Retail Therapy & Soccer

The kids and I love going to the movies and count down the weekends until the next kid movie comes out. We have a little bit of a wait until the next one comes out so the kids were literally begging to go see Trolls again on Friday night. I couldn't think of anything else to do so we decided to watch it again. It really is a cute movie and was still entertaining a second time, even for me :)

Saturday morning we decided to go to Conway for the day to do some golfing and shopping. Our friend Scooter went with us and the kids and I dropped him and Nathan off to golf while we shopped :) We hit up on of our favorite stores - Target to do a little clothes shopping and look at things to tell Santa we wanted for Christmas. The kids showed me a few things and we had to take pictures of them to e-mail to Santa so he would know what they wanted ;) The kids were really good and we had such a fun time together. After we picked the guys back up we went to our favorite restaurant - TGI Fridays for lunch.

One of the items on Ryan's Christmas wish list :) An Elsa Doll over 3 feet tall!

After that we had to hurry home to drop Scooter off because we had a birthday party at the skating rink for our friends daughter Mia. Noah attempted to skate once before and Ryan has never tried. When I first took Ryan out there she said "why did she have to have a skating party, I can't do this". Not 10 minutes later she jerked her hands away from me and said "I don't need your help, don't stand near me" and she took off! She saw the other girls her age doing it alone and she wanted to do it alone too. Typical Ryan. I still tried to stay close to her to catch her in case she fell hard but she never really did. She was a natural. She then said "Can I have a skating party next year?" :)

Happy Birthday Mia!

Now, poor Noah is another story. He tried really hard but his coordination was not there. I was very proud of him for trying it several times though and not giving up and not crying. I always ask the kids during their nightly baths what their favorite part of the day was and Noah said skating - that is a perfect description of him. It was hard and he fell and never really did it too well, but it was his favorite part of the day :)

After church Sunday was the kids last soccer games of the season. This has been the best sports program my kids have been part of yet. I loved the morals and lessons in each practice that the coaches focused on. It is not always that you hear a coach tell your kid they are special and they will keep them in the mind and heart all year long.  During Ryans last practice her coach (who is also the high school soccer coach) had her team practice with the high school team on the big field. Ryan LOVED it! She asked if she could be a Panther soccer player when she was bigger :) After the last games we had an awards ceremony. The kids each got an Upward backpack. Then we packed Operation Christmas Child boxes before cake and ice cream. The kids were begging to do a celebration dinner at Chili's. I told them we would have to skip the cake and ice cream. They both said they didn't care. So, as soon as we packed our boxes with our teams we took off. It was a nice ending to a memory filled weekend.

Ryan's coach reminding his players that these little players are always watching
and listening to them so they always need to be aware of their actions. 

My week days are a little less busy with soccer over, but the holidays are in full swing so I am sure I will find something to fill them with. Like today, I will be hanging my outdoor Christmas lights on my house on my lunch break :)