Harvest Festival

I love our kids school. It's kinda old, a little small but the teacher's are great and we are blessed with lots of patents , mostly awesome Moms, that give their time to make after school events special.

Shout outs especially to Nicole Roberts and Tonya Doman for organizing and Val for volunteering. The kids were super excited to tell me they got to check out all the Harvest Festival activities before anyone else got there.

Face painting

What else?

Pumpkin bowling.

I think this was called Quack Attack.

Hailey rocking her prize moustache and air guitar (literally).

The Farm

I love that each season brings new fun, new opportunities to make memories and also some staples that have found their way into our hearts and have become traditions.

Halloween/Fall has turned into a tradition we call, The Farm. It's our favorite place to go get pumpkins (supporting local farmers), do a corn maze, see a play involving pigs, watch the duck races and just in general be together.

The weather was great this year and the hay was just right for jumping in. Haze found the most adorable pumpkin and put it in her wheelbarrow below.

Oh the pressure...

Tonight I took Ty to his first pitching/catching practice for his select summer team and I was hit with some churning tension in my stomach, "Am I doing the right thing?"

Let me back up. Select baseball at age 9? Yep, it's become commonplace for younger boys to play on summer teams. This has been hard for me to swallow because it wasn't even an option when I was his age growing up. But, nobody was blogging about it from their smart phone then either.

I can only describe my feeling as pressure. Am I blessed to only be feeling this now when he's 9 or am I terrible for not feeling the pressure of fatherhood sooner? I guess I willingly know in hindsight. 

My saving grace is that Ty loves baseball. I make it clear to him that I only want him to have fun and that it's his decision and not mine. So, I will be very curious to see how this goes.

Ty waiting his turn.

Ty on the mound this fall.

Baseball 2013

Val does not need to remind me but it's a good thing she does, that I am the luckiest Dad in the world to have a son that loves baseball as much as me! Add free season M's tickets and I think that would make me the luckiest but I admit I'm only a tiny smidgen below that ;-)

This year I coached Ty's machine pitch Rookies little league team, the Rockies. I had so many great moms and dads helping out every practice and game and considered it a great honor to have a really FANTASTIC group of boys on the team. 

What a pleasure it was just to be able to share the game I love with these boys and watch Ty as he develops skills to compare with his live for the game. I had to go buy a pitching screen this year because it is no longer safe to pitch to Ty without protection!

After the season he yard fall ball as an 8 year old with mostly 10 and 11 year olds and I was SO PROUD of him because the competition was TOUGH. He is going to LOVE farm next year and his summer select team that will only be 9 year olds playing other 9 year olds.

My favorite father/son photo ever!

Just a great looking ball player!

Perfect hitting form.

A great day at the ballpark with my Dad, the Quiggle and Allen kids!

Ty's pitching debut this fall.

Did I mention I'm a pretty lucky Dad? ;-)

Back to School 2013

I can't believe my little girl is in 1st Grade ! Yikes! I'm also kind of freaking out about the fact that Ty just turned 9 and is halfway to being a man!

They have great fashion sense!

From my little boy to my young man.

Nothing has changed, you will still find Hsey in a snugly spot with a book when it gets really quiet.

Greatest school photos ever!

Bend 2013 - Crater Lake

How on Earth have we been going to Bend all these years and this is the first year we visited Crater Lake? In hindsight, can't believe it. In the future I think you can rest assure that Crater Lake will be a yearly staple.

First, let me explain that I am now deathly afraid of heights. I never was before I was married or a father so I blame Val and the kids. Second, the only thing that scares me more than heights is my family on the edge of something high and in danger of falling to their deaths. Even loading these photos makes my stomach do somersaults!

Heights aside, what a beautiful sight! In reality we problem waited till the right year because the hike in and out of the crater is NO JOKE and it was nice to not have to carry any kids. Next year I promised Ty that we'd bring towels and find a ledge to jump off. We'll see how brave he is in 2014!

The Quigglekids Return!

Life got busy, it never got less busy and so either I freeze time or figure out a way to make time to resurrect this blog! So, here we go.

There is going to be a lot to catch up on; most of 2013, a great Bend trip, a stay over in Bend while Val and I went to Vegas, the continuation of baseball, Hailey's return to soccer, more stomach problems for Ty and lots of hospital visits and tests and the greatest of all things the beginning of 3rd Grade for Ty and 1st Grade for Haze!!!

Here's a little peek.

So happy to have her back on the field!

Can't believe my boy is 9!

Bend keeps getting better and better.

Ty is really turning into a great ballplayer.

So proud of my smart, beautiful little girl!

My Hailey Reader

Hailey has been doing such a great job with her "homework" this year even though she's reading at a level quite a bit above the general class curriculum.  One of the things she brings home each week is a paper reader which she can read in about 10 seconds.  She also brings other readers home that are more challenging for her.  She's very good about reading these paper readers and using her reading finger just like she's "supposed" to but I've been trying to find ways of making them more beneficial.  So I decided that she could read them once and then the next day I would read it to her and she would would write it.  Good practice for her writing and spelling.  So day number 2 I asked her to get her writing page and pen.  She asked if she could practice writing her name first.  Of course that was fine.  A few minutes later I asked if she was ready and she said "yep, I'm done".  I picked up her reader (which I had set on the counter next to me) and when I looked up she was leaving the room.  "Wait, I said, I want you to practice your writing with the reader too.".  She just looked at me and said, "I did it already". 

Sure enough, she wrote the whole thing out by memory.  And here I thought I would dictate to her.  So much for challenging work.  It's still good writing practice for her though.  I'm used to Tyler who has always loved to sit and write stories.  Hailey would much rather read than write.