Soccer Victories! and Clinton Kelly!

Both kids won their soccer games today! Mali's team beat the 2nd place team 4-2. Andrew's team won a hard-fought contest 2-1. Both games were at 1:30 at Powerlines Park, Very Convenient.
Afterwards, we rushed to Macy's at the mall so Mali could meet Clinton Kelly, of What Not to Wear.
Here he is, signing her shirt: "Mali, so glad I could meet you. Clinton Kelly "WNTW"

Susy and Mali, in line with hundreds of others:

Friday!

Possibly the last beautiful Friday of the year. Susy enjoyed her day off with a nice sleep-in, followed by lunch at the new Cafe Murray Hill, and then made cookies with Mali after school.



I predicted Andrew could not pass-up the badminton game across the street. He didn't even make it home.

Travelling Weekend

We only had two soccer games this weekend, one on each day. Both games were similar: Out-of-town, hard-fought losses, with lots of chances for us to win but we couldn't get it in the goal. And Andrew and Mali both played great.
Saturday we found Estacada for Mali's game, and Sunday we went all the way out to Warrenton (Hammond) just West of Astoria for Andrew's game.

After Sunday's game we found a picnic area at Fort Stevens state park and ate the delicious picnic Pablo packed, then went to the beach where the Peter Iredale shipwreck is mired in the sand. I took a nap while Susy, Pablo, and Rocio read the paper, Andrew and Matias dug a deep hole in the sand, and Mali ran just around the beach. Andrew and Mali also found themselves out in the surf up to their chests even though the water is very cold. The 80+ degree weather helped with that.

Saturday night we had grilled salmon and mahi mahi at our house with all the usual suspects, except Paul, who was out at a Men's retreat, golfing somewhere in Washington. Nancy brought a salad, Pablo brought banana bread and homemade strawberry ice cream, and Alana brought a quiche and some manicotti she just happened to have on hand.

Mali's conference

Thursday night was back-to-school night at Nancy Ryles. Just as for Andrew's conference, I showed up late after soccer practice, blissfully missing the principal's speech. We met Mrs. Putnam and saw Mali's latest work.
Dinner was late - BLTs, with a grilled cheese with bacon for Andrew - no L or T on his plate.

Fishing

No fish for me! Two for David - an 8 pound silver he got to keep, and a 39 pound king we had to turn loose. And John caught a strapping 8 incher that he wrestled into the boat.

I called home - Mali scrimmaged with the boys against a Freshman team - she played on the team with the high school boys. I'm amazed. I wish I'd seen that.

Sushi

Homemade sushi and sashimi were delicious! Kids had a pizza option they took advantage of, though they also ate the edamame.

I'm driving up to Redmond, Washington this morning for work.

Victory for the X-Treme

Mali's team wins 1-0 with a late goal, against a much better team than yesterday!

Tonight we're going to have sushi at Paul and Nancy's, along with Pablo and Rocio and Alana. Last night Pablo, Rocio, and Susy and I took Alana out to dinner in Portland for her birthday. We wandered from the Brazen Bean to the Tao of Tea to a Tapas place about as far North as you can get on Northwest 23rd. The kids were on their own, and did fine - though we did have to call at 10:00 to tell them to go to bed.

After yesterday's game, Mali went with her friend Lilly to a cheerleading performance at Southridge H.S. that Lilly was performing in. She translated several of the cheers for the Poi Dogs, and performed them for us.

Soccer

Andrew's team is getting much better. Saturday they came back from two goals down to tie 2-2, and this morning they tied 0-0. They're passing much better, and playing smart.

Mali's team has gotten worse, and lost yesterday 3-2 to a team that hadn't scored yet. We're going to her next game now.

Rain

The rains came down this evening, so everyone got wet at soccer practice. It appears Summer is over at last.
Andrew is worried - his language arts teacher is missing one of his assignments, so he has a D for the class so far. He will be asking her about it tomorrow.

Back-to-School Night for Andrew (with update below)

Andrew has the greatest teachers! I missed the first half (Spanish, PE, speach from principal) while at Mali's soccer practice, so only met his "core" teachers: math, science, social studies, and language arts. They are all wonderful, and of course think the same of Andrew. Here is the general link to Highland Park.
The big change this year, according to the teachers: No Late Work Accepted. They all mentioned this, as that is a change for them as well. Apparently the high school teachers asked for that. Also, his algebra teacher, Mrs. Norse, said "I'm sorry if your child is already stressed out about math this year." She has been warning them that it will be a challenging year, and the homework so far has been difficult - not overly long - just... challenging.
** UPDATE **
All their assignments are on the internet, I have added links (on the right) for each of his classes, if you'd like to see what they're assignments are. The Science, Social Studies, and Language arts are somewhat interesting. Algebra is just the page and problem numbers assigned. Click through "assignments" and then the date/week to get to the text.

Hip Hop/Jazz I&II

Mali had her first Hip Hop/Jazz dance class last night, and loved it. She and Zoë were very excited to learn that Lilly is also in their class. So were the parents, as carpooling will be even easier. Susy and I both went to check it out, and saw Mali having a great time. She came home and showed us every excercise and move they learned. Then she tried to show us her friend Lilly's cheerleading moves, but we quickly put a stop to that.

Andrew's soccer practice has been cancelled tonight - pre-empted for someone else's soccer game on our practice field. The timing is good, since tonight is back-to-school night at Highland Park Middle School.

More soccer news - not so good

Andrew's Poi Dogs faced a better team today, and didn't seem to have the same energy or intensity of yesterday. They started out poorly, but got better in the second half, only to get tired because of a lack of substitutes. They lost 5-1.

Mali's team had their worst game ever, playing horribly and losing 3-0. To make it worse, they pulled their normally awesome goalie and replaced her with Amanda, the coach's daughter and Mali's friend. Five minutes into it, she made a great save but hit her head on the pole and was rushed to the hospital for stitches.

Soccer Victory!

Andrew's team had their first game today - and they Won!!! 2-0. They played great. Next game tomorrow, Mali too.

Susy took Mali shopping for a dance outfit. She starts her dance class with Zoë on Monday.

First Day of School

Andrew had so many school supplies to bring he carried his backpack and his new messenger bag from REI (both his trademark lime green). He and Mali each packed their own lunches.(!)
Andrew was unable to share a locker with Carly as planned because of some arcane rule regarding class timing. Instead, he lucked out and is sharing one with Eric: a nice, fun, new kid he met on the swim team this Summer who is surprisingly in his hall.

Mali really likes her teacher, but she says the only fun kid in her class is her friend Rachel. I'm guessing she'll make some more friends.

Labor Day Weekend

Our garage sale was a huge success! Susy made nearly $500. Andrew and Mali each made about $20. Mali sold brownies when the helpers weren't eating them. Our garage is still a mess because we haven't delivered the entertainment center and we still have to sell the fooseball table (CraigsList), but progress has been made!

We had dinner at Paul and Nancy's Saturday night - crab legs and chicken wings. Andrew finally got to try crab. He liked it enough to have a second bite.
Sunday we went back-to-school shopping at REI and the Bridgeport Mall.
Last night we had a neighborhood get-together out in the front. We all congregated on Pablo's driveway for Paul's smoked ribs and Pablo's sausages and chimichurri, and Sangria. We brought the famous baked bean casserole - and brownies - always the brownies.

Photos: Brownies and Halo

Mali makes brownies to sell at tomorrow's garage sale. Andrew and his posse play Halo.

Kirk Picnic

We had a great time at the Kirk Picnic!
Here's some photos.

Mali holding her youngest cousin, Cooper:


Andrew and Mali with their famous cousins:


Grandma Lil:

Kirk Picnic - Susan's photos

Here are a few of Susan's photos from Sunday's Kirk Picnic in Bremerton on Oyster Bay.

Mali at Horse Camp

Here's Mali at Canyonview on her horse, Justice. Susy took this when she and Nancy picked the kids up from camp on the last day.

Vacation!

Okay, I've been away awhile, and my two loyal readers have missed me - Hi Irene and Melissa!
Vacation is good: Andrew and I each caught a fish at Sekiu. Mali had a good time with Grandma Sue, and Tuesday she went with Grandma to Denny and Wendy's and met up with Mary and Ashley to babysit Conner, Cooper, and Alex.
Last night we went to the Mariner game and watched them beat the Red Sox 6 - 0 in an exciting game.
Mali and I tried going up the creek in the kayaks as the tide came out and that didn't work too well. The next day we went earlier so we could put in upstream and we pretty much coasted in to Grandpa's dock. This morning Dad and I kayaked to Glen Cove, and tonight Andrew and I went all the way upstream at high tide to the fish ladder at the salmon hatchery. Here's an interesting article on kayaking around Carn Inlet and Henderson Bay, (where we are,) including a trip to Cutts Island, known as Deadman Island to the kids (and others).