Futbol?

Well Neal always dreamed of one of his kids playing Football... he didn't say it had to be AMERICAN football! When I saw the sign-ups for AYSO (American Youth Soccer Org) it occurred to me that this might just be the single most perfect sport in the universe for Gwyneth to play. She loves to play with friends, has a very competitive nature, and can run non-stop until next Tuesday! The girl has energy to spare. So we went for it and signed her up. Sure we were committing to spending every Saturday now through November with 10,000 other families (and only 40 paved parking spaces) at the ball fields, but if our girl loved playing it, then we would love watching her love it! After 3 practices and one game, the girl is HOOKED. They've only had one game (last weekend was a BYE week) and she's already excited about getting a trophy. The best part is, she's not half bad! She's a good runner, she understands the game and she's supportive of her teammates. She even had one assist on a goal during the game.
Now when I was her age and I played soccer, my brother Scott used to promise to buy me french fries at McDonald's for every goal I scored. So, before the game I made a similar promise only I figured that with inflation over 26 years she should probably get a happy meal. She drove the ball down the field, careful not to let it get to far ahead of her. When she neared the goal she gave it a swift kick and her teammate followed that up with a kick of her own right in the goal. Everyone was cheering. Gwynnie ran back to her side of the field and yelled, "Does that count for a Happy Meal???!!!" It did.

Here she is 30 minutes before the game. No - we did not purposefully coordinate the Gatorade to her uniform, it was just a lucky coincidence.

Gathering with her gal-pals and the coach before the game.

Looking like a star!
The kick-off after the other team scored... they scored a bunch.
The take-away! Here they are trying to get the ball away from their goal (the under 8 league doesn't play with a goalie.) The girl next to her actually ran so much she threw up during the game, but continued playing.So everyone could have a turn on the field and also to give the girls a bit of time to rest, the coach had them in and out of the game. When Gwyn was taking her time out, she watched intently from the sidelines, antsy to get back in the game!


They don't actively keep score, but everyone knew the other team scored more than ours did. Every time a goal was scored, someone cried. Almost every time someone fell, someone cried. There was a lot of crying. Even Mallory cried on the sidelines for one reason or another... but eventually she got over it.
Needless to say, the soccer idea was a screaming success! Unfortunately we will have to miss her game this weekend. Neal's company picnic is at Dollywood that day and her game isn't until 1:30. We did leave the final decision up to Gwyneth since she's the one most effected by it. She thought for long moment and then decided that we should go to Dollywood because Mallory would have more fun doing that and there will more soccer games. It was a proud moment.

It also means there will be more exciting news to report next week!

Is it Fall?

Can you tell what our favorite time of year is around here?

A Recap of Recent Events

You Say It's Your Birthday!

Well, it finally happened. Mallory turned 4. It took forever!!! A whole year, to be exact, but she got there and is very happy to be 4. Now she wants to know things like how to drive and if she can sit in the car on the regular seat. Don't you DARE call her a baby! She dresses herself now. Picks out her outfits and everything. Yesterday she managed to get everything down to her unders on backwards. For her birthday Mallory wanted a new vacuum - a real one - and a fish. Thankfully the vacuum is still working because I managed to kill the fish within the first 2 hours of having him. I am not good at pets. I think the dogs are now working on an escape plan. This fish lived long enough to be named Little Bill... she took his passing well. We haven't replaced him yet, but we will once we know for sure that we won't kill the next one. So, no pictures of the fish, but here's the vacuum!

these were taken with my phone so they're not great! But here's the vacuum in action

Mallory had her party at Mr. Gatti's (I think they've outgrown the "Mr" in their name and now refer to themselves as Gatti's Pizza, but to me it will always be Mr. Gatti's. Sorry, guys) and we had a great time! There was pizza and cupcakes and cake pops and games. Fun was had by all! There was a bit of adventure in the making of the dessert items, as I was trying my hand at "cake pops," a dessert invented by "Bakerella" and very fun to make! They were the big hit of the party. The problem with making them was... well my microwave broke and it is needed to get a good melt on the candy melts for the outer coating. I was forced to use a double-boiler method. It worked, but it made the whole thing harder! Here are the candy pieces on the double-boiler

Here is my stupid microwave... taunting me!


And here are the cake pops! Mallory chose blue sprinkles. The blue ribbons have white cake in side and the brown ribbons have chocolate. Nealy tied all the beautiful, little bows.
There were LOTS of games and lots of little friends


and big friends, too!


She made a wish and had a wonderful birthday!

PICTURES!!!
There was a lot going on in the last couple weeks with Mallory's birthday and the opening of Bud's Pub & Garage for football season! We didn't get many pub pictures because the game started at noon and we were pretty absorbed in that, but there was a lot of orange running around...

Speaking of RUNNING! Here is a picture of what I looked like running Tyson park with a Jogging stroller full of weights for that Jogging Stroller Trial I took part in at UT. Swine Flu? Not with that thing on! It also monitored my heart rate and breathing patterns. Coooool.

Here are baby pictures taken on Labor Day - ALL my babies... except Denver. He wasn't feeling very photogenic that day.