Tiny played fall soccer. Her team's name was the Rainbow Brite Unicorns, which I found amazing.
Tiny was a big goal scorer for a chunk of the season. She started doing this fun thing where she'd look coyly but happily over at me after she scored and raise a finger to indicate which number goal that was. So after she scored her first goal of the game, she'd hold up her pointer finger. After her next goal, she'd hold up two fingers, and so forth. She was nominated by her coach for all-stars, which extended her season by a couple of games or something.
But back to October. Berry took some notes during general conference.
I don't remember the issue that preceded this note and necessitated the apology, but this note was very nice. Berry has a hard time apologizing - or really addressing things at all - when she gets in trouble or gets upset, so this was a big deal.
I responded via recycled post-it notes.
And there was a second very sweet note from my Bear.
Paying over $100 to gas up hurt bad. Real bad.
Tiny's Girl Scout troop had a field trip to the children's museum in Escondido. We had to wait around a while in the beginning. I think there was some sort of little presentation, and then they had an opportunity to play around in the museum. It was not super exciting, and Tiny still didn't know anyone in her troop. (I haven't been impressed by the lack of effort by the troop leaders to integrate her.) She interacted with no one but enjoyed a couple of the activities by herself.
Berry did more fun things with food, deconstructing a turkey croissant sandwich and further deconstructing the bread so she could eat the flaky outside alone.
More story post-it notes by Bear.
Another brief glimpse into the Berry-on-Tiny love.
The girls decorated the front door with our "Happy Birthday" sign and lots of gratitude post-it notes. It was very sweet.
I got some lovely drawings (and a note) from the girls, too.
Annie Bunnell plays the oboe in a band, and we went to one of their concerts at a church in Carlsbad. It was fun. They played music from the World War II era, and the highlight was this number that included dancers. A man who was something like 93 years old danced up a storm. He killed with this move where he squatted all the way down, kicked out his legs, and waved to the crowd. I yearn to be so spry at his age.
Ever created her birthday wish list.
Tiny turned palm tree debris into the coolest little boat-seat.
Rebecca and I were talking in her backyard while Noah played on a soccer ball. He stepped/fell off it onto the grass and went down crying. Rebecca said, "Did you hear that?" And I realized I had heard a crack, and there was nothing hard around that he could have hit when he fell, and it was a bone. I went with Rebecca to the ER (Scott wasn't home at the time) with her and Noah. Jim got home right after it happened and kept Nathan until Scott got home. We were at Tri-City for hours. Noah was a nightmare, and Rebecca was super impatient to be seen. In the end, they splinted it there late at night, and Rebecca took him to San Diego the next morning to get him casted.
We went to check on him the next day, and Tiny signed his cast.
Wren gave Sugar some sweet lovins'.
We'd been wanting to buy an electric vehicle and had been researching the range, cargo space, etc., of various small automobiles. We were trying to figure out what would have enough space to take us to Big Bear, what might be able to deal with snow up there, and all of that. We were actually on the list for a Volkswagen ID4. Then we stumbled upon a Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid at the Chrysler dealership (subsequently taken over by AutoNation) in Carlsbad Car Country one Saturday after we dropped Ever at a Girl Scout event. Those were incredibly hard to come by; nobody ever had any in stock. We realized that what we really need electric for is my every-day driving to school and around town, and the approximately 32-mile electric range on the Pacifica would be enough to get me to school and back on the charge. So we spontaneously bought the Pacifica. It was crazy. All of a sudden, in one afternoon, we were buying a new minivan that, the day before, we hadn't even been considering. I took a picture to send to Mamo.
Big Blue (our 2010 Honda Odyssey) needed something done to it that would cost a decent amount of money, and we didn't want to deal with trying to sell it privately. We traded it in for a meager sum, which felt like a big rip-off but saved us some headache.
Ever also played fall soccer and was nominated for all-stars. Unlike Tiny, she had to go to a tryout, where they all got medals. She made it onto an all-star team and had some extra practices and tournaments.
During Ever's tryout, Wrenzy and Tiny entertained themselves by building some little garden in the dirt by the parking lot.
Then at Ever's games (or at least at the game at which this photo was taken), they did this instead of watching.
Berry did some cute singing along with her piano playing. I knew she wouldn't let me videotape her, so I had to do it surreptitiously.
Molly Bowen (mother of Lucy in Ever's class) had Ever and the other school friends over for a playdate, where they made Halloween treats. Little Ever is barely visible in the photo.
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| Ella Herrell, Lucy Bowen, Leela Subrebost, Ailana Halper, and Ever |
Tiny and Wrenzy really wanted to go to a little Halloween party that people from their new school (JCS Mountain Oaks) were throwing at a park. Tiny went as Sophia Smith, who is no. 9 on the Portland Thorns (women's soccer team) and whose trademark hairdo is a bubble braid.
Tiny's number on her rec team happened to be no. 9, so that worked out great. We slapped "SMITH" on the back of her jersey with duct tape and gave her a bubble braid, and she was all set. Wrenzy, meanwhile, opted out of dressing up.
First stop was cookie decorating.
They didn't really know anybody yet, so they spoke to no one. We played a couple of games, spent a few minutes on the play equipment, and then headed out.
Wrenzy read to Tiny in the car on the way home - with feeling but at such a rapid pace that nobody could understand what she was saying.
We went to the playground across from Miss Amber's house during/after piano lessons. Tiny got comfy on the sign.
Wrenzy monkeyed up a pole.
They both climbed around on top of the structure, which was fun and frightening (for me, not them).
Wrenzy is very anti dressing up. She's prematurely unfestive. Her class (with Mrs. Haseyama) on Halloween:
Tiny wore one of our Little House dresses.
Katie and Evan Gustafson threw a Halloween party, and costumes were mandatory (a nightmare for Jim and me). After Googling, I came up with the simplest couples' costumes ever - salt and pepper. I grabbed us gray beanies from Target, and Ever used her Cricut to make and the "S" and "P" for our shirts. I also put black "holes" on the tops of our beanies.
Cikaneks came to our ward Halloween party with us.
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| Tiny, Nathan Cikanek, Ella Rondo, Ever, and Wren |
Jim, the Littles, and I trick-or-treated in our neighborhood with Cikaneks. Ever, who went as Alex Morgan (the soccer player), trick-or-treated with school friends in Lucy Bowen's neighborhood in Encinitas. We missed her!
Wrenzy didn't want to dress up but ultimately agreed to wear Ever's old Harry Potter costume. I realize I am the lamest mom ever by not making (or buying) creative costumes for them, but it's pretty amazing when they just wear their soccer uniforms or recycle costumes. I did curl Wrenzy's hair to try to make her more Hermione-esque, but her silky, fine hair didn't retain the curl very well.
The house on the corner of Calle Buena Ventura and Golfcrest was pretty freaky. The window periodically lit up like this.
Lucy's mom sent me these pics of the Ever crew.
Susan Oddou texted me this throwback pic of Ever and Luc. So little and cute.
Last pic of the month was another note I found written by Bear. More story brainstorming, it appears?
