside. And then I took Lincoln, Alex and Kate to their camp which started at 8. Then I made a cake for Leah’s party the next day. She picked up the younger kids from camp and took the older kids. Jackson decided it was a good time for him to try out soccer. Ellie found out when she got there, that she was actually supposed to go to the earlier camp though. Since it was a cooler day, I decided it would be a good day to take the kids to see Cars 3 and Andrew even joined us. The movie was okay. I had heard some people really liked it, but I thought it was kind of slow. I’m not sure if my kids were big fans either. That evening, Jackson had weights and Ellie, Lincoln and the twins had ballgames. I took the twins to their game in Novinger while Andrew went to Ellie’s game and had to leave partway through to pick up Jackson from weights. Miles has recently learned how to whistle and he loves doing it, so I could hear him whistling out on the field. After the twins finished their game, we made our way back to Kirksville and got to catch some of Ellie’s game while watching And I guess we just missed Ellie hitting a home run. Lincoln’s game that had just started. It was Lincoln’s last game of the season and they were a fun group to watch. He had a couple hits and then blamed his strike out on Matt’s pitching.

Tuesday ended up being a crazy day. I got a message from the girls basketball coach the day before wanting to know if Ellie would want to play on the 7^th grade girls team for a shootout they were doing during the week. They didn’t have enough 7^th graders, so they were asking several of the 5^th and 6^th graders. Ellie was very nervous about doing it, but we thought it was a good opportunity for her. So our morning started early. Even though we had a lot going on, I was still determined to get a couple workouts in. I did some intervals on the bike trainer and then did as much of the 30 Day Shred as I could before taking the kids to soccer. Then back home to get ready and load everything up for Leah’s party we were doing later that day. Jackson left for his camp and Leah dropped off the other two. I had set out some stuff for Ellie to change in to for her first basketball game which started at 10:20. She was supposed to be there at 9:50 and Sharon offered to take her. Ellie had a bit of a breakdown because she was nervous about playing with older girls she didn’t know too well. So, I tried to talk her down from that before Sharon showed up. Then as soon as she left, the boys and I headed to my parents to see what we could get done before we had to get to Ellie’s first game. We got stuff unloaded and started to set stuff up, but then had to head to the gym. We knew Ellie wouldn’t get to play too much, but she did get in a couple times and did a great job. The nervousness she had earlier had disappeared and she played aggressively. Their game was done a little after 11 and there was a game in between their games, so Ellie stayed while the boys and I went back over to my parents. Jackson was supposed to meet me at the gym, but Andrew ended up picking him up and dropping him off with me. I got the little bit of decorating I was going to do done in the 15 minutes I was able to be there and then we were back to the gym for her last game at 11:40. Ellie didn’t play as much the second time since the opposing team was a little better than the last team. But she still did great and actually ended up enjoying the experience.

But we had to hurry back over to my parents since it was now 12:30 and Leah’s party started at 1. I still had to set out the cupcakes and finish up last-minute stuff. My mom helped me with the cupcakes and Tiffany showed up with the ice cream and balloons. Then everyone started showing up with all the kiddos and treats. We had a whole table of random snacks that they kids loved.  Especially my kids, since we had totally skipped lunch. Leah showed up later and she was so happy with all of it. She thought she was just coming over to swim with my family and didn’t know everyone else would be there. We had put together a basket of her favorite things and she loved it. The weather was great and the kids had a lot of fun while the adults visited. Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles. I made a cake that I knew Leah really liked, Peanut Butter Fudge Cake, and she appreciated that I got cupcakes for the kids to enjoy instead of eating all of her cake 😊.

The afternoon got exciting with Lincoln accidentally kicking Alex in the eye, which ended up in a scratched eye and quick trip to the eye doctor to get it checked out. The police also showed up since someone complained about the cars parked in the street. He didn’t ticket anyone, just had them move their cars. The afternoon went a little longer than I expected, so Andrew came by to take Jackson to weights at 5. He only had his soccer cleats and flip flops, so he ended up borrowing my tennis shoes and socks. He really liked them even though they had pink on them 😊. Andrew took the other boys too and Ellie stayed with me. I gave up on the idea of going by home before we had to be at the fireworks tent. I was wanting to get my phone charger and my computer, but we just didn’t have time since our shift started at 5:30. So, I ordered pizza on our way to the tent and Ellie and I got settled in. Andrew dropped off the boys before he picked up Jackson from weights and then our pizza showed up. I was starving and it was so good. Andrew and the kids hung out for a while and we let them pick out some small fireworks before they headed home. I think they were all tired. So it was just me for the last 1 ½ hours and I had several customers, but not busy at all. Wade showed up a little before nine and I headed home.

Wednesday morning I did my swim a little earlier than normal so that I could get the younger group to soccer at 8. It was a cloudy morning, but they didn’t get rained on. Jackson’s group did and they had to go to the gym for a little bit. That afternoon, Ellie had another basketball game and before I knew it, it was time to get dinner made some we could get to our ballgames that night. Ellie had a game at 6 in Kirksville and Jackson had a game in Lancaster at 6:30. But there was rain on the way, so it ended up that neither got to finish their games. Ellie pitched the first inning and did a good job and had a great at-bat. But she didn’t get up for a second time because of the storm coming in. Andrew said Jackson had a great hit out to center field that was caught and then their game was called. I ended up taking the kids to Aldi and got part of our shopping done and then Andrew was coming into town as we were getting ready to head to Wal-Mart, so he picked them up and took them home. I went to Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee and made it home before the rain started. We did actually have a tornado warning that night and Andrew was ready to send the kids to bed since he didn’t think it was heading our way. I did have them go down to the basement for a little bit though and then we all went to bed.

Thursday morning looked like more rain, but the younger kids were able to get their soccer camp in before the rain came. Ellie had a couple more basketball games that day, so after I picked up the younger kids and dropped off the older ones at soccer, we went to Ellie’s games. At this point it had started pouring and the soccer camp moved indoors. Andrew was able to pick up the boys at camp since Ellie was still playing. We stuck around in between games since it was raining. Ellie didn’t get to play very much at all and got a bit discouraged but I reassured her that it was a 7^th grade team and with practice, her time would come. I do think it was a great experience for her over all though. With the rain, we just stuck around home the rest of the day. Jackson had his last weights session for football that evening. Jackson also got Mary’s drone back and he played around with it before he had to give it back to her. He took some video and pictures of our house and also took some of Gage’s house if they want to use it for selling the house. We also went over to my parents’ house for him to do video and pictures there. Now he is trying to edit a video for them of all of it.

We thought soccer camp was over on Thursday, but they continued through Friday. Ellie and Lincoln weren’t too excited about going at 8 again, but we decided to finish the week out and I think they had fun with it. Leah took them and I did the 30 Day Shred and a run before going to pick them up and take Jackson and Zach. The kids played with their friends during the day and I did a lot of cooking. I made cookies and white chocolate mousse to take to my parents, made spaghetti sauce for dinner that night and made strawberry dole whips that ended up taking more time than I thought they were going to. Andrew went to Columbia and traded in his truck for a new one. It looks great right now…we’ll have to see how long it lasts. He got home later in the afternoon and then we ate a quick dinner and then made our way to the twin and Jackson’s games that evening. The twins had a great last game and were super excited to get their medals. Miles exclaimed that is was his “first real medal”.

After we were done with his game, we made our way over to watch Jackson’s which was already underway. It was his last regular-season game. He had some good plays along with a couple bobbles and walked one at-bat and hit into an out the next time. At this point, we are just happy for him to get a hit as he still gets used to these faster pitchers.

Afterwards, we went to my parents’ house because Lissy was coming into town and bringing some AJ’s. We decorated for the party for a little bit and then ate. Then Andy and his family got into town. We got home late and Andrew took the out to the ranch the next morning. I did a bike ride out on 3 and then came home and got ready. Then Andrew kept the twins while I took the older three to Wal-Mart to sell some kettle corn for K-Life. They were pretty shy at first, but then they opened up a little bit and talked to people. We were there for a little over an hour and then made our way over to my parents where Sara, Kaitlin and their families started showing up. Jackson and I went and picked out some fireworks and I got all of my food for the party that night. The kids swam quite a bit and the boys also worked on putting together a band. But then people started dropping out of the band and Brady ended up like this.

Then it was time to start getting everything set up for the party. We had wonderful weather for the party and the kids loved swimming and shooting off fireworks. We had been gone for the last four 4^th of Julys, so our kids had fun with the fireworks. At the end of the night, the kids really wanted to have a sleepover, so everyone but Jackson stayed.

The next morning, Andrew and Jackson went out to the ranch and fixed water gaps. I ended up cleaning the house before heading over to my parents. My dad had the kids help pick up trash from the fireworks and then he took them to drop it off at the dumpster at his office and they went by to see the weinermobile.

We just spent the day lounging around the pool. The kids played some baseball out in the yard and then Andrew, Jackson and Zane went over to the batting cages. I took Ellie, Briley and Bella over to our house so that Miss Hix could pick up Bindi. While we waited for her, I was able to get some stuff done around the house which was nice. Then we were back over to my parents for dinner and more pool time. I did take some of the kids over to our house again that night to watch the LaBeth’s fireworks which they enjoyed. Then it was time to take them back over to my parents. The twins had another sleepover while the three oldest decided to go ahead and sleep at our house.