Soccer kids

Soccer season is drawing to a close.  Dad gets to referee Wesley's team and do photography for each of the teams.  Its a good thing I don't charge for the service - the families definitely get what they pay for!  

Here are the Fireballs.  One of Wesley's best friends (Asher Wheeler) moved away and he misses his team... His team misses him too.  These four boys get to play the whole game with no break.  Coach David has been great as well. Here are two six year old boys you may know:

It is a fact of life that 6 year old soccer is rarely played on the field...

And now we have the Firebolts.  We have grown close to the parents on this team in particular.  They are all wonderful people and have made attending the games very enjoyable.  We miss the older brother of the boy who moved on Wesley's team (Kaden Wheeler, moved to Seattle before the photos):

 This Luke boy has scored goals this year- maybe about 5 or so.  His first goal was very exciting to his dad as it was exactly one more point than I scored as a boy!  Any guess which 7 year old is which?

And now for the Pink Praying Mantids.  The coaches are both teachers, Mrs. Thomas is Allie's teacher at school and Mr. Thomas a science teacher at a local high school.  He coaches a girl's high school soccer team.

Little Rachel dances around and plays with the other kids at the games.

In other news, Rachel asks for a "princess sparkles" story every night.  She has been sleeping with the boys (they sleep sideways in the queen bed located in the boys' room).  The boys can't stand princess sparkles stories for some reason.

She is trying to control her prince as I recall...

The day after her princess dress up she got a hair cut - not as fun as eating a fudgecicle apparently.

Weekend Update

Guess who had his first day in Nursury at church?

These boys think that in order to wrestle you need to have your shirt off.  I guess you also need your black socks to be effective too...

Rachel does not like wrestling so much.  We read a book instead: The Ants Go Marching.

What's grosser than gross?

So you know that little voice in the back of your head that is telling you "OK, you haven't heard a peep out of your little guy in 5 minutes". Well...

On the road

These two have been under the weather lately.  A nice walk and and a good snooze seemed to help.  Our friend Emily snapped this.  

Here's another Emily snap from earlier this month...

56 Days

Brand new jeans for Christmas.  It's February.

Scientists in the House!

Science Fair is not optional at our house- not when Jason Payne is your father.  Fortunately they (all of them) love it.  The kids love spending time with Dad and working on a project together.  

This was the first year that Allie had to do it for a grade.  She wondered if there was a correlation between the weight of a chamisa gall and the mortality rate of the larva inside.  It was really fun that not many people (teachers/judges especially) even knew that there was a baby fly inside.

Luke's project was actually a scientific demonstration (4th and 5th grade have to do experiment vs. a scientific demonstration).  He made a crystal radio- A RADIO- out of an oatmeal container!  He could pick up two or three radio stations with it.  I was really excited and proud of him.  Did the judges get it?  I don't know if he spoke loud enough for them to understand.

 Wesley's experiment was "Which Rocket will go the highest?"  I think you can learn A LOT about my husband by looking at the Science Fair projects of his children.  Anyway Wesley shot off 3 rockets and thought the black one would go the highest.  It was the white one in the end.

 Cool flames!  Notice anything ironic in the background?  How funny and (initially) coincidental.

Wyatt's experiment?  How cute can a baby be when he climbs in a basket?  Results: Soooo CUTE!!!  Very scientific and conclusive.

It has certainly been a busy several weeks culminating with this past Friday when Jason and I both got to be judges down at the school.  That was so fun to talk with the kids about their projects!  We did not judge our own children though- in case you were wondering.  Fun but I am glad it is over now!

My exhausted scientists.

Out hiking with Wes

It is early Saturday morning and Wes and I are above our house in Love Cave canyon hiking to the big white rock.  We stopped to eat a snack.  The other kids stayed home- Luke's foot hurt and it was too early for Allie...