Today, Zach got to scrimmage against his old football team from last year (the Broncos). They came over to our field to play and it was fun seeing all the coaches and players from last year. They have matured quite a bit as they don’t have as many kids who are brand new to football.
Our kids played pretty hard, but experience won out in the end. 🙂
Today, our Ward went to Feed My Starving Children! We packed a ton of boxes of food. I can’t remember how many cases we packed or how many meals were provided, but everyone felt great about their contributions. This time, I stayed home with Ben. This was Zach’s first time to go and he was really excited! He had a blast and wants to go back again soon! At the facility that we pack the food at, they have a huge wall where they pin up shirts donated by people who come (business logos, etc.). Angela took a “Mormon Helping Hands” yellow shirt up there and gave it to them after we had finished our packing job. They were very appreciative and will post it up on their wall (hopefully next to the Grant Thornton one)! 🙂
I didn’t hear where the food we packed today will go, but no matter where, we saved some lives today! 🙂 What a great feeling!
Tonight, Kirstyn had a few of her friends over for a back-to-school get together and they had a great time! They decorated cupcakes, played games, and watched a movie.
They also had a fun time trying to scare Zach, Ben, and I, who pitched the tent out in the back yard and were having a junk food eating, movie watching, father and son campout! The boys really like to do this kind of thing. They think that if they’re out of the house, they can stay up as late as they want, eat as much junk food as they want, and watch as many movies on Dad’s laptop as they want. The funny thing is that they do eat a bunch, but they can barely make it through one movie before they start to drift off. 🙂
Today, Zach got his football jersey and his helmet stickers! He’s pretty excited, although he gets teased a little bit from the die-hard Bears fans on his team and in his class for liking the Packers. 🙂
While Zach and I were at football practice, Sarah and Angela were up at Metea at Senior College Night! Yikes. Once again, this kind of stuff just reaffirms how old we are getting! Fortunately, we look and feel pretty young! 🙂 I think Sarah can’t wait to get out of high school and start college. We think it will really be an eye opener for her and we hope she is prepared (at least a little more prepared that what we were thinking when we started)! 🙂
School started today! It’s hard to believe that we now have a Senior in High School, a Sophomore in High School, and a Middle Schooler, along with one in Elementary! I think Ben is actually pretty excited to get mom all to himself now.
Sarah and Brittany took off first this morning, but not with out pictures of all three girls together…
Next, it was Kirstyn’s turn. She went to school with a group of her friends that she occasionally hangs out with, who live in our neighborhood…
Zach went next. He is SO excited to be in 2nd grade, and he loves his new teacher. We hope that he will be respectful and obedient in his class this year (that he learned a bunch of stuff from the issues he had last year). 🙂
I wasn’t there when they left, but I’m sure that Ben gave a big sigh of relief when everyone was gone and he had the house all to himself! 🙂 Best of luck this year in school, everyone!
Today Sarah and Brittany had their Seminary kick-off meetings for the new year! They are SO excited! The homes that they will be meeting at are very close together and does not require too much driving. That way, they were able to separate the classes to have one for Fr/So, and one for Jr/Sr. The teachers are wonderful! Brittany has the two that taught them last year (Sarah is very jealous). Sarah’s teachers sound like they will be wonderful as well. Turns out that one of them is a Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships for the Chicago Bulls. 🙂 I’m hoping that they go to a Bulls game this year and he needs help from parents! 🙂
The girls will be studying the Old Testament this year. They aren’t looking forward to getting up at 4:30am to be at Seminary by 6am, but they know how important it is and are excited to do it. We are very proud of them for their desire to do what’s right! People can’t believe the fact that they get up so early to study religious “stuff.”
Today was a pretty busy day! This morning, we had a Marching Band parent meeting. After that, we were supposed to have the parent “fundies” drills and parent preview out on the football field. Unfortunately, while we were in the parent meeting, a huge thunderstorm hit, making going outside impossible. So, the kids stood on the stage in the auditorium and performed their show. I helped with the pit, although it was kind-of crazy to set up everything in such a small place. Unlike the marching band the first year where there were about 50 people, they are now up around 115!
This year, they are doing an Elvis Show. It sounded really great! The kids have been working really hard! They were all pretty bummed that they didn’t get to go outside and perform! 🙁 Oh well, we have the first home game coming up in a couple of weeks and we’ll be able to see it then! Plus, it’s pretty embarrassing for all of us parents to do the “fundies” work. 🙂
Tonight, Angela and I went to the temple as part of a Stake Patron Day. We did some more names of Tracy Raketic’s ancestors. Her great grandparents are now complete and we’re ready to do some more! 🙂 Doing names of people that we are familiar with makes the experience much more special.
Tonight we had a date night with some friends at a Kane County Cougars ball game. Angela found out that it was “Country Night.” with a band playing before the game, and fireworks to country music after the game. We had a great time!
Unfortunately, the Cougars lost, but the music and the fireworks were awesome! The stands were pretty packed, although the picture above doesn’t show it (taken about an hour before game time).
Football practices went much better this week. Zach really has enjoyed tackling. I like the way that things are run this year with the team. We have a green team and a gold team, and each gets a chance to play on each side of the ball. We also have a set number of QBs and RBs, but we have one RB slot on each team that rotates throughout the season. That way, everyone gets a chance to play in multiple positions. Zach has really enjoyed playing on defense. He loves tackling. 🙂 He is still center on offense and enjoys that.
Tonight, we had a treat… There is another team that practices at the same field who we had a watermelon relay with! The boys line up and carry watermelons down around cones and back, passing them off to the next in line. After the relay, you then eat the watermelon and have a great time! 🙂 Our boys were funny to watch, as some of them are not much bigger than the watermelon they were carrying! 🙂
After the relay finished up and they ate their watermelon, we finished up the last half of practice. The kids had a lot more energy after that, having just had a break, a lot of fun, and some great watermelon! 🙂
Today Zach went to school and met his new teacher, Mr. Farrell! He was very excited because he knows Mr. Farrell a little bit from when Kirstyn had him for math. Zach can’t wait for school to start. I hope that his teacher feels that way too! 🙂 I’m sure Mr. Farrell got an update from his teacher last year! 😐
Tonight, the girls and I went over to the South Point Swim Club for the end of the summer pool party with the young men and young women in our ward. We had a GREAT turnout and the food was wonderful. The kids brought friends and I think that altogether, we had over 5o people there! Brittany was extra excited about the evening, but I won’t go into it any further! 🙂 You’ll have to ask her yourself!
Tonight we had the Anderson family over for dinner. They are good friends of ours and moved awhile back from Naperville to Long Island, NY. We miss having them here and I think they really miss being here too! 🙂 We had a great dinner of burgers, brats, chicken, and all kinds of stuff. Then we just hung out in the back yard, enjoying the wonderful weather and getting caught up on what’s going on in each other’s families!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a picture of everyone together, so the above pic of Spencer, Seth, and his girlfriend will have to suffice! 🙂
Today, Kirstyn, Zach, and Ben went to Phillips Park (and the Zoo) with Angela. They had a GREAT time playing in the park, getting wet, and really enjoying themselves.
After getting worn out by all the playing at the zoo, Zach had his first football practice, with me as an assistant coach! We have a few who played last year on our team, but most are brand new players who are very excited to play football. The kids have a lot of energy, so that will make up for them being on the small side (again)! 🙂 We have a small (in numbers) tam as well so we hope that some will be added as the pre-season practices go along. I’m really looking forward to it!
Football takes a lot more discipline than soccer does, so I hope I’ll have the patience that I need! 🙂
