Another Season of Fall Soccer

 As every season of soccer comes to an end, I'm always extremely grateful that the weather was 'mostly good.' And this year was no exception. We had a lot of beautiful Saturday mornings at Bender Fields...and one really terrible wet, windy day. 

Kyle coached Lydia's team, which was made up of six very cute, enthusiastic 2nd and 3rd graders. They called themselves the Pink Panthers and were a lot of fun to watch. They all took a turn at being goalie, with some liking it more than others. There were two other teams in their age bracket, so each week they were supposed to play each team once and then have a final game where they mixed up all the girls and scrimmaged against each other. It sounds like a lot, but each game was only 12 minutes long. 

Lydia and her teammate Mina

Stephanie, Karmen, Lydia, Mina, Erlean, Ava

Annaliese's team were the Blue Royals and it was a middle school girls team. They had three teams in their age group so they played both teams each week. The teams were evenly matched so they had to work hard each game! Annaliese scored a few goals and played either forward or midfield. They were hoping to win the championship, but they were down a few girls during the tournament for various reasons, so they didn't pull off the win but they played really well!

There were 11 girls on her team, but they were very rarely all there!

Some day I'll have a camera that takes good action shots. Until then, we're stuck with these! It was a fun season. Both the girls improved and had a good time. Now that the weather is getting colder and wetter, we are all glad soccer season is over and are ready to move to indoor sports!

A few fun activities

 I've sat down several times recently to write an update, but then realized that I haven't taken many pictures. However, this past weekend we did several fun things, and while I didn't take that many photos, at least there is something fun to write about!

On Friday, I went along with Lydia's class (and the rest of the second graders) to Stoney Ridge Farm. I find field trips to be very interesting and learn so many fun facts! This time, we learned about bees and how they pollinate apples. Did you know that an apple blossom needs to be pollinated 20 different times?!? We also learned that honey bees sting as a mechanism of defense, and if you're afraid of bees, you emit an odor that the bee identifies as dangerous. And then it will sting you. Fascinating!

Owen was in my group...he wouldn't look at me for any pictures though.

Learning about how to pick apples

Kennedy, Lydia, Owen, Orion- on the wagon ride around the farm

Lydia and Kennedy

Lydia's Class

Friday evening we went to the library in Everson for 'The Great Tamale Showdown.' The library has been hosting all kinds of events lately, and they are so much fun! For this one, anyone could make tamales and they would be judged and pick the best one. We actually never sampled any of them and never found out the winner...but we did get to eat tamales from the New Mexico Tamale Company and they were delicious. Plus, they had fun activities for the kids and the majority of the people there were speaking Spanish. 

After spending Saturday morning at soccer games, we went downtown to hear some music. The Lynden Music Festival was happening and there was a musician, Folkert-Hans Tolsma, who plays both the trumpet and the saxophone. We thought it would be fun to hear him play! He also sang and accompanied a few of the other musicians who stopped by! My pictures are pretty terrible, but it was so good.

And that wrapped up our fun weekend. The rest of the time we hung out at home, doing yardwork, working on projects around the house, and reading books. It was a great combination of fun and relaxing, as every weekend should be!