Eight is Great!

This little princess is turning EIGHT!!

We celebrated today at school! Tomorrow is her friend's party

Paradin'

Black Dynamite Finale

The first season of volleyball has come to an end. And the girls grew so much and got so much better as the season went on!

Ashlee loved it and wants to play again in the spring - when we plan to start our own school team.

We can't wait to start teaching a new group of girls how to hit a volleyball over the net (since that's all that matters at this age).

I never knew Ashlee would love sports! We can't get her in enough sports, it seems! Thanks for the memories HCA!

Ashlee's Room

I finally finished the gallery wall in Ashlee's "bigger" girl room.

A few months ago, I decided, on a whim, to redecorate her room. The plan was to do it using the furniture she had - and to not have to repaint the room.

I'm trying to get as much time out of the paint as I can!

I moved the furniture around; brought a book case out of the closet (to hold her trophies and growing book collection); moved my desk into her room; gave her a reading corner and fun girly gold lighting, and voila, a "bigger" girl room fit for a pink, brown AND gold princess.

All of the movement opened up a room, perfect for a gallery wall. She picked out everything that is on the wall. 

 

The two hanging items that look like "junk" are her Girl Scout SWAPS (one from each year of camp). The square photos are from Mixtiles. The unicorn is from etsy. And she drew the square photo, and painted the owl at a birthday party!

Just a Moose

waiting for her ride to school

All School Read Aloud: The Power of YET!

Team No Wheat. No Cheat. For Ashlee!

* Missing Justin who had to go and pick Tyler up from basketball

Camp Like a Girl

2nd grade cabin

This past summer, Ashlee went to summer camp for Girl Scouts.

It was SOOOO HOT! 


They had to cancel the overnight camping part because of the heat, so they rescheduled it for this past weekend. And the weather was gorgeous.

Granted the numbers were down, but that's not always a bad thing!

The girls, aka Elise and Ashlee from their troop, spent a lot of time running around and exploring since there were less activities (the true activities were planned back in July). They had nachos for dinner, s'mores for snack, played with chalk and balls, made some crafts and just explored the outdoors.

I think it's safe to say they had a good time (other than the extreme lack of sleep - for them and me!)

Wordless Wednesday {Black Dynamite #1}

Kicking off Competition

Time to kick off the new competition dance season ... with a swim party, of course!

Ashlee has 4 numbers this year: 1 jazz, 2 hip hop and 1 cheer, all groups

Donutology

Yay for good friends who take you for donuts on no school days!
Extra points for gluten-free donuts!

Wordless Wednesday {Picture Day!}

Sonic Night

Dreams Come True

Meet George Niang, the Cyclone turkey.

He has a great story of overcoming the Hawkeyes!

League Champs & Home Run Hero

This was a BIG weekend.

The boys played in State. It was the last tournament of the spring/summer season, and they had high expectations going in ...

Until they realized they placed us in a higher bracket because we've been dominating.

The good news:
The boys still basically got third - aka made the semifinals - the same spot we've landed in all of the tournaments this year.

And the boys had a great time.  
That's truly what matters.

Some of them did cry, ugh, but that's a story for another time.

The boys learned how to work together as a team, made some new friends and dominated their league.

Despite missing out on the state tournament trophy, they instead brought home a giant league trophy and individual champion medals {and they qualified for the World Series}. Not a bad way to start out competitive baseball.

The best part of the tournament....

Tyler hit his first home run! 

We joked that he wasn't going to be able to do it this season, but he proved us wrong in the first game of the day, hitting the ball slightly to the left and getting it over the fence.

I think Justin and I may have been more excited than he was!

Tyler not only got to keep the ball, but he also got a trophy to keep it in that says "My First Home Run."

Dad also threw in $20 as he offered it up before the game as an incentive to get a good hit {the kid seriously tries his hardest for money!}

Slip Slidin

Tyler has been in various camps all summer.

He's been in one camp consistently with Ford; it's the same camp he's been in every summer since kindergarten.

Then there was basketball camp in Ames. And Kanukuk KampOut!

This past week there was something called cooperative games. Basically it's a week of nothing but group games. Tyler loved it - but I think it's because he went with two friends: Garrett and Jack.

He's always happy to take a break from his regular camp. But even more happy to spend time with friends.

Angie, Garrett's mom, took them to a nearby aquatics center for some fun after camp. The boys had a blast sliding in the pools. They even ran into another classmate, Brady.

Yeah for laid back summer days!

KampOut!

Tyler spent the last week at Kanakuk's KampOut!

And he loved it ... so much so that he asked to go back next year before we had even left the first day.

A spin-off of the reknowned Kanakuk Kamp near Branson, KampOut! is a high energy, non-stop excitement traveling Christian day camp.

College-aged counselors teach elementary school-aged kids about Jesus while doing amazing things, including rock climbing, ziplining, bouncing in inflatables and more.

Tyler went with Griffin, but Garrett and a host of other kids from his school were there since the camp was held fairly locally.

This was Griffin's second year at KampOut! Evie was going to go this year, but she had to decline after she broke her arm.

We hope to send Ashlee next year along with Tyler if we can get them registered. It's a very hard camp to get into because everyone loves it so much!

I'm so glad we found this camp since Tyler is not able to attend VBS at our church because it's held during Iowa State basketball camp. We also hope to try out a second church camp next year; it's an overnight camp, eeks!

Big League Chew

The Rams headed into their second tournament with more pep in their step - and less worry - this past weekend.

Having done so well in their first one, they had high expectations going into the second. And they didn't disappoint, but the dads did.

Not our dads.
But the other team's dads.

It's amazing how the game suddenly becomes the dad's game when their team is losing or a call doesn't go their way.

One particular team dad - a coach, #00 - took it to a whole other level when he progressively got madder and madder with each inning. He was exploding by the time the game was over and we won.

He was so furious, he went to the office and tried to say we were "faking" our ages; that the boys were not really 8 years old.

Nevermind the fact that we'd already played them twice in regular season and beat them. Third time's a charm, I guess.

We were laughing at the challenge.

The office said he could pay $100 to challenge us. If he wins, he gets his money back. If he loses, he loses his money.

He didn't challenge us.

Good thing as he would have lost. They're all 7 and 8. Yes, some of them are big, but no one is playing outside their level. If anything, we should be playing up!

Overall in the tournament, the boys made it to the semifinals again. Losing to the team that won the whole thing. Officially, taking 4th place.

It seems to be our sweet spot. The boys are hoping the next tournament - State at the end of June - they can make it to the championship round. A win would be fun.

They're still undefeated in their league.