California Coast Jamboree

Today was the 3v3 tournament at Lake Skinner. Each of the girls played with 5 other girls from their regular season teams. This was our first time at this event, but is a fun opportunity to create fun team names and uniforms to wear and doesn't have the same pressure as some of the other tournaments they play in. The games are only 20 minutes and it is very fast paced.Taylor's team was called Too Hot To Handle and Mary and her sister created these very girly outfits. I can't believe how grownup they are looking!

The girls played great...winning their first 3 games and advancing to the Semi-finals. We won that game as well for a chance to play in the Finals at 5:30!
Allison's team was very creative too and called themselves the Black Eyed P's. Leslie, Allison and Reanna painted these fun shirts covered in P's and they all painted on a black eye...very clever!

This is the first time they have played together and struggled to find any rhythm, but they improved each game and took 3rd place...losing 3 and tying 1.
It was freezing cold and misting most of the day, but the girls had fun playing between games, gathering firewood for our makeshift bonfire and getting to know each other.
Too Hot To Handle played Arsenal in the championship game and we got SMOKED...losing 7-0! We had played well all day, but just didn't "bring it" for the final showing. It was a pretty embarrassing way to end it, but the girls took home 2nd place medals and a big slice of Humble Pie!

This team has gotten really used to winning, so every loss is a tough one, but we hope to redeem ourselves at the next event in July and are excited about our beach tournament in a few weeks. It was another great day of soccer and family fun!

Our (Pretend) Family Vacation

This year Taylor's Language Arts/Social Studies teacher has assigned one project after another. For the most part, she has done them on her own and hasn't had to spend too much time, but this one takes the cake.

In Language Arts, they are studying public documents so the assignment was to put together a vacation for a family of 4 that live outside of California. They need to travel to California, visit an amusement park, take a college tour and document all of it...all for under $5000.
Taylor thought the easiest way to present it would be in scrapbook form.
She first had to get time-off requests for the parents for the four days they would miss work.
Then map out the drive from our pretend house in Arizona to the airport and book a fake reservation at a parking lot.
She (almost) booked a Southwest itinerary for airfare, hotel and rental car in San Diego...
and mapped out directions from the SD airport to her hotel.
Her family bought tickets to Sea World and she had consumer documents including a Seaworld map and an online ticket purchase. Receipts for meals and grocery purchases had to be included too.
For extra credit, she had her family take a college tour of San Diego State and had the map to prove it.
Although not that difficult to do, it seemed like a lot of work to compile, organize and display all of the documents. Taylor will present it in front of the class tomorrow and be glad to have this project off of her plate!

Holy Hailstorm!!

At 1:00am, our rainy weekend storm turned to a crazy-loud hailstorm. The girls jumped out of bed (Allison didn't want her picture taken) and went to take a look.
For us Southern Californian's, this is a very rare occurrence. Pea-sized hail coming down for 10-15 minutes and actually sticking to the ground and cars.

It was so loud and literally covered the streets in white!
It was still there when we got out of bed this morning! I love our heat and sunshine, but have to say, that was pretty cool!

All Things Green

The girls started this morning with all things green...lucky charms and green milk. They got little goodie bags full of snacks to get them through the day and a green Kiwi Strawberry drink too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Let the Demo Begin...

The day has finally arrived to begin our downstairs demolition. Back in November, we noticed some tiles lifting at the base of the stairs. One thing led to another, contractor after contractor confirmed we had a mold issue and the research began. We had no luck with the builder and no luck with our homeowner's insurance so we were officially on our own.
There was no way to just remove a small section, as the mold would likely spread throughout the tile areas.
Last night, we moved all of the furniture into the garage and onto the living room carpet in preparation for the mold removal.

Today, 4 guys with 3 vans and lots of equipment arrived to begin the tear out and clean up.
Negative pressure vents were set up to send the dust outside.
All of the cabinets and pantry shelves were sealed.
The upstairs was sealed off too which meant we had to access the upstairs through our bedroom window and a ladder. Rather than do that, the girls and I spent the night with friends and Matt stayed here with the dog. We feel a little bit displaced and life feels beyond chaotic, but we are excited to see the end result. We will allow the floor to dry and begin the new tile install in another week. For now, it will be paper plates and lots of meals in the crock pot or from our local restaurants...

LA Galaxy Ball Kids!!

Our State Cup championship celebration continued tonight with an awesome evening at the Home Depot Center. Our team got to be the honorary "Ball Kids" for tonight's LA Galaxy home opener against Real Salt Lake!
I have been working with Patrick, the Galaxy Youth Director, all week to coordinate and we all met outside the gates at 6:00 to get our team instructions.
Each of the girls was given a very bright "Ball Kid" shirt to wear for the game so they would be very visible on the field.
All of the girls in a pre-game photo with Patrick!
Isabelle, Jenna, Delaney, Madison and Taylor
Taylor, Lauren, Uzzi, Maylie, Bella and Jessica
Patrick introduced us to David, who gave the girls their field assignments and took them down to the field.
The girls got a few photo opportunities while the team warmed up. Taylor texted me, "OMG! This is so awesome!" They got to watch the players come in and out of the tunnel and throughout their entire time on the field.
David shared lots of trivia with the girls. Taylor thought it was pretty cool that the Galaxy gets to play with silver soccer balls because they won the championship last season.
I would have much rather been down on the field with the girls, but we had some pretty good seats too!

GAME TIME!

The crowd went wild every time David Beckham had a corner kick and Taylor was so excited when she got to throw him the ball when it went out of bounds! The girls were each placed in a different spot on the field, but I think they all got at least a little action.
Beckham living up for a free kick...
and Landon Donavon on one of his many runs. He is so fast!

The Galaxy had at least 10 opportunities for goals and finally put one in in the 74th minute. The crowd went crazy, but it was short lived when our own defender scored for the other team just a minute or two later. That was the beginning of the end, as Real Salt Lake scored two more times in the last 10 minutes. The game ended 3-1, but it was great night. We saw amazing speed and footwork from Donovan, great blocks by the keepers, beautiful corner kicks from Beckham and even an awesome bicycle kick!

However, nothing can compare to the experience the girls had down on the field. They were all so excited when we picked them up and are so grateful to the Hawks and the Galaxy for making it happen!

Spring Carnival

Today was the Spring Carnival for Allison's school. It was a perfect weather day for playing games, eating snow cones and walking around with friends. I wasn't very good with the camera, but did capture Allison and Kylee snacking on sno-cones while taking a little break. They buddied up for the afternoon...climbing the rock wall, spending tickets at the different booths and entertaining Denton. Allison put lots of raffle tickets in the American Girl basket, but didn't go home a winner :(
Taylor volunteered in Allison's class booth (sack races) to earn her CJSF hours, but did get a little time to walk around with some of her middle school friends.

PTA works very hard to organize this great fundraiser and it was another big success. The ticket table had a consistent line and our families are always so generous at the Silent Auction!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

In honor of Theodore Geisel's birthday on March 2nd, TTES celebrated Read Across America this week. Each day, the students were asked to follow a different theme to go along with a specific Dr. Seuss book..Monday...Wear a hat (Cat in the Hat)
Tuesday...Wear silly socks (Fox in Socks)
Wednesday...Dress Wacky (Wacky Wednesday)

**Although Thursday was Read My Shirt Day (I Can Read with My Eyes Shut), Allison had Walk Thru California, so she didn't participate.
Friday...Wear Stripes (The Cat in the Hat Comes Back)

Walk Thru California

Today was Walk Thru California...an interactive way for the 4th graders to recap all of the California history they have been studying.
This year's host was very animated and kept the kids interested for the 2 1/2 hour presentation as they learned about the regions, early explorers and some of the important history.
Allison's team was the Red Bears and they had to stand up and roar each time their team earned points.
They stayed in "time machine position" each time they traveled to a new year in history.
Allison was an expert on the word "bay" and did a great job saying it's definition and saying the largest bay to her school is San Diego Bay.
She was a little embarrassed to square dance with the boys, but had a great experience and learned so much!