Life Lately - September

Hi friends - you know what we've been up to lately because we are back on our regular fall schedule & most of it I have already blogged about. But here are a few more pictures of our adventures this month starting with Sophie's autumn cotillion meeting this month:

Afterwards she went with a few friends to go get milkshakes & they couldn't get out of those dresses fast enough. Ha!

Lots of cheerleading from team practices, jump classes, private coaching to football games:

Last week was extra special because the other team, the Ravens, are mostly girls who go to our middle school so they have quickly become good friends:

Most of them participate in KLife also so they were even more excited when their small group leaders showed up to cheer them on:

Afterwards we had a big mother/daughter lunch to celebrate with all of our new Griffin friends:

And then the next week Sophie went to their football game to watch her friends cheer:

Such a sweet group of girls!

Another sweet group of girls is Sophie's volleyball team:

One of them had a birthday party & Sophie loves hanging out with these girls because they go to different middle schools & don't see each other as often:

Besides sports, the girls have had several birthday parties lately. Tis the season!

Doc's 70th Birthday/Retirement Party

A few months ago, my dad retired from his job after 40 years. 40 Years - can you believe it?! That's almost unheard of these days. Not only that, but today is his 70th birthday! We planned all summer to celebrate him, so we finally got together this past weekend with his friends to celebrate:

We just rented the clubhouse in their neighborhood & kept it casual, but my mom had fun collecting mementos from different eras from his life to use as the centerpieces:

He clearly loves golf, the Longhorns, traveling & playing cards but here's a fun fact - did you know he was a football ref?! He was with the same crew for almost as long as he held the same job! Unfortunately, he had to retire from reffing also:

We sent the girls outside to decorate while we decorated inside. My mom had a bunch of senior signs that they had fun hanging:

When they came inside, we put them to work at the beverage bar while Diana was busy slicing all of the pies:

That's right - my dad loves pie so we had a pie bar:

You name it, we probably had it:

My mom even baked df/gf chocolate chip cookies for Sadie & I since we couldn't have the pie:

We don't have a big family, but you know my sister & I were both there with our families:

Of course, I took it upon myself to walk around & play photographer during the party with all of his friends:

And this was his referee crew:

We had the best afternoon seeing & visiting with everyone & celebrating my dad. Honestly, I don't go home as often anymore & when we usually do, it's the holidays so we don't see anyone as often. Most of these friends I have known all of my life, literally since I was born! I hope we ae blessed to be surrounded by such a great group of family & friends when we get to celebrate our milestones like this:

Happy Birthday Dad - we love you!

Life Lately - This Fall

We are officially into the first month of school & since we are past Labor Day, we've had our first normal weekend, so we have easily slid into our new fall routine. It may be busy, but these girls keep it fun. Obviously, Sadie is playing soccer, although the last 2 weekends her games have been rained out. But she trains 2 times a week with her team & she does skills training with a separate coach once a week. But she is also playing school sports, starting with volleyball. She made the A team again this year & this is probably her second favorite sport:

We love playing other middle schools because we see friends all the time, especially friends from soccer:

They played in a tournament last weekend & so far this season, they are playing ok. They definitely aren't one of the best teams in our district, but they aren't the worst either. Maybe middle of the road so far, but we still have 2 more months to go so maybe they can finish strong:

Meanwhile Sophie loves going to the games with her friends & sitting in the student section:

These girls go to a lot of games since they can't play school sports themselves yet. We have already been to a few varsity volleyball games:

and football games too:

I already did a post about Sophie cheering but in addition to that, they just started fall volleyball. Practices are mostly year-round, but they took a break from games at the end of summer & just started a fall league to get them ready for tournament season, which starts in January. She loves middle school & has all sort of new friends:

and she has really gotten involved with K-Life now that she is old enough. They meet at the park on Thursday mornings for bible study & on Monday nights for small group bible study. Their first meeting was at our house & we had 37 girls & 3 leaders:

Sadie is still really involved in KLife also, but they meet on Tuesday nights & I continue to host their group also.  

Finally, Sadie & I are still doing NCL. We volunteered a lot this summer so now it's mostly monthly meetings. We had our kickoff meeting in August where we celebrated 100 years & it was fun getting to see everyone again after summer:

Last weekend we did Feed Our Starving Children with just her class & it was a lot of fun being with the girls & their moms:

Next year Sophie will be a legacy & will hopefully join our chapter with her friends!

And that's a peak into our busy schedules - cheer, volleyball x 2, soccer, cotillion, FCA, NCL, K-Life, NJHS. That's just a few of their extracurriculars to go along with school, church, work, etc. Life I said, they keep us busy but it sure is a lot of fun!