You Better Watch Out, Better Not Cry...

When Maddy was little I took her to get her picture with Santa. She wasn't too sure about the old man in the suit so I had to jump in the picture with her. We have never returned for another picture until tonight. Yes, at ages 9 and 7, Ryan and Cade finally get to pose with St Nick himself. Maddy pouted the whole time. Actually for the last few days she has not wanted to get her picture taken. "I am 12 and am too old to get a Santa picture." Lucky for us, we had 2 families behind us in line who had high schoolers who also had to endure the same torture as our girl. She received no sympathy. We finally made it to the front of the line and it seems Maddy may have warmed up a little bit. The picture turned out great. I am so happy I paid the $10 to Groupon to put Maddy thru this. As the kiddos are getting ready to leave Santa, Maddy turns, trips over Santa's boot and falls flat on the ground! Sing with me now..."you better not pout I'm telling you why!"

Thanksgiving

Whenever the kiddos have 1/2 days at school, I still have to stay the whole day. The kids were supposed to have 1/2 days two Fridays ago and then again last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It was parent/teacher conference time. It started to snow and stick on Monday so all the students went home at the regularly scheduled 1/2 day time. The district strongly suggested that staff should leave as soon as the kids got out. Given the fact that we live across the street from the school, I knew I would be fine getting home but with Matt out of town, I thought my kids would do better with me home. Monday night we got the email saying there would be no school on Tuesday. I was really hoping we would get the same email regarding Wednesday so we could head over to mom and dads sooner. Lucky for us Wednesday was canceled so we all got a long Thanksgiving break. The trip over to Manson took us a long time not because the roads were terrible but there was an accident on Snoqualmie and a slowpoke on Blewitt. We have not been to Manson for a while so it was nice to get away. 

Here is a photo recap of our vacation...

Turkey Bowl was inside this year. I think it may have 'warmed up' to 15 degrees.

Sledding

Snow Surfing/Eating Snow (Maddy's picture is blurry but I had to be equal in the eating snow dept)

Baking Lion House Rolls with Granny Janny

The trip home was uneventful which is nice. We did see a lot of wildlife...buffalo, coyote, a hawk capturing a rabbit. Glad the ice was on the mountain and not on the road. So glad we got to go but glad to be relaxing at home.

Our First Winter Wonderland

We got some snow here a couple days ago that canceled school for 2 days. The kiddos in the neighborhood decided to take advantage of it even though it was well below freezing.

Soccer, Basketball and Soccer again

Today our morning started off nice and early with a Maddy soccer game. It was dry but cold. Cold enough to have frost on the ground. Luckily one of the girl's parents bring hot chocolate to the game for the girls. They were nice enough to share with our boys today. The girls team did great. It is fun to see them go out and play hard.
Cade had his second basketball game today. Lets just say the other team cheated (ok maybe not). I heard one boy from the opposing team say as we were walking out of the gym, "my grandma kept score and it was 54 to 18." Whatever. I am going to go with Cade and say we only lost by 6 points. Cade did great! He scored his first basket of the season. It is so funny to see any one of them score and run down the court with arms in the air. Cade did a great job of going after the ball and he will have a nice big bruise to show off.

Notice the tongue in check in these 2 pictures. He is so going to bite it off one day!

One of the boys on the other team was at least a head taller than Cade. He was a very good player. Turns out he has a personal coach for basketball and football (I told you they cheated).
Ryan had a soccer game this afternoon. Oh my goodness! This was one of Ryan's best games ever. He was so aggressive and quick and it was SO much fun to watch him! He scored one goal and almost scored 2 other times. One of those times one of our players made a perfect pass to Ryan. Ryan went to kick the ball and his foot got too far under the ball and it went right over the goal. Ahhh! So close! This afternoon his coach called to talk to Ryan. She told him what a great job he had done today, how he was a great influence on the team and how badly she wanted that ball to go in the goal for him. How awesome is that?! She has been such an amazing coach this year. I wish Ryan could have had her in previous years. I have so many pictures of Ryan playing soccer that I didn't take my camera today. I wish I had. It was raining the whole game and I wish I could show you how muddy they got.
Good game day, kiddos!

Pumpkin Patch

Today was a no school day so the kiddos and I went in to find us some pumpkins. Got all the way in there just to turn around and come back home because I forgot my SD card. I was not going to go pumpkin hunting without my camera! The kids were troopers. Maddy was set on a little one, Ryan on a big green one and Cade just wanted one he liked. It was a perfect day for trudging thru the pumpkin patch.

I took advantage of my three photographers and got pictures with each one of the cuties.

And yes, Maddy is really that tall.

Soccer Days

Maddy and Ryan both have their soccer games on Saturdays. Maddys home games are always at 8:30am. Ryan's home games are always at 1:30pm. It's great if they both have games at their home fields because it means Matt and I can make it to both games. If they have away games, we sometimes have to split up. Today I went to Maddy's home game while Matt went to Ryan's game in North Bend. It was a very cold morning. I forgot to check what the temperature was before the game but afterwards it was 36 degrees. One of the parents brought a big container of hot chocolate. They did this last year too and it was so nice.
Last time I put pictures up somewhere, I had people commenting on poor child number 3. Maddy and Ryan had pictures but Cade did not. Cade's soccer season ended already so you won't see pictures of #3 today. I also didn't get to Ryan's game at all and I am the family photographer so I had the camera at Maddy's game. I will be at Ryan's game this next weekend so will get pictures of him to post later. I am hoping I can make it to some of Cade's first basketball game on Saturday as well.
So anyway, enjoy these pictures of child #1.

Maddy was one of the captains today.

 I love soccer leg muscles!

 Maddy had some great kicks today.

This was a fun game to watch especially compared to last week. Last weeks team was just mean. This weeks team was from Duvall so all the girls knew each other. It was fun to watch them chatting with each other on the field.

Matt said Ryan played really well today. I called him to check in and while I was on the phone, Ryan scored a goal! I could hear all the moms yelling in the background. So glad to know others will cheer him on when I'm not there! His coach gives out badges to put on their shirts for good passes and Ryan got another one today. Way to go, Ryan!

Maddys 10.10.10 Birthday!

These last few days have been all about Maddy. Friday was a no school day so we had a friend party that afternoon. Originally Maddy had wanted a Halloween themed party. My only problem with that was that I knew not all the girls would have costumes yet. Matt suggested a Minute to Win It party and thats what we went with. The Minute to Win It show has a website with all the games, how to play it and what you need. Maddy ended up picking the Candy Ladder, Face the Cookie and Junk in the Trunk.

The girls all looked like they had been playing in dirt after playing the cookie game...crumbs all over them. Maddy's got a good group of friends and I think they had a good time.

Matt has had slumber parties with the kids ever since Maddy was little. For last nights party, they all decided to stay up until 1:03am since that is what time Maddy was born. Ryan made it until a little past 10pm. The rest stayed awake though.

Maddy requested tacos for her birthday dinner. Matt worked on that while I made Wacky Cake. Matt went to get something out of the fridge and a plastic bottle of Yoshida sauce somehow went flying out of the door. It hit the floor and broke open. There was Yoshida sauce all over the place...on the floor, in the fridge, on the cupboards. He did a great job on dinner though and of course Wacky Cake is always excellent!

Maddy Bean, its been a fun 12 years! You are a beautiful young lady and we are so proud of you. Love you tons!!!

Pumpkin Yumminess

Lately I have been into following food blogs. I came across this yummy Cinnamon Toasted Pumpkin Tart recipe on Picky Palate and had to give it a try. It was so good and so easy.

1 c canned pumpkin
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c heavy whipping cream
1 egg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

4 sheets (2 boxes) Puff Pastry, thawed

3 T melted butter
3 T sugar
1 1/2 T cinnamon

Mix the first 6 ingredients together until creamy and mixed well. Set aside.

Lay out the Puff Pastry on a lightly floured countertop. Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes out of dough. I used a pumpkin shaped cutter and got 4 pumpkins to each sheet of puff pastry. Put the cut dough on a greased cookie sheet. Spread a bit of the melted butter on each cutout. (I forgot to add the butter and it still turned out great.) Sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Spoon a 2-3 tablespoons of the pumpkin mixture onto the cutouts leaving about 1/4 inch crust around the edge.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. We topped ours with a bit of whipped cream. Enjoy!

Soccer Season 2010

Summer for us ends about the 3rd week in August. That is when soccer begins. All 3 kids have practice and/or games at the same time. Lucky for us Maddy and Ryan both have practice in Duvall. Cade's games are starting just as the other two are finishing. Most of Cade's games are also here in town. Matt is coaching Cade's team so I get to run over and grab Maddy from her practice. Ryan in the mean time is walking home and gets to crawl in the dog door and wait. Today was the first game of Cade's that Maddy, Ryan and I actually got to go to. He did awesome!

Maddy has had the same coach the last 3 years. This year we were a bit disappointed that she had a different coach. Ends up that 2 teams got combined. Her coach is now the assistant coach so all is good. She is doing great and is quite the defensive player (Translation: She likes to use her elbows. No call no foul as Matt would say.).

Ryan is so fast out on the field. He is a lot of fun to watch. Just like Maddy, it takes a few minutes before that aggressive attitude kicks in. He scored the first goal of the season for his team. We really like his coach.