Fall Things

We had a gorgeous fall this year and the colors seemed to last forever!  

We had a huge wind storm the day after I'd blown the first set of leaves from the yard.  It was discouraging.  But the leaves were so beautiful!  Usually the leaves on the ground are all brown but not this time.  

My street is always so pretty!

so.many.leaves

I love my heavy duty leaf blower and logged some serious hours with it.

Henry played rec soccer and had a great time and was better than average.  His coach commented that Henry has good field sense and knows how to run to where the ball is going to be.  You can't teach that!

Henry suddenly became Arthur's biggest fan.  Poor Arthur.  Apparently getting thrown around like a football doesn't kill bearded dragons!

I got to help at a stake youth activity.  Randy's been doing this for years and it was finally my turn.  We collected money and food for a local food pantry and made a killing.

I took Henry to the mountain biking park a couple of times.  I run behind him and push him up the hills.

Landon won this trophy in seminary.  He's seen Randy giving these out for years and it was finally his turn to bring it home.  Also, Landon gets up for early morning seminary every day on his own.  Such a good kid!

Randy and Landon in Florida for a lacrosse tournament

The Smith's came to town!  Our BFF's from Rhode Island are still our favorite people.  We ran a slow six miles on a freezing, sunny, Saturday morning and chatted nonstop.  

We had them over for Sunday dinner and played games.  I love them!  And they love my cooking so that's always a win too.

Salmon, delicious salad, homemade bread, and chocolate bundt cake.  We ate it all.

All the Fall Things

All the fall things happened pretty uneventfully.  Henry played soccer with his best friend Jack and Randy helped coach.  Parker finished his cross country season with only one rainy race.  Landon went to homecoming and has become a sometimes-grumpy teenager.  Landon started shaving and insisted on specific instruction from Randy.  The other boys just figured it out on their own after I told them the basics.  Landon also finished his drivers ed course.  Now he just needs to learn how to drive without killing anymore deer.  Yes, you read that right.  He hit a deer in Randy's new Audi.  You might be wondering how many Audi's the Ball family will continue to wreck before getting a different car.  I wonder the same thing!  You might also be wondering how much we pay for car insurance for four cars and five drivers.  It's a lot and makes me question why I had five kids.  I'm not kidding.  And in case you didn't know, deer actually make noise.  I wouldn't call it talking but it turns out in the split second when you hit a deer with your car, it makes a crying sound that will haunt you for the rest of your life before the impact takes its life.  

Henry and Jack with all their donuts and end-of-season treats.  

When bribed with donuts, this team scores goal after goal.  Otherwise, they really don't care and it's hilarious to watch.

Henry's tongue!!

Ethan came home for a weekend and cheered Henry on, then carried him off the field on his shoulders as they headed to Panda Express--Henry's favorite place to eat. Brothers are the best!

Parker's first meet

finishing strong

I've been watching cross country finals for years!  So glad it wasn't in the rain this time.

Landon confidently asked this cute girl to homecoming during one of the football games.  He was hoping his freshman friends would follow his lead but they were too chicken.  Things got pretty stressful the week before the dance when there wasn't much of a plan but it all worked out.

New suit courtesy of Amazon

Landon doing big boy things is still weird to me

Pictures and dinner at the Plateau Club.  All the kids ordered salads for dinner since it was the cheapest thing on the menu :)

Clean shaven...luckily he has super blond facial hair so shaving every couple weeks is probably enough

Cute little Henry playing the piano.  I finally got him a teacher because the battle was not something I could handle with him.  He loves it and is actually really good.  Also, I love that he stands at the keyboard.  

Happy Fall Y'all!

Ethan the Runner

It feels like fall because I'm going to Ethan's weekly cross country meets and Marcus just went to Homecoming.  Ethan was firm in his decision to not participate in cross country this year which I thought was a bad idea.  I couldn't convince him to change his mind so I resorted to bribery.  He now has an awesome, much-needed and frequently-ridden mountain bike.  Despite rolling his ankle in the first meet, he finished 30th out of 112 runners.  He was disappointed and I couldn't understand why.  I guess I'm pretty okay with settling for average because I was really impressed with his time.  Thanks to our good friend with a good camera, we have some great pictures of the race.

Marcus and I make a great cheer section and didn't embarrass Ethan at all :)

Ethan is loved by younger kids.  I don't even know who these boys are and he probably doesn't either, but they had fun together

Happy Fall y'all!

All Things Fall

We have had the most beautiful fall weather ever!  The sun has been shining almost daily and the temps in the mid-sixties.  It is awesome!  When the boys get home from school they play outside with their friends until it gets dark and if they try to come inside I force them back outside telling them when the rains come they can have screen time.  All this sunshine also means I haven't had to sit through a single rainy soccer or football game.  Hallelujah!  I've deliberately tried to snap a few pictures of the fall beauty here and there because I just can't get enough of it.  My boys just roll their eyes every time I point out another beautiful tree.

The boys didn't have school on Columbus Day and it was actually kinda rainy that day (the only day the whole month) but we went on our traditional bike ride for donuts and sushi.  Marcus stayed home with Henry so Henry could nap (and Marcus is too old to do things like this anymore) and Parker freaked out about riding his bike so he spent the time in his room not getting a donut.  Kindergartners have the best temper tantrums sometimes.  I'm glad experience has taught me it's a phase and will eventually pass.

Sushi for lunch, donuts for dessert. 

Biking home from lunch.

My street heading in one direction

And my street heading in the other direction (with the beautiful fence painted by Marcus)

 We met up with a bunch of other moms and their kids at the park one day after school because the weather was just too good to not share with everyone. 

here are just a few of the moms who dropped everything to make it to the park. Our kids packed that place!

Henry's favorite past time is throwing balls down our steep driveway and watching me chase after them.  And the pumpkin is a corn hole game (courtesy of the scouts) that we get to store at our house year round.  this year I decided it makes a good yard decoration.

And with fall comes Homecoming.  Yes, Marcus went.  It was a good intro into what dating will be like.  The kids got together with a big group of their friends and the parents worked out the details.  Thankfully the parents were on board with treating them as 14 year olds so there was no unchaperoned party bus to Seattle or an after-party with alcohol which is typical for these things. Dances here in WA are rare compared to how many I had at my high school growing up.  Here there are only two dances a year - Homecoming and Prom.  And only juniors and seniors can go to Prom.  The kids don't do activities during the day.  Instead everyone meets up at a park or someone's house for pictures.  Then the guys stand around while the girls take even more pictures of themselves.  Then they go out to dinner, which was a cheap pizza place for these guys, and then they went back to the school for the dance.  The dance where no one actually dances.  Typically they stand in line for another hour to get more pictures (which the girls pay for. Weird.) but these freshman didn't ever figure out where the pictures were so it never happened.  So funny!  After not dancing at the dance, they went back to a friend's house for the "After Party" which meant changing into casual clothes, hanging out and eating lots of junk food.  It was Marcus's favorite part of the whole thing.  And then I picked up Marcus and brought him home. 

All the guys

All the guys waiting while the girls took a million pictures of themselves (group shots, selfies, selfies with a friend, pictures with the parents, etc) 

Apparently the unwritten rule for Homecoming is the girls all wear short dresses (and freeze) and wear long dresses to Prom.  I'm so glad I have sons.  The night before the dance I had Marcus try on Randy's suits thinking they would fit.  Unfortunately Marcus is a little too big for them but he didn't care so neither did I.  I'm just happy he didn't split the crotch open and I told him to take small steps when he walked.  I guess it's a good thing there wasn't any dancing!