Spirit Week

I love Tobin.  He has so much fun dressing up and participating in Spirit Week, the week before Homecoming.  I was excited thinking about the week Tobin was going to have.  I knew it was going to be a full, fun week for him.  I was giddy with the anticipation and honestly felt like I was going through this with him. :)  And I was as his mom. I am just so grateful that he includes me.

                     Wacky Day!

                               Creating the Freshmen Clue corner

                                                           Jersey Day

                                            At the pep rally!!

QO JV Football--Sorry Northwood!

Our Homecoming game was a shut out!  40-0!  Everybody got to play.

My feelings about the game are this:  “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”


I can honestly say that I love Tobin so much more after this game than I did going into it.  Because he is my son and he is a part of me.  I can put myself in his place and it breaks my  heart.  With a minute left in the first half we were up by 40 points!  So, the coach put Tobin in as quarterback.  And they almost lost the ball.  And the coach yelled to his face.


I have one question coach:  If you don't get reps in practice and you put him in in the middle of a game with little game experience, do you really think they're going to perform well?  And given that your answer would be "no" and then you proceed to yell at him face-to-face, might I just be able to say that you set him up for the very failure that you so loudly pointed out to him?  I have to say right now, coach, I am not a fan.


Tobin was so excited to get some playing time today.  He knew based on predictions that he would play today.  He knew this was his chance.  He wanted it sooo badly.  To prove himself.  To do it.  I think he wanted it tooo badly, and he couldn't shake off his first mishap.  


After half time, he went back in as quarterback.  My whole body was clinched, waiting, feeling.


They did 2 running plays and 1 passing play.  Th pass was incomplete.   At one point, (I hope I get this right), the coach called Tobin over and said, "So what play do you think we should run?"


"Quarterback sneak."  (There was no question; it was a statement)


"Absolutely."  Tobin moved the ball 12 yards. I have to say that at this point, from the sideline, the coach did yell, "that's a boy!  That's the way."  Couldn't you have done it to his face?!


And then the other running plays weren't complete and they had to punt.  I could see Tobin beating himself up.  I almost couldn't stand it.  I was crawling out of my skin, I felt liquid inside.  I was a hot mess.  I didn't want him to beat himself up. He did the best he could.

 Tobin telling the play to his team.

 Getting ready for the play.

 Bad positioning.  But he got if off.

In line for the punt.

Next time Tobin!!  Work hard, and be ready.  There is always a next time.

He asked. She said "Yes." Homecoming

Since there are no pictures, I thought I would share with you how Tobin asked his date to homecoming.  But I may need to give you some background so that you get the context in which this was done!

Over the summer I noticed that Tobin kept mentioning the name "Dani" when we talked about the other middle school that was going to join Tobin's school at the high school.  Tobin was so excited for high school because his friends at RMS had much more in common with him and they would be together for the first time.  So, he would mention Dani's name in connection with his RMS friends and Bar/Bat Mitzvah's they had gone to.  It was pretty subtle but my mommy intuition told me this was a girl to watch for.

As soon as high school started, there was buzz about Homecoming.  It is sooo early this year, the first weekend in October.  Tobin mentioned he was going to have to ask a girl that first week of school to give her time to shop for a dress.  He then jokingly said that that "might be a good thing as they don't really know me yet!"

A week later, Tobin was sitting at the kitchen table and I was cleaning up the kitchen when I asked him with whom did he want to go to Homecoming.  He was resistant at first and finally (I know he really wanted to tell me), he said that he was asking Dani.  I had to turn away so that Tobin couldn't see the smile on my face!  As I was turning around, Tobin was stating, "It's just as friends!"  Mommy intuition wins again.  :)

On the Monday of Labor Day, Tobin was at a friend's house and decided that today was the day he was going to ask Dani to homecoming!  He was with two friends and they knew Tobin had to call her house to get the help of her parents.  Later I was told that the boys (Tobin, Bradley, and Andrew) went into the living room to role play the possible phone call conversations with Dani's mom.  However, it was Dani's dad who answered and all thought of practice went out the window. 

Tobin explained who he was and that he would like to take Dani to Homecoming and he could use their help in asking her.  He explained what he needed and about an hour later, Tobin showed up with a note rolled up like a scroll with a paw print ribbon tied in a bow around it.  He knocked on the door and asked her parents to please tie this letter around Dani's dog's collar so that when she came home and greeted her favorite dogs, she would see the note.

It worked.  And she said "yes" in a TEXT message.  (Boy, do I have a lot to teach this young thing about being creative in answering a date request!)

A Day Off from School....Deserves to be Outdoors

We went to the tire park!  It was such a beautiful day to waste indoors!  Cathy and I called each other this morning having made tentative plans to get out together!  We tried to see about kayaking or canoeing on the various lakes around here, but everything had shut down last weekend.  Oh well.  We decided on the tried and true "park."  It was absolutely beautiful!  We ended up with a big group.  My friends Katie and Kimberly joined the group and Cathy's friend Sarah also brought her children, who has a son at the same school as Noah this year in middle school!
So, Noah had his friends Aidan and Carson and the immediately headed for the sand volleyball pit!  And they pretty much remained there for the whole time we were there!  They started with one ball, and then Cathy added some more to the mix and then another friend Carol showed up and added even more balls, so that they ended up with about 10 balls and about 12 boys playing some "park" version of volleyball, called Nuke'm!  Later they played dodge ball and the girls joined them for some of it!
The girls Brenna, Kate, Caroline, and Mackenzie played on every piece of equipment at the park.  They moved from zipline, to tire swing to monkey bars!  It was a lot of fun watching them.  They never sat still.  Brenna was a little out of sorts though and she wasn't as playful as she usually is.  She was "hungry"-She was "tired"-it was hard to hear it when I just wanted her to be playing with her friends.  I do think she was tired.  She had come home at 11:30 from a sleep-over because she wasn't feeling well and then she was up so early with Calle.  The girls laughed the most on the zip line!  It was just great to get outside!

Afterwards we all went to lunch at Subway!

Noah's Birthday

 Noah turns 11!

As you know the "best laid plans often go awry."  And Noah's birthday is no exception.  If I had had my way, he would have been born in April, when it's not too cold or too hot.  The flowers bloom and earth is reborn.  Instead, he was born during that time between summer and crisp fall evenings, cool breezes and the ever, eternal beginning of school. 

This is a crazy time of year for me.  Noah's birthday has always fallen during that first week of school, when I'm exhausted because I haven't gotten back into the routine of going to bed early and yet having to show up to work ready to go and talk more, work more, and do more than I'm used to.  And the first week of school, there's a lot of energy that I haven't exerted during the summer.  Making lunches, getting backpacks together, picking out clothes, etc. etc. and etc.  It takes a lot of out you when you're not used to it. 

And then to plan a birthday for Noah that knocks his socks off just seems more than I'm ready for.  So, I  always plan Noah's party for the end of September, when I back in the game.  But that birthday day, September 3rd, is one of the best of my life, so I try to make it a great day for Noah!  So, the eve of his birthday, we decorated his room with balloons, fruit by the foot, poptarts, candy corn, and a chocolate bar!  (no picture due to this year's malfunctioning of timing).  Noah loved waking up to this and it set him up to smile the rest of the day!  (Thank goodness). 

The other thing about this early fall birthday is that there is this thing..that takes over most everybody's fall...it's called FOOTBALL!  And Noah had his first game on his birthday.  So, going out to dinner was out, and thank goodness Mom-Mom had the foresight to bring HER present over for Noah, so he had at least one to open (In my defense, our presents for Noah were bought they just weren't wrapped!).  But really the only thing I saw to do was combine his football with his birthday!  So,  I bought cupcakes for the whole team!  And I made them sing happy birthday to Noah! 

I think Noah was happy about that.  The only thing that would have made it better was if they had won!  It was a bizarre score for football, but one they could live with.  2-0.

Happy Birthday Noah!  We love you!

The other thing that made his birthday great was that his first period teacher sang him happy birthday and gave him a snickers bar!  Yeah, teacher! 

Not Tobin's 1st day of school.....

As many of you know I wasn't able to get pictures from Tobin's first day of school.  Too much going on, too much commotion and really, if truth be told, too early in the morning to figure it all out. 

So, since Friday and with a 3 day weekend, Tobin has been off on a whirlwind of friend's houses.  I know many of you used to listen to me voicing my concerns about Tobin's seemingly easy acceptance about not going out on the weekends.  And I should be careful what I wish for because I think it's coming back to haunt me threefold.  Tobin has not been without friends this entire weekend!  Friday after practice he went to a friend's house and they went to the game together to cheer on their school team.  And then they hung out at a friend's house afterwards, but sadly I made him come home due to the scrimmage on Saturday morning.   Right after the scrimmage, he came home with a friend and enjoyed lunch and hangin' out.  Then they decided that they wanted to have friend's over to Tobin's house on Saturday night.  That was great, but it changed our lazy Saturday into one of cleaning the house, going to the grocery store, and so on. 

We had 11 friends over to spend their Saturday evening with us.  I think they had a great time.  The listened to their ipod, sang songs out loud (we even heard them upstairs), came up for dinner, hung out in the hottub and then went home.  Well..at leas the girls did.  The boys stayed over.  Boy were they a motley crew on Sunday.  Late in the afternoon, they all ended up at Colin's house and in the lake, river, pond, somewhere wet in their backyard.  And then Tobin came home to spend the night quietly with us.  Now, it is Monday after football practice and Tobin is off yet again to a friend's house. 

I hate to tell him that all good things must come to an end.  And he has work to do before tomorrow comes.

Brenna's 1st day of school

I asked Andy to take pictures of the kids as they walked out of the house that morning. It was the first "first" day of high school for Tobin, the first "first" day of middle school for Noah, and the middle "first" day of school for Brenna. I knew it was going to be hectic!  I knew it was going to be a morning of digging out backpacks, finding matching socks, making 3 different lunches at 3 different times, and a morning of 3 different depature times!  But I knew Andy was up for it.  And then it didn't happen.  First Tobin left, then Noah left, and then Brenna left and my camera lay unused in it's case. 

But my friend Katie was able to save the day.  Her daughter Mack and Brenna are best friends and are in the same class for the 2nd year in a row!  yeah!  So, she was able to take some pictures for me, knowing I would want them.

First day of 3rd grade!

First day of 2nd grade