1st Home Game of the Season

Balance has been the word of the day this past week.  Clearly it may be this week as well, as it is already Wednesday and I'm just now getting around to last week's update.  With a little over 3 weeks left of my semester, many projects and tests have been taking a big priority, which means that Keith has been working overtime with his stay-at-home-dad duties!!  He's been a champ getting all 3 kids geared up and ready to go to practice multiple nights a week. 

Daddy got to present Daniel with his game jersey after Thursday night's practice.  Daniel has it balanced up against him, that's why he looks like the hulk. 

Megan got the best package ever in the mail this week....a whole box of original Nancy Drew books.  Mmmmm.....they smell amazing, and many of them have personalized notes in them from years gone by.  

I attempted to bring some note cards to study one night at cheer practice, but was distracted by the sheer volume of 31 girls yelling and clapping through cheers.  Wow, they have really found their voice this year, as compared to last year when we kept having to remind them to be louder. 

The girl in the blue shirt and blue shorts is the "flyer" that Megan is a "front spot" for.  So there's Megan standing in front of her while they were practicing stunting in the gym.  This year. the girls will go to competition after football season closes, so they are working on their performance now. 

The first week or so back to school is a prime time for paying out subscriptions to a billion activities. Joshua is joining the ORFF Ensemble, which is an introduction to rhythm instruments.  This is in addition to being a member of the Owl News Network (his school's news program), and Pop Warner Football.  I'm fine with the activities as long as his grades remain a priority. 

Not all football nights are cheer nights, and so Megan finds herself doing some studying at football practice.  

And from this weekend's game...

Lake Brantley Patriots VS Winter Springs Grizzlies

The Tiny Mites take the field. 

Half time snack time. 

Me and my sweaty boy. 

We won!  Everyone put a hand in!

Joshua getting ready to weigh-in before his division plays. 

This year's Junior Pee Wee theme is: 31 girls, one mission.  So this picture is more like: 3 girls, 3 elementary schools, one mission.  They get so excited to see each other in the afternoons.  

Keith signed up to volunteer at the games and was assigned the announcers booth.  He spots the players on the field for the announcer.  He was only signed up for the Tiny Mite games, but ended up assisting for the Tiny Mite, Mitey Mite, and Junior Pee Wee games.  So fun!!

In an attempt to get some shade, I ran to the van and got our umbrella, grabbing a couple of snow cones on the way back to the stadium.  We have a Sports Umbrella coming in the mail this week, to provide some sun protection during the games. 

The Junior Pee Wees take the field!  So cute that Megan gets to cheer for her big brother!!

There's our girl, showing some spirit, kicking her leg up! 

All the girls run to the end zone to cheer on the boys. 

Love this picture!  I swiped it from a friend's Facebook page.  :) 

Our Junior Coaches are LBHS cheerleaders. 

Some pictures from the team Shutterfly site...

Daniel on the field...he's #12, standing in front of the grey #33.

Daniel sitting on his knees. 

Megan in the gym being silly with some of the girls while waiting for professional pictures to be taken. 

It was a great day.  Both boys' teams won their games. 

LBP Car Wash

Pop Warner had the BEST  idea for a fund raiser this year.  Each kid sold $5 tickets to come get your car washed at one of 5 locations all on Saturday late-morning to early afternoon.  I'm going to guess by some of the rough numbers I've seen, that the league raised over $2000 between pre-sold tickets and collections earned at the car wash itself.  

Joshua working really had with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.  His technique makes me think he needs to watch the Karate Kid again.  

I see more water on some of the kids than on the cars! :) 

Joshua (in the hat) washing a truck. 

Keith washed the wheels of many of the cars. 

Megan....window duty....can she reach the windshield?

The Junior Pee Wee team (so both Megan and Joshua) were stationed at the Chick-Fil-A on 436 near Gator's Dockside.  

A couple of hours later, Daniel was on duty at the ice cream place in the Publix Hunt Club parking lot.  

I had worked the night before, so I slept peacefully while all of my laborers were out of the house.  

We survived the first week of school!!

It's a lot to juggle team sports and school.  I think towards the end of this week, we started getting into our groove. 

Joshua out on the field during a scrimmage. 

More of Joshua's team.  Beautiful blue skies this week. 

Joshua's team "taking a knee" for a kiddo with a minor injury.  

We got to go meet the teacher a few days before school started.  This allowed us to bring our huge bags of school supplies into all 3 classrooms.  

Daniel is pretty excited that he has Mrs. Akers, who was Joshua's 4th grade teacher last year.  She moved down to 2nd grade, and found herself teaching another Holloway boy.  

Megan just adores her teacher.  Miss Bedrossian is very nice and very much full of energy.  It's going to be a great 4th grade year. 

Joshua's teacher is Mrs. Butler, but she goes by Mrs. B.  She is also very nice and had a creative scavenger hunt for meet the teacher.  Joshua had to write one thing he wanted to get better at this year....

Do better in writing.  Yes, that sounds about right for him. 

We decided to put together a Welcome Back package for the teachers.  I'm sure they were just as busy about their first day of school as the kids were.

We included a small bottle of Smart water, a blueberry muffin flavored Larabar, a package of dark chocolate covered almonds, an EOS lip balm and a ticket for a free carwash.

Before bed, each of the kids wrote something nice in a card, and addressed the front. 

Megan's is up top, Daniel's off to the side, and Joshua's is right in front with the house on it. 

The teachers loved them!  

I managed to forget to take a picture that morning, and ended up getting a hot mess of Megan that afternoon.   

And Daniel, his teacher is hard core, he came right home on the first day of school with homework! And yes, he did wear his Celtics shirt on the first day of school.  

Back out on the field, I had the thought that we'd sure have less of an obesity epidemic if when people were goofing off instead of working, they were made to run the field and do push-ups.  Daniel is in the group doing the push-ups.  

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field...Megan is trying to hold a friend up in a handstand.  

There's Joshua getting ready to participate in a tackling drill.  He's #32. 

So I tried again on the 3rd day of school to get a group picture...

Not quite...

almost....

really?...

forget it.

This week also met the demise of one of the parts to our pool pump/filter set up.  That's about as technical as I can get with that.  Fortunately, Keith knew exactly what to do, and he spent a couple of days rerouting the piping and make the entire set up more user-friendly.  

It's been a heat index of well over 100 degrees...evidently he got tired and decided to rest in a kiddie chair. 

The finished project! My hero!

All of the extra parts that we don't need anymore.