The kids didn't have school on Labor Day, so I went with them out to the ranch for a little bit.
Usually Mondays can be kind of busy, especially for Jackson. Every other Monday, he has K-Equip at 6:30am. It is a more intense bible study for K-Life. Then after school, he has football practice and when he is done there, he walks over to the K-Life house for small group. Ellie and the twins have soccer practice that evening and finish up a little after Jackson does at small group, so he walks over to the soccer fields and just meets us there. We all head home and then Ellie has clogging still at 8. We sometimes have trouble remembering it, but thankfully my phone reminds me.
Jackson started up his football games that next day. He had one home game and then he had away games in Hannibal and Mexico the next two weeks, followed by one more in Centralia coming up this next week. We love getting the chance to watch him play and grow in confidence. He is getting better with each game and they have a 3-0 record, which is great. I'm so grateful to my parents for taking care of the rest of the kids and getting them where they need to be while we have gone to the away games. Then making sure they have taken baths since they have been late nights when we finally get back into town.
While we are away at games, Ellie plows through her busy Tuesday. They started the K-Life 6th grade girls small group and they meet after school on Tuesdays. Ellie has to be picked up early though as she teaches her dance class at 4:45. Then she is back to dance at 6:30 for tap, jazz and ballet class, finishing up at 8:45.
Wednesdays are our slower days with just two practices-Andrew and Lincoln have flag football practice and Ellie has soccer practice. Then Thursdays pick up again. The younger boys have Little K every other Thursday. Jackson has football practice as usual while Andrew and the twins have their football practice at 5:15 and then they head to their soccer game at 6 while Lincoln has soccer practice. Ellie goes to swim team from 5:30-6:30 and my parents help with picking her up from that. The Thursday I was in Tampa, Jackson decided he would just walk home instead of waiting for everyone at the soccer field since he was done a little earlier than everyone else. But then I got a text from Sharon saying she ended up picking him up since she saw him walking :-).
Like I mentioned, the twins have their soccer games on Thursday evenings, which works out well. Their first game got rained out. Actually, everything got rained out around that time-all of our Thursday practices, Friday games and Saturday games. Ellie did have soccer practice in the rain that Wednesday though. Our busy weekend turned into us being able to catch our breaths for a bit. I was in Tampa for the twins' second game, but I got word that they hustled and did a good job. Then I got to see it for myself the next Thursday. And they did do a great job. Such an improvement from when they started a couple years ago. They each scored a goal too, so they were excited.
Fridays are flag football night and they do provide some entertainment. Lincoln's class is starting to catch on better, but the twins' class is a bit chaotic. The volunteer coaches have to have some extreme patience with them.
Then there is soccer on Saturday. Again, their first games were rained out and I missed the next week, but I got to catch a game each for Ellie and Lincoln. Ellie pretty much just stays at the defender position and she really likes it. She is a bit frustrated with her teammates, but she can definitely work through it. Lincoln has really upped his game and soccer seems to be his sport...not sure if he knows that though :-). After the games were done, Miguel met up with his for a play date. He, Lincoln and the twins hung out at the fields while I worked the concession stand and Andrew took Ellie to swim team and then he and Jackson went out to the ranch to do some work and do some shooting.
Besides our activities that keep us pretty busy, we have fit other things in our days and nights. We had Wade and Laura over for dinner one night. We celebrated a couple birthdays. I tried to take my mom out for lunch on her birthday, but they had a leak in their basement and she didn't want to leave as she was trying to keep things dry. So, I brought her Sonic at her request. They were supposed to go out for dinner and canceled that too. So, we brought them some Dairy Queen that night after K-Life. We also celebrated Andrew's birthday a couple days early since I was going to be out of town on his actual birthday. I made him lemon linguine for dinner and a pumpkin pie and we celebrated the wonderful husband and dad that he is. We ended the night with a quick family bike ride.
I've been helping out around the schools from helping out in Lincoln and the twins' classrooms and worked the book fair at the Primary school. Ellie has been busy concocting smoothies while I found a salsa recipe that has become a family favorite. We've also been prepping for the De Ronde race. I keep up on Facebook posts promoting it along with getting a t-shirt and water bottle order placed. And Andrew made some new trophies with cogs and some 2x4s. I completed them by adding vinyl logos. I've been collecting supplies and giveaways too.
Lincoln learned to use the riding mower and how to do homework with friends.
Andrew made his return to mountain biking by taking Jackson out with him. Thankfully, they both came back in one piece and Jackson really liked it. Ellie wanted to go out too, so she and Andrew took their bikes out to the lake in the back of his truck and rode around there for a little while. She was not a fan of the hills or the trails...much like her mom.
We made signs for Jared's Kirksville High School Football Hall of Fame induction. I was in Tampa on game night, but the kids got to cheer him on and hold up his signs.
I got to spend a few days in Tampa meeting Sully and hanging out with Caroline and Emmie. I got the kids dropped off at school and made my way to St. Louis to meet up with Sara. We got to go together and it was so nice getting to spend time with her and Caroline. We got in close to 8 on Thursday night since we had to circle around the airport because of a storm. Our weekend was spent being pretty lazy. We just sat around the house most of the time except for going to the pool one afternoon and leaving to pick up food. Emmie and I became great friends. I got her a plastic rainbow that she loved and always wanted me to play with it with her. She called it "sunny" and would ask me if it was "coming" to play with her. She also would bring it to me on the couch to play. Sully was so sweet and I loved getting some baby snuggles. I stayed up with him one night to do feedings and he was a pretty good baby. He slept well at first and was up around 2:30/3:00, but then was up again at 6 and 8. The time went by quickly and we left early Sunday morning. We had an interesting Uber driver who said he was from the Bahamas and had a pot-smoking, snowboarding 82-year-old grandma. He eventually had me thinking he makes up different characters for his rides. But we got to the airport in good time and were back in St. Louis by 8:50am. I was so grateful to Andrew for holding down the fort and getting everyone where they needed to be, along with some help from my parents. I know the games were long in the heat. And he had a big trial coming up the next week that he was also trying to prepare for.
I got back to Kirksville around 12:30 and that evening, Lissy was thankfully able to sneak us in for some quick family pictures.
To add to one of our crazy Thursdays, we had the Mother Son Stampede. I had not taken the twins before, so I made sure to fit it in. I took Lincoln and the twins and Leah and Alex joined us. We got there right as it started at 4. The boys had fun in the jump house, shooting a bb gun, trying their hand at roping, doing an obstacle course and doing the water balloon sling shot. They tried to roast marshmallows, but it was 90 degrees out. We were back home by 5 since the twins had to be at football practice at 5:15. I had ordered pizza to be delivered while we were gone since Ellie was at home. There was no pizza when we got home and then I realized I had it delivered to K-Life house instead of ours. We didn't have time to do anything about it, so I texted Wade to let him know what happened and to enjoy the pizza. We dropped off the boys and then quickly picked up some McDonalds before dropping Ellie off at swim team. We picked the twins up early from football and let them eat quickly in the car on the way to their soccer game.
So, I think I'm caught up for now. I know I missed some stuff along the way, but hopefully I'll do better next time.
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