Volleyball Season has Come to an End

For the last three and half months I have been consumed by volleyball.  I love volleyball season and the end always sneaks up on me.  I had a great team this year and we were in a very competitive district.  We had a great season, were ranked number two in the region of thirty at one point, took second place at a sixteen team tournament, beat our rival high school from down the road during the season, qualified for regionals and advanced to the quarter finals.  We lost in the quarter finals on Tuesday night and that ended our season.  I was very proud of my girls and sad to see the season end.  Hector is great during volleyball season.  I leave him with our two girls every afternoon and several evenings during the week.  He is a good dad and a supportive husband.  He loves to come to the volleyball games but does not get to come that often because the games are after the girls' bedtime.  I have my manager text him the game updates while we play so he can stay in the loop.    It is fun discussing everything from my strategies to my frustration with him.  Even though he was sad to see us lose this week, he was also happy that volleyball season was over.  I took him out to eat Wednesday night to celebrate the end of the season. 

These are pictures of my team at our Dig Pink event.  Every year we raise money for breast cancer research at one of our home matches in October.  We raised a few thousand dollars this year and totally pinked out the gym.  It was a fun event and very personal for some of my team. 

I will miss going to practice every day, but I am happy to have a little more time with my family.

Grandpa Visit!!!

My Dad came for a quick visit last week and it was so much fun to have him here.  Natalia remembered him from our visit to Washington this summer so it only took her a couple of minutes to warm up to him.  Plus he brought her a sticker book so that made her instantly love him.  She had fun doing stickers with Grandpa the whole time he was here.  I picked Dad up Saturday night and he was a fun surprise to have for the girls Sunday morning.  We had fun hanging out Sunday after church and naps.  We decorated cookies for Family Home Evening that night.  I forgot to take pictures, but the cookies turned out great.  Natalia really got into it...and do not let my dad fool you; he put some serious effort into his cookies and they were rather impressive and detailed.  I had intentions of taking them to people, but we ended up eating them all over then next few days. 

Most of my dad's trip revolved around volleyball.  I love that both my dad and I coach high school volleyball.  It is fun to talk about our teams with each other and share coaching ideas.  He has much more experience than me, so it is mostly me just getting ideas from him.  He got to watch us play in the district playoff last Monday and Tuesday night.  We won our game on Monday night against TC Williams.  It was Halloween night that we played so Hector and my dad brought the girls with them in costume.  It was fun for everyone to see them.  The next night we played in the Semi Finals and lost to Woodson, but we had already qualified for Regionals so we had another week of volleyball after my dad left.  It was great having my dad here.  I had fun talking and watching volleyball with him.  He helped Hector do a project around the house and played with the girls a ton.  For a few days after he left Natalia would wake up in the morning and ask if Papa was in the basement sleeping.  It made her sad when I would tell her that he had to go back home.



Grandpa and the girls at the volleyball game



Halloween Party

We had a blast at the "Truck or Treat" at the church.  This was the Friday before Halloween.  I borrowed Bee costumes from my friend and Natalia had been looking forward to wearing it all week.  Sienna was a Bee too.  They were really cute.  Natalia had been practicing her Buzzing all week. 

I tried to teach Natalia to say, "Trick or Treat".  When we went around to the cars I would prompt Natalia, "what do you say?" Instead of saying trick or treat, she just Buzzed.  It was very cute and perfectly affective for getting candy.  So all night Natalia went around and buzzed for candy. 

Natalia was also quite the pro at the ring toss game.  Good thing they gave a prize for attempting because Natalia was not even close hitting the target.

I was surprised that Natalia let the girls paint her face.  Maybe it was because it was past bed time and she was tired.  She was really proud of her star and her flower, she talked about her face pictures for the next couple of days.

I had to meet Hector and the girls there after my volleyball practice ended, so I was not really dressed for the occasion, but I guess you could say I went as a volleyball player and I got my face painted!  If only I had bee costumes for me and Hector.  What cute girls we have.  They are the cutest bees I have ever seen.

The Pumpkin Patch

Hector had to do a little night work the last couple of weeks.  This meant we had a few days with Hector that we got to take advantage of.  We all went to a pumpkin patch the week before Halloween.  We thought it would be great to go during the week because there would not be many kids there, unfortunately there was a field trip...two bus loads of kids.  We still had fun though.

Natalia thought that this hammock was the best ride.  She really liked it until Hector swung it a little too high for her and then she was done.

Natalia's favorite part of the pumpkin patch was definitely the "Penny in the Haystack".  Basically it was a cage of hay that the kids could dig for pennies in.  She loved it.  I helped her find some pennies and then she put them in her pocket.  She loved digging in the hay and throwing it around.  She collected about ten pennies and thought she was pretty awesome for all her gold digging work.

We all know Natalia likes trains, so she thought it was great to be pulled around in Thomas.  I suggested that we put Sienna in there with her and she adamantly said, " No, this is my train!"

Sienna, on the other hand was more than happy to hang out in the backpack all morning.  She had fun looking at everything.  We got to pick out little pumpkins when we left.  Natalia picked out one for herself and then the littlest one she could find for Sienna and then a medium one for me.  Hector picked out his own of course...the biggest one he could find.

Pumpkin Carving

A couple of weeks before Halloween we did some fun Pumpkin Carving.  Natalia really got into it this year.  She had fun pulling the guts out of the pumpkin and she enjoyed designing her own pumpkin.  I helped her cut out her face, but she told me what she wanted and I just followed her instructions.  She was very proud of her pumpkins.  They stayed on the table for a few days until they found their way outside. 

Natalia thought it was so awesome that we put candles in the pumpkins.  She loved looking at them with the lights off.  We named the pumpkins and the next day Natalia had a couple of her friends over and all morning they referred to the pumpkins by their names like they were part of the play date too.



(Scary Tooth, Jack'O'Lantern, and Goofy Face)



Oh No....Sienna Can Crawl