Oh, and Strider crashed another car

Are We Ready For Some Football??

 For one more season we are making the weekly trek up to Huntersville so the boys can play on a flag football team with their cousins.  (And we parents make every effort to actually watch the games, but sometimes we get caught up in our family reunions and tailgating....)

Meanwhile, the boys are continue to play the other kind of football -- not American.  Miles is playing better than ever on his WCWWA rec team....

... and in addition to his Arborbrook practices and games, Colsen has been playing in pick-up games every Sunday afternoon.  He's always the only young kid out there... it's mostly men... and he has a great time!

September is a good month for parties

Dan turned 40 this month and to celebrate we had a big ol' blowout party.  Of course I got zero pictures of HIM, but here are some of his friends and family.  :)

He made a funny speech about his lack of actual friends (even though there were 70 people there), and we got to tell and hear some awkward stories from his life -- his favorite kind.

And Hayley had a pajama party for her birthday.... I love having young friends.  :)

Our life group nights continue to feel like parties....

And I'll throw this picture in, too.  Technically this was at youth group.... Colsen and Rayna get to go to that party every week!

Perseverance Pays Off!

Last year when Colsen started playing soccer for Arborbrook, he decided he wanted to get really good at it (he wasn't one of the better players at the time).  Coach Jay inspired him a lot, so he started practicing constantly.

 Just about every single morning I wake up to hearing him kicking the soccer ball in the backyard. He sets up cones and makes up drills and everything!  (Sometimes he even gets Miles to go out with him)  All year he's been taking every opportunity to get better -- asks to take participate in every clinic he learns about, goes to every sports training practice at Arborbrook, plays every pick-up game he can, even with adults, etc.  After every game he always asks, "So what can I work on and get better at?"

Well, it's paid off!  This year he's one of the better kids on the team, and has scored several times already.  He's been pulled up to play on Varsity twice so far and in this week's game he actually scored a goal!  (He played 2 games back-to-back that afternoon -- in 93 degree heat!)  The coach gave him one of the "players of the game" awards after that varsity game.

It's been so neat to watch him work so hard for something -- and for it to pay off!

Friends at the Beach = Double the Fun

Sometimes social media can actually help you be more social!

Colsen posted a video on his IG account and his friend Abram realized we were right down the street from his family, so we all quickly made plans to get together.

It was a great day for hanging out in the water.... In the morning the tide came in so far there was literally no beach left.  And the waves were GINORMOUS.  A hurricane was heading that way (in fact people got evacuated the day after we left), but we're not sure if the waves were part of that system or not.

 It turned out to be a fun day -- and we wouldn't have been able to plan it if we had tried!  Thank you, God, for planning our schedules in just the right way even without us knowing.

Beach Trip -- in NC finally!

Our younger kids realized this year that they had never actually been to a beach in NC... only SC... so we decided we need to rectify that before moving away!

We found a place on Oak Island, and we purposely wanted to be a little distance from the beach so we could check off something I've always wanted to do:  rent a golf cart.  It was so fun!

We had a great time zooming around the island all weekend.

Back to our Classical Conversations community!

Another school year means another year of opportunities to gather with our community of friends and sing, learn, play, and grow together!

This year the kids have 3 of the BEST tutors out there.... All 3 kids are so excited to go each week.  Colsen was a little daunted by the prospect of being in a classroom for 6 intense hours, but it's ended up being a great experience.  Somehow those 11 middle-schoolers are all bright, engaged, kind, and helpful to one another.... I've never seen anything like it.

We're so thankful for this community!