Soccer girl.

A condensed version of Anna's first ever soccer season in AYSO.

She played in the U6 (4-5 year olds) league.

They play three on three without a goalie,

on a field smaller than a basketball court.

Game 1: Before the season started, we'd caught two frogs at the soccer fields.

The first was at evaluations.

The second was while waiting for our game to start.

We made her mad because she didn't want to put her shin pads on.

She wanted to catch more frogs.

First thing we do at every game is warm up.

We touch the ball to our toes to stretch,

roll the ball around with our feet and play "tick-tock".

Then we play some games.

Post office, monster in the middle, red light-green light, OUCH!

(kick the ball into the coach, who yells "Ouch!" when hit).

Our favorite is body part dribble -

they dribble around the field and when I yell a body part,

they have to touch that part to the ball.

Their favorite part was "bottom".

Before each game starts, we check to make sure

everyone has shin pads and proper cleats.

Then we flip a coin and choose goals to "shoot into".

Then it's time to play.

Go Tigers!

At this age, it's "Herd Ball".

Wherever the ball is, most of the kids are clustered around it.

Of course, it does't help that we have a tendency

to kick the ball out of bounds a lot.

It gets a little boring waiting for everything to get set up again.

Especially since no one really knows where to go.

Anna usually plays pretty hard, but poops out pretty quickly.

Good thing the quarters are only 5 minutes long.

My favorite quote of the season:

"Daddy, I smiled at those boys and girls,

but they didn't share the ball with me!"

We do get our feelings hurt when the ball gets taken away-

especially by our own teammates.

It's more like 1 vs. 5 than 3 vs. 3 in a 4 year old's mentality.

See how happy we are that Brianna scored?!

We do have fun playing with the ball on the field before the games start.

And every once in a while, we get the "breakaway ball"

and take it down for a score!

"I scored two goals tonight, daddy!"

Daddy is so proud of how we played!

I didn't get a shot of today's goal, but it was the best yet.

She was really scrappin' for it.
And she did it all on her own!

Tate Farms Field Trip

When we got back from our October trip to Knoxville, it was time for the annual trek to Tate Farms. Anna has been to Tate Farms every year, so it's become a bit of a tradition. This year's trip was with both classes at Little Tots Preschool, where Anna goes three days a week. We had a ball!Anna, Barrett and Avery - the Three Musketeers.

Just after Sissy (Barrett's Mama) shot this photo, we were informed the pumpkins they were sitting on cost about $15-$20 each.

We got them up in a hurry!

Don't worry, Grammaw, there was a big pile of hay just below her!

A class picture. Anna's teacher Mrs. Lisa Carter is on the right.

One of the many things we did was pick a little cotton.

I'll bet this brings back a few memories for my Dad!

Where was Caleb during all this? He got to spend the day with Mrs. Virginia, our pastor's wife. They took him out for pizza, and he treated them with one of his "heartfelt" prayers. Brother George said it was like he was speaking in tongues, but absolutely precious.

Skunk Ridge in October

When we ran over to Skunk Ridge to visit with Meemaw and Peepaw, we were able to give the kids a glimpse of life on a working Christmas Tree Farm. October is tree-spraying month, and Dad invited the kids out for a walk back to the trees so they could see him paint them (Yes, paint them! Pine trees tend to be more yellow-green than evergreen in December, so Mom and Dad give them a little help). Of course, the kids found some interesting things along the way...

Like the trailer that is always covered in hay bales at Christmas time...

Or the walk through the "tree tunnel" to the Christmas trees.

Meemaw and Peepaw are going to have some really big Christmas trees this year!

Great Granny

Caleb just loves his Great Granny. When we saw her at church that Sunday morning, he ran right up to her and said "Hey Great-Granny! How're you doing today?" When we stopped by her house to visit for a little longer, he was up in her lap in no time. He insisted she wear Jerry's hat, but took his hat off before I could snap the picture.

Pawpaw's Pumpkin Patch

While I'm archiving a few things, here are some photos of our most recent trip to Knoxville. Sunday afternoon, we took a trip to a local pumpkin patch with Grammaw, Pawpaw, Uncle James, Aunt Amy, and our cousins Gracey and Abby.

While waiting on the hay ride, we found an old tractor. We had a ball playing on it.


Caleb is "Wuhking" on the "Tacto".

Jerry and Caleb doing the "Jenkings Fling". The kids LOVE this!

Anna loves hayrides.

Abby's face cracks me up in this picture. She seems to take everything so seriously.

When we got back to Pawpaw's house, we had a pumpkin painting party. The girls took it very seriously and worked really hard at it. They got paint everywhere. Caleb did a "Kamikaze Paint Aattack" on his pumpkin that lasted about two minutes. No pictures of that because I was too busy trying to keep paint from spilling everywhere. Then he went back to blowing bubbles and playing football and doing "boy" things. We all had a ball!

Here goes nothing...

Inspired by a friend of mine who lives MUCH further away from her extended family than I do, I'm setting this up for friends and family who don't see us as often as we like. I'm hoping to make this an archive of some of the stuff the kids do. Here goes!