Soccer!

Today was Grace's first soccer practice. It was so funny! All those little kiddos running around on the field doing drills...ha ha. The push-ups were the best part, we need to practice them a bit, she couldn't seem to get her knees off the ground. She laid her head down and stuck her bottom up in the air and sort of waggled it around, lol! Noah was soooo bummed he didn't get to play. We brought a ball for him on the sidelines but he pretty much spent the whole time sobbing "soccer baaaaallll...soccer baaaallll..dada PLEEEASE" poor kid. I might have to go get another small goal and set it up for him on the sideline so he feels included. There are enough younger siblings we could probably have a whole other practice just for them! I told Grace to show me her "soccer pose" and this is what she gave me:

I suppose her dada's surfing background is rubbing off ;) Grace LOVED practicing. When it was her turn to run the ball down the field she would laugh hysterically while dribbling it down. She is pretty fast! But she gets the ball all the way to the goal, and then stops. Then after some encouragement she kicks it in. At the end of the practice all the kids circled up and made up a team chant "1..2..3..Gooooo Scorpians" and then they jump up and down, only some of them aren't great at jumping yet so its so cute. They get their uniforms Thurs. We couldn't find any shorts that would fit her for the practice until she gets her uniform so she is wearing Noah's shorts. Crazy that they are close enough in sizes to do that now! First game is on Saturday, I will post a video then.

And....we're back!

How embarrassing! I can't believe it has been almost 3 months since I last posted. Well, life with two toddlers/preschoolers can get crazy I guess, that will have to be my excuse! Grace is busy, back in school for the spring, doing AWANAs (a kids program at church) and starting soccer soon! She has been begging us to do soccer, I have no idea where she came up with that, but she is determined. I can't believe we are already at that age where the hobbies and sports begin! She is also very excited about her upcoming role in her Aunt Kate's wedding! Noah also goes non-stop. He is into trucks trains and dinosaurs in a major way and loves to read. He almost always has a toy car/train/truck in one hand and a book in the other. I never quite believed the rumors about the powers of destruction possessed by two year old boys, but I am here to tell you, they are all true. Hurricane Noah can destroy a room in five minutes flat! He is getting so big and talking a ton! He loves to be able to communicate. One of my favorite things about this stage is listening to his conversations with Grace. They will play make-believe for hours on end and our backyard has been transfered into everything from a mid-evil kingdom to a prehistoric jungle to a pirates ship in the middle of the ocean. Here are some recent pics from last week when we had some rain (picture grace saying "tut tut, wooks wike wain...") The video is from Grace's preschool today. It has been western week and they got to ride pony's. Have to run get Grace ready for a sleepover at Dallas' house but I promise to be better about the blogging (that sounds familiar, I know!, but this time I mean it!)

Grace got to go see her very first movie in a theatre tonight. She was SOOOO excited! Nana, Mama and Grace (or in her words "just us girls") went to see "the Princess and the Frog" which turned out to be really cute. Great music and a sweet story (I only cried once...darn that romantic lightning bug who finally gets to be with his true love.) I am always disappointed that Disney seems to feel the need to bring in some really evil stuff (scary voodoo and evil spirits in this one!) in all of their princess movies (Cinderella is the only exception that I have found.)I mean, c'mon Disney, your target age group is 3-7 year old girls, you could definitely tone down the scary stuff and they wouldn't miss it a bit! During the scary parts Grace decided that she needed to go potty so she wouldn't have to watch (proof that she is her father's daughter). She was so good,and watched the whole thing without talking. Whenever the other little kids laughed and talked she would get this frustrated face and say "why are they talking? People won't be able to hear the movie!" (proof that she is MY daughter!) Grace's favorite part? The "cool chairs." Overall a great experience and further proof that my girlie is growing up way to fast.


These are movies, so you will need to go onto the actual blog (http://hallam4.blogsot.com) to watch them

Deliquent Blogger

First, for those of my friends and family that usually just view this blog in email format, you will want to go to hallam4.blogspot.com to view the actual blog as this post contains a slide show and some videos. I can't believe how much has happened since I last blogged! I guess it has only been a month but during the holiday season a lot gets packed into that small amount of time! We had a great Thanksgiving with all of our friends and family (22 people, 37 lbs of turkey and 16 pies consumed- the turkey and pies not the people. Noah had a great birthday. I can't believe that he is 2 years old! Mema and Papa gave him a bouncer (Grace calls it a "jumprine"..I guess like trampoline?) so the kids had a lot of fun on that. Noah usually loves them, but he was nervous, perhaps because he isn't used to seeing this big thing in our backyard, so he chose to watch from the outside. He thoroughly enjoyed eating Doritos and laughing at the other kids while they jumped. Noah is in to "Geotrax" (a train/car/plane system) in a big way. Our living room is filled with all of the tracks that he got from his birthday and the early Christmas we celebrated with my Dad's side of the family. We have been doing lots of Christmas baking, and a few days ago we had our annual gingerbread house party. Katelyn made an elaborate Victorian house that blew all of the others out of the water as usual. Steve made a gingerbread surfboard which he intends to submit a picture of to his surfing magazine (just don't include your age Steve!) The next morning the kids made their houses which turned out super cute.
More photos of the houses to come, they are still on my camera :)
Tonight was Grace's Christmas pageant at church. She was a sheep. I had a cute sweater and leggings picked out for her to wear, but Nana and Mema bought a poofy dress and I got out-voted. Grace, of course, loves the dress and says it looks JUST like a sheep.


I am looking forward to Christmas next week, and I promise to do a better job keeping up with the pictures and videos so all of our family can be included in our holiday.

Bespectacled Ballerina

After failing two vision screenings at school we took Grace to the optomatrist (we learned really quickly not to call him an 'eye doctor' as Grace has developed an intense dislike for doctors). It turns out that her vision is really pretty bad. She is very far sighted, which I thought meant that she couldn't see close up, but apparently has to do with the shape of her eye more than anything else. We were told that without correction most children develop a lazy eye, but that since her vision is so bad, she would have most likely developed two. Sooooooo we definitely got her glasses, which was a whole other ordeal. They brought out these glasses and said "these are the newest in child eye glass innovation, lightweight, and practically unbreakable." After taking one look at the huge coke bottle glasses that the girl was holding I responded "and could you show me your slightly breakable pairs?" Unfortunately,the lenses needed to correct far-sightedness are the kind that give kids that "bug-eyed" appearance, so we also asked to get the special (more expensive, thanks nana and grandpa) lenses that don't do that quite as much. Then we had the discussion about "transition lenses" (absolutely not!) I have to give my girly a fighting chance :) Anyways, all that said, she looks adorable in her PINK (for Grace) Nike (for dad) frames. It has been rough for her today, but they said that after her eyes learn to relax (usually a day or two) she will see much better and won't mind them as much. We were also told we should bring Noah in, so we will see what happens on Friday at that appointment.


On a lighter note, Grace and her friend Adeline started "fairytale ballerina ballet" classes at the local rec center. They were soooo excited! In the video we asked them to show us what they learned...this is what got :)

"Fall Festival Day" aka Halloween

I think it's great that so many churches are providing safe alternatives to trick or treating for the kids. It drives me crazy when they don't call it Halloween. It's not like we just happened to have our Fall festival on the same day as everyone else is celebrating Halloween. It reminds me of growing up in the Unitarian Universalist church and they would have a "spring celebration" on Easter morning....really? I think we should just all agree that these are fun holidays to celebrate and that we don't all hold to the same meanings behind them. Anyways....the kids had a lot of fun dressing up and especially bouncing in the bouncer. I am seriously considering renting a bouncer for Noah's bday present and just letting him jump in it by himself for a day. He LOVES them. The kids went as a Dragon and Cinderella, along with their friends who where Sleeping Beauty (Adeline) another princess (Lylah, noahs buddy), and a Knight (Dallas.) Everything was great...we had a slight snaffoo when the Knight tried to slay the Dragon but it all worked out in the end. After the Fall Festival we went back to our neighborhood for some old fashioned "trick-or-treat"ing. Hardly anyone was home handing out candy! It's crazy. Growing up I remember swarms of kids going house to house...I guess most parents just figure it is so much safer to do the trunk or treat/fall festival thing. It's too bad that is the way it has to be. It was nice not having to design a costume around a snow suit like we had to do growing up. In fact, Noah got hot as the Dragon and ended then night in his super hero pj's. He really had the hang of things by the end of the night. He would say "trick or treat....PUUUUULLLLLEEEEEEAAAASSSEEEE" and then hand you a piece of candy to open. I think that is the first 4 word sentence he has used.

Fall!

Sorry it's been so long since I have blogged! I got hit with the swine flu/ pneumonia one two combo and have been in bed for most of the last three weeks. I am finally able to leave the house but am still really weak, so I have had to enlist help documenting my families fall adventures. Grace had a fall harvest festival at her school for which her Aunt Kate got to be the designated chaperone/picture taker. She had a blast "picking" apples (which were hung by a string in a tree) taking a hay ride and looking at the animals in the petting zoo (she would only touch the duck, and even then only with one finger.)





We continued the fall theme today when we went to a pumpkin patch near here. The kids had so much fun running around. They got to ride on the cow train (and so did I, lucky me! since Noah is still too small) and the explored a hay-maze as well. There were lots of farm animals to look at, Noah got close and personal with a pig (it snorfled his face before we could move him...he loved it) and the kids took their first ride on a teeter totter. (They pretty much weigh the same so they balanced each other out.) Dallas and his Granny Dee joined us as did Aunt Kate and her friend Sam. (The pumpkin patch was his idea!) After all the playing we picked our pumpkins (Grace's is massive, of course. She calls it the "MAMA pumpkin...perfect.) We then came back to our place and carved them up. They are pretty impressive if I do say so myself.








The kids carving pumpkins



The adults carving pumpkins



The finished products