Celebrating Mother's Day with a Fiddler

Last weekend as you know was Mother's day. We spent the weekend with our moms and caught a show at the Orpheum. On Saturday, we headed to Greenfield to spend some time with Gran-Gran. On Sunday, the kids and I gave LeAnn her gifts and headed to church. After church, we headed to Memphis to see Grammy. LeAnn and I had Orpheum tickets to see Fiddler on the Roof. This is the farewell tour for Topol in this show and the role he made famous. It was a special night and if you get a chance to see this show during this tour, see it!

On Wednesday night, the children's choirs at church had their annual share time. Abby had a speaking part and did a great job. Both of the kid's choirs were great. We are so lucky to have great leaders at our church, that know music and love to share it with children.

That's just a quick catch-up on the last week. This next week, we have the last week of school, soccer tryouts for next year, a dentist visit, and a doctor visit. And I get to miss it all since I get to work in Murfreesboro the whole week.

The Ant Project

Ian had one of those wonderful projects that teachers give first graders. And we all know who really does those first grade projects don't we! But we are lucky that Ian wants to do a lot of it himself. So it isn't that bad for us parents. Ian's class has been studying insects, and they had to make a three-dimensional insect of their choosing. When Abby did this project, we did a ladybug. Ian chose a fire ant. It was interesting and we learned a lot about fire ants. We used Styrofoam balls and base, felt pieces of fabric, pipe cleaners, and wooden Popsicle sticks. It turned out pretty good.

Also this past week, was Grandparent's Day at the kid's school. We don't have any pictures of this since we were not there. But Grammy, Granddaddy, Gran-Gran, and Uncle came to school for the day. Each class performed a couple of songs, and showed off their classroom and projects they were working on. From what we hear, it was a fun day.

Oreo, the Guinea Pig

Okay, the guinea pig. Abby has been on us for quiet some time about getting a guinea pig. Every time we go to the pet store to get supplies for our livestock, Abby spends the entire time looking at the guinea pigs. One of her best friends, Ashley, has two guinea pigs, and Abby just has to have one. LeAnn and I had decided to get Abby a guinea pig for her birthday in July. Of course, Abby didn't know that. So Abby had announced that if she got a goal in soccer, she was going to use her $100, to get a guinea pig and the cage and the other paraphernalia.

So a couple of Thursdays ago, we get this email form Ian's teacher, letting the parents know that the classroom guinea pig had babies, and they were needing good homes. So we were now being faced with a free guinea pig. So LeAnn, who was very much against getting a rodent, decided that it was a good idea to get this guinea pig now. We decided not to let the kids know.

So last Saturday, after Abby's first soccer game, we met Mrs. Patsy at the school to pick up the newest addition to the family. The kids were speechless and couldn't believe we actually let them have a guinea pig. After a quick stop at the pet store to get the supplies, we brought the newest addition home. The kids named her Oreo, because she has a black head and a black bottom and is white in the center. She kinda looks like an Oreo.

Oreo has been a lot of fun, I admit. I didn't realize guinea pigs made these high frequency noises. She has a personality that is sweet, and she loves teasing the cats, who can't figure out what she is.

So now we have, two dogs, two cats, three fish and a guinea pig. We are going to start charging admission to our little zoo!

Best of the West Shootout

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, but it really isn't my fault. Someone with a fancy new camera, that her incredible husband gave her for Christmas, wouldn't download pictures to the laptop. But finally, she did. So let's go back to last weekend and our last soccer tournament of the season shall we.

Last weekend, the local Jackson Area Wide Soccer hosted their spring tournament. We were grateful to have a tournament here in town for a change, and it was the last tournament of the season for us. In fact, the soccer fields are right across the street from our house. So talk about playing at home!! This tournament was a little smaller than most than we have played in, but there were still some good teams entered. Of course, playing at home doesn't necessarily mean you get to sleep in. We got to play at 8:00am on Saturday against the Dyersburg, TN Strickers. It was an easy game for our girls as we won 9-0. But the big news in this game was that Abby finally scored her first goal!!! It was on a great pass from Addison and Abby was in the perfect spot to slam the ball through to the back of the net! Now here is the thing. Abby is the youngest on the team. In fact, if she was a week younger, she would be playing on the U10 team. She is also the only new girl on the team this year. So Abby was a little hesitant and a bit behind the other girls back at the beginning of the year, which was August 2008. So to get her to be aggressive, I promised her that if she scored a goal, I would give her $100. And yes, I lived up to my part of the bargain. Their second game was against the Poplar Bluff, Mo Kickers. Again, the girls played great and won 5-0. And guess what! Abby scored again!!! It was a great clean up goal. Now she did NOT get another $100. But it was great day for Abby. Now this put us in the Championship game on Sunday against our most hated crosstown rivals, the Jackson Rush Swoosh team. It was a classic game ending in regulation at 2-2. It was the first time someone scored against us in eight games. We played two overtime periods and were still tied at two. So we went to penalty kicks. And with our goalie, Morgan, we liked our chances. And Morgan didn't let us down and we won the PKs 4-2, to win our third straight tournament championship!

The girls went 15-1 during the spring season and would have qualified for the state championships if they had had them this year. The state organization eliminated the U11 tournament this year, so we don't get to go this year. Hopefully, next year. They held their opponents scoreless ten times during the spring, and only allowed more than one goal twice. This group of girls played great together. They dominated the spring because they were quicker than their opponents and they were just manic aggressive.

The season is over for our girls and they will practice for a few more weeks. They have tryouts for next year's team in mid-May. Next year, they go to 11 v. 11, so that should be interesting. Abby has come so far, and I hope she can make it to next year's squad. We have a few girls that our coming over from Rush trying out and some from out-of-town. But I like her chances.

Another Weekend, Another Rain Storm, Another Championship

This weekend, like so many of our weekends lately, was about soccer. We loaded up the cars and headed back to Nashville for another soccer tournament. This time it was the Music City Invitational. This is an annual tournament for our soccer club and one of the more prestigious soccer tournaments in the state. So of course, the competition was going to be tougher. The kids and I headed up on Friday after school. LeAnn had a meeting in Nashville on Friday, so she was already there. We usually head to our out of town tournaments on Friday, because we usually have an early Saturday morning game each time. The was a great tournament, because the hotel the entire club stayed at was right across the street from the soccer complex and we didn't have to pay for parking and could walk to the games.

Saturday was a beautiful day with warm temperatures, and clear blue skies. I mention this, because in every tournament we have been in this spring we have had terrible weather. We have played in sleet, rain, thunderstorms (very shortly), below freezing temperatures, and had games called or postponed for hail storms and tornado warnings. So a warm, sunny day was much appreciated. We opened the tournament against the host team, Harpeth Futbol Club. Harpeth always has good teams and pull their teams from a lot of the private schools in Nashville. Much like the soccer club in Jackson is made up of mostly the USJ kids. Our coach felt like this was going to be the toughest game in our pool. The girls played very well and never allowed a strong attack on our goal. We won the game 3-0. We had lost to Harpeth twice in the fall by one goal in each game, so it was nice to get some revenge. One of those losses was in our own tournament. So the girls, were glad to return the favor.

That afternoon, we played the Clarksville, TN Royals. I don't believe we had played them this year. The girls dominated from the very beginning and jumped out to an early lead and won 5-0. The first day was over and we were sitting with a big lead in points in our pool. They used that strange point system in this tournament as well. You get six points for a win, three points for a tie, one point for each point (up to three maximum), and one bonus point for a shut out. So the most you can get in each game is ten points. So we had 20 points at the end of the first day. The first place team from each pool advanced to the championship game.

On Sunday, we awoke to the theme of the spring season...thunderstorms. It was raining hard, and we had a ten o'clock game against a Paris, Kentucky team. Paris is a suburb of Lexington, so they had come a long way to finish last. They were supposed to be our easiest game, but for some reason, their goalie played amazing. She got everything. The entire game was played in front of their goal, and we finally got one in with about three minutes left in the game. They had not scored and had given up thirteen goals, but for some reason they played well against us. We needed a big win, because there was chance that the championship games would be cancelled because of the severe weather. In that case, the team with the most of those points would be declared the winner. The leader in the other pool had 19 points, so we needed to score more than we did. But the other team go upset and didn't make it to the finals.

That afternoon, they decided to play the championships in a down pour. As long as lightening wasn't in the area they would play. We played the Brentwood, TN Select team. We didn't have a great feeling about the game, those girls were big. But once again, our girls just played more aggressively and better defense. The goal opened up for Abby once and I was sure she had it in, but it just went a fraction wide. But our girls pulled off the upset 2-0, for another championship. They did not give up a single goal all weekend, against some of the better teams in the state. We are so proud of them.

This weekend we have another tournament, but this one is here in town and right across the street from our house. So that will be great. Some of our biggest rivals from here in town will be there, the Rush Swoosh team. It is a smaller tournament, not as many teams, and is hosted by the Jackson Area Wide Soccer (JAWS) organization. It should be a lot of fun. I know we will be playing a team from Missouri on Saturday afternoon, so that should be interesting to play a team you know nothing about. Next month is the tryouts for next years team, and then after that it is summer of golf lessons, sports academy, camps, and the Great Western Family Adventure...just 57 days until we leave!

More Easter Weekend Pictures!

Easter Weekend

We just finished another great weekend. On Thursday, Ian's class had an Easter Egg Hunt and party. Pizza and fun were had by all. On Friday, we all had the day off. We spent it cleaning the house and running some errands. We took Nikko to the vet, to see how much he weighs now. Our newest pet is now six months old and weighs 64 lbs. Yep, he a big boy! We did some shopping and Abby went to a birthday party.

On Saturday, we took off to the Memphis Zoo. It was great day, and the kids had a great time, with very little arguing or picking on each other. It is great to see what they have done with the zoo. It was horrible when I was a kid, but today it is very nice. We even bought a membership to the zoo, this trip. I know we will be there a few more times this year.

On Sunday, we went to church and then to my parent's house for Easter lunch with Granddaddy and Gran-Gran. The kids spent the night since they had Monday off from school, and LeAnn and I had to work.

We have a busy week ahead with work and soccer. Scrimmage game tomorrow and a tournament next weekend in Nashville. We will be scrimmaging the U12 team to get us ready for the upcoming tournament. Stiffer competition in Nashville this weekend, so hopefully this will help. We will keep everyone posted on things.