Happy Birthday Gracie (4 weeks ago!)

I had really good intentions to get pictures posted right away from Gracie's birthday, but it just didn't happen.  She had fun, anyway, though.  We took Gracie and about ten of her friends bowling in Madrid.  They had a great time, but 1 game of bowling was more than plenty for these girls.  Gracie got her Elsa-Frozen cake and lots of stuff she wanted for her birthday.  Ryleigh even came to help her celebrate!

 

Gracie and Ryleigh at the bowling alley

Gracie with a couple of her friends after opening presents

Blow out the candle!

New hat from Owen

Time to ride dirt bikes!  New gloves to complete the outfit!

Owen has his new gloves and goggles for the dirt bike.

 

FOOTBALL!

 

Owen finally had his first game of football!  He has been wanting to play football for probably about 2 years now.  It's amazing that those boys can stay focused for more than 10 minutes at a time.  I guess even when you're 5, if you like something enough, you'll stay interested.

Owen with his teammates

Grady, Owen, and Jonah.  These three are such good friends!

 

And more Football!!!

First ISU football game!

We're on our way!  It was a night game, so we left a little early, but still had fun.  ISU beat UNI!

 

More activities

 

The past few weeks have been filled with soccer, dance, tumbling, football, gymnastics, church, apple orchard, and other family stuff.  It's great to stay busy, but sometimes the weekends can't come soon enough.  And even then, we usually still have more activities.

Gracie's first soccer game

Gracie got to cheer at the first Ballard football game.  She and Jenna love doing stuff together!

 

Our family came up from Missouri a couple weeks ago to celebrate Grandma Jeanne's birthday.  It was so fun to have everyone here!

Gracie with River

Thanks Chad for fixing the 4-wheeler and taking them for a ride!

Another ISU game!  My parents, Gracie, and Owen went to the ISU/IA game a couple weeks ago.  It was fun, but the wrong team won.

Owen with Grandpa Tom at Grandma Jeanne's birthday

Grandma with her grandkids (except Nick).  Yes, it was hard to get a good picture with everyone.  This is probably the best one, even though Owen was not cooperative. 

There's one in every family, I guess.

Ahhh...Jack.  (He stole another blanket)

But at least he's not chewing them up anymore. 

 

Another soccer game 

 

 

Apple Orchard!

 

This year I bought season passes for the kids.  Our neighbor said that she will take them on early out Wednesdays when Gracie and Owen go over there while I'm still working.  This is going to be great.  We all went last Monday after school because it was such a beautiful day! 

 

Gracie driving the tractor

Resting in the spider web

Owen found the baby goats

Owen was not cooperating again.  He was more interested in getting some apples off of the trees to eat.  You can see his head in the background.

 

Homecoming!

 

This year, Owen was asked to be the little royalty for Ballard's homecoming!  At first he refused and had no interest in that.  Rachel convinced him to do it by bribing him with candy.  That seemed to do the trick.  He ended up having fun, but was ready to be done by the end of the week.  Getting dressed up was great, and Owen looked very handsome, but I don't think he wants to do that again for awhile.

 

Owen and Alivia in their convertible

Owen and Aliviah presenting crowns and flowers at the coronation.

They did such a great job!  All by themselves.  It might have been the slowest entrance in the world, but they got it done.

 

Queen Rachel!

Add homecoming queen to Rachel's resume!  Gracie was so excited when Rachel's name was announced!  I wish I would have recorded her reaction.  Rachel is such an awesome role model and hard worker!  She truly deserves everything she achieves!  So glad that my kids have the privilege of being around her and her family!

Gracie with Rachel after the coronation

The football game was last night and it was quite the struggle to get Owen to do his duties for the night.  He wanted nothing to do with his tux or going out in front of people again.  We settled for Ballard attire, as the little princess was also tired of all the attention.  We stayed for the whole game and Owen fell asleep on the 7 minute drive home. 

Today we sat through a flag football game and might go to an ISU volleyball game this afternoon.  However, the weather is beautiful, so I'm not sure I want to spend the afternoon in Hilton. 

So far, fall has been good and we're staying busy with all the activities for the kids and school.  School is going well for both Gracie and Owen.  Owen has had a couple mornings that he refused to get on the bus, but football seems to be effective in motivating him to make good choices.  Gracie seems to be a very good reader, scoring only a few points under where she is supposed to be at the end of the year benchmarks.  She still likes math a lot and seems very content with constantly having something to do.  She has finally said that she wants to learn how to play piano, so I guess we'll be trying to fit that in, too.  Hooray!!!

They have both had their annual physicals and they keep growing.  I hadn't realized it, but they have not been to the doctor for two years except for the their physicals and when Gracie had tubes put in her ears.  She did awesome on her hearing test this time, so it seems that the tubes are doing the trick.  It also seems that her ear plugs are not necessary.  We have very rarely remembered them this summer when she swims, but the tubes are just fine.  Gracie is still in the 100th percentile + for height and weight at her age.  The doctor thinks that she is pretty healthy, though.  Owen is 75th percentile, so a little more average for his age. 

We are pretty lucky to have such happy, health kids!