Our Little Flock of Byrds: December 2013

The week before Son #2 entered High School for his Freshman year, he felt like he needed to join something to keep him social. We thought school clubs would be good, but as we were leaving from the Orientation for the clubs, there was a bunch of tables set up at the entrance of the school.

We realized that these were teams trying to recruit new students for the various sports.

We looked around and saw that no one was at the Cross Country table.

The Coach and Team Captains were enthusiastic to find a possible recruit. I mean really excited!

I guess last year there were only about 10 on the team.

Son #2 really liked the positive spirit coming from this team, so he joined.

This humble group recruited and their team was a whopping 22!

Even though, Son #2 was the only Freshman Boy, this was a wonderful experience for him.

Here he is at the end of "Eagle's First Flight".

Waiting for his first official meet.

At the end of Cousin B's meet.

This was great to share some of this experience with this cousin who will be graduating this year.

At the finish line at a different meet

This was his time at his second meet at the same location.

Within a 1 month period, he shaved off 4 minutes. WooHoo!

Hard Working Dad and Son #2 were signed up to participate in "Run to Feed the Hungry" on Thanksgiving day, however, both came down with a stomach illness. So to not waste the entry, Very Involved Mom put on Son #2's shirt and took his spot. Went with Aunt R and had a great time.

Favorite part: the Ukelele Band

At the High School Athletics Award Night, each coach was to choose awards for Most Valuable Player and a Coach's Award. The Cross Country coach shared how the player she was honoring for the Men's Team Coach's Award on his first hard practice ran up and down the Pennsylvania Ave hills 9 times. When he finished, she asked, "How you feel?" Student, "Tired." Coach, "Did you take a break?" Student, "No, I didn't know I was allowed." She also shared how much he had improved even though he'd never run before and while all others on the team had conditioned over the summer, but he didn't. She told that many people (parents and race facilitators) all mentioned that this student is always positive and always comes into the finish line with a smile on his face.

That student.... was..... our own SON #2.

He's looking forward to running next year!

Outrageous October

Harvest Festival

Hardworking Dad made these "photo-op" boards for Aunty C who was helping her local elementary school. We all volunteered and helped run about 3-4 of the booths. Great Fun!

Fun with Leaves

We have 2 trees that produce A LOT of fallen leaves come autumn.

Who can resist making huge piles and jumping in them?!!

The only problem is getting all the crumbly leaves out of Lovely Daughter's LONG hair.

Daddy went a bit crazy helping with bath time that night.

GAME ON BIRTHDAYS!!

This year both Son #2 and Son #3 hosted gaming birthday parties.

As the guests arrived, they got to play Foosball, Air Hockey and Pool with our mini game table separated. They also played these and ate snacks during their breaks of the Video Game Tournament.

This was the group for Son #3's birthday.

While the boys were finishing up their tournament and choosing prizes, a few dads and Son #1 played a few rounds of Foosball. Even Very Involved Mom got to play a few games of Pool. Fun!