Champions!

Maren's cheer team got first place at Locals competition on Sunday! They competed against five other teams in their division and needed to receive either first or second place in order to advance to Regionals. All the girls just did an awesome job. So now we're back to more practice three days a week to prepare for Regionals. We were fortunate that last year it was near us, but no such luck this year. Regional competition is always held the day after Thanksgiving and the girls have to be there to practice the afternoon before which is....Thanksgiving Day. The city it will be held in is a five hour drive from our house, which means we'll have to leave about 10:30 in the morning on Thanksgiving. I foresee a turkey dinner at Luby's in my future...

Tim's whole family is coming to our house for the weekend. We figured we'd probably have to go to Regionals, but didn't think it would be so early and that we'd miss out on practically the whole weekend. You do what you gotta do for your kids! So Tim's family will hang out at our house without us and keep our boys (who have no desire to drive five hours and back to see cheerleading).

About this time of year (right before Locals), I have about had it up to my eyeballs with cheer and all the practice and going back and forth to practice and football games and did I mention practice? Both years I've said that I wouldn't be all that upset if they didn't advance to Regionals because then the season would be over. But that's just the stress talking. When we get to Locals, it's so exciting to see the girls rewarded for working so hard. Last year, they made it all the way to Nationals at DisneyWorld and it looks like we're headed that way again. Stay tuned for the verdict at Regionals!
Here's Maren's team with their first place trophy!

Even Busier Frizzies

This past weekend was the busiest I think we've ever been as a family. I had to go back to work on Monday so I could rest. Every child had something they needed to do or somewhere to be and as the title of our blog suggests, when there are three kids and only two parents, something's gotta give and it's usually our sanity.

Our weekend began on Friday evening when Maren had her first middle school dance. It was from 7:00 - 9:30, so Tim & I took that opportunity to have "date night." Reed stayed with Lane and we went out for dinner and a trip to Target. Yep, us old folks have really exciting dates. However, we did stop at Starbucks located inside the Target, so that upped the "date" factor considerably, don't you think? :)

I left our house at 11:00 am on Saturday and did not see my husband again until 8:00 that night. I took the boys shopping for some things they needed since the weather's getting to be a bit chillier (sometimes -- it was 92 today!). By the time I came back Tim & Maren had already left for Maren's football game. Then, by the time THEY came back, Reed and I were gone again as he had a birthday party to attend for a friend in his preschool class. It was a bowling party and let me tell you, four and five year olds bowling is a hoot. There were so many times with different children (including my own) that the ball was moving sooooo slowly down the lane that it just finally stopped before it got anywhere near the pins. Then an employee would have to walk down and rescue the ball. Too funny. But they all had a blast. Then, Reed and I went to the grocery store to do our weekly shopping or it wasn't going to get done at all. Since my family does like to eat, we decided to work that into the schedule.

Sunday morning, I'll confess, I stayed home from church to do laundry because a) while my family likes to eat, they also have this thing about wearing clothes, so I tried to catch up on laundry and b) Maren's cheer uniform was dirty from having worn it to the game on Saturday and she needed it again on Sunday afternoon for Cheer Jam.

I've mentioned before that Maren cheers for our local Pop Warner league. She's in a competition division and our league takes it very seriously. They cheer at football games, too, but once football season is over, then competitions begin. Cheer Jam is held the weekend before Local competition and it's just for our league to serve as a dress rehearsal for Locals and to get the girls used to performing in front of a crowd. Up until now, Tim & I had been a little worried about how the girls would do in competition. While they made it all the way to Nationals at DisneyWorld last year, it's a different team this year, way more complicated routine and they've had girls drop out late in the season and then replaced with new girls who had to learn the routine quickly. However, we watched them at Cheer Jam and they've really come far. There's still some kinks to be worked out and you never know what will happen at competition, but they look really good. Locals is this Sunday, so we'll let you know then! Here's pictures taken at Cheer Jam.
















After Cheer Jam was over, I left and took Reed and Lane back home and then took Lane to Youth Group at our church. Tim and Maren then had a Pop Warner Little Scholars awards ceremony to attend. Pop Warner is an extracurricular sports organization, but is also scholastic-based, meaning if the kids don't make the grades, they don't participate. Maren's grades made her eligible for Little Scholars and she received a certificate for that.

Thus concluded our weekend. Everyone always says kids will keep you young. That may be, but they also keep you TIRED.