fall soccer

Sam and Luke both played soccer this fall.  Sam's team went undefeated ... Ben claims it was because of excellent coaching.  He was the coach.  :)
 

Luke's team had a great season, too.  Won a few, lost a few, but had fun playing since lots of his friends were on the team.

Sam on (or should I say off) the tube

As I was looking through my photos from our boating outings over the summer, I noticed an alarming trend.  A trend that should not be overlooked.  (Because as the self-proclaimed official family photographer, I feel it's my job to document important things like this.)

Let's go ahead and count the number of times Sam falls off the tube (and, for the record, these are just the times I actually captured on camera) ...

1)

 2)

3)

4) 

5) 

6)

7) 

first day of school

Summer seemed to fly by this year, and none of us were ready for school to start. We still had a long list of things we wanted to do before the days of alarm clocks and homework came around.  Ready or not, here's what the first day of school looked like around here ... 
Emery - 9th grade:

Sam - 6th grade, and Luke - 3rd grade:

the never-ending baseball season (plus a little lacrosse)

Now that summer is well under-way, our "spring sports" have finally ended.  We spent most of our spring and early summer evenings watching the boys play various sports. 

Emery and Luke played baseball.

Emery was on the Angels:

Luke was on the White Sox:

and Sam decided to give lacrosse a try this spring:

 

But things didn't end there ... after Sam's lacrosse season and Luke's regular baseball season ended, somehow they both ended up on their cousin Jake's baseball team for the tournament.  Go Mets!:

 (Luke rubbing his rear end after getting hit by a

pitch in his first ever kid-pitch game)

(Luke, Jake and Sam)

And when all of that ended, Luke played on an all-star team.

Good thing we love watching these boys play sports!

my cute gardener

I have a cute gardener.

His name is Sam.

Sam does good work, don't you think?



Sam turns 11

It's Sam's birthday today.  He turns eleven.  And even though I can't stand that he keeps getting older, and bigger, I adore him and I'm so happy about who he's becoming.  He's a good boy, a good brother, and a good friend.  So Happy Birthday, Sam.  I love you lots.

Sam's arrow of light

Sam received his Arrow of Light award this week.

With the help of these great scout leaders.

We're proud of him.

Good work, Sam.  Now it's time to start working on all those merit badges!

sam ... a.k.a. #56

Sam played football this fall.  After a few years of begging and pleading with us to let him play, it was time.  He had great expectations.  He dreamed of being the star QB, star running back, star receiver, star anything, really.  Well, he didn't end up playing any of those positions, but he was a fantastic kicker, safety, and tight end.  He was definitely the star player in my book.  Plus, he looked dang cute in his uniform.

no trespassing

We went for a drive last Sunday.  Somehow we ended up on a little dirt road not far from our new home.  Sam had seen this road before, and he knew there was a sign on the road that said, "no trespassing."  He became very concerned and exclaimed, "Dad, don't drive on this!  Trespassers will be executed!"

details

One of the reasons I started this blog was to document what our life is like now.  My kids are growing up way too fast, and I know that in a couple of years I won't remember the little details about them now unless I write it down.  So, here are some of those little details that I'm talking about ...

1.  Emery has the biggest binder on the planet.  I don't know how he lugs that thing around!  I also don't know how he finds anything in it, but apparently he does, because he gets fantastic grades.

2.  When I make sack lunches for Sam and Luke to take to school, I usually draw a little picture on the sack ... a smiley face, a heart, whatever.  Well, Sam wanted to make the lunches for today, and I smiled when I saw that he drew a picture on Luke's sack ...

3.  Luke has a collection.  He's been working on it for a couple of months now.  Some kids collect rocks ... some collect state quarters ... Luke collects those cardboard tubes from empty rolls of paper towels and toilet paper.  He was especially thrilled when he found a gigantic one at the house we're building ...

4.  For some reason, Sam and Luke love to watch that segment on the Today Show where Willard Scott shows pictures of all the old people celebrating their birthday this month.  It makes me laugh to listen to the comments Sam and Luke make about the people.  For example, this morning they were watching it and it showed a photo of a guy who's turning 100.  Here's their dialogue:

Sam:  "Whoa, that guy does NOT look a hundred!"
Luke:  "No, he only looks 98."