The Accidental Boilermaker

We kicked off our Saturday with Evelyn and Jameson’s piano recital. They both played their pieces very well, probably one of their best performances to date. Their duet finished out the recital and it sounded great too.  We have so many friends who take lessons with Mrs Dorion, it is always a treat to hear her other students perform too.  Evelyn had a basketball tournament this afternoon. Her team won their first game, lost their second and won the third. Technically this was a double elimination tournament, so they should have played a fourth game but there were two undefeated teams who had only played two games and every team was guaranteed three games. So they played each other and Evelyn’s team was done. This wasn’t how it was described to us, but the more I thought about it, this is the explanation that makes the most sense. In the moment though it felt like Evelyn’s team was being told you guys aren’t good enough to play again.  So instead we took a team picture to ...

 Evelyn had her first overnight tournament in Detroit this weekend. Overall it was a good experience. They played two games Saturday; lost the first and won the second. And then two games on Sunday; won the first and lost the second.  They only had one sub on Sunday. A girl went home Saturday and didn’t make the drive back on Sunday because it was snowing. The loss on Sunday was hard. Evelyn’s team was ahead but the other team made a last minute come back to win.  Her team doesn’t have much experience holding on to a close lead.  Past games, they are either way ahead or way behind.  But the girls had a lot of fun hanging out between games and swimming at the pool. That was probably the best part.  I’ve generally stopped taking pictures or videos during games but Meredith asked for a few. Hans is going to try basketball in January and she wanted to get him excited by showing him pictures of Evelyn playing. 

 Girls on the Run 5K was November 23rd.  The 5K was late this year (for a few different reasons) and I was worried the weather wouldn't cooperate.  But it ended up being an absolutely gorgeous fall day.  The one upside of being so late in the month was we planned it as a Turkey Trot 5K and I think we nailed it.  Everything went off great and it felt really good to end the fall season on a high note.  Pictures came in today from the photographer.  First off our amazing board of directors. Evelyn and Jameson before the run.  Evelyn was excited to run with her 5th grade friend Addy. The best volunteer, in my opinion.  Nate runs the water station and does a phenomenal job. Jameson racing through the water station.  He finished 3rd overall. Evelyn just loving life.

 It’s futsal season. Jameson had his first game tonight. It’s all just intra club fun meant to help the players develop and practice over the winter. Parents only have to help during games with subbing but we also got Evelyn to help run the scoreboard.  

 Another fun Halloween has come and gone. The kids didn’t have school as we just finished parent-teacher conferences. I thought we would be cold but the wind died down and it was quite pleasant to walk around the neighborhood. We had a record 149 trick or treaters. Thankfully I had plenty of candy. Jameson and I went costume shopping at goodwill one Friday after dropping Evelyn off at basketball. He found the pig first and then we found the red panda. We also found the deer but I didn’t want to assume that Evelyn would wear it. But she really wanted it so we had to go back and buy it the next day. We already had the tiger so went with an animal theme this year.  Our pumpkins turned out really cool. And everyone carved their own this year. I did help draw the outline for Jameson’s 6 7. Apparently it was a huge hit with trick or treaters coming to the door. One little girl even took a picture with it. Evelyn made the owl and I just carved a quick face. 

 Evelyn was invited to go camping this weekend with her friend Daphne at Chain o Lakes. Every October, Daphne’s family goes to the campground with friends but usually there isn’t another girl Daphne’s age. Everyone else slept in the camper while the girls slept in a tent but according to Evelyn they weren’t cold. For trick or treating they were astronauts from the make believe ISFI (international space friends institution).  Jameson and I went to trunk or treat at school on Friday. It was a rushed trip because we still wanted to go to church.  But we had to look at the literacy pumpkins. Jameson created Fone Bone from the Bone graphic novels.  Evelyn made honor roll for first quarter. They had a little breakfast Thursday morning. I couldn’t go but another mom shared the picture.  Jameson won the juggle contest for fall soccer.  Nate took him out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate while I was out to dinner with Maryca. 

 Katherine sent us a drawing prompts for October from an arts and craft store near her. Evelyn and I have had fun trying to keep up. We started on the 12th with orb weaver. Unlucky numbers  Darkness Fiery fury Hollow Evil grin Gargantuan