Dots of Life

soccer girls

i have always loved being a hockey mom... love the game, the people, the early mornings, the arena.  so when anna really developed a love for soccer i wasn't sure if i would enjoy the whole soccer mom experience.  but loving it i am. 

anna adores soccer.  it is her passion.  rain or shine, she is ready to play and give it her all.

 

we were recently in ottawa for a weekend tournament and surprised everyone by claiming the silver medal in a second place finish... only after losing to the top team in a 1-0 game.  we were so proud of the girls... they played physical and really worked together as a team.  we are not the most skilled team but we are hard workers and it is really paying off.  for some reason this pic will only transfer in small format... 
 

in regular season the girls are 5-0 with 4 shoutouts... we are blowing the other teams out of the water and anna is tied for the sosa league scoring champ. 

adison started soccer this year as well.  she is playing in stirling, as it didn't conflict with anna's soccer schedule.  this means that we have soccer monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday.  it's a good thing we all love soccer... even ben has chosen to skip his golf league in the evenings so that he can cheer on his sisters.

adi has come a long way from her first night on the field where she was excited, but a bit timid...

 

and she was more interested in blowing wish flowers than playing...

 

but she gave it a go...

 

and you should see her now... defintiely taking after her big sissy.  gaining her confidence and playing hard...

 

 

she scored her first goal on tuesdays game... which also turned out to be the winning goal for her team!

 

and even more important... she is making lots of new friends and having lots of fun! 

 

which makes me one happy soccer mom!

life with tilly

hard to believe that it has only been less than 2 months since tilly joined our family.  she is settling right in and has definitely become one of us.  she is playful and silly and i think her favourite thing in the world is wrestling with her brother ben on the floor. 

her crate training was very easy... only one accident, but her house training has been a bit slower.  until recently, if we took her out faithfully every 2 hours then she had no messes in the house, but if we didn't take the initiative she would just go in the house.   until about 2 days ago, she was reluctant to give us the heads up when she needed to go out... but it appears as though, she finally figured it out.  she now goes to the back door and barks and then she goes right outside to do her business.

she is really good about staying in the yard.  we rarely tie her out, but rather we let her roam freely in the backyard.  she likes it better this way.

she also likes to chew..... almost everything but especially flip-flops.  so we have to be careful to keep everything up off of the floor... or else.  she chewed one of anna's lulu lemon headbands the other night... very traumatic for anna pearl!  then the other morning... matt went up to shower and left her alone in the rec room.  when he came back down he discovered that she had opened the screen door, went outside, yanked one of my flowers out of the planter, pulled it back into the rec room and covered the floor with flowers and dirt... let's just say that matt was not so happy and i think tilly will not do that again!

she is now sleeping through the night.  until last week i was getting up with her at least twice a night (at 1 and 4) to let her out to go to the bathroom.  but after we just let her bark for a couple of nights... she can now sleep right through til the morning.  and speaking of sleeping... tilly loves to sleep on our air vents.  this is often how you will find her...

 

she is a smart cookie... she can sit on command and she is just learning to "shake a paw".  now if i could only get her to "come" on command, every time i call her... that is something we are working on.

adison is definitely her number 1 caregiver.  she is quick to feed her, giver her water and let her outside.  they love to snuggle and adi has really taken on a big sister role.

 

there is someone else that tilly is quite fond of as well... grandpa tom.  our family had to travel to ottawa for a weekend soccer tournament, so tilly got to spend the weekend with nanny sharon, grandpa tom and her cousin zeke... and by all accounts, she had a ball.  thanks for taking such good care of our little girl.

 

she is a well travelled pup... she comes to at least 4 soccer games a week, multiple daily walks, potlucks, bonfires, fireworks.. you name it... she's been there!  we are so happy to have her as part of our family.  she is well worth all of the work... and i amazed everyday by how much love she brings into our home.

our little athlete

 
anna loves sports.  she is a natural competitor and she loves to win.  she is also an excellent teammate and will often sacrifice a scoring chance for herself, in order to make a great pass so that her teammate can score.  she definitely excels in a team environment.

this was anna's first year in track and field at school... and it was not only a new and fun challenge for her, but it was also one that she excelled at.  she is not naturally fast, but she is strong and determined.  her hard work showed in her competitions as she finished 1st in 200 meter, 2nd in the long-jump and 1st in shot put.

she went on to represent foxboro school at the asg (all schools group) for the 200 meter and shotput and she finished 2nd in shotput... which landed her an invite to the District competition. 

anna finished 7th out of 19 girls and we couldn't be more proud of her efforts.  leslie snapped this pic of anna at the county competition.  although she takes after her daddy in the athletics department, i must say that i did represent foxboro school at the county level from grade 4-8, in the shotput competition... who says she gets all of her athletic talent from her daddy...lol!

adi's 7th birthday party

 
due to our crazy busy schedule, we had to delay adi's "friends" birthday party until the beginning of june.  we planned it for a friday night after school... so that her friends could come off of the bus with her... i remember when i was little and it was so fun to ride my friends bus. 

5 of her best friends joined us for a back yard themed birthday party.  when they arrived off the bus we headed to the backyard for an after school snack of fruit kabobs and cheese and crackers.  we gave each of the girls a homemade loot bag, that adi and i had crafted out of hemp bags that we bought from walmart for .50 cents and some fabric scraps and buttons that i had in my craft closet.  the bags had a wooden bird house in them and we used these for our craft.

 

 

we headed out to the picnic table for some birdhouse painting goodness.  the girls really took their time creating their masterpieceses and they were all so pretty in the end... i wish i had taken a picture of them.

 

after the painting was done, anna was eager to move the gang along to the games (I don't know what i would do with out all of anna's help).  first up was the sponge/bucket race.  i had no idea that it would be so much work for them (note to self... next time buy bigger sponges), but work they did...so much so that they all worked up a sweat!  in the end, chloe and jessica were the winners but judging by all of the giggles throughout the race... i think they all had fun!

 

next up on the agenda was pillow sac races.  oh my, this one was filled with belly laughs.  the girls loved these and i think they had about 20 races in total.  but every single time... adi came across the finish line first.  even her brother and sister couldn't beat her.. .i was like she had springs on her feet... so funny to watch... i wish i had grabbed a video of it.

 

these pictures just make me laugh.

 

at this point the kids were tuckered out...

 

and hungry... so the boys fired up the fire pit and we set about roasting weiners for hotdogs...

 

and eating cupcakes!  i had found the idea for owl cupcakes on pinterest and knew that these would be perfect for adi's "birthday cake".  anna pearl and adi actually put the cupcakes together... so fun and easy!  and as quick as they were to put together... they were devoured even quicker!

 
 
 

when it finally came time for presents... i was so proud of adi for taking the time to read each and every card out loud and taking her time to open and appreciate all of her presents.  she was thrilled to receive games, gift cards, jewelry and a sweet little bikini.

 

matt was on cleanup duty and well... this picture pretty much says it all...

 

with only a little bit of time left, the girls decided to hang out on the swingset and just "be".

 

a couple of girls stayed over for a sleep out in the tent.  when nightfall came, we roasted marshmallows by the bonfire and ben told us some ghost stories, but it was obvious that after a long day of school and birthday celebrations... the girls were tired.

 

adi, jenneka, tori, matilda and i slept out in the tent.  connor and anna pearl decided to sleep in the house once it was time for lights out/itouch off in the tent.  but the younger girls slept through the night without a peep.

in the morning we kept with the fun and simple theme for breakfast and adi couldn't have been happier... fruit loops out of a mini box with one of your best friends... what more could a birthday girl ask for!