Rainy Saturday

Rose’s first soccer game of the year. It was 60 degrees and raining. We were saved by one lightning at halftime – the only lightning of the day.
Staying dry after the game.
Mari had two games today, both of which were cold and rainy.
In other news, Lucia is going to start playing the cello this fall. She will take lessons at school.

Late Summer Happenings

Lucia’s first time going off the diving board.
Susan and Shelly in Shelly’s classic car.
We went to a Des Moines Menace playoff game. They lost on PKs.
We went to a car show.
We decorated the sidewalk.
We went for a walk along the Des Moines river while Mari was at soccer tryouts.
Making bracelets was a popular activity this summer.
I was a referee at Keeper Wars, a goalie competition.
The kids made our foam float into a slide for the pool.
The girls played in the creek on a walk with Susan.
We got a cool volleyball net for the pool.
We went for a hike at Greenwood Park.
Rose, Lucia, and I went to the state fair.
Andrew and Susan went to Eatery A for a final meal. College departure is close.
Boy Cousins. They had a final weekend together, spending the night and doing some fun activities.
Mari’s soccer season started, with a new club. She is in the white.
We got a new couch.
8/16 – We had the Liesses and Reagens over for one last dinner before Andrew and Ian head off to college.

Birthday Weekend

This weekend we celebrated Mari’s 17th birthday and my 41st birthday. The Reagens and Mimi and Papa came over a couple of times for cake and ice cream.

Mari likes to go to PF Chang’s for her birthday dinner. This is probably the most popular sit-down restaurant for our family.
Cousin Swimming
Rob and Mari
On Saturday night Susan, Rose, Lucia and I went to see an outdoor performance of Into the Woods.
Swimming on my birthday.

Gossamer

This evening Mari had her second showing of Gossamer. It is a one-act play that she is participating in as part of the Iowa High School Speech Association’s annual competition. Districts were a couple of weeks ago in Oceola and her group qualified for State, which was hosted today at Valley. They will find out on Monday if they make it through to the All-State competition. There are no photos during the show, so we must settle for before and after.

The stage
Mari with her eye make-up.

PS – Mari’s show was on Friday night and most of the acts and shows were on Saturday. We spent most of the day there enjoying the various acts: short plays, improv, radio production, tv production, musicals, readers theater, choral reading.

Christmas Lights

We hung some christmas lights.

Mari always insists on doing the roof work and Lucia and Rose like to join her on the roof. Mari wants to do the high part above the driveway, but after doing it myself the first year we lived here, no more.

Only Runner

Elliot was our only runner at the conference cross country meet this afternoon. It has been a rough season for all our kids because we have had several colds and Mari has been dealing with an abdominal strain, or something of that sort. We all had a cold in September that I know took me a while to recover from. Elliot had the cold and Andrew is still coughing and unable to run. Hopefully everyone can get healthy and have a strong finish to the season.

Homecoming

Andrew and Mari went to Valley High School’s homecoming dance today.

Mari
Mari, Leila, and Frankie
Claudia and Andrew
Andrew’s Group, including a lot of his friends and cross country runners
Group Selfie