Lions and Tigers and Bears...OH MY! **Zach**

This is not a joke. This year Zach's soccer team was, as ever, called the Lions. Ben's team clung to last year's name as well, the Tigers. Josh's soccer team, on the other hand, opted to leave "Fire Dragons" in the dust and renamed themselves...wait for it...waaaait for it...THE BEARS. I really had Lions and Tigers and Bears! (It's OK, you can say it, I know you want to, because it's almost compluslive) OH MY!

Can you even believe it?! Strangest coincidence you've EVER possibly heard of right? :)

I was going to do one long soccer post, but I decided to split it up into three posts, one for each of our little soccer boys. Less reading in one sitting for you, more posts for me. It's a win-win situation.

So we will start with Zach. His is a little longer than Ben and Josh's will be because it was a huge season of learning, for better and for worse, about the game we know as soccer and all that we didn't know that meant. It's long, you may not want to read it all, but I need to record it for my edification. So I can remember the lessons from this season! But perhaps my lessons can be yours, or you might just be able to empathize. It was an interesting season. Zach's been playing on a competitive team for three seasons now, since last spring, so about a year-and-a-half. His age group usually doesn't play competitive, but the team was successful enough that they were asked to join a few other teams in "playing up." This fall, the team got a new coach just before the season started. We were a little heartbroken about it, even though we were happy for Coach Marc and the great opportunity he was given to coach at the collegiate level.

It was great that Coach Ian stepped in at the last minute, but he was stretched really thin coaching two competitive teams, going to grad school, and working a full-time job. Plus, Coach Ian did a good job working on skills, apparently he plays on one of the minor league teams that feed up to the Colorado Rapids, so he obviously knows his stuff, but he failed to do some of the incredible team-building, motivating, perspective-giving things Coach Marc did. The team had a rough season. It felt like they lost trust in each other to each play their part. They kind of fractured. There was blaming, show boating, and even a little bit of bullying. Fortunately Zach only had a couple of incidents at the beginning of the season, but other kids dealt with worse. I think it was this atmosphere that led to a lot of losses and ties, with only a couple of wins. But they learned a great deal skill-wise, so it wasn't a total bummer of a season. Plus, Zach does a good job shaking off the losses and focusing on the positive.It was a season of learning for Adam and I too. Our eyes were opened to "the game" that is the soccer achievement/advancement ladder. I know it's not unique to soccer. All sports have it these days. But I think it's crazy that at 9- and 10-years-old these kids are encouraged to become so competitive and must make decisions that will influence their chances of playing on the try-out competitive teams as they get older. He's only 9, he's not even on a team that requires try-outs yet, but some games he'd get minimal playing time in favor of the better players, which is really annoying when you are driving up to Denver for a game. At practices Coach would sometimes pit the "team" versus the three main star players. That's a good message to send to everyone. Wha?! Not!!! There was an additional class offered, for an extra fee of course, that would have given Zach 5 days of soccer a week instead of just 4. For that reason, we opted not to do it along with 1/2 the team. Unfortunately, the kids that did the class formed a little clique that divided the team even further. I know I keep saying it, but he's only 9 it seemed too intense for kids that age. But I guess I was just naive. "The game" starts young!

Sadly, Adam and I let it get to us . After the first game I took him to, when he just seemed to drag the few times he was put in the game, I had a big lecture all the way home for my poor kid about stepping up his game and playing harder. Dummy mom! I later told him I was sorry, that I did want him to play hard, but I was letting the competitive nature of the game get to me, and I really just wanted him to do his best and love playing still. At another game, after being late for warm-ups because someone rear-ended him, Adam had words with a parent who had stepped in to coach when Ian couldn't be at the game--because he had to be at the other team's game--over his choice to rarely play Zach because he had missed warm-ups (being the great guy he is, Adam later made things right, even if he wasn't out of bounds in the first place). The stress of "the game" was getting to both of us.The politics at this early age kind of ruin the game for me a bit. There were many times I thought, "Why didn't we just keep him in developmental instead of allowing him to move with the team onto cross-squad?!" Who knows how long we will play "the game" part of soccer; I guess for as long as Zach still loves the actual game. By the end of the season I had learned to be careful and not let Adam and my irritations become Zach's by being too vocal about them in front of him. We also had chilled out over the competitiveness by the last couple of games. It is what it is. If Zach wasn't going to be able to play with this team, we could move him onto another team for next season. We reminded ourselves that as long as Zach is having fun, soccer is welcome!

It was an irritating season, but it seems that the coaching staff at the Pride offices noticed the problems too. It looks like there is going to be a team shuffle next season, in the spring. The kids on the three U10 competitive teams will be placed with others at their skill level. It will allow the kids who may have been stifled because they sat back and let the star players take the lead (like our sweet Zach who does exactly that) gain experience and playing time, and step up into their true ability levels. And it will let the star players go off to do their thing with more like-skilled kids who have the competitive drive (also something Zach lacks a great deal of). It sounds like they will all still be on competitive cross-squad teams, so they don't feel demoted, but they will be playing with more kids that are at their same ability level. I think it's great! I feel such relief. It solves all of the problems we had with this season and saves us from having to make decisions about moving Zach ourselves. It will bring Zach back to the point of the game: having fun, playing hard, doing his best instead of letting others do it for you, learning as much as possible, and growing in his skill level. Adam and I could care less whether he's playing "up" or not, just that he's having fun. And for now, he sure is.

Ulitmate lesson: It's a game. It should be fun. When it becomes un-fun, we will leave it. We will not allow ourselves to get our panties in a twist anymore over this game. We have no delusions, nor have we ever had delusions, that Zach will be playing at the pro level one day. We just want him to have a sport that keeps him busy, keeps him active, keeps him involved, that he loves.

Alright, enough of waxing poetic over soccer! Let's get to how Zach did. Zach had a pretty good season overall with the exception of a few stinker games. And he had a few especially fantastic games when he was just 'on!' Those were the games that he truly loved to play. I don't remember if his team even won them, but the smile on his face was all the 'win' we needed. He felt so great afterward.He played mostly defense and mid-field this year. He also got one shot at goalie, which he really enjoys. Crazy, right?! :) For me, when he plays goalie, I am a ball of nerves! The team has yet to really designate the players for one specific position, other than goalie, but they are slowly moving that direction. He plays well in both mid-field and defense areas, but needs to work on his speed. He scored a goal this season too! He had a great pass from a teammate and shot it right in! It's been awhile since he has done that, so he was really happy about it. He really wanted to score a goal off a header this season and practiced it a ton at home, but never got his chance. His second to last game, last Saturday, he turned on his tough defense so strong Coach kept him in for 3/4 of the game. He was wiped, and irritated with a ref that seemed to be calling one-sided, but happy with the team's tie and his game.We are proud of Zach's unceasing positive attitude and genuine desire to see the best in his teammates, even when he is bugged by them. He worked hard this season and took advantage of his 3 weekly practices and the Pride coaching staff (Wednesdays he got to work with extra Pride coaches) to improve his skills. He loves a good, tough practice, and always comes home all smiles from them. He also had some games where he played better than I've ever seen him play. I think he's going to really enjoy the new set-up next season. He has soccer in his heart!

What One {Small} Person Can Do

One year ago yesterday, my friend Shaina (blog found here) delivered a baby boy into this world who had a very broken heart. One cleft palate surgery, many cath lab procedures and three open heart surgeries (including some very scary post-op moments) later, little Kimble has turned one-year-old and is doing spectacularly well. Two little boys born on the same day, both with heart defects as well, also celebrated their first birthdays yesterday. Three little miracle boys.

Over half a year ago, in an effort to show their gratitude and give back to the hospital, the staff, and the doctors who saved their babies' lives, sometimes more than once, and cared for them all so much during their long stays in the hospital, Shaina and the mothers of the two other boys decided to plan and execute a blanket drive for Denver Children's Hospital. The blankets would be donated on November 4th, in celebration of their sons' first birthdays.

In the months that followed, the hands of friends, family, kind strangers, blog readers, and church members were busy at work to provide new homemade and store-bought blankets. They had hoped to donate enough blankets to provide one blanket to each of the in-patients that the hospital took in for two weeks. That would be six hundred blankets, as the hospital can sometimes go through 300 in a week. What they received was over 1000.

It was a beautiful thing watching it all unfold. The generosity and open-hearts of so many people was astounding. People who were immediately touched by the lives of these families, as well as those who didn't know them directly at all, only through friends of theirs, or friends of friends of theirs, or the internet, jumped in to embrace the cause and help however they could: sew, no-sew, quilt, crochet, knit, buy...if the final product was a blanket to donate, it was done!

It was a perfect way to celebrate the first year of life for these special boys, Kimble and his friends Adam and Chance. I am so fortunate to have been there with Shaina from the start. Her courage, openness, sincerity of emotion, and desire to pay the gift of Kimble's life forward are gifts that are unquantifiable. She and her son have blessed our lives so much, and look what they've done for others! In this season of gratitude, where we say openly the thankfulness that we feel in our hearts throughout the year, I must say that I am so thankful for Shaina and Kimble and all the spiritual gifts they have unknowingly and unintentionally given us this year.

I just love seeing what one person can do. Just one. It started with the birth of one very precious baby boy, and then person by person the miracle expanded. Hearts were opened, love was shared, compassion was shown, and the seed of service that was planted by little Kimble's birth became an opportunity to give that touched many lives, those of the givers as well as those of the recipients and their families.

I know it wasn't Kimble's idea, but the idea was born with him. And what an amazing idea it was!

This is a photo of Kimble, Adam and Chance a few days before delivery with 900+ of the blankets that had come from far and near over the months (stolen from this post on Shaina's blog).

My sister, the boys and I put together six blankets to donate, no-sew style, because I could do about 20 no-sews in the time it would have taken me to do one ugly sewn blanket. Even my boys were able to do a small part to serve. (Notice Zach and Josh taking a snack break...couldn't make it through tying one blanket without a sugar burst!) What a fantastic gift to share with my boys and sis!

In the next few days, I am sure Shaina will be posting about the final collection and the drop-off of all the blankets, with all the facts, stories, figures and feelings that came along with this great feat of charity, so please make sure to check out her blog soon! I am sure it's going to be a post to remember!

Chicken Dog

Our dog is not so much "dog" as she is "chicken."

A few weeks ago we woke up to an eerie sensation. Something was not right. The calm, stillness of deep night was moving. It wasn't a burglar. It wasn't a child. It was Ruby, pacing in the darkness. She would walk around the room and then sit and stare, in the full-black of our night bedroom, at Adam's face--attempting to sleep on his pillow. Then she'd pace back to my side and I'm sure she was thinking about getting into bed with me. TOTALLY CREEPY!

It's rare, but when she has to go to the bathroom at night she whines by the door. She does not pace, then stop to stare, then pace once again. She was clearly bothered by something. But we couldn't figure it out. So Adam, half awake and really annoyed, took her downstairs to let her out to go potty. She just sat by the back door. Nope, that wasn't it. Adam checked the kids, looked around the house, nothing out of the ordinary.

They came back to the room, and in our desperate need for sleep, Adam and I were able to tune out Ruby's agitation and get some more sleep.

That morning, when Adam walked out of our room to leave for work he noticed Tommy's smoke detector was chirping, the batteries needed replacing. He quietly unhooked it, and took it downstairs to the garage where it wouldn't bother us until I was awake and could find our 9V battery stash. Which I did as soon as I got the kids off to school. That night Adam plugged it back in.

The next afternoon, when Tommy was napping and Luke was having some quiet time I went into my room to read for a bit in my warm, cozy bed. But Ruby was acting weird again. More of a shadow than usual, and a look on her face like, "Even though it's against the rules, I am going to jump up in that bed with you if you don't get out of there and stand right next to me." Then, over the monitor, I heard the chirp of the smoke detector again. Darn! I must have put in a used battery awaiting recycling on accident! I looked at Ruby, pacing, stopping to look at me, totally unnerved. That's when it hit me, she was scared of the smoke detector chirp! That first night it must have been going off on occasion, but we were so focused on her odd behavior, plus the monitor is on the opposite side of Tommy's room from the detector, so we didn't even hear it. And it clearly wasn't bothering Tommy at all. Oh, my poor chicken dog! Hoping I wouldn't wake Tommy, which I thankfully did not, I took care of the situation immediately.

Last night we were watching another hilarious episode of Modern Family. One of the key storylines running through the episode was the search by one of the main characters for a chirping smoke detector in the house. Ruby was so irritated. I was folding laundry, which involves a lot of moving for me since I have so many sorting piles, yet she wanted to sit on my feet. Again, it took me a moment to realize why she wouldn't just go lay down on her blanket. Even the TV smoke detector chirp was too much for our sensitive pup! Adam finally got her to settle a down a bit so she could make it through the 25 minute episode without shedding all her fur and calling a doggie psychiatrist by sitting on the floor with her. Oh that goofy, adorable dog!

I won't even go into how she felt and reacted to the loud, incessant banging of hammers and feet as the roofers did their ear-pounding work to replace our old roof today. Let's just say, the sweet girl could hardly bear to go outside to pee. She kept looking at me saying, "Are you really going to make me go out there?! I promise to attempt that white bowl thing that flushes if you just let me stay in here!" Only out of sheer desperation did I get her to exit the house.

We love you, dear, sweet Ruby, the best chicken dog we know!

Halloween Lite

After a morning at church, we went home to celebrate what we've been calling "Halloween Lite." That's Halloween done "Sunday style." Fun, family, Halloweenieness but a in a low-key, let's still remember it's the sabbath kind of way.

Saturday night, my sister and I went grocery shopping for a few necessary items for our Halloween dinner. I had realized earlier in the day that we had completely failed to carve pumpkins this year. {shock} I know! Insanity!! That should truly demonstrate how busy this fall has been. So while we were out, we picked the bottom of the Albertson's barrel (King Soopers pumpkin bins were totally wiped out), and got the boys four nice looking Colorado-grown pumpkins. Here's what is strange about Colorado pumpkins. I think they are slightly mutant. Not that they are odd, not that they are funky, it's that they are all nearly the same size, and all totally orange. No fleck of green, no lumps or bumps, no long, fat or warped...only round, orange, medium sized with very little "guts." Stepford Pumpkins!

Sunday afternoon, after watching Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Ware-Rabbit or "Course of the Ware-Rabbit" as Ben used to call it when he was 4, we held a family pumpkin carving session. The older boys just take the reins these days, so Adam only had to do the scraping for Luke. Let me tell you how pleasant Adam thought that was! There have been Halloweens when he's scraped out 3 to 4 on his own, so having to only do one was a gift.

Especially since there are so little guts. The picture below shows just about all the guts there were in that particular pumpkin. So easy to scrape, right? Even if having less pulp means you have to deal with the odd Colorado Stepford Pumpkins.

Zach had his own little unique plan that he would not disclose to us.

Tommy clung to my leg and shrieked at me, then laughed ("Oh, I'm so funny!"), multiple times while the boys carved: "LET ME SEE UP THERE MOM!!!"

No guts, no glory! Josh dropped his pumpkin taking it out of the car, so it got a big split down the back. Instead of cutting off the top to clean the pumpkin out, he just used the split side. I forgot to get a photo of Josh with his pumpkin when he was done because he finished up so fast, but it's the one second from the right in the last pumpkin pic. I love that it has such small, detailed features. You can tell Josh was trying to be so careful. That's not easy to do when you're six!

Luke picked out the shapes for his face and Adam carved. Luke contributed to the carving by stabbing the pumpkin over and over with one of the little safety carving knives. Now that's a little scary! :)

Zach's master plan revealed: Scraping instead of carving so the light can glow through the pumpkin! I loved that he thought outside the box.Josh was done quickly, so he took on the job of supervising Ben. He was very encouraging!
Vampire pumpkin! Check out the freckles Ben gave it. :)
Four pumpkins all lit up for Halloween night!

We shared a spooky-ooky dinner with our friends, the Murdocks, who were also abstaining from trick-or-treating. It was a delectable feast of white worms with eyeballs and a side of witches' fingers, oh, and salad too...to round out the meal.

Zach made his meal even more fun. Isn't that hilarious?!

This was supposed to be dessert, an adorable and delicious-sounding idea straight from Miss Martha Stewart:

But after I followed the recipe for those hats to a "T" they didn't come out right at ALL! I don't even know what happened! It was a dessert disaster! My friend Adri said that she thought that Martha purposefully leaves out an ingredient so your version of her concoctions can't ever possibly compare. I fully agree. So in the final hour I came up with these ice cream dishes instead. The "swamp monster" is what the witches' hat cookies actually turned out to be, but I couldn't salvage enough for everyone, so I also made the little marshmallow/Oreo bats. Those came from my own brain, and not too shabby of a dessert! I was proud. But would have preferred the cute hats, anyway.

My birthday babe, taking a little birthday evening lounge. Love you, A!

My sister had to leave on Monday. I was sad and I miss her soooo much already! I am so glad she (and my parents) will be back in less than two months for Christmas! That made saying goodbye much easier. I loved every minute of her visit and all her help with/participation in celebrating Halloween, one of our favorite times of the year. When I woke up Tuesday morning I sure missed her excellent company. Counting down the days....

Halloween Par-Tay(s) and Other Halloween Weekend Pleasures

Having my sister here for the Halloween weekend has been absolutely wonderful! She came out last year, when Tommy was born, to help out and step in for me while I recovered and took care of our new little addition. She had so much fun spending Halloween with us, that she just HAD to come again this year! I am SO glad she did. We love how she just becomes one of the Chaos when she's here; she's just one of us! The boys are over the moon, vying for her time, showing her all their "skills," just wanting to be near. I think she's over the moon too! She is possibly the Conlin boys' number one fan!

We've had a busy weekend. I feel funny saying that, because that really just is the autumn norm for us. But all the same, it's been, if possible, even busier than normal since we've had a lot of Halloween extras to do.

First, I have to show off our "scarrots." These little tattoos of carrots dressed up for Halloween came in a bag of individually packed carrots I got at the store. They were no different than normal individual bags of carrots, only they were called "scarrots" and had Halloweenie packaging...and these tatoos. They are hilarious! Each of the boys have at least three, I have a couple and so does my sister. Oh! And they glow in the dark! My fave? The scarrot skeleton. Sorry, they were just too funny not to share! On Friday our boys' school held their annual Oktoberfest event (they don't do Halloween at the school), including a volksmarch around the neighborhood next to the school. Families are invited, so Leah and I went over to walk with the boys after lunch. It was an amazingly beautiful day, with temperatures in the upper 70's...no kidding! We hung with the kindergartners for the walk, and Ben ditched his class to walk with us. Zach was the older student "buddy" for a first grader, so he had responsibilities that kept him from walking with us. It was fun to spend some school time with the boys, the kids are so happy when someone they love comes to these school activities. And having Auntie Lili there was a huge bonus. They are such wonderful boys!
Friday night we attended a family Halloween party hosted by the family of one of Josh's kindergarten buddy's. I didn't get Adam and my costumes together in time for the party, so we just threw something together for us for Friday night's party, but the boys got to give their costumes a try. They looked amazing! It was so fun!

The costume story: I was thinking I wasn't going to get away with another "theme" Halloween. I LOVE themes, but I also think the boys should be able to choose their own costumes. But this year I got one more theme Halloween...and without any intervention on my part. Early this month the boys saw a picture in one of my magazines that had two kids dressed as "spring" and "fall." They took the idea and ran with it, deciding that the four older boys could be all four seasons. They did a lot of the idea work on their costumes themselves and even put some of the parts together. Each of the boys is born in a different season, so they took the season of their birth. Zach, winter; Ben, summer; Josh, autumn; Luke, spring. Tommy's costume that was part of the theme only made sense if Adam and I were dressed, so we stuck a costume that Josh wore for Halloween when he was one-year-old on Tommy, an adorable, awesome shark.

The party was so fun. Josh had the best time, of course, since most of the families there belonged to his school buddies. But the rest of the boys enjoyed themselves, and it was great for Adam and I to visit with the other parents. My sister, who is a natural at socializing, had a fun night too. I really enjoy Josh's classmates and the great families they come from. The hosts did a lot of work to make it a fun night and we all had a great time.

I was so glad the weather was moderately warm, so Ben wasn't too cold in his "summer" costume! It wouldn't have been nearly as cool if he had had to wear layers, am I right?!

Luke had many ideas on what he wanted to dress as for this Halloween, but once he realized there were bugs on his shirt and that he got to have a nest hat with REAL birds in it, he was sold!

Adam went with is traditional jack-o-lantern.

YUM! And cute too!

For the party I hadn't made Josh's autumn crown yet, so we made Josh's face up as a jack-o-lantern...since jack-o-lanterns are a sign of autumn, naturally!

Isn't the shark costume great?! It's even cuter when he crawls. It looks like a little shark swimming across the floor. I was glad it got a final go Friday night. I really love it.

Zach did all the conceptual work on his winter costume. He drew out sketches before putting it together so I could see how it all was supposed to go. He also cut out many of the snowflakes for his shirt himself. (Notice the scarrot ghost on his face!)

My sister was a cowgirl and I was Dr. Frankenshtein. It was a good costume for five minutes. Then I had to take the glasses off and I just looked like a frazzled mom with my messy hair and mis-buttoned shirt. That's no costume for me! I am regularly a frazzled mom!

Saturday morning Ben, Leah and I rose early to drive up to Palmer Lake and try our hand, or should I say "feet?" at the YMCA Creepy Crawl 5k fun run. Because it's a Halloween run, you are supposed to dress up a bit. There were people who were in head-to-toe costume, like Boba Fett and an adult-sized banana who participated. And then there were the no-dressers. We found ourselves in the middle along with many others. Ben wore a cape and Leah and I each wore a set of wings. Again, the weather and setting were just BEAUTIFUL; and we had a great run down a portion of the Santa Fe Trail. What a fun morning!

Ben ended up placing 2nd in his age group and got a fancy medal that he polished all day. It was his first time running the 3 mile distance. Wow! And my sister did amazing, considering that she is used to working out at 0 feet altitude, and the run was around 7000 feet. I was VERY impressed with BOTH of my running buddies.
Saturday night was our church Halloween party and trunk-or-treat. What a fabulous job our activities committee did! It was decorated and executed so well, the kids were having so so so much fun, and they got TONS of candy, which made me all the happier we aren't going again tomorrow night! The costumes were incredible. What creative families we have in our ward!

My Four Little Seasons...aren't they just darling?

And here's the whole fam. After the race and two soccer games this morning, I found the time to finish up our costumes. Phew! We were dashing from Ben's soccer game to get to the party--already late, so we ditched all face painting other than Ben's zinc nose, but everyone still looked...wow! I was so happy with the outcome. What great things you can do with some artificial flowers, a few 99 cent shirts from Goodwill and a hot glue gun! My fingers are STILL throbbing from all the burns I got. And I even burned Josh's foot a bit when I was adding finishing touches and dropped a stick from his crown that hadn't cooled yet. I felt TERRIBLE. Anyhow, I got it done, with minimal injuries, and they looked swell. Adam and I are Mother and Father Earth (love the beard!), with our little woodland creature (Tommy as a racoon), and our four seasons offspring (including Josh's stick and leaves crown, which came out great).

I was awarded first place in the chili cook-off! I was so excited--and a bit surprised, even though the chili IS good! "It's a major award!" (Name the film; we've been quoting it all night). I will display my chili cook-off trophy with pride. I came in second place a couple of years ago for a cookie baking contest, so I was extra pleased to pull in with a win this time around. The chili? Chipotle Beef Chili. Oh yeah, it really is GOOD. We got to the party late, because of the soccer game, but I had sent my chili ahead of time. It was all gone by the time we were dishing up, bummer. But also, yay!

I love that crown! And that face.

Ben had put in some of those fake teeth he won at one of the game stations...but I couldn't get a good picture because they were hiding behind his second-grade grow-in teeth! It made me laugh!

Leah manned the trunk for the treating and kept Tommy close while Adam and I took Luke around. Tommy was excited to get his hands on those packages of candy, just look at that pleased and mischievous face! I think he liked the crinkle, because he couldn't get them open and I don't think he could have realized that what was in them was so tasty...fortunately!See the birds?! Awesome.
Here's Adam and his pal, Vern. Don't they look happy to be having their picture taken? NO!

The boys watched the Shrek Halloween special while they totaled their loot after we got home. You can still see the remains of my costume assembly in the background because I hadn't gotten around to cleaning it up with all our dashing about. The boys were pretty darn happy with all the candy they took in, I don't think they will be missing it tomorrow night at all as they feast on the fruits of their Saturday night labor!

It was an incredibly fun night. Boy, that said, it's been such an incredibly fun weekend! I love it! I am definitely looking forward to our restful Sunday though, I think we are all in need of it.