The twins had a field trip to the Truman farm at the beginning of the month. I was pregnant with the twins the first time I did the field trip back when Jackson was in first grade and have done it with each of the kids. It was even better this time since Lissy was in town and got to join us. I mentioned it to her the night before, jokingly, but she actually took me up on it. The kids got to do an obstacle course, shuck some corn, make apple cider. learn about horses and go on a hayride.
The twins had another fun day when the got to attend their friend, Jack's, birthday party after school one day. They had been talking about it for a while and were so excited when the day came. They talked about their gifts, what they wanted to bring to the party, who was going to be there, even games they had come up with that they could play at the party. I think they have a fun little group of boys in their class this year which will make planning their party a little easier. We also celebrated Luke's birthday later that week out at his house and while we were there, Ellie went to Kate's party at the gymnastics gym in Columbia.
Along with helping in the kids' classes, I started helping at Lifeline for just 1 1/2 hours a week. So far, I've just done some filing, sorting and laminating. Most of the stuff I was working on was for their Pure Freedom program that teaches abstinence and healthy relationships in the area schools. It has been such a popular program that they are expanding it and adding a few new educators.
The first weekend in October was supposed to busy with soccer games and our bike race, but we got a lot of rain Thursday-Saturday and it was all canceled. We ended up deciding to reschedule the race to the first weekend in November. We were kind of bummed, but called it off early enough that we didn't waste time with some of the last-minute preparations. And since the race was called off, my siblings that were coming into town decided not to. Although, Lissy was in town all week, so we got to hang out with her a little bit. The rain continued for several days and ended up canceling our Moberly soccer games the next weekend too. Actually, that Saturday we still had our games in Kirksville and we played them on the football field. Then the next week, the twins played their game at Brashear Park. The rain finally quit and fields started to dry out a bit so that we could continue soccer, which still filled up many of our evenings throughout the month. Lincoln's regular soccer season finished up this past weekend with a tournament and his underdog team that hadn't won a game all season, won their first two games and made it to the championship game. They played against a pretty stacked team and ended up losing 1-3 with Lincoln scoring their only goal, but it wsa fun to watch them gain some confidence with each game. Their coach motivated them to score goals by saying they could pie him in the face if they scored one. So, even though they lost their last game, we still celebrated with the Pie in the Face ceremony and followed it up by meeting at Dairy Queen.
Ellie had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor in Columbia to check on her feet. She got to experience an appointment at a large clinic. It started at 3 and we were done around 4:45. She had x-rays done and the doctor recommended physical therapy to see if it would help with the pain she is experiencing. So, we get to add two pt appointments a week to her already crazy schedule. Ellie also got to experience her first fun night at school. She went with Lauren and met some of her friends there. She said it was fun but was flabbergasted by the boys and girls dancing together and hanging on each other :-). We ordered Dukum and ate with Annie and her family before we took them to fun night and then the adults went to Dairy Queen for a little bit. We just hung out around our house until it was time to pick the girls up. Then the next night Ellie went to the K-Life middle school girls' night where they did a craft and talked about their identity and self-worth. It was a fun weekend for her. Then the next weekend, she got to have a sleepover with her friends at one of their grandparents' house. The girls all love their house and the grandparents are so nice. Along with all of her other activities, we also had a couple more open gyms for the basketball team. And we were happy to see that in just three open gyms with Remy, the girls were showing some improvement. Now my dad and I take over with regular practices in November.
Lincoln has also been going strong with basketball practice. He seems to be enjoying it so far. Then after Jackson finished up with football, he had 5 days off before basketball tryouts started. Last minute, we had him meet up with Remy (who helped with our open gyms) who was helping Joe and he did a session with them the Saturday night before tryouts. Then he and Joe met up again at Mary Immaculate on Sunday to shoot around and play a little one-on-one. Their tryouts started on Monday after school and ended up being extended until Thursday because some kids had to be gone one day for band day. It was a bit stressful, but Jackson was being covered in prayer by many people. On Thursday, I went by Dairy Queen after I dropped him off and picked up a cake just in case. Then we had the twins soccer game and when it was done, Andrew took the twins and Ellie home while I went to pick up Jackson with the hopes that we would have to make a quick trip to Hibbetts to pick up some basketball shoes before coming back to pick up Lincoln from soccer. He came into the car with a letter in an envelope and I read over his shoulder as he read and he made the team! We were so excited for him and he had a big smile on his face. But we were so bummed to find out that Joe didn't make it. We did make the trip to Hibbetts and found he shoes. He liked them and I was excited that they were some of the cheapest ones there. While we were waiting for Lincoln to finish up, I sent Ellie and Andrew a text to have them bring up the cake and told Ellie she could do some decorations if she wanted. It was so cute when we got home. She and Bennett had colored some signs and blew up some balloons and we had a little celebration for Jackson. Then he got right to work and started practice the next morning at 6am. He was excited that he was finally able to touch the rim during that practice. He had been working on it for a while.
The week of tryouts was also Homecoming Week. Lincoln participated in some of the Spirit Days at school, but none of the others did. I helped in Lincoln's class a couple times that week. One day I helped them with painting rocks for a school rock garden. And the next day we worked on decorating the room for a Show Your Tiger Stripes contest the newspaper was having. I helped them make tiger tails to hang from the ceiling. The parade was Friday afternoon and it is always a bit hectic. For the first time, all of the kids were in the parade. Jackson got on his trailer and school and rode it downtown, but I picked the others up from school and we stopped by home for a little bit. I had made bags of candy for them to hand out, share and eat during the parade since they were all concerned they didn't get to stand on the sides and collect it. My mom met us at our house and rode with us and Andrew met me there a little later. We got everyone to their correct spots and then I found Jackson to give him his bag. He quickly became a popular person. And one kid told him he could tell I was Jackson's mom because we looked alike. Then my mom and I made our way to our viewing area and were soon invaded by a rowdy group. There were a couple young kids in the group that they made sure got some candy, probably for themselves. They were smoking and cussing and making out. I one point, I wanted to get a picture because they had kind of surrounded Andrew and he looked like he was part of the group :-). Eventually our kiddos showed up and we forced smiles out of them. Jackson and the twins were with football and Ellie and Lincoln did soccer. After they were done, Andrew picked up Jackson from the middle school and my mom and I picked up the others from teh Armory and then headed home. I didn't feel like cooking dinner that night, so we went to Coltons and as we were pulling in, Annie and her family and Mary were walking into the restaurant, so we ended up eating together.
Since Halloween is coming up, we have started decorating around here. I found these fun skeletons at Dollar Tree and the kids have had fun posing them. The twins and Ellie also decorated their rooms. Miles and Bennett spent some time over several days coloring pictures to hang up and Ellie gave them a couple decorations she picked up at the Dollar Tree. And we got booed one night, so we did our own booing at a couple houses a couple nights later. And then Jackson surprised us all and worked on his Halloween costume this past weekend...a creepy Amazon box.
During all of this, I ended up with a cold and it took me down. I didn't work out for a week and one day I just wanted to sleep all day (spent a lot of it laying on the couch watching the Ironman Championship). I heard some noise out in the kitchen and went out to find this...Jackson cleaned up the family room and kitchen and was emptying the dishwasher while Ellie was out cleaning out the shed (Andrew had been putting in a lot of time making a new and improved Advent House-it is going to be great!). Such sweet kids.
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