Conversations in My Head: Autumn Saturdays

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Autumn Saturdays

Last year by the end of soccer season I had had it. I was SO DONE driving all over town for hours and hours of soccer games all day Saturday. I declared that next fall we were NOT DOING SOCCER. I know there are great lessons to be learned from organized sports, but I don't think my kids were learning any of them. Bentley's team lost every single game, and he was very discouraged by it. Kendra's team won every game, but she was younger than all her teammates and didn't play very much. Ryder's team didn't keep score, but he was so bored with it by the end that he was begging to get to skip games. And poor Colton and Camille were getting dragged all over town-- the best we could do was to try and coordinate it so that whenever possible, they got to go to the games where there was a playground nearby for them. Once you factored in driving time, each game took about two hours, so Craig and I were spending a combined 6 hours of our Saturday on soccer. It was ridiculous.

So this fall, there are no organized sports going on in this house. And I'm excited about that.

But we're trying to do fun things instead. Which is an effort-- left to our own devices, Craig and I would sit and stare at, well, our devices all morning long, so we're not allowing ourselves to do that. We tried to have the kids help us make a list of fun things to do in the fall when the weather in Virginia tends to be at its best. The kids' suggestions weren't very helpful-- they wanted to go to Disney World and Great Wolf Lodge. Not exactly day trips. But we still got a few ideas that might actually be workable.

Also, if something fun to do comes up, we're much more likely to say Yes to it, because we aren't already booked. I like feeling like we can be a little spontaneous.

So last week we did portraits (as mentioned). That was really early, and then after we'd changed our clothes and had some breakfast, we went to the ward service project, which was cleaning up an old cemetery. I hate doing things like that because I never know what to do. But Craig is incredibly helpful, so my service was watching all the kids so he could get some work done. Right? (And since Camille was afraid of the mowing machine and demanded that I carry her any time she could hear it, there really wasn't much of a chance that I'd get anything done.) But hopefully our kids are learning that service is important.

And this last Saturday, we found out that there was going to be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Krispy Kreme's that just opened right close by, so we went to that. And it was SO FUN-- we got two dozen doughnuts and one drink per person (and since we'd brought along a couple neighborhood kids, there were 9 of us!) ALL FOR FREE! Booya! Plus the kids got to see the inside of a Krispy Kreme's for the first time-- it's really quite mesmerizing watching those doughnuts bob along in the little factory, getting fried and flipped and frosted. And if you can do it all for free, then so much the better!

Munching on hot doughnut holes before it even begins

And Ryder... Always pulling the best faces!

Nice action shot Craig managed to take here!

Ryder's hat is on upside down and sideways. Isn't that just perfect for him?

It was a beautiful day for it!

And a couple weeks ago, there was a cub scout activity in Staunton that we decided to go to-- it was $7 per scout, and then their families got in free, so that was a pretty sweet deal. The kids started out super whiny, but after a little bit they loved it. There were tons of activities for everyone to do: