Spirit week, double digits, and soccer Sunday

I don't know if we could have squeezed much more into this past week. We had some excitement at Brenner's school with several confirmed cases of COVID on the football team. Little communication from school so it was really interesting trying to tease apart the facts from 7th graders and other parents!  Matt also had cases at his school.  Matt, Brenner and Nola appear to be fine but we still wear our masks, practice social distancing, and loving our neighbors to the best of our ability. I continue to work at home (in the quiet which is nice!) Let's all do our part!

Brenner on salad dressing day....guess what he is? (Guess Ranch!)

Go Chiefs! Day....Brenner is so excited lol!

Hawaiian day at Nola's school.

Why do Twin day when you can do Triplet day?!

We Facetimed with Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck to open her birthday presents - lego set, doodle books, and white board. She was one happy camper!

Nola showing off her white board. She wrote her chores....now will she do them????

Mr. Tickles disappeared. I found him under the neighbor's truck watching the road traffic.

The sunset on Thursday was wicked - the sun was huge and setting behind us on the highway. The picture doesn't do it justice but it was very cool.

Nola was allowed to have one friend over for her birthday. Morgan and Nola had a ball! They built a fort on the back patio....

Birthday dinner menu - mustard chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and rolls. Looks like wearing a shirt was optional.....

Friends since...well forever. They were born only five weeks apart!

Marshmallows anyone?

Late night with movies and air mattress and giggles. Fun presents from Morgan including horses vet set and sparkle poop.

Saturday morning vet clinic. Nola is doing surgery on a cat and Morgan is doing the bills. The rope is up to keep Brenner out!

No birthday cake this year because we wanted to keep the goodies covered! So Nola asked for chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. Avatar Last Airbender was the theme!

The cool Airbender banners made by our friend Sariana. They turned out awesome!

The girls decorated a tone with the streamers!

Danielle and Kevin helped us celebrate - it was awesome to see them!

Who needs hugs and touching when you can bring silly string?!

Someone got me with it too!

The girls made a obstacle course that included hopscotch, four square, shooting baskets, and climbing the tire swing. Danielle was kind enough to participate!

Confetti blasters!!!

Grandma Val getting the girls with silly string.

More confetti! The weather was gorgeous!

Most of the crew!

Erica (and Cindy way in the background next to Matt) brought Cash and Conway over for a visit - Cash even sported a cute birthday bow to celebrate Nola. They also made Nola a cute card with hoof prints of the mini horses and Cocoa.

Nola testing her nail polish out on Grandma.

Thanks for making the day special! Aunt Lynnie and Uncle Chris gave an awesome horse night shirt and slippers; Grandma gave a fun bag full of horse watch, journal, shirt, fingernail polish, books, soap, among other things; and Colten and Elly gave candy that was devoured and cools horse training books (we have looked through them already!)!

I don't know who suggested having us pose like a sorority but this was a funny picture to take!

The cute night shirt from Aunt Lynnie and Uncle Chris.

As beautiful as Saturday was for the party, Sunday was cold and rainy! Nola and me killing time in the car while on lightning delay.

Brenner's team was down to 4 players with two being quarantined. The first team played them 4v4 rather than 4v5 but the boys had no subs.

Our team is a U13 team playing a straight U15 team. They were just a wee bit bigger than our team. Brenner's heal is bruised so he played in goal the second half. He did a good job.

Sometimes they just get by you. For his second game, it was pouring (yes pouring) rain and 56 degree (wind blowing like crazy). The other team (again U15) played them 4v5. It was awesome to see our boys stick with it though. We were proud of their determination.

Nola's team also played. She is playing up on a U13 league although her team is U12.

Nola had several good shots - one hit the crossbar. She was a little sluggish out there -seemed to be more about chatting at times!

Nola left the soccer park to head to basketball practice. She said that she had to run 12 suicides - but she came in first (reaffirming the slacking at soccer lol!). Whew - it was a long Sunday and we were glad to get home into warm dry clothes!
 

School days and sports evenings

The days are flying by with school, work, and evening activities. The kids have struck a rhythm with school which means it will likely change soon!

Nola's class soaking in the weather by reading outside.

Nola's teacher teaching the kids how to better navigate distance learning. I think this will help so much should we have to go virtual again. We had a lot of angst trying to get the technology to work.

Grammy Vo came down for Brenner's football game against Southern Boone. A bit warmer than last week!

Small town sports - lots to learn there. Unlike many of the local kids, Brenner has played football for about 5 weeks! He got bumped from his starting spot for an unknown reason and got to play very little. When he was in the game, he played well. The same 7-8 kids played offense and defense, not being rotated out, to try to salvage the game (they lost 44-6 - it was ugly). Brenner had the courage to talk to a coach in the 4th quarter to point out a teammate that hadn't had any play time despite not being in himself since the first quarter. That kid then got to go in for about 3 plays. After some back and forth that night, I encouraged Brenner to approach the defensive coach and ask "what do I need to do to get more play time?". And do you know what - he did ask! That is a big deal for this shy kid. He has a path forward and appears ready to work hard. Great job, B!

Gorgeous sunset (thanks to wildfires out west) at Nola's soccer practice.

We love the new soccer practice t-shirts. Just gotta own 2020 somehow!

Mr. Tickles doing what he does best - nap!

Waiting for Brenner to get done with soccer practice - while munching on some Sonic!

Matt accepted 15 gallons of apples from the neighbor and then proceeded to leave for the weekends?! Nola helped me process the apples. Thank goodness that our neighbor loaned us a peeler/corer. Applesauce, apple pie, apple crisp, apple muffins, apples in the freezer. Lots. of. apples.

I don't know. I just don't know.

Brenner had 2 soccer games on Sunday. They went 1-1 (first game was ugly but second was much more fun to watch). The boys played well given that they hadn't all practiced together - ever. Brenner is trying to navigate liking soccer given that it is mocked by football team. He is really good at soccer but doesn't see it as a value by his peers. More parenting on being who you want to be!

These two - growing up so fast!

Nola was at basketball practice during Brenner's game. She is still loving it!

Some of Nola's work. Odd to actually get papers home lol! Both kids are doing well grade-wise so far this semester.

Nola loves art class and the new art teacher! Fun stuff - she is very crafty/artistic!