Soccer and Musical Instruments

We had our first soccer game today.  

They've only had two practices, so I wasn't really expecting much.

This kid is a mess.  :)

He spent a lot of his time on the outskirts and wouldn't really get in there to get the ball.  He told me he was afraid to go after the ball because he thought he would get hurt, so there was lots of spinning in circles and feigned exhaustion after small snippets of jogging.  Then at another point in the game, he ran over to me (while everyone is playing) and told me that "in case I wanted something cold, but not to drink, there was a Sno-cone stand right over there."  I guess the temptation of the sno-cone stand was too hard to resist even if a soccer game was going on.  I think he had fun and he was definitely fun to watch. :)

This one however...

Was a beast!  He was all over the field giving it everything he had.  One of the coaches was on him quite a bit, but I think it was because he sees potential in him.  Reed isn't good with criticism (constructive or not), so he was beat down.  It really warmed up today and by the end of the game, all of the kids were exhausted - they run back and forth the entire hour!  He was so hot and tired, but he never complained.  I was so proud of him!

We went to lunch and then over to the middle school.  Kids going into middle school have to choose from 3 electives - art, choir or band.  He chose band, so we had to go to the "instrument fitting".  He picked the top three instruments that he was interested in playing and then they worked with him on the mouthpieces to see how they did.  

                                               

She was very impressed with how he did with the bassoon, but he also tried the trumpet and tuba (Brian played trombone in high school for a few years, so I think Reed wanted to try out something in the brass section also).  The tuba also seemed to be a good fit, but in the end he decided to go with the bassoon.  There aren't many that will play that, so he'll have better instruction because he'll be in a lot smaller class.  I think he's really looking forward to it.  :)

The last couple of weeks...

It was my turn to have Reed for kid/parent date night, so I took him to Simply Fondue in Fort Worth. We had the BEST time. 

Right when I said I want to take a picture and he threw up the hashtag.  I'm guessing it's for 

#momisthebestdateever

Or so I choose to believe.  :)

We started off with cheese fondue.  They brought out bread cubes and veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) and even some baby pickles. Yum!  Then we ordered our meal.  They had a list of meats to choose from and we chose 3 each.  With those, they brought some ravioli, some different veggies and ac couple of other things to try.  She gave us instructions on how long to cook each meat, so I used the timer on my phone just to make sure everything was cooked correctly.

After the main course, we were excited for dessert.  We chose what kind of chocolate we wanted and they brought us marshmallows, fruit, cheesecake balls, cookie dough balls... it was all very good.  The whole meal took a couple of hours and I really enjoyed having that time with my oldest.  He's a really fun kid.

I needed gas on the way home and my date pumped it for me. :)

We've had some sleet/snow/icy weather over the last couple of weeks and the boys have gotten 4 days off from school.  They've loved it and it's been fun to see the snow, but we're all kind of over it at this point. We wouldn't last a week up north.  :)

Anyway, the cold weather always brings out the wildlife.  We had a lot of birds eating the fallen birdseed, even a few Cardinals. 

One morning a little buck went walking across the back yard.  Sorry- bad picture.

After the heavier snowfall, I got a few pretty pictures...

Should be ready to move into soon.
Anyday now.

From the upstairs balcony...

And yes, the boys have ziploc bags over their gloves and duct taped to their jacket sleeves.  We didn't have any snow gloves, so we tried this to keep them from getting wet.  Didn't everybody do that?  :)

One more piece of news, Brandon and Becky are expecting!!!  Take a peek at their sonogram...

 Do you see that? Baby A AND Baby B???? They are having twins!!!! We could not be more excited for them and I can't wait to meet these two precious little babies and be an aunt again!!!