Picture Post!

Lil Sis took this photo of Big Sis and me at soccer last night.  She wants a camera for Christmas.
When Lil Sis wasn't playing soccer last night, I was taking her picture.
Today we spent several hours at Autumn Acres.  The girls had a blast running on the large round hay bales and jumping between them.  We also attempted to solved a corn maze, but after 40 minutes, we gave up and escaped.  It's definitely a job for adults and the girls were out of gas.
We found a nice photo op in one of the barns on the Farm Crawl we attended last Sunday.  There was a sign near by warning people not to crawl on the hay bales.  
We picked up this hitch-hiker somewhere along the way.  Not sure how long he clung on .
This guy sires mules.  Does anyone know what he is?
Big Sis balancing on a soccer ball.  One of her many tricks that she will be able to perform when she runs away to join the circus in a few years.
Lil Sis can do circus tricks too.  She'll probably follow Big Sis to the circus.  Hula hooping is another skill they're perfecting.

To follow up on a random thought from yesterday.  The Blueberry Cinnamon Crumble coffee was delicious this morning!!  I'll make more tomorrow... I just love the smell!!!

Geocaching In A New Town

Big Sis had the afternoon off from school.  Since the weather was so nice today, we went geocaching.  I remembered the GPS was in Cool Daddy-O's car.  We went out of town to get the GPS and stayed there to geocache.  Above, is the first one hidden on the railing of a bridge by the river.  We left a key chain and Big Sis grabbed a quarter.  
The second cache we found was the most fun.  It was near an area where workers were moving gravel, sand, etc around after the flooding was resolved in this area.  They looked at us and I could tell they wondered what we were up to.  We were parked in an area off the beaten path. We told them what we were up to and they jumped at the chance to walk with us for the last 100 feet of our search.   One of the guys actually spotted the cache and then stepped away to let us find it on our own.  I think they welcomed the diversion on a Friday afternoon.  

While we were preparing to hike out of the hiding spot and back to the car, Cool Daddy-O called and was ready to join us.  He helped us with the last two.  

At the third sight, we spotted grasshoppers, deer tracks, butterflies, and some pretty wildflowers.  We also found the cache, eventually.
The fourth and final cache of the day was near a gas station, in a small wooded area.  The above picture shows how well it was hidden.  The clue was "natural camo".  It was well hidden, indeed.  At this spot, Big Sis carried a monarch butterfly around for awhile.  Apparently, monarchs are migrating right now and are quite plentiful in Iowa this week.  Sounds like they like clover.  Big Sis also informed us that predators stay away from Monarchs because they're poisonous.  Monarchs eat milk weed, which is what makes them poisonous.  Not sure if this is all making sense, as Lil Sis is having a major meltdown while Cool Daddy-O is getting her ready for bed.  Sorry.
To end the perfect day, Big Sis had a soccer game.  Here's an action shot of her preparing to kick as she was warming up before the game.  Her team didn't win tonight, but that's o.k. because the weather was warm, it wasn't raining, and she had fun.  What more could you want.
During the game, Lil Sis commandeered the camera.  She keeps asking if she can have a camera of her own.  I think she got a pretty good picture of Cool Daddy-O tonight.  We'll see if Santa has any cameras in his pack of goodies this year.

Soccer Fun

Here's Big Sis taking a break during her game last Friday.  It's fun to watch her play this year.  She's learning lots of new skills and all the girls on her team are about the same skill level and are working well together.
Here's Lil Sis kicking off during her scrimmage on Tuesday.  She's still extremely shy during the first few minutes of soccer, but then warms up quickly and runs around chasing the ball.  It's her first official season.  It's fun to watch little 4 year olds running around chasing the ball.  She just needs to gain some self confidence and she'll do good.  She's smiling the whole time she's out there (except for the beginning when I have to hold her hand the whole time).

The weather is a bit dreary today.  I'm hoping it improves and we have another fun night at soccer practice.

On another note, we recently purchased an iMac.  I've been busy transferring data from the PC to the iMac.  It's been pretty easy, just time consuming getting used to everything.  Overall, I would recommend the Mac.  It seems very intuitive.  There are a lot of things I need to figure out, but I'm up for the challenge!!

Soccer Season Starts as a Cool Front Approaches

Tonight was Lil Sis' first ever soccer practice. Not surprisingly, yet ever so frustratingly, she was extremely shy and refused to participate at the beginning. I struggled between holding her hand and walking her through the steps, to standing with my hands on my hips in frustration.

I finally had a little heart to heart. She said she wanted to play soccer, but wanted everyone else to leave. I reminded her that soccer is a team sport and they need to play together. She then asked if she could still keep her shirt if she didn't play. I told her no, she'd have to give it back. Her shirt is her favorite color (yellow) and I knew that would have an impact on her.

Soon after that, she started participating, first taking turns kicking the ball across the field with me....then before we all knew it, she had this huge grin on her face after she kicked the ball! From then on, I was able to stand on the side lines and cheer her on. She returned often for high fives, low fives, etc.

Near the end, her team had a scrimmage with another team. She did her thing and was soooooo cute with her shin guards, soccer socks, and soccer cleats on. Once after a big play where another kid kicked the ball when she was trying to, she came walking toward me with a weird look. I thought her feelings or foot had been hurt, but when I asked her what was wrong, she said she was thirsty. She got a little drink and ran back on the field. Next time we'll encourage her to wait til there's a break in the action, but at that point, I was so happy that she was participating, I didn't care.

After practice was over, Lil Sis insisted on staying at the soccer fields and kicking the ball some more. Fortunately, we had our 2 soccer balls in the trunk, so the girls went to one of the full sized fields and practiced scoring goals against Cool Daddy-O!

On another note (pun intended), the song that Uncle John plays drums on is #1 on the Country charts this week! WhooHoo!!! Big Sis wants to know if that means he's famous now. Kudos to Jimmy Wayne and "Do You Believe Me Now"!!! If you're looking for some good music, go buy the CD or download it! Yeah, I'm biased, but I think it's pretty awesome, and I'm not really even a big country music fan! I just like all good music!