Phase II

I have noticed that our little family has officially entered a new phase of life.  I like to refer to it as the "Mom is now a full time taxi driver" phase.  If you aren't there yet, you will be.  If you are already in this phase you can just nod your head and smile and welcome me to the club.  I naively thought that if I limited my kids to just one sport or extra curricular activity and one type of music lesson that I could somehow avoid this phase altogether. Wrong-o.  The problem with this strategy is when your kids get older and 2 of them choose a sport that has 2 games and 2 or 3 practices a week in with some locations being about 20-30 min. away from home. Whoops.  Throw in Activity Days and Scouts, homework, and music practice and lessons and Mom becomes a card carrying taxi driver.  This fall we've been the busiest we have ever been, but we have also adapted and still manage to get all of those most important things done.  In essence we have created a new normal. It's fun to see the kids throw themselves into something new and work really hard.  I used to go to soccer games and just laugh at all of the little kids running around, now I can appreciate the newly acquired skills and watch my kids make decisions and play as a team.  I must confess that having older kids and watching them develop in school and in the "extras" is fun, even if it does mean the car is my second home.

So, for clarification we have NOT had a shortage of soccer time in our family this fall.  Jenna is number 10 and has come a long way this soccer season. 

Her team has only lost 1 game all season. They are definitely the team to beat in their bracket.

With Adam as her coach Korinne finally decided it was ok to actually play soccer during a soccer game.

It always helps to have your BFF near when kicking off to the other team.

 Mostly she still prefers to play "defense" by standing in front of the goal.  This way she has less of a chance of  getting hurt by any other players.

I got letters this last week from the school informing me that both Britton and Jenna have been selected to participate in the Gifted and Talented program at their school.  While it usually starts in the 4th grade they are piloting a program this year to begin in the 3rd grade which is why Jenna is eligible a year before I thought she would be.  I don't know what it entails yet, but I'm happy for them to have the opportunity to participate.  We'll see how it goes.

Britton's new favorite thing to play with Adam is "Wizard Wars."  He made a list of all the magic spells from all 7 Harry Potter books and then they "cast" spells at each other while trying to undo what the previous person did to them with their spell.  The other night Korinne was participated and there was a whole lot of pointing at each other with wooden chopsticks and dodging imaginary things and saying a lot of Latin sounding words.

Adam needs a cheat sheet seeing as he hasn't actually read any of the Harry Potter books.

Britton using a chair to deflect/ protect himself from a spell.  The whole game is a great exercise in imagination and doesn't cost me a dime. Truly a win-win.