Ever since Hannah broke her arm this summer, the kids have had SO MANY doctor's appointments. I don't think I'm exaggerating to say there have been close to 30 in the past 5 months. To keep the streak alive, Matthew fell on the playground at school and had to get stitches in his chin. Apparently he just hopped up and kept playing, but the adult on the playground noticed he was bleeding and told him we had to check it out. I just happened to be helping at school that day and was walking by the recess doors as he was coming in. As soon as he saw me, he burst into tears. By the time we were in the car, he was calm again, and he was an amazing patient at the ER.
Scott and I got to have a date night! The Oysters took Little Peanut and Micah, and the Dodsons took Matthew and Hannah overnight. We went to dinner near Cleveland, then saw the comedian Nate Bargatze live at a drive-in movie theater. It was so refreshing to have a night off and spend time with each other.
Nana and Papa flew out for a visit. We strategically picked a weekend where they could see several of the kids' events. They got to see at least part of a game for each kid and Micah's last cross country meet.
Micah (far right) really pushed himself this season. His best time was 13:17 (for 2 miles).
Little Peanut has made a fair contribution to those 30 doctor's appointments. She has some issues with food and eczema and rashes. But she didn't get her first runny nose until last month! When you've spend most of your life in quarantine, you're just not exposed to very many germs!
Micah's soccer team got to play a game under the lights at a local private high school. It was really fun! Many of the families from the soccer club came to cheer, and one of the younger teams were "ball boys" for them. Coach Jeremy MC'ed, and all the players got introduced by name.
By far, without a doubt, the most exciting part of the evening was when Micah scored a goal!!!! Throughout the game, the other team's goalie kept coming out quite far from the goal (he's in pink in the video). On a quick trip up the field, our forward was able to get past the goalie and have an open goal. (Micah says he was yelling at the forward to shoot.) He managed to get the ball over to Micah who immediately hit it with his left foot. We were all on our feet, watching it sneak past the last defenders and roll into the goal! Here's a
link to the video on facebook. (I'm not able to download it and post it here.) Check out his coach at the bottom of the screen literally jumping for joy when it goes in. The camera gets knocked away when all his teammates surrounded him and cheered for him, but it was heartwarming to see how excited they were.
For Fantastic Friday one week I did an egg drop with Hannah's class. This was my view from the roof. :) I probably had as much fun as the kids.
One Saturday, Micah and Hannah were scheduled to both have games at their home field. Both games got moved to Strongsville, an hour away. At first I was frustrated because it was going to consume our whole day, and we couldn't all go together (Little Peanut was under the weather and needs her naps.) Then Scott suggested that he stay home, and I take the older two kids. My pendulum swung back up, and I was excited to spend the day with just the "big kids". We packed activities for the car, warm blankets, hot cocoa, and made plans for what we would do in the hours between the two games. Ten minutes before we arrived at the field, Scott called to let me know they had cancelled the games due to field conditions. Good grief. We got doughnuts on the way home as a consolation for driving two hours for no reason and decided to be thankful for having an unexpected afternoon at home.
Micah decided to go with a traditional jack-o-lantern look. Matthew (with help from mom) did a Ram's logo to go with his costume of being Todd Gurley. Hannah did a really cute one with an owl, but I forgot to take a picture, and then a deer ate it.
By the time I finished helping the kids, I didn't have much enthusiasm left, so I went with this:
For trick-or-treat, Hannah and some of her friends dressed up like the girls from the "Babysitter's Club" book series. Hannah was Claudia, the artistic one who loves candy. :) If you, like me, read all the books growing up, you might be able to figure out the other girls' characters. (McKinley was not part of it - she was a unicorn.)
It was cold and raining, of course. Micah and Matthew walked (ran) with the Oyster boys. I don't know why Matthew looks sad. He was actually super pumped. And Micah went with the no-effort costume of being a soccer player.
The post-event of sorting and trading.
