Are you ready for some football?....and soccer

Another football and soccer season is upon us. Braeden and Josh both had their first games this past Saturday. Braeden played every single play in his football game. He was exhausted by the end of the game. Joshua started soccer this season after taking a long break for a couple of years. He got right in there like he had never missed a season. They both played hard but still there teams got creamed. It was not a great start to the season but hopefully things will just get better from here.

Kate's Pool Party Birthday

Kate wanted a pool party for her 6th birthday so that is exactly what we did. It was super fun and easy. I love planning that kind of party. We held it at one of community pools and it worked out perfectly.

Kate and Brooke

Olivia
Chandler and Ben
Brooke

Olivia, Ava, and Brooke enjoying cupcakes and Blue Bell Ice cream
Kara and Adria

Kate, Chandler, and Ben

The whole gang

Happy 6th Birthday Kate!!

We love you Kate!! You're the sweetest, coolest, smartest, most beautiful, most awesome, most terrific, super-dy duper-dy girl we know. Happy Birthday!!!!

Quote of the Day

"School is exactly like prison to me"............. - Josh, age 8

First & Second Day of School 2009

Yesterday the kids started school. As always I take a picture on the first day. Kate and Joshua got in their usual spot at the front door ready for there picture. I went to get the camera and turned it on and realized that the battery was dead. I tried to recharge it quickly but it didn't work. So I promised that we would take a picture this morning and pretend it was the first day of school. They were perfectly OK with that. Luckily the camera charged enough by the time Braeden had to leave so we got the real shot.


Kate - 1st grade, Joshua - 3rd grade

Braeden - 6th grade

Not Complaining

This is what our evenings look like until the end of October. I am not complaining. I just wanted to document it so that when my kids are older they can see how much I did for them. :)

Monday:
5:00 - 5:30 piano lessons - Braeden
6:00 - 8:00 football practice in LE - Braeden
6:30 - 8:00 soccer practice in TC - Joshua

Tuesday:
6:00 - 8:00 football practice in LE - Braeden

Wednesday:
7:00 - 8:00 scouts in LE - Braeden
7:00 - 8:00 soccer practice in TC - Kate
7:00 - 8:30 Mutual in TC - me and Cary
(I haven't figured out how we are going to be at all these places at the same time)

Thursday:
6:00 - 8:00 football practice in LE - Braeden
6:30 - 8:00 soccer practice in TC - Joshua

Friday:
6:00 - 8:00 football practice in LE(until games start) - Braeden

This doesn't include scouts for Josh which will most likely be on Wednesday from 6 to 7 in LE when school starts and Saturday morning soccer practice which will be held at 9a.m. for him as well until the games begin.

boring...I know

So, I haven't been in the mood to blog lately nor have I had anything to blog about. I thought that since it has been a while that I needed to come up with something. Not because so many people are interested in what the Jones family is doing but because this is our family journal.

Our days go something like this...wake up late, eat breakfast late, do a little cleaning, do a little bit of laying around, go to the pool, have quiet time, do a little summer homework, go to football practice, make dinner, watch TV, go to bed way to late. This is pretty much how it has been all summer long with a few variations here and there. We have gone to the dollar movie a lot catching up on all the movies we didn't see when they were first released. We've seen Race to Witch Mountain, Monsters v. Aliens, Night at the Museum 2, The Hannah Montana movie, Disney's Earth, and my favorite 17 Again ,which comes out on DVD today and stars the very cute Zac Efron:).

School starts in 13 days and only Braeden is ready to go back. He misses all his very cool friends. Kate and Joshua wish that it would be summer forever. We are also counting down the days till Kates 6th birthday. She is super excited!

This is about as exciting as it's been around here. I am sure once school starts things might get more interesting.

Not Ready

I just registered the kids for school. This means the countdown has begun. Only 21 more days left of summer vacation. It has gone by way to fast and I am not ready for it to end. We are enjoying staying up late, sleeping in later, having no schedule, and laying by the pool for hours on end. Registering the kids for school is the beginning of the end to summer. Football practice has started, soccer is just about to begin, piano schedules have been sent out, and school shopping has begun. Good bye lazy summer...we will miss you!!!

TORI

CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING?

For Ash and Clay

This is what you guys should do at your wedding.....

Bass Pro Shops & more MO. randomness

After we visited the zoo in Springfield we stopped at the Bass Pro Shops. I don't understand all the excitement about this place. I don't really like to look at a bunch of dead animals hanging on the wall, but Cary and the kids love this place. I think once you've seen one Bass Pro Shop you've seen them all. So I found a bench and enjoyed people watching while the rest of the family ogled over animal heads.

On to Missouri Randomness.....on our way home from one of our outings we saw this lovely, furry vehicle. The kids thought it was so cool.

In Springfield we went to Lamberts, Home of the Throwed Rolls. This place is so yummy and the kids really got a kick out of hot, homemade rolls being thrown at them. They serve delicious home cooked food. They keep bringing it out until you say stop and no doggie bags allowed. I ate so much I felt like I was going to have to be rolled out of there.

We ordered Kate and Joshua kids meals. They brought out their drinks in these gigantic mugs. They were in soda heaven.

We have passed by this tank for years on Main Street in Joplin at the Veterans center. The kids always want to stop and look at it close up. We finally made the stop and Joshua got the picture that he wanted.

Springfield Zoo

While in Missouri we took a day trip to Springfield, which is about an hour and a half away from Joplin, to see the zoo. The weather was nice and we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the zoo was. Kate absolutely loves the zoo! I think this was the highlight of the trip for her.

One of our first stops was to feed these very hungry fish. They wait at the surface of the water with their mouths open waiting for food to be thrown in.

Next stop was the petting zoo

There were beautiful flowers all over the zoo. These hibiscus were the size of Joshua's head.

My very cute niece Payton. She is the best baby in the world.

This was my favorite part of the zoo. We were able to get so close to the giraffes and feed them. They were very stinky and slimy but it was still tons of fun!

Petting a bearded dragon

The one and only hippo that the zoo had. He looked like a very large baked potato.

The End

More Nature

We went to the Wildlife Glades Conservation and Audubon Center while in Missouri. There were several trails to hike and a little museum to go through. Again, my kids love anything that puts them in nature so this was a perfect place for them. Here they are in a field of Daisy's with their cousin Sophia.

Braeden trying not to get eaten alive by this gigantic clam.

These were skins of little critters that we might see along the trail. A skunk, several types of fox, a wolf, and a raccoon.....poor little critters.

This is how most of the trail was....covered in shade by gigantic trees. It was really pretty.

We found berries along the trail. These were unripened black berries.

A very hairy caterpillar.

The bat cave

This was the end of the trail. The only stinky thing about this trail was that it did not go in a complete round...so once you got to this bridge you had to turn around and go back the exact same way you came...lame.

Candy House

One stop we made on our trip was to the Candy House. It was so cute and filled to the brim with all kinds of delicious candy. Taffy, jelly beans, gummy bears, suckers the size of your head, toffee, gum, hard candy, and almost anything that you can think of was covered in chocolate. I was in HEAVEN!!! I could have spent hours sampling all the different kinds of candy. There was so much to choose from that I had a really hard time deciding on what I wanted. We ended up coming away with gummy frogs (for Kate), gold mine gum nuggets (for the boys), taffy of every flavor, home made caramel (it was the softest, most buttery tasting caramel I have ever had in my life...YUM!!), chocolate covered caramel, chocolate turtles (Cary's favorite), and my favorite toffee (we bought 1/4 of a pound of toffee and I ate all but 2 pieces by myself...it was that good). Needless to say we spent way to much money on candy this day but every penny was worth it!