A Mommy-Daughter Soccer Weekend in Arizona

Cat's team is competing in the National League Desert Conference this year, which includes three weekends of games against elite teams from Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.  The first weekend was - thankfully - in Salt Lake earlier in the fall.  The second weekend, the week before Thanksgiving, was in Phoenix.  Ben took care of the other kids at home and Cat and I flew to Phoenix for the games.  It was fun to see a few other girls from the team waiting for our flight, as well as several other soccer players going to Phoenix for the same purpose.  The flight attendants even wished all of the soccer players good luck when we landed in Phoenix.

The schedule worked out pretty well.  With an afternoon game on Friday, we were able to take our time, have a big breakfast and get to the field without any problems, which I particularly enjoyed since the weather was just beautiful - warm and sunny without being uncomfortably hot.  They tied that game.  Then after going back to the hotel for showers, we went out for burgers and saw "Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald."

The next day we met up with some local friends for breakfast - it was so great to catch up!  Then Cat and her teammate had some time to play pool games before we left for the noon game.  They won that game.  Yeah!  After the game we picked up some lunch and brought it to one of the teammate's hotel that had lawn games.  After hanging out for a bit we left for the airport so we could return the rental car and catch our flight home.

Cat and I took a few minutes at the airport to admire the cacti before going in.  We didn't appreciate the cold when we got back to Salt Lake, but it was good to be home.

The team played the following day too, tying that game as well.  That brings their overall record from the 6 Desert Conference games to 2-3-1.  Not too bad.  Their last weekend is in Vegas in March.

Jack as Huck Finn

Jack was so excited to play the part of Huck Finn in his class's production of Tom Sawyer!  It was a bit of a mad dash to make sure he knew all of his lines before the performance the week before Thanksgiving, but he did it!  The fact that the class practiced quite a bit during the day in the weeks leading up to performance definitely helped.

Each of the 5th grade classes had its own cast and performances: one during the day for each, and one in the evening for each.  I was glad that there were two options for Jack because I was only able to attend his day-performance.  Here are a few pictures and some videos.

School Stuff for JEL

I give you several school-related and school-sponsored goings-on from the fall term:

Sept. 9th: The lunch Jack packed before I had him make a few different choices.

Sept. 20th: The kids decorated "pop bottles" to be given away as prizes at the school carnival.
Eliza was the one who cared the most about this project.  Hers is Bing Bong from "Inside Out."
Luke's is a knight.  Jack's is a dragon.  (He was really into the Wings of Fire series at the time.)

Sept. 21st: School Carnival

Included Power Wheels rides, giant blocks, hair styling, 9-square,

LARP-style Capture the Flag, and pizza and sodas.  Good times.

  

Oct. 4th: Luke's first parent-teacher conference of Kindergarten

Oct. 5th: Eliza showing off several projects from school
at her first parent-teacher conference of 3rd grade.

Oct. 12th: Luke trying out the feather headband Eliza made for her
Native American fair.

Oct. 12th: All of Eliza's contributions to the Native American fair.

Nov. 5th: Eliza taught everyone how to make God's Eyes (after learning

during her Native American unit) as part of her FHE lesson about honesty.

Date unknown: from Eliza's science class

Oct. 22nd: Eliza's Crazy Hair for Red Ribbon Week ("Don't Get Messed Up on Drugs")

Oct. 24th: Hat Day for Red Ribbon Week ("Put a Cap on Drugs")

Date unknown: A sweet note from one of Eliza's friends

Nov. 7th: Jack's Jurassic circuit project

Nov. 9th: School Skate Night

I've managed to avoid School Skate Night for the 9 years my children have been a part of the public school system but decided to bring the younger kids this time.  It was really crowded, but Jack and Eliza had a lot of fun and I felt bad that I'd avoided it for so long.  (Luke sat with me almost the entire time, venturing out onto the skate floor for about 10 seconds before returning to the safety of the sidelines.)

Can you find Eliza? 

Piano Duets 2018

Okay, let's get this blog back on track!  The kids are all back at school now so maybe I can finally catch up.

Toward the end of October, the big kids had their duet recital, and then they participated in a piano festival a couple of weeks later. Cat had the same partner she's had for a few years, a girl her age named Lana.  They are very comfortable together by now.  They played Spanish Dance by Mozkowski and Hungarian Dance No. 1 by Brahms - two great pieces.

Jack and Eliza were partners again, which I really love.  It's so nice not to have to coordinate with another family and transport kids back and forth to practice together.  The downside of the partnership is that Jack and Eliza are at different levels in their piano lessons, so the music is either too hard for Eliza and takes her a long time to learn, or it's too easy for Jack and he gets bored with it.  C'est la vie.  Jack and Eliza played an arrangement of the Toreador song from Carmen and O Christmas Tree.

Those few minutes of playing represent months of work and I'm so proud of all of them!