Weekend soccer and the solar eclipse

 Grace played in her first competitive soccer tournament over the weekend.

 The tournament was at the ESPN Wide World of Sports so the fields were beautiful.

 The only bad thing was it was Orlando in August which meant 95 degree weather.

 Grace seemed to have an awesome time which is what soccer is all about.

 We also got to view a solar eclipse.

 The kids school district decided the eclipse was too dangerous to view, so I had to check them out of school.

 Merry was at volleyball practice during most of the eclipse

 

but she got to come out for the peek.

I made these designer eclipse glasses, complete with flower for Eliza because the others would not stay on her head.

 We also got eclipse cookies

 and smeared them all over the place.

 Nice chocolate goatee.

 The most fascinating part of the eclipse was the cool shadows

 that we had to document on everyone's arms.

 This was entertainment for a long,

 long time.

Happy eclipsing.

1st day of school

 Here are the happy middle schoolers.

Don't they look excited to go to school.

Jacob picked out his own outfit.

Looks like he inherited his father's love of blue.

 As ready as he will ever be.

Merry is off to middle school this year.

Loving the braces smile.

This is round 2 of the drop off. 

They look a little happier about the 1st day of school.

 Grace is off to 4th grade.

She is very happy she has Ms. Townley again this year.

Adam and Grace are in the same building which made drop off awesome.

Ready to get to work.

Adam started 2nd grade.

He was not a fan of the collared shirt this morning.

 He looks so cute heading down the hall.

The teacher is already keeping him busy.

Cute Eliza is off to VPK this year or BBK as she calls it.

Love her hair twirling.

Eliza in the circle ready for some fun.

I stayed home and dejunked the family room from a summer of too much fun.

Life stuff

Adam has been training Eliza in Pokemon battling.

It is very intense training.

Luckily Grace is there to mediate and explain the complex point system.

 Grace still loves to dress up and play with dolls which makes me very happy that she hasn't grown up too much.

Jacob on the other hand has spent his summer in Brian's office chair.

I think there is a permanent indention of his bum on this chair.

Merry has spent the summer at my computer.

She does take breaks as my chair is not as comfortable.

She is a great cooker and is always willing to help make dinner, mostly because she likes food.

Review of our life

This week Merry got contacts for the first time.

After seeing her squint through her glasses for so long, her eyes look so wide.

She is an expert at poking herself in the eye.

 There has been a lot of relaxing going on at our house.

Too bad no one bothered to vacuum the floor.

The shelf got moved out of the girl's closet during the latest rearrangement.

Since it has been sitting in the middle of the living room the kids have been using it as an indoor jungle gym. 

 Everyone has been arguing who gets to be on the top.

 Only to jump off.

Incredibly unsafe, but fun.

 We also had 2 head injuries this week, neither from the indoor jungle gym.

Eliza split the back of her head open in the tree house.  She was not concerned about the cut but screamed when I had to cut her hair to super glue her head shut.

Grace cut her forehead open when the pull-up bar fell on her head.  Good thing we stock pile super glue.  We had to disguise it with a heart band-aid.

Side note: Grace is the pull-up master of the house.  She can even out pull-up Jacob.

I guess the teenaginess has hit because I have to talk to him through earbuds.

He has spent the summer sleeping, growing, gaming and working on his eyebrow mobility.

Fortunately he will take a break to cook some dessert once in a while.

He is a fan of all things lemon and he made this delicious lemon pudding cake.

4th of July

 Happy 4th of July.

We stayed at home this year and spent the day on the lake

playing on the water mat

and kayaking.

Adam walking on the water.

Adam falling in the water.

Jacob trying to make the biggest splash.

Running of the edge of the mat.

Jacob trying to throw Grace.

Merry making a little shade.

Merry leaving all the chaos behind.

 Grace careful not to get water in her nose.

 Nice tan.

 Showing off her mad skills and her dimples.

More of Eliza kayaking.

We made a brisket and some pie and watched the fireworks over the lake.

It was a fabulous 4th of July.