art auction

sadie made this really neat picture of an old hotel here in town, called hotel monte vista.  it was chosen to be in an art auction downtown tonight.   dave went to get a picture of it and it already sold.  i am happy that it sold but bummed that we were too late to get a photo.  they said the lady that bought it was really excited about it, so hopefully it went to a good home.  

dave's new car

it seems like every spare moment lately has been filled with car stress or car decisions. hopefully that has come to and end.
dave's car recently reached 208,000+ miles. it sounded really bad and we took it in to see how much it would cost to fix-almost $3,000. so dave decided to do the most pressing things (the brakes, rotors and calipers) himself. no dave has not done this before, but he found a really reliable video on youtube that showed him how. with a few trips to autozone and two nights in the shop (our garage) the car sounded a hundred times better. things were looking pretty good for a few weeks, but there were just too many things wrong....so we threw in the towel and traded the old subaru in. after a lot of dreaming about all the cars we might possibly want and then some negotiating, we finally made a decision and got something practical and reliable. a honda civic. we got a good deal but it is weird to think by the time we pay it off, sadie will be ready to drive!

pennies for peace

sadie's class did a fundraiser called "pennies for peace".  one penny buys one pencil for a child in afghanistan.  i helped sadie email the editor of the flagstaff newspaper and ask her to help publicize it...and she did. they printed an article in the paper with this picture of sadie and her friend.   their teacher was thrilled and i think sadie realized she can do things to make a difference.

conversations

today in the car, i was telling the boys that i am the luckiest mom ever because i get to be their mom.  

kai said, "no, you are the widest mom ever."  this was followed by snickers from all three of them.

i think he meant whitest...either way, so flattering!  

the car ride ended with abe cracking himself up using the word 'plump' in all it's forms.  i love it when my boys think they are SO funny.

smiles all the way around.  

club soccer

abe started playing soccer last summer (AYSO) and really loved it. since then he has had a soccer ball with him most of the time. his coach was great and encouraged abe to play club soccer, a traveling competitive team, so we signed him up. their last game was saturday. abe had a great time playing with his club team. the first tournament was here is flagstaff. most of the teams were from phoenix and had been playing for three years together...they were very good. abe's team had been together for two weeks, barely getting their uniforms in time for the games. that first tournament was rough. the other team showed up in a rv painted silver and black, the team colors. they walked to the field in their matching warm-ups, matching bags-all lined up in a perfect row, popped out their black team bench, parents equipped with noise makers and all. do you remember that old tv show, "the bad news bears"? well, that was us. we got creamed. since then we have practiced hard, got our own warm-ups, bench, and bags and had some real competitive games. the boys have improved and it has been fun to watch. abe really loves it. he usually plays mid-field or forward half the game and goalie the other half.

he is a tough little goalie and really likes that position. the tournaments have all been sat./sunday tournaments and i am proud of abe for working hard but also for being willing to say he doesn't play on sundays. it hasn't been an issue for him, he just knows he will miss those games. a couple times other parents asked him if he could stay in the hotel with them so he could make it to the sunday games while dave and i went to church...abe just smiled and said no. 

it has been fun watching him do something he loves. he is super excited for AYSO to start again. he thinks the competition won't be as tough. i think he will skip the chant "1, 2, 3, 4, we don't care about the score.... he is ready to go for the W!

performance day

today we went from one performance to another.

first, kai's preschool had their spring program.  dave walked in (post call) just in time to watch kai say his poem:

as i was walking along one day

my head fell off and rolled away

when i noticed it was gone 

i picked it up and put it on

when i was walking down the street 

a fellow said, "hey, look at your feet."

i looked at them and sadly said

"i left them both asleep in bed."

kai was pretty proud that he had the silliest poem.  i tried to practice with him the week before and he just refused and kept telling me he already knew it.  i was a little surprised at how timid he was when he recited it, but he said it and did a great job.  his preschool has been a wonderful experience for him, with a wonderful teacher (THANKS JULIETTE!!)  

then we headed downtown for abe's violin performance at heritage square.  his school has a great suzuki violin program.  k-2 learn violin then in third grade they learn dancing.....with a partner. abe likes violin a lot.  dancing with a girl is worth changing schools.  

(i spy abe)

it was great to see him concentrating so hard.  his teacher asked me to be the helping mom and i really enjoyed helping and spending some time with abe and his class.  

florida

my mom and dad were going to florida for my nephew, tyler's b-ball tournament.  they decided to take sadie and her cousin hannah with them.  

they spent a day at the kennedy space center.  sadie's teacher at school is a space fanatic and so sadie has learned a lot about space this year.  her teacher was so excited for her to go and made her do a presentation for her class when she got back.  

they also spent a day, not just any day, sadie's birthday at disney world.  sadie got to wear a badge that said it was her b-day and all the workers made a big fuss over her.

the trip wouldn't be complete with out some time in a gymnasium.  sadie and hannah were good cousin support for tyler and they enjoyed watching his three point contest.  they thought the ref. was lousy for taking away ty's winning shot at the buzzer.  

sadie had a great time with my mom and dad.  i'm very grateful that they took her.  i think it will be something she remembers forever.