A Long Time Coming

For as long as we can remember, the girls have shown little to no interest in learning how to ride a bicycle.  Perhaps it is because there are no other little kids in our neighborhood riding around, perhaps it is because we live on a hill and just riding around can be tough, but they just never wanted to learn.  Desperate, I resorted to name calling - I told them that it was un-American not to know how to ride, that when they grew up, they would regret not knowing how to do something so basic, especially if it became a problem when they wanted to do something socially.  I also pointed out that when we go to Hawaii (someday), they won't be able to bike down Haleakala with us.  The week that Emily had travel soccer camp and Elizabeth had no activities, Lee bought Elizabeth a helmet and a bike and the lessons began, with Emily practicing in the late afternoons. I'm happy to say that they can now both ride their bikes!  It was a long time coming!!

200 Years

Last weekend, the Star Spangled Banner celebrated its 200th birthday!  One of the local colleges held a celebration and asked students at the girls' school for art work.  The project was a bit last minute - the girls only had one art class to work on it - but the display was nice and while we couldn't stay for the presentations, we checked it out on our way to a late afternoon soccer game.

August Odds and Ends

Photos that didn't make the cut in August, which seems like such a long time ago!

Mardi Gras day at Camp! 

Loving every single moment of summer! 

Hula hooping while her nails dry - a multi-tasker.

Fun at the pool.

Half marathon training.  Long runs = compression sleeves for recovery.  Tough to get old.

Some things never change.  May she always love books.

Lost another tooth!!

The weekend that I went to Maine with the girls, Lee made a fire pit for me.....

Travel soccer camp for a week.  Total exhaustion at the end of every night, but eager to go every morning.  And look at those socks.  This girl is a fashion plate.

Strong is the new skinny - her new favorite headband.  We are doing our best to raise strong women (mind, body and soul), and athletics are so good for these two.

Back to school night (day before the first day).

Celebrating Forty

Lee turned 40 earlier this month and I really wasn't sure what to do to celebrate.  He was adamant that he didn't want a party; heck, he didn't even want people to know it was his birthday.  So we ended up, just the four of us, at our friends' restaurant for dinner.  Although he was convinced that 200 people were going to show up at any time to surprise him (serious trust issues in our relationship, obviously), the only surprise was the cake that the girls and I got for him (which our friends brought to the restaurant for us in advance).  We had a nice dinner, yummy cake and he was surprised by almost all of his gifts.

A battery powered fly swatter.  There is one of these at the place we stay at the beach and he loves using it.  In a serial killer kind of way.  Now he can practice at home too.

Extra dark chocolate Lindt truffles - 75 count.  I'm not even sure where he keeps them, so he might be able to eat all 75 himself....

His beloved Bruins.

Chocolate peanut butter cake.  Insanely delicious.

We watched the entire series of Breaking Bad over the summer, finishing the final season just recently. Lee really, really enjoyed it, so when I found this keychain on Etsy (where else?), I snagged it.  The fact that he immediately put it on his key ring tells me that I made a good choice.

And Then There Were None

Over the summer, Emily complained that she was having a hard time seeing the television when she sat in certain places.  We paid little attention to her, for two reasons: she wasn't squinting or moving any closer to the television and her good friend at school had just gotten glasses and Emily wouldn't stop talking about them, so we thought that she might be faking it.  Or looking for attention.  Either was a very real possibility.  Anyway, when the pediatrician forgot to do the eye exam at her well care visit, I made an appointment with our ophthalmologist.  And told him that I thought that Emily was faking it.  Turns out, she's not.  Now, her eyes are no where near as bad as Elizabeth's, but she still needs glasses.  It took almost 45 minutes for her to chose the perfect frame and color but she finally settled on a pair and we picked them up earlier this week.  She is a very happy girl and we are a family of four eyes!

While pink is her favorite color, it doesn't look good on her face, so pink frames were out of the running pretty quickly.

Getting measured for the bifocal.

Yes, they are teal.  When she first told Lee, he thought that she was joking.  Then he thought that I'd lost my mind.  If anyone can pull it off, Emily can.

12 eyes bus stop selfie!

Manchester Tournament

All of the girls Magic teams (and several of the boys teams as well) played in the Meg Berte Memorial Nutmeg Class Annual Tournament over the weekend.  Elizabeth did not make the roster for her team (only 14 kids made the roster for each team), so we only had four games to watch (otherwise, it would have been 8!).  Emily's team went 0-3-1, but they played so great.  Emily plays for a U9 team, which means everyone is under the age of 9; some are still 7, a few just turned 7, so they are an extremely young team. Unfortunately, no other U9 teams entered the tournament, so Emily's team played four U10 teams, which were made up of 9 year old girls.  You wouldn't think it matters that much, but at this age, it really does.  They were bigger, faster and stronger, but most importantly, they had played together for at least a year; Emily's team had three practices before the tournament and often weren't sure what positions they were playing.  Saturday was brutally hot and humid and Emily did not play well at all.  The good news was, she knew that she didn't play well and was pumped to do better on Sunday, which she did.  She worked very hard, played different positions, learned how to shove back against some very physical 9 year olds.  We were very proud of how well she played and how tough she was. The team pulled out a tie against the U9/U10 mix team, but really dominated that game, giving the girls a lot of hope for the rest of the season.

I love these last three photos - learning how to be tough in less than ten seconds.

We cooled off between games at Panera.  

Walking with her soccer bestie.  These two were inseparable all weekend.

Taking the ball away. 

First time ever having a drop ball in a game situation.

No problem! 

I put this one in to show the size difference. 

Participation trophy (blech).

End of Summer Fun

The weather turned brutally hot the last few days of August and we were happy to spend most of our time at the pool.  On Monday, Emily brought one of her friends from soccer along and a few of Elizabeth's friends were already there when we arrived so there was plenty of fun to be had.  It was a great way to end the long weekend.