Soccer

Our Fall has been full of soccer. Sophia made the Wilmette Wings travel soccer club. She tried out in June and I know I was more nervous than she was. Her tryout bib was #62 and I knew they were only taking 24 girls so this meant there were going to be a lot of girls not making the teams that Sophia was pretty confident she was going to make. She did make the team and at her first game Rick said he had tears in his eyes watching her play. She really plays her heart out in every game and we have all loved watching her games.

Ella has been a soccer star in her own right. She played her first year of Kindergarten soccer this year and the Fireflies dominated the Kindergarten group. :) Their uniform color made the nickname obvious. Ella had at least a goal in each game. One game she had 5 and the Fireflies completed an undefeated season.

Here Ella is on her way to scoring a goal...what a game face!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone more excited to get a trophy:

One afternoon I looked out the back window and saw Ella in shorts, her ski jacket and uggs kicking the soccer ball around the backyard. Here is my candid of her celebrating a gooooooaaaaalllll.

Here's a picture of Ella and Sophia during a chilly game:

And Ella with her BFFs Sean and Jane:

Halloween

This year we all went Halloween shopping out of the mound of dress up in the basement. Sophia went as a witch to school and then decided to be Glinda the good witch from Wicked for trick-or-treating. It was a little chilly but still a great night for everyone to be out. It was a typical crowded night in our neighborhood with parents towing wagons full of adult beverages while the kids sprinted from house to house. Katie and Ceci were able to keep up pretty well this year.

My rule every year is that they pose for a photo before they are allowed to start the candy dash. I get the frozen smiles for the first one until I tell them that I need real smiles in order for them to go out with their friends.

Here is the better shot after they realized they weren't going anywhere until mom got her Halloween picture.

Katie and Ceci's costumes may look familiar because they wore the same ones last year. They really wanted to be Tinkerbell and Ariel again and the costumes fit! Here they are in 2009:

I love this one of Ella because it captures Ceci sprinting in the background.

This is actually a great candid by Rick because it captures how crowded the sidewalk is with kids and their entourages with coolers in their wagons.

Ceci was keeping up with the big girls and could barely stop for a photo.

Katie was having a harder time running with her fish tail. She kept tripping over her tail and had a difficult time running with it so tight around her legs.

Summer pictures

We had a great summer and I'm now finally posting photos. Here are some from our trips to Michigan. This one is my favorite of Rick and his surfer girls.

Most of the time was spent hanging out on the beach.

And of course a beach cookout complete with Drier's hotdogs, corn from farmer Dingis and s'mores.

Rick decided that being on vacation also means a vacation from taking pictures so I don't even have his famous "candids" of me doing random things from the angle of him sitting in a chair. I promise I was there for all of the fun. :)

Blonde moments with Sophia

I made some delicious Ethiopian meatballs last night for dinner and told the girls it was North African food.

Sophia: I wish I lived in North America.

me: We do live in North America...do you mean North Africa?

Sophia: Yeah, right. North AFRICA.

Rick: Maybe you'd rather live in North AMERICA.

Sophia: Well, actually, I wish we moved to England.

me: Why England?

Sophia: So I could speak two languages.

Walking Home II

Ella: One big difference between kindergarten and preschool is that we don't pray at kindergarten.

me: Well, you can always pray quietly to yourself. You just don't pray out loud together.

Ella: Maybe I can pray to God to not make me so shy at school.

It was so sweet.

She is loving Kindergarten and making new friends. One mom came up to me at the park and asked if I was Ella's mom. She said that her son Charlie is obsessed with her and drew a picture for her and he was so nervous to give her it to her it took a couple days to get up the nerve. Ella showed me the picture which was an adorable drawing of Ella and Charlie playing legos.

She said: "He walked up to me with a piece of paper in his hand and said. 'Take it if you want'. Then walked away."

Walking home

Walking home from school with Ella yesterday:

Ellla: Was I adopted?

me: No. Do you remember seeing pictures of when you were in my tummy? Do you know someone who was talking about this? Do you have questions about it? Why are you asking?

I was prepared for a long conversation about something that had been on her mind.

Ella: Just checking.

mom: Huh? "Just checking?????" Are you sure you don't have any questions about adoption or any friends of yours?

Ella: Nope, just checking.

And that was that. Ella is really turning into a funny girl.

Happy Birthday Ella

I finally downloaded all the pictures from our camera and can post the ones from Ella's party back in June.

Ella turned five and was very excited. Since she's a summer birthday many of her school friends are already five so she was very anxious to finally be five herself. We had her party before her actual birth date and she was disappointed to find out that she wouldn't turn five at her party but have to wait until June 13th to tell everyone that she's five years old.

It has been a big year for Ella. The end of preschool and kindergarten in the Fall. Her teachers loved her at school and everyone at St. Joe's will miss her. She is such a sweet girl and has lots of friends. Whenever I'm at school or camp with her all sorts of kids are saying hi to her. She can still be shy but once she warms up she's a true friend. Last week we were taking a walk and talking about how if she's nervous at school she can say a little prayer and know that God is with her. She said "and if I'm shy I can pray to God to make me not so shy." It was so sweet. I've watched her grow up so much this year. She is amazing with Katie and Ceci. Always including them and coming up with games to play together. She loves puzzles and has gotten really good at solving hard ones.

Here are some pictures from the big party:

We had an incident with the cake. Katie dragged her finger from one end to the other before the candle blowing. She's learning from Sophia the master cake sneak. Sophia knows to hit less obvious spots though. Katie just went for it.

I'm pretty sure that's Sophia's handiwork on the backside.

We had a balloon guy come who did big balloon people for all the kids. Here is Ella with her Ariel: