Why I Fell Asleep Sitting Straight Up Today

Wow, what a busy weekend! I took off work Friday in hopes of getting some stuff done around the house and maybe relax a little. Yeah, right! My first task for Friday (after laundry and daily house cleaning stuff), was to make pumpkin cake balls for Taylor's Halloween party. My dear friend Lauri sent me a Bakerella Cake Pops book for my birthday and I've been itching to try some.

They turned out so cute, but whew, they are time consuming! The kids in Taylor's class, loved them.

Happy little jack-o-lanterns. The only thing I'll do differently is use a different type of edible marker for the faces. The one I used did not show up well on the orange chocolate coating.


Before cute packaging.

Anything that goes to school pretty much has to be individually wrapped. How cute are these?

Taylor and some of her little school friends. She has 24 kids in her class. IN-SANE! Her teacher runs a tight ship though. (And for the record, I'm all for that!)

More sugar, please.

Friday night, we drove to a kind-of nearby college to watch one of Mike's former players scrimmage a kind-of local school. Jordan is a freshman at Ashland University and is already making his mark on the court!


Rare pictures of my children at a basketball game.

We were up bright and early - scratch that - DARK and way early for Taylor's first district soccer game. When we got to the field, it was about 30 degrees, windy and the fog was so thick you couldn't see 20 feet. Those poor girls! Actually, they seemed much less affected than us parents. I'm so happy Mike had conditioning and took Michael with him. It was so cold. The boys did make it to the much warmer second game.

The Blue Jets won the first game 3-2! Taylor did a solid job at midfield and played so well in her two shutout quarters in goal, that her coaches moved her to goal for the entire second game. The second team was big and good. The game was tied 1-1 after regulation and two overtime periods before the Blue Jets pulled out the shootout win! I was so proud of Taylor for how fearless and focused she played in goal. She just dives all over the place and hurls her body in front of any and every shot. She is a tough nugget.

We met at our home field before traveling to the tournament site. That's frost all over the fields. The tournament fields were much foggier than this. Brrrrrrr.


Again, brrrrrr.


One advantage to Taylor playing goalie is that the ref let her keep her fleece on since it was a different color than the uniforms. :) Look at how focused she and Sydney are here. Sydney is a great fullback and she and Taylor make a great team on defense.

We had about three hours to kill between the first and second game Saturday, so Taylor, my mom went to Skyline for lunch. Here, the Worm enjoys her first taste of Skyline. Okay, not really. She just got plain spaghetti and crackers. She ate two huge plates.



Cute pictures of Mother and I posing with Taylor. I'll warn you, you'll be wondering why in the world I posted the next couple of pictures. We were having so much fun goofing off that I need these to remind me of the special girl time!


I promised my mom that if she let me post this picture, that I would post this...

...my praying mantis face! Take note of the creepy fingers.

Alright, back to the field.

Taylor really did tear it up in goal that second game. I took this picture just a second too soon. Notice that the purple girl has beaten our defenders. Taylor threw herself on the ball and made the big save.

Just cute. :)

Six years old DID NOT play like this when I was a kid! Look where the ball is!

This picture cracks me up. I was just snapping away trying to get a good action shot. Somehow, I managed to get a picture of the ball mid-flight and not one single soul in the entire frame, ha ha.


Happy Blue Jets.

End of the game cheer.

Taylor and her buddy Aidan. They were also on the same team last year. Look at how much older they look now!

After Saturday's second game, we drove the 45 minutes home and went straight to church. After church, we went out to dinner. Then, back up when the rooster crowed Sunday morning for the district semifinal game. The Blue Jets lost 1-0 against a very good team. What a great season, 11-1-1!

The weekend wasn't over yet, though. Taylor came home, showered, then headed to Lily's birthday party at the bowling alley. After I dropped her off, I put Michael down for a nap, turned on TLC and fell asleep sitting straight up, drool and all. Do you blame me?

Taylor and Lily.

And because this post is lacking in Pear pictures, here's a cute picture of Taylor and Michael playing doctor. She was feeding her patient oranges. :)

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Trick-or-Treat

My little town, for whatever reason, never does trick-or-treat night on Halloween. From my experience, it's always on the last Thursday in October. Kind of different, but whatever. So, tonight was the big night here in Dub-town!

I chose matching costumes for the kids - cowgirl and cowboy. I realize that this might be the last year for the whole matchy matchy thing. Taylor loves her little brother, but she was definitely too busy wrangling (ha - pun!) up as much candy as possible and socializing to worry about hanging out with her little brother tonight. It's okay, the Pear didn't mind. He learned quickly to grab several pieces of candy when the bowl was extended for self service and then followed up with an adorable "Tank You!" before anyone could protest. He seriously took 15-20 pieces out of one neighbor's bowl and she was just too sweet to stop him.

Yee-haw - the CowWorm and Pearboy.

Our annual Halloween family picture. We're all looking this year!

Taylor ran into her good buddy, Abbey. Abbey goes to a different school but they are on the same soccer team. They're like two peas in a pod.

We were thrilled that our former neighbors, Jason, Michelle and Ben, stopped by the old stomping grounds for trick-or-treating. We just love getting together (even when it's about 45 degrees out). Sara and Caden joined us later, but I didn't get any pictures as my camera's battery was dead by that point.

Ben the Pirate, Michael the Cowboy and Taylor the Cowgirl.


The boys. I can hardly believe this the third Halloween for the both of them!

Off to prepare cake pops for Taylor's class party tomorrow. I can't wait to go play!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Go Blue Jets!

When Taylor's soccer season started back in the first week of August, I never figured that they'd still be playing in late October. Well, the Blue Jets SAY Soccer 6-7 team finished the regular season undefeated (9-0-1) and qualified for the district tournament. The girls have worked their little behinds off this season and I'm proud of them. They play Saturday and could play every weekend until the state championship on November 20th if they keep winning. That's a lot of soccer, my friends.

Taylor's assistant coach told them after their last regular season game that he was "worried" after the first practice. Of the 10 girls, only three had played in the Passers league last year (the league for 6-7 year olds). Three girls had never played before and four were only in the instructional Candy League last year (Taylor among them).

They've practiced A LOT. We're talking 2 or 3 practices per week, up to two hours per practice. I never thought I'd see 6 year olds actually pass consistently, rotate on defense and stay focused for more than 10 minutes. It's impressive!

Here a few pictures from this past Saturday's scrimmage:

Ready to unleash her nasty left foot, ha ha. Coach Kirk looks on.


Warming up with her teammates.

Defense gets the stop. Time for a chest bump! Coach Shane taught them this. It's absolutely hilarious watching them try to time it right.

Michael gets bored during the games and practices. He does adore Taylor's teammate's little sister. She just turned 5, but they always buddy up.

The Worm in goal. She usually plays midfielder or goalie. Her coach told me she's the best on the team at both. :)

She is always into the game, even when it's her turn to sit out. Look at her cheering on her teammates.

Battling the other team for the ball. She's probably the youngest in the league, but she battles! Gotta love the elbows that both girls are throwing, haha.

I never realized how much of a difference two years makes physically until Taylor started soccer this year. The first four girls in this picture have just turned 8 or will turn 8 in the next few months. The three in the back are all 6. Look how tiny they are in comparison! The older girls are so sweet, though. Taylor's going to miss them after soccer season. Only one other girl goes to Taylor's school.


Wish the Blue Jets good luck this weekend!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Pumpkin Carving and Whatnot

I bought a pumpkin a few weeks ago and the kids have been itching to carve it. I wanted to wait until the weather cooled off a little to avoid a mushy black-o-lantern by Halloween night. Since the forecast looks chilly, I figured last night was the perfect night.

The Worm and Pear were crowded up on me as I got everything ready, but things changed quickly once I got the top off. Both of them were squeamish about touching the guts so I was left doing the dirty work. Taylor would eventually dip the scoop in, but wasn't thrilled about it.

"Mommy, this is gwoss."

Come on, Taylor, tell us how you really feel.


Our finished product!

I love this picture. Boy, do they look alike here or what?

My birthday was this past weekend (37!). The kids and Mike surprised me with lots of pretty roses on Saturday night! I love, love, love flowers.

The pink ones were from Taylor, the orange from Michael and the yellow from Mike. My three favorite rose colors!

Mike went to Pittsburgh on Sunday (my actual birthday), so the kids and I headed down to Cincinnati to see my folks. They spoiled their baby girl, of course. My mom decorated the dining so cute just like when I was a little girl. :)

Fun fall decor and my cuties!


Pops and Mother.

My pretty and tasty cake.


The kids were excited to have leaves to play in at G-pa's house. We only have one tree in our yard and the leaf output is weak.

A couple of quick Taylor brags. We found out this week that Taylor was named her class's Student of the Month for August/September. We're so proud! Now that's a good way to start off an educational career.

Second brag - Taylor's Blue Jets team is practicing for the district tournament. Tonight, the coach had the girls run a lap around the field to end practice. The coach's daughter was tired, upset and cranky and snapped at her dad as she ran. He finished up talking to the girls and dismissed them, then made his daughter run a second lap for being disrespectful. She was sobbing by this point. As we were walking away, Taylor stopped me and said, "I want to run with A----." So, she took off and ran that extra lap with her teammate, all on her own with no persuading from me. I thought it was pretty neat! She's never scored a goal in an actual game, but she'll never know how proud she makes us with her actions on and off the field.

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

A Day at Bonnybrook Farm

Saturday was an a beautiful Fall day and the family, along with Grandma T., traveled to Bonnybrook Farm after Taylor's last regular season soccer game (Taylor's Blue Jets team finished undefeated and qualified for the district tourney. More on that later.) Last year, our trip to a different pumpkin patch was a little, uh, crappy. It was raining on and off, about 40 degrees and Michael was not feeling it. This year was perfect!

We love Bonnybrook Farms!

Don't we look happy?

Grandma's turn. She totally spoiled the kids, of course. She paid for them to do all of the activities and got sweet-talked into buying them stuffed animals about five minutes into being there. She rocks.

The place is impressive. It's so big that you aren't tripping over other people and there's plenty to keep the kids entertained. A lot of the activities are free or cost very little. (Easy for me to say since G-ma was footing the bill.)

I was disappointed that the penny pony was for 12 and under. I'm sure the staff has some good stories as to why that rule had to be added...

Mommy, I want a pony.

Tub fishing. Don't drink the water.

Both kids love to do crafts and artwork. I finally had to tell them that enough was enough with the pumpkin painting. We would have been there for hours.

Artist at work.


This is like three pictures of Mike and I together in about a month. Gasp!

Like I mentioned, there are tons of fun things to do there, but my favorite was probably the mountain slide. It was a 25-foot corrugated tunnel slide that went through a big hill. Somehow, I managed to talk my mom into doing it. The woman has had a hip and knee replaced in the last 10 years, but took me up on the challenge. She almost went down backwards! Her foot caught as she was getting into the tunnel and she spun around. Luckily, I was able to grab her in time, haha!

I love this picture. Look how big the hill is - it's quite a hike to the top of the tunnel! I did not enhance the color either. It was a gorgeous day.

I took a picture of everyone on the slide, but HAVE to post this one. Mad props to you, Mother.


You shoot out at the bottom.

Some more pictures:

Mother, on the long and winding road. Or, maybe that 's the road not taken...

Two sights I'd better never see again:





The petting area was really cool. You could get right up close and pet the donkeys, goats, sheep, horses and chickens. Well, maybe not the chickens. They're kind of pecky.

Black(ish) sheep, black(ish) sheep, what do you see? Michael's favorite part of his favorite book, so he had to have a picture.


A horse is a horse (of course, of course).


A few more random cute pictures:


Be still my heart, they are sharing.

We ended our day with the customary hayride. Now it was pushing 3 p.m. at this point and the Pear had endured a full soccer game, a long car ride and three hours at the farm. He was definitely getting a little nasty when we boarded, (Quote from one older woman sitting across from us, "Oh, I've never seen a child that young make such a mean face." Nice.) He settled in once we got going and had a blast.

Mike and I are cut off and Taylor is totally fake smiling, but this still beats the other picture my mom took because in it, Michael is making the aforementioned "face."

He was trying to make "the face" here too, but I tickled him right before my mom snapped the picture.


That's better!

My sunny girl.

I actually took way more pictures, but I don't have the patience to put them all on here. We'll definitely be going back next year. Fun times!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel