Bend it Like Hayden

Hayden had his last soccer game a few weeks ago. The whole family came in support of Hayden, even Uncle Kory (who was on the phone most of the time yet still managed to watch the game...and we thought men didn't multitask!).

A few minutes into the first quarter, we noticed Hayden sitting down pulling out grass. This is more of something we expect from Roman, or a younger version of Hayden. Or just a bored child. But Hayden loves soccer! So I walked over to him and saw my poor boy in tears. He had a stomachache and wanted to play but was so miserable. I picked him and up and he cheered him team on from the sidelines for most of the game.

It was actually kind of sad to watch him play tonight. He kept rejoining only to have to sit back down a few minutes later because his stomachache was back. At least he managed a try at goalie for a few minutes, stopping a few goals and feeling like he actually helped his team.

Aubrey chasing Kory around. Hopefully his phone call wasn't too important!

What I see when Hayden looks up from me mid-hug. Cute yet angry, right?

If Hayden only knew that tie-dyes were old-school he probably wouldn't be wearing that. He's just that picky (usually).

Hayden and his coach. And Hayden's medal.

We can't wait for soccer season again. Hayden really loved playing this year, even if his team wasn't all that great (I blame the flakey coach). Hopefully next year he gets a coach that can really push him and challenge him, and hopefully Roman decides to actually play!

Soccermania

This was technically our second date to a Real Salt Lake game, but our first one was after my tragic accident, in which we said a sad goodbye to the purple beast...I mean the Corolla. It's pretty safe to say this date went a lot better. Maybe because Jeremiah was driving? Or we were in better moods? I wasn't crying half the time?

We had dinner at Paraside Cafe, otherwise known as the restaurant-sort-of-like-Panera. We then met Jeremiah's friends Brett, Matt, and Erik Nielsen(all brothers) and Matt's wife, Amber. It was like Nielsen overload, but luckily they were (mostly) on their best behavior. We had pretty good seats, which isn't too shocking because just about any seat at the stadium is a good seat.

The opposing team (Canadians, I think, which spurred all sorts of jokes from the boys) scored a goal within ten minutes. We thought the game was over! Lucky for us, it was the Canucks only goal. Jeremiah and Matt took turns trying to explain soccer rules etiquette to me. I love soccer, even if I don't always get it. Although I have to complain slightly that the only bottles of water available at the stadium are Fiji water bottles, about the size of a shot glass (okay...maybe slightly bigger) and $4. For water. Soda was cheaper!!!

Apparently dark skies and distance makes for bad pictures...but, these guys are great. Obnoxious at times, but great. They come to every game and beat drums, play trumpets, throw streamers and on and on...the whole freaking time. They are like Real's biggest fans.

The final score. What a game!!!

Oh my gosh...we went on a date!

Jeremiah and his three troublemakers...I mean friends. Erik, Brett, and Matt.

Swiss Days

Although neither of us can really claim Swiss heritage, we had to try out Midway's Swiss Days this year. I'd never been but it's about what I expected. A bunch of vendors selling homemade products, way too much leiderhosen, and awful music blaring throughout the festival. Not Swiss music, of course...but country music! Seriously?

I love seeing what everyone is selling. I could have stayed there all day getting suckered into just about every product. People are so creative these days! Luckily Jeremiah was in charge of the cash and we went away with only purchasing a little $1 princess crown for Aubrey and some snow cones.

We ran into Celeste's mother-in-law, Karin, who sells these beautiful nightgowns for little girls. You can find her website here. She is so kind-hearted...she gave Aubrey her own little nightgown! It's a little big on her, perfect for Christmas. Karin also gave us Aubrey's blessing dress. If your scroll down her website, you'll see the blessing dress with eyelets. That's Aubrey's. See...kind-hearted. What an awesome lady Karin is!

Yes, Roman is crying. I tried to get him to stop long enough to take a picture. Obviously no luck.

Josette bought the boys tickets to go on two rides each. By "rides" I mean a series of inflatable slides and bouncy houses.

Dinner at Swiss Days was expensive. Like $8 for a "Swiss" burrito, although there wasn't anything Swiss about it. So we got $1 snow cones and waited to eat until we got home. I begged for Dairy Keen but Jeremiah vetoed it on the account that it would probably be packed on a Saturday night. Party pooper.

Josette got a scone. And yes, I made her share. This is nothing like the scones at the Puyallup Fair! It was large and fried and delicious. More like Indian fry bread but still delicious.

Carnies

As a child, I loved going to my elementary school carnival. It was a highlight of my year (is that sad?) and I have a lot of memories of silly games, cake walks, and dunk tanks. My kids take after me. They get giddy as soon as the school carnival is advertised. They ask daily if today is the carnival and if so, when are we going, how many tickets do we have, and can they get cotton candy.

The day finally arrived. And yes, they got cotton candy.

I got Aubrey cookies. Less mess.

This year they had some actual rides. Like the swings that I knew Aubrey would refuse. It went awfully fast, I'm surprised their cotton candy didn't come up afterwards. The rides cost four tickets, while the games only cost one, so we only went on one ride. I'm that cheap.

Roman and Aubrey watched Hayden during a game. It was a pull-the-string game where everyone was a winner. We like those games. No tears.

Aubrey won this plastic flower lei. It matched her. Isn't she a doll?

I am so embarrassed of this photo. Do you see how Hayden is holding the putter!? Good heavens someone needs to take him mini-golfing! Roman got a hole in one at this game and won an inflatable soccer ball. Hayden didn't win. He got a taffy. There were tears.

For three tickets, the boys could ride these little, um, wheelie things(??) for as long as they wanted. You have to move the handles back and forth to make the wheelie thing go. Hayden got the hang of it and raced around the track. Roman sort of moved, mostly out of luck, and barely made one lap :)

No she's not drunk. Maybe slipping towards a sugar-induced coma. But not drunk.

One of my favorite parts about the carnival is the silent auction. The school gets some awesome prizes donated, such as $50 gift certificates to restaurants, piano lessons, gift baskets, home and lawn services, arts and entertainment, and sports stuff. We bid on carpet cleaning and for a Salt Lake Real signed jersey. We lost both. Which is fine. We came home with tons of junk...I mean awesome little toys that will surely break and/or end up in the garbage. But we had a ton of fun. And that's all that matters.

Roman's first day of school EVER

Roman started preschool at Hillcrest Elementary (aka Hayden's school) on September 1st. He attends 9am-noon every day. And he cries every morning when I drop him off. This is the same boy that never really went to nursery class at church. He's just that shy. I sort of expected it. Luckily, the teacher's aide, Miss Nicole, will take Roman and cuddle with him for a few minutes.

I actually learned about this preschool in mid-August from a friend. I thought it was a school for kids who were developmentally delayed or had some concern (speech, ESL, etc). Apparently Roman's social awkwardness is considered a delay? Or a concern? The fact that he wouldn't do the screening with the teacher unless he sat in my lap and received my approval to speak probably spoke volumes to the teacher about just how shy he was.

Do you see a Mario theme here? Honestly, they don't play that much. Just on weekends. But they each picked out these Mario bags at Toys R Us with their allowance money. And this may come as a shock to you....Lovey is inside the bag. He's allowed to take Lovey in his bag as long as he doesn't take it out. Doesn't mean he didn't sit by his bag for an hour the first day of school!

Roman is doing well in preschool. It still takes him a few minutes to get over the fact that I've left him there. He has a few church friends in his class, and Hayden's classroom is just two doors away. He had his "special day" on Thursday. Basically, he is in charge of snack time (he decided a week ago to bring Gogurt), he gets to be in front of the line everywhere they go, he gets to ring the clean-up bell, and he gets to show off a special toy (Lovey, of course). I'm even surprised (and quite proud) to say that he is already writing his name...

Run for your lives...it's the attack of the FOAM!!!

So Melanie invited us to this event in Lehi...something about firetrucks and foam and bring swim trunks and goggles (or as Roman would say, gobbles). We didn't know what to expect but did as we were told.

Apparently, for the second year in a row, the Lehi Fire Department covers a football field with foam from their trucks. Am I the only one who thought just water came from those hoses?! It looked like huge soap bubbles, but thicker...like...well, foam. And it was obviously the "thing" to do that day. Look at the crowds!

I didn't get to stay, I had to go to work, but Melanie took some awesome pictures for me.

Here are the brave boys, pre-foam: Hayden, Taylor, and Roman.

New game...find the Lafranca boys. Hint: you sort of have to look for their swim trunks. Seriously, kids could get lost in this stuff!

Taylor looks like the guilty party (aka smashing foam in Hayden's face) but I'm pretty sure he's trying to get the foam AWAY from Hayden's face, windshield wiper style on the goggles. So glad we dropped by Walmart and got those, the boys would've been blind.

The boys post-foam: Taylor, Roman, and Hayden...at least, I think that's them!

All cleaned up! Why didn't they do fun things like that when I was little?!

Thanks to Melanie and Nana for watching the kids while I went to work...and thanks to Natalie for staying home so Aubrey could nap! Oh...and thanks to Taylor for keeping track of my boys mid-foam!

Family Fun Day with the Larsens

Have I mentioned before that one of the benefits of living in Utah is that when family comes in the area we always get the pleasure of hanging out with them. My sister-in-law, Sophie, brought her daughter, Cecile, back to school at BYU and spent the week in Provo. We were lucky to spend some time with them. They made it to a few of the boys' soccer games and we had some picnics at Josette's house.

The cousins:

Our favorite activity was laser tag and bowling at Jack and Jill's in Lehi. I'd never played laser tag and now I'm wondering what I've been missing all these years. I loved it! We played boys versus girls, of course the boys won (even with Hayden and Roman on their team) but we all had a blast. They still talk about laser tag and can't wait to go again. Sorry for the picture quality, the pictures were taken in the dark.

Jeremiah and I played team air hockey against Steven and Cecile. We beat them both times. It must run in the family, the boys love air hockey too.

And of course, we went bowling! Just like air hockey greatness runs in our blood, bowling does NOT! My grandma Betty is an awesome bowler, and I am...well, not so much. I even resorted to using the kids' metal ramp just to ensure a non-gutter ball! Jeremiah was, as always, amazing at bowling and beat everyone. The boys always love bowling, Hayden even went so far as to refuse the metal ramp and tried to bowl like the adults.

Josie did a great job helping Roman bowl. Taylor was there to help Hayden figure out bowling "big boy" style.

Since Aubrey didn't go bowling with us (thanks, Kory, for watching her!) I had to insert an extra picture in. Just to show how stinking cute she is and how long her hair is!