Soccer season comes to an end

Ashlee completed her first soccer season this fall. She had a total of eight games and nine practices. I can honestly say she really LOVED everything about it. She never complained about going to practice, and would come home before and after practice and kick the ball around in the back yard making "golds" as she calls them.

The beginning of the season had me a bit worried . . . she seemed to always be running at the back of the pack and was content with others kicking the ball and taking control. So anyone and everyone who knows me, would know that that's totally not in character for me and at times I would think to myself, "self . . . how is this MY daughter!!" :) We'd have little talks where I'd tell her to do whatever it takes to kick that ball . . . be aggressive . . . run as fast as you can . . . if you score a goal I'll buy you a milkshake. Basically all the things that good mom's say to their oldest child during their first sporting experience! All kidding aside, it was so much fun for us to watch her each week, and to see her HUGE improvement. She had so much fun doing it and really that's all that matters. . . that and the fact that she scored 4 goals by the end of the season . . . one in each of her last four games! :)

Pumpkin Patch

We've had a fun-filled, busy day! It started this morning bright and early with Ashlee's 9 a.m. soccer game. She did a great job and got another goal. She only has one game left, and boy can we see a big improvement since week 1. It's been so fun to watch her get better and better with each game.

After her game we decided to head out to the Country Mercantile and spend a few hours at the pumpkin patch. I thought it wouldn't be that busy since we arrived before 10:30, but boy was I wrong. There were so many people out there! I guess they all had the same idea we did. The girls had so much fun going through the straw maze, climbing the straw pyramid, walking through the petting zoo, riding out in the pumpkin patch, choosing a white pumpkin, playing in the bounce houses and looking around and sampling all of the fresh salsa inside the mercantile! Ashlee was able to go with her class last week, so she was an old pro and new all of the fun things to do. Alexa, on the other hand, didn't know what to think. She stayed close to Mom and Dad and didn't say much. She was a people watcher today. When I asked her if she had fun, she just kind of grunted, so I don't know what her true thoughts were. Although her vocabulary isn't huge at this point, she can DEFINITELY say "NO" and "yesh" (thought she favors NO - shocking, I know) so her grunt must have meant she was undecided! :) It was a very fun way to spend our Saturday morning . . . we've been very busy lately so it was nice to do something as a family and enjoy ourselves.