All Fun 'n Games

 We never post on this site anymore, but we needed somewhere to post the videos of Anna's past few months. (P.S. We love all of our kids equally, but Anna has had a busy few months!)

Anna was awarded the "Alpha Attitudes Award" for 7th grade! Her school chooses one boy and one girl from each grade, and the students are nominated by their teachers. Larkin and I were notified of Anna's award a couple of weeks in advance to ensure that we could attend the awards ceremony. Anna had no idea until the announcer started reading the comments that teachers made about her. It was fun to watch the realization slowly dawn on her as the comments were read. 

Then Anna participated in a week-long Shakespeare Camp with other kids her age. The week culminated in a performance of a short scene with one partner. Anna and her partner were assigned Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene 2), between Juliet and her nurse. They nailed it!

 

Josh and Will are both loving flag football! They've had several rained out practices and games so far, so sometimes they're in the field and sometimes in the gym. Either way, they're learning a lot and having a blast. Here are the boys in action!

Will is becoming a skilled wide receiver and running back. He's pretty fast! He catches the ball in this video (#1).

Josh's skill level isn't super high right now, but you can tell his enthusiasm in these videos. He is typically the center (a good position for him). He's #8.



And this is how Christian keeps himself entertained during the games.

Anna is loving her dance classes, jazz and musical theater. I don't have any pictures or videos of that yet, but she'll have a Christmas performance in early December.

Lastly, we are ready for Halloween around here! Lillian is eagerly welcoming in the fall season.

I'm not going to try to catch up on the latest things that have happened in the almost two years since I posted, so here is a video of Lillian "talking" to us and Christian riding his tricycle.

Christian's little personality is really coming out lately! He is a hilarious little guy. He loves to "sneak" up on people. When I'm the only one around, he'll sneak up on inanimate objects, pointing out what he's aiming for first. He'll point to the couch, wait for me to say "couch," then say, "Sneak . . . sneak . . . sneak. . . AAAAAHHHH!!!!" We love it! If I remember to catch nothing else he does on camera, at least we'll have this memory.

Will got invited to join a flag football team at the last minute, and he was SO PUMPED to do it! We had thrown out the idea to him back over the summer, and he wasn't very interested. We left it at that until Larkin's boss asked him on Monday if Will might like to play. There was an opening on the team of first and second graders that he coaches. We asked Will again, and this time, he got really excited about it. He joined the team for a practice on Tuesday and played as a running back this morning!



He absolutely loved it and carried around a football for the rest of the day, waiting patiently for anyone who had a minute to play catch with him. This is out of his comfort zone, and we're so proud of his willingness (and excitement) to do it! Go Sparks!!!!


Sidenote: His first game today happened to be on his Grandpa Rice's birthday. I have a feeling that Grandpa Mark cheered on William Mark, despite the distance.

Anna is super creative and LOVES to make things. Case in point, she asked Santa for an art set for Christmas as opposed to dolls or toys. We found a little beginner sewing machine and decided it was something Anna would like. She was very excited when she opened it on Christmas morning. She got a couple of patterns for Barbie clothes, and we got to work the next day. I was amazed at how patient she was with the process, and she was so proud of herself and her final product!