Soccer

 Annaliese played soccer through LYS(Lynden Youth Sports) again this fall and this year Kyle was her coach! The team was made up of 6th-8th grade girls. There were only three teams in their age group, so each week they played two shorter games, one against each time. The teams were all pretty evenly matched so it was fun to watch as they all got better throughout the season. 

We've been very fortunate because we haven't had to play in the rain at all this season and have had mostly sunny weather!

Since Kyle was coaching and didn't have an assistant coach, I helped with the subbing during the games. It seemed more complicated than it probably needed to be, but I think I improved as the season went on. Haleigh and Lydia were good sports and spent a fair amount of time roaming around Bender Fields. Thankfully, Elias and Malachi also had games at the same time, so they always had someone to watch.

Photo from Jennifer App Photography

The last two weeks of soccer were the tournament. They play the same two teams as during the regular season but the team with the most wins got a trophy. The first week they came away with two wins! They were very motivated to win the whole thing and they definitely played their best game the last week! And they did it! They took first place and Annaliese took home her very first trophy.

Tae-kwon-do

 Back in June, we decided to enroll Lydia in a Tae-Kwon-do class and it's been such a good decision! She loves it! Last week she was able to do her first test and moved from a white belt to a yellow belt. 

It's great because not only is she learning the skills, they talk in class about self-defense, confidence, and respect. In order to test for her belt, she had to get her five strips. The green stripe is for performance in class, the red stripe is for performance at school (and is a form filled out by her teacher,) the black stripe is doing chores at home, the blue stripe is for reading 5 books, and the yellow stripe is behavior at home. 

We've seen a significant improvement in Lydia's behavior since she started the class, which is probably a combination of the class, getting a little bit older, having her own activity, etc. Plus, it's been fun to watch her learn the techniques and become more confident in the class.

Everyone who passed their test!

Sparring!

The lighting in the room isn't very good so it's been hard to get good pictures, so these aren't great but they are the best I have.