Gone Camping...

Last weekend we went on a camping trip to Foster Lake. We went with the Stanger's who we have know mostly through Kody and their son Matt. Kody and Matt play football together and have been in school together for a while. They also have a boy named Marcus and a girl, Peyton. Marcus is Kaleb's age so they hit it off pretty well also. Peyton is younger than any of our kids but they love playing with her. She is a little fireball and is always going.

The lake is really low so we didn't go in the lake at all. The kids did take a rubber raft in the pond in the middle of the campground. We fished a bunch but didn't catch much. Kody caught a little bluegill and then threw it back, at least that is what he claims.

The Stanger's, Craig and Tiffany, also have a motorhome so we had been trying to plan a trip with them for most of the summer but it just never seemed to work out so we finally got it in after school started. The littlier kids didn't have school on Friday so we went from Thursday to Sunday. As it does sometimes it rained for a good part of the camping trip but we still had a ball in the motorhomes.

Tiffany made some great Apple Cobbler which didn't last long and we mostly ate a bunch of good food and junk food. Probably wasn't the best training for my upcoming half marathon, but oh well. We are planning on doing more trips in the future, hopefully sooner than later.

Football and Soccer

The fall means sports. Kody is doing 7th grade Football at Talmadge Middle School and Kaleb is playing soccer for Central Youth Sports. This is Kody's second year of football and Kaleb's first time to play soccer.

So far Kody has played almost every position on the field at one time or another except maybe offensive line. He has really taken off and seems to have figured out that if he hits the other guy harder that it hurts him less. In the past few games he has really gone after the ball carriers. He is also playing running back and had over 50 yards rushing on just 5 or 6 rushes in his second to last game.

Last game he played what would be the equivalent to midde linebacker and had a bunch of tackles. His best play though was one where he just got crushed but got back up and still made the tackle. I was really proud of him because he could have just laid there and thought about how he just got crushed but he didn't. Most of all he is having fun and seems to be enjoying it. He is walking around right now with a huge black eye that he got 3 games ago, but it is about the size of a softball on his left cheek/eye. Kind of a Badge of Courage I think. Mind you, Kody is only about 91 pounds so he isn't the biggest guy on the field, by far, but he makes up for it with effort.

Kaleb is also enjoying soccer. Mostly a social time but he also likes to run around on the field and try to kick the ball. He played goalie here last game and did really well. He knows alot of the kids on his team and practices turn into screw around sessions from what I can tell, but they try to mix some soccer in when they can.

I'm not sure my girls are going to be into sports but who knows, there is still lots of time. I really think Kennedy has the personality to play linebacker or something where you have to be mean. Ask Koda, she thrashes him every now and then.

Kirik Goes to Pre-School

Kirik started preschool last week. So now we have three days a week where we have no kids at home for two and a half hours. Can you believe it??? I thought the day would never come. We had decided to hold Kirik back from preschool this year and put him in next year but the preschool called and they had an extra space which is unheard of. We talked about it and we decided to have him do the 4's class this year and repeat it again the next year.

He is still pretty small compared to the others and not sure how he is going to do socially. Although there area usually as many kids at the house as there are at the preschool at any given time, but it's a litte different without mom and dad around. His first day was last Wednesday and it seemed to go really well. When we told Kirik he was going to go to preschool this year he immediately wanted to call Miss Diana his teacher to tell her he is a big boy now.

All of the kids have gone to the Monmouth Independence Cooperative Preschool (MICP) so it is kind of a tradition. Miss Diana has taught all of the kids and all of her kids go on to do really well so it is a great start for them. Kody's best friends are still the kids he went to preschool with as they form a pretty tight bond and probably will be life long friends.

Today I picked Kirik up and Miss Diana said Kirik had punched a boy in the eye for not looking at him. Which seemed like as good a reason as any to punch someone in the eye. Sounds like something all of the rest of the kids did at one time or another. So we'll see how he does. He is pretty smart so I don't worry about that part but it is just being so much smaller and behind due to the orphanage.

Check out his pics from his first day as a bona fide big boy.