Our First Soccer Season

We decided to let the girls play soccer this year instead of basketball and it's been really fun so far!  They were in different age groups so they didn't get to play on the same team.  Hannah's in the 4-5 age group and Emily's in 6-7.  Both of their teams practice on Tuesday nights at 5:30 (thankfully), but then Hannah's games are on Thursday evenings and Emily's games are Saturday morning.  Soooo...we've been busy, but the season is only 8 weeks long so the busy schedule will pass soon enough.  

Bert is coaching Hannah's team and he's had fun doing it!  They have 7 players on their team.  They can only play 4 kids at a time during the game and they have four 6-minute quarters.  The kids are SUPER cute running around chasing the ball.  

Team meeting before the first game.  Their team name is the Lions!  

I love this cute little soccer player!  She was nervous before the first game, but hasn't been since.  She's had SO much fun!  

Sibling cheering session!  

I caught Emily giving Hannah a big hug after they finished their first game.  Emily was so proud of Hannah!  

Grandmama and Pawpaw got to come to this first game and we loved having them there!

Number 2 on the roster, but number 1 in our hearts! ... We thought this was a cute picture of Hannah waiting for her turn to play.  

Emily's team is a little bigger.  I think they have 10 or so kids on their team.  They decided to be called the Red Cherry Dragons!!  Ha!  I loved their team name!!  

Team huddle before their first game!  

Emily's on the other side of the little boy in green socks.  

The 6-7 age group has a goalie.  They usually rotate each quarter who the goalie is.  Emily loves getting to be the goalie and has stopped several balls from going in.  Go Em! 

Go Emily!!  

We got a picture with Grandmama and Pawpaw after Emily's game, before they headed back home to Jackson!  We'd had a fun visit with them!! 

Hannah has 7 of her games on Thursday evenings and just 1 game on a Saturday morning, so Mimi decided to come up on that Saturday when Emily and Hannah had games back to back so that she could see them both.  Hannah loved Mimi being there to cheer for her and I loved the help with Abby and Claire.  Ha! 

Go Hannah!  

Claire asked Mimi to take this picture with her foot balanced on the soccer ball!  Ha! 

Abby likes trying to sit on the soccer ball.  It's actually a perfect little seat for her!  

It was a hot morning on the soccer field!  

Mimi and Emily!  

Em got to play goalie again, which she enjoyed!  

This picture was from this past Saturday. Mary Pat and I enjoy chatting while we watch Emily and Haley play!    

Toby got this picture of Emily and Haley with their arms around each other in practice one Tuesday.  These two definitely aren't the most aggressive ones on the team, but they have fun!  Also, don't they have a beautiful view of Paris Mountain while they play?!

Our friends the Dodge's have a son, Caiden, on Emily's team and a son, Eli, on Hannah's team.  Our friends the Rothell's have a daughter, Shaelynn, on Emily's team and a daughter, Addie, on Hannah's team.  And then the Flemings have Haley on Emily's team!  It's fun to have so many friends for Claire and Abby to play with and for us to catch up with each time we're at the soccer field.  Plus we've made new friends.  We've met two families who both have a second grader and kindergarten at Paris Elementary (E and H's school).  We've enjoyed getting to know them too!  

Hannah was getting a pep talk from coach before she kicked it in!  

Hannah has loved, loved having Bert as her coach.  I loved these pictures of them!  

We're over halfway through the soccer season.  I'll be okay with a little more freedom in our schedule, but it really has been fun!  Go Lions and Go Red Cherry Dragons!!:)  

A Concert and a Clemson Game

My mom came up on a Friday night with plans to go to Emily and Hannah's soccer game the next morning.  She sent us off on a date night after she got here and Bert and I didn't argue! We had heard that day that Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were in concert that night, but weren't really wanting to spend money for the tickets, so we decided we would go to dinner and then just spend time walking around downtown Travelers Rest.  The concert started at 7:30 and about 7:50 we were finishing up dinner and decided to check the concert ticket prices (the concert had been in the back of our heads all day). The ticket prices had dropped big time.  There were some floor tickets that were $200-plus earlier and were now $32 each.  We decided to be wild and crazy....we quickly paid for our food, jogged to our car, bought our floor tickets on the drive there and got to the arena about 15 minutes before Tim and Faith came on stage.  So fun!!  We had only missed the opening bands, which we were okay with.  We had amazing seats and it was such a fun night!  I love adventures with my hubby!!  

They put on a great concert!  Super fun night!  

A couple from our church offered us tickets to the Clemson v. Boston College game and we were excited that we were able to go.  We went to Emily's double header soccer games that morning and then drove to Seneca (about 30 minutes from Toccoa) and met my mom there so that she could take the kids for the afternoon. Seneca is just a few minutes from Clemson, so we were able to make it to their tailgate right as they were starting lunch.  We had fun tailgating with their family before the game and the seats were A-MAZING!  

Clemson had a rough first three quarters, but finished strong and won the game!  It was crazy hot but we had a great time!  

I posted the above picture of us on facebook and SO many people freaked out or commented about Bert wearing orange, which I think is silly.  Bert and I love our respective teams, but we for sure cheer for the other person's team when they aren't playing our team, which is almost never. Go Tigers and Go Dawgs!  

Thankful for our fun dates in September!  

Hannah's First Field Trip

Hannah's first field trip was to Paris Mountain State Park which is about 7 minutes from our house.  I've been on this field trip a couple times with Emily and it's a fun one.  I was so glad I was able to go with Hannah!  

Hannah in front of the waterfall!  She's getting to be such a big girl!  

I love one on one time with my girls!  It's not easy to make it happen so I'm always super thankful for it when it does!  

They had fun on this big tree stump.  Thankfully no one got hurt! 

Ranger Cathy is so great with the kids! One of the kids asked why she was so excited about everything she was talking about?  Ha!  She's enthusiastic, but it makes it fun for the kids.  

At one point during the field trip they were each supposed to find a small animal of some sort to put in their little jar.  Ranger Cathy helped Hannah find a worm and Hannah was super excited about it.  Hannah said later that this was her favorite part of the trip.  She's loves digging in the dirt!  

After a while it was almost time to move to the next activity and Hannah's friend, Penny, still hadn't found anything to put in her own jar.  When Hannah heard that she said "Here Penny, you can have my worm!!"  I caught a picture of her dropping her worm in Penny's jar.  I was proud of her for thinking about someone else.  

It was a fun day but we did A LOT of walking and we were both worn out.  I caught this picture of Hannah later in the afternoon.  She almost never falls asleep in the car (unless we are driving late at night).  Sweet thing!  

Hannah's next field trip is on a Friday and Bert is going to get to go with her.  We love going on field trips with the kids and getting to know their friends and teachers better.  We're thankful for our school!

Apple Pickin and Grandmama's Birthday

Bert's parents came up in early September and we really enjoyed our visit with them.  Linda's birthday is September 6th so we were able to celebrate that while they were here too!  

They got here on Thursday afternoon just in time for Hannah's FIRST ever soccer game.  Hannah was so excited that they were there to cheer her on.  (Soccer pictures will be in the soccer post.)

Within 10 seconds of Grandmama getting to our house, every single time, the girls have told her about what they need her to sew while she's here.  Ha!  On Thursday night Grandmama helped fix Minnie's ear and the girls took close notes. 

Friday afternoon, after we picked Emily and Hannah up from school we headed up to Sky Top Orchard to pick some apples!  We started off our visit with Apple Cider Donuts.  Yum!   

I always make the girls pose in front of the "How Tall This Fall" board at Sky Top, except I cut off that part of the board in my picture.  

Abs had a good ride as we walked into the orchard.  

These pictures are a little (lot) on the dark side, but the background was so beautiful we thought it would be a good spot for a picture.  Oh well!  

Abby insisted on carrying the bucket. 

Hannah was our number one apple picker.  She was determined to find good ones and got so excited when she did.  

Daddy held Claire up to get one way up high. 

This little 18 month old (then) is a hot mess!  I love her! 

Emily was a little nervous being up this high.  

We actually had trouble finding many good apples this trip.  We ended up getting enough, but thought maybe we came a little early in the season.  Who knows?  

After we picked apples we fed the animals in their small petting zoo.  

Playing on the playground is always a highlight!  

After we got back home Grandmama read to Abby while we got dinner ready!  

We ate a yummy dinner outside (it was so beautiful that night) and then had birthday brownies and ice cream for Grandmama!  

On Saturday morning they went to Emily's first ever soccer game and then headed back to Jackson.  We so loved having them here to spend a couple days with us!  Thanks for making the trip up, Grandmama and Pawpaw!