Soccer Season is Upon Us!

We've made it halfway through the spring soccer season, so I figured it was time to post some pictures!

This is Carter's second season of soccer (first was Fall 2014). We changed teams, and he coincidentally ended up on a team with a long time friend, Carson. They've known each other since they were 4! So, we were happy to have a buddy right off the bat. They're the Goal Getters and they're bright orange! Dad's favorite :)

Goal Getter's first practice with Coach Joel

This is Ella's first season to play, and we requested to be on a team with some nearby neighborhood friends! They're the Zebras, and they love their color.... purple!!

Here is Ella right before her first practice... she was pumped!

 Her team practices at the park at the end of our street.... so nice and convenient to be able to walk there! Coach Christy is awesome and lives just around the corner from us!

 She did awesome at her first practice! No hesitation, whatsoever!

They play on opposite sides of town, and often at or near the same time..... so unfortunately we've had to do a lot of splitting up this season. More than I would like. We take turns s much as we can, but I hate missing their games, or even just part of their games! And I don't like that they're not able to watch and cheer for each other. But, we knew that would be part of two in soccer at the same time. 

First game... 2/13

 Carter is #20

 Ella's first game, also 2/13

 While she had a great first practice, apparently a game is, well, "a whole different ballgame". HA! She wasn't feeling it AT ALL. She didn't want to do anything but stand in the middle of the field and pout. So that is what she did, pretty much the entire time.

 When she had breaks, I did my best to encourage, help, and pep her up! (Eric was with Carter at his game, but I could've really used his help pep talking!).

 In the final quarter, she decided she'd run with the crowd. Small victories!! Happy to see her keeping up and smiling!

 And Cole did pretty good. He mostly hung out on the sidelines with the girls, and only tried to run out on the field a few times! ;)

Week 2, and this time they get to watch each other play!  

Pictures together were necessary before leaving the house. 

 LOVE!

 And with their biggest fan, little bro!

 Eric and I got to go to each game this time, too! So that was nice!

 Warming up

 

 Game time!

 Ella pretty much ran with the pack on game 2 as well. Near the end she started to pout because she said, "they're not giving me a turn".... so we had to have a long talk about the game of soccer and how it's played. For some reason it never occured to me that she might actually be waiting on a turn. HA! I guess we never did tell her that there aren't turns, you just go for it, but still.

 Onto the next field for Carter's game.

 Fun on the goal posts

 Week 3 was picture day at FC Dallas stadium where they took individual and team pictures on the field. How cool is that? Haven't gotten these pictures back yet, but anxious to see them!

Ella's team headed down

 Cool shot of the stadium

 Posing Ella

 Carter's team waaaaay down there

 Game 3 Ella did a little better about trying to go after the ball. No goals, but keeping up and sticking her feet in there a little!

 Cole cheering for sis!

 Hanging on the sidelines.

So we've just hit the halfway point, and had the week off of soccer for Spring Break, but we're back at it this week and weekend. As of now, neither one of them have scored a goal yet. They're just not the super aggressive type, and I'm okay with that! But, Ella does a great job of staying with the pack, and she's pretty much the fastest runner on the team, and even of all the teams we've played. That girl can smoke anyone!! Carter does a great job defending the ball, and has gone for it a few times to take it up the field, to no avail. Their team has played some really awesome teams (for being only 6 and 7), so I don't blame him if he's been a little intimidated to go for the ball. Hoping they both can improve enough to each get their first goal this season! We shall see! Also, need to go through videos and see what I've got. Will post those separately later on.

February Fun in Cell Phone Pictures

February started with a friend's birthday celebration! We went to a local studio to handcraft our own personalized wall hanging. So fun!! 

About to get started!

We made it all from scratch!

With our finished products!

Carter and Cole in the bath together..... a rarity!

Funny big brother

All clean and snuggling while watching TV in Mommy's bed

Cole has started climbing onto the couch and chairs. Yikes!

Trampoline hair!

Practicing her handstands and tumbling

Carter feeding Cole his yogurt one morning. Such a good helper!

Cole still loves music and watching music videos!

It outs him in a trance.

:)

The day after I got the stomach bug, the kids helped me clean! I think it was out of pure sympathy, because they usually don't help me like this too easily! But this particular day they were all about helping out Mommy!

Ella scrubbed down all my cabinets and drawers....

And Carter vacuumed the entire downstairs

Spent some time at the park one day off of school

Then had friends over to play and jump outside

The babies got their turn.

and were super silly!

Ella loves writing her letters and numbers lately! I thought she would never be interested in learning and practicing, but she loves it right now! Especially these PreK dry erase books!

happy boy swinging!

I brought down the diaper genie trash to be taken out on day, and Cole drug it around the downstairs, then proceeded to sit on it and ride it like a horsey!

Walking home from school one Friday afternoon, just me and my big boy! He was collecting rocks on the way.

Carter got sick after a soccer game the weekend after I was sick. Still don't know if he had what I had, or if it was just from running around and playing soccer in the heat and not drinking enough water. But he came home and voluntarily took a nap that afternoon. Poor boy! Hasn't done that in years! Thought it was sweet how he fell asleep with his head on his book.....

Fun in the dark on the trampoline!

Sillies!

They're a mess together!

Ella looked like a mid-century house wife while playing at a birthday at a little children's museum here in town. I had to laugh at this picture!

This boy loves asparagus! And so many other veggies! Makes me proud!!

I loved this snow globe art work that came home in Ella's folder one day. Most adorable craft that we've seen come home!!

Snuggling my girl

I took Ella and Cole to a Kid in the Kitchen playdate at church. Basically, they got to cut fruit, make fruit pizzas, and snack and play. Cole's favorite part was the watermelon!

After that, we picked up a quick lunch and headed to Carter's school to surprise him. I guess I deprive my kids, because I cannot even tell you how happy they were to get McDonald's happy meals for lunch! We never eat there, but it was the only thing between the church and the school, and I was in a hurry, so they got it! It's the little things I guess. :)

And it was Ella's idea to pose like this for a picture.

Loving this spring weather lately! Look at that hair sticking up!

Ball + trampoline = so much fun for this boy! One of his favorite combos.

Unfortunately, Ella was the next victim of the stomach bug the next weekend, over a Saturday night and into Sunday. Never had a kid with a stomach bug before (pretty amazing for 12+ cumulative years of parenting!), and it was pretty rough for her. Daddy to the rescue though.... he took great care of her, and kept her away from the boys in hopes to keep it at bay. She needed lots of extra snuggles those 2 days.

Over the worst of it, just lounging and recovering on Sunday night.

She slept good on Sunday night, but was still feeling tired on Monday, so she layed around until the afternoon when she felt peppy enough to go to the park for a little while. Then it was downhill from there! All better the next day for school! Poor baby, it was definitely traumatizing for her. And I'm happy to say that after 3 weekends of someone in the house being sick, we had everyone healthy this past weekend. Yay!

 

Big boy conquered this GIGANTIC rock at the park, HA!

And he was soooo proud :)

 He got a haircut, and I was trying to get him to smile for a picture.

 Stuffing cheese in your mouth and then showing me isn't exactly what I meant by "Cheeeeese!!" Gross, but cute :) And love the big boy look like his brother!

So handsome! 

 Finished up February by doing a fun service project with MOPS one evening. Love this group of ladies!

Lots of soccer in February..... I have a post devoted to that coming soon!