Rainy Day Special

Chad's off days usually do not fall on weekends.  Therefore, quite often, we have to treat weekdays as our weekends.  This Tuesday fell into that category.  I got Caleigh ready for school while Chad slept in and then Chad woke up in time to take her to school.  When he returned, he informed me that he had a plan.  He had asked Caleigh what she wanted for lunch and she told him she wanted some tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich since it was raining.  So, we cleaned up the house and then planned a special Game and Movie Day for the family.  Chad even asked me to make a sign to make it seem more special to Caleigh.

He pulled a card table into our living room and then set it up for lunch.  He also pulled out some of Caleigh's favorite games.

After he picked her up from school, they went to Blockbuster together where they rented Caleigh's favorite Wii game, a movie for the whole family to watch, and a movie for Chad and I to watch after she goes to bed.  They also ran into the grocery store and picked up a pack of Tollhouse cookies for us to bake while we ate lunch.

Caleigh was one happy little girl when she came home and saw the special preparations we had made to spend the rainy day with her.  After playing a few board games with her, we saw she was super tired.  The thunderstorm outside made Chad and I sleepy as well.  So we all took a nice, much needed, nap together.

After nap, I finished up some household chores and got ready to make dinner.  One of Caleigh's favorite things that I make is copycat Chick-fil-a chicken.  I don't mind making it, it just takes a while to make so I don't get to make it very often.  I thought today would be a perfect day to make it since I was planning on being inside all day anyway.  Chad and Caleigh could not have been happier with their dinner as they ate and watched the movie Caleigh has been wanting to see, Chimpanzee.  This movie is absolutely beautiful.

After all was said and done, we tucked Caleigh in for the night and Chad and I watched our movie, The Five Year Engagement.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect rainy day. 

5 Goals

Today was another early morning at the soccer fields. We got there and no one else from the team was there. At twos minutes until game time the rest of the team shows up. So, the game stars late but seemed to flow a little smoother this time.

Caleigh was on fire! She scored 5 of the 9 goals the team scored. I could not have been more proud of her.

She even told me that even though she was tired and her legs were hurting, she kept on running! That is, until she told the coach she was going to the bench and pranced off the field.

She is such a drama queen and made it known to everyone when she was tired!

After the game, Caleigh and Shelby, who showed up unexpectedly, took to the swings and slides before we left for home.

I'll leave you with a few other pics from today.

Grandparent's Day

Today was Goodies for Grandparents day at Caleigh's school!

She did a small program consisting of little songs, poems, pledges, and prayers and then got to enjoy refreshments and give some handmade gifts to her Granny and Nonnie. 

Caleigh holding the Bible during pledge time!

Caleigh sure does have the greatest grandmas!

They even took her to lunch after the ceremonies- Zaxby's! 

I know this was one happy little girl!

Hair

Caleigh loves to watch "tutorial" videos on YouTube.  She likes to watch almost anything (and yes I do monitor the videos she watches).  Some of her favorites include how to put on makeup to make yourself look like a princess and how to make your own homemade play dough.  She also enjoys watching tutorials on how to do different hairstyles.  Maybe she has some inner aunt Chachi trying to come out?  I however, have nowhere near the hair skills that Chachi has however Caleigh thinks I should.  She wants me to watch a video and then do her hair just like the girls in the video.  No can do most of the time.  She did talk me into trying to do her hair in a 5 strand braid the other day.  I was terrible at it and started over at least 10 times, but because it was something she wanted me to do, she was more than willing to sit there and let me keep trying.  I finally got it to look somewhat like the girl in her video and she was thrilled with it.  I guess that's all that really matters.    



First Game

After many frustrating weeks of waiting...waiting to find out if she was on a team, waiting to hear when her practices were, waiting to see when the rest of her team would show up for practice, waiting for a game schedule, and waiting for a uniform.....

It was finally game day!  Her first game was against a team called the Monkeys.  It was so cute to see a bunch of little four year olds running around the tiny field.  While the other team seemed to have some sort of clue as to what they were doing, out team looked pretty clueless at kickoff. 

When the ball was thrown in by the coach for the very first time, out team stood where our coach had put them and watched as the other team took the ball right to the goal and scored.  We didn't move. 

Our girls watched this happen two times in a row and then caught on to what they were supposed to be doing.  After that, our girls had it down.  They knew exactly what they were supposed to do and scored goal after goal (in between an uncountable number of water breaks, potty breaks, shyness episodes, meltdowns, tears, and just wanting to not play anymore)!


Caleigh right after scoring her very first goal in a game, EVER!



Celebrating her goal with an "airplane" run!



High fiving the coach after her goal!



Some one on one coaching at half-time

In this age group, score is not kept, so I don't know who would have one.  I would venture to say that we did, but I can't be sure.

Playing her heart out



Not "Tebowing"- Just inspecting her knee after a pretty rough fall

Caleigh was fabulous!  Even from the sidelines!

Blowing kisses from the bench

All confidence!

Even cute while trying to chill

Caleigh had quite a few fans come to watch her play her first game.  She had her Granny, Nonnie, Mish, Meggie, Shelby, Jeff, Molly, Kota, and her biggest fans, Chad and I! 



Granny made all the girls on the team a water bottle with their name on it and I gave it to them after the game!  They thought it was cool. 



Shaking hands after the game

After the game, the coach posed the girls for a quick picture.



Here's to a great season with the Little Allstars!

 





Soccer Practice

After much debate and talking with her doctor, we decided to sign Caleigh up to play soccer this fall.  She is playing in the same soccer association that I played for when I was little.  It's kind of exciting for me. 

The experience so far has been very....what's the word I'm looking for here.....wishy washy, scatter brained, confusing.  What ever it has been, it has been frustrating. 

Upon registration, I was told to pick up her uniform from the equipment room that same day back in mid-July.  I went to get it only to be told that the size that she needed they were out of.  I was told that an email would be sent out to let everyone know when more came in and we could come and pick them up at that time. 

The rest of July and the first part of August roll on by and the only emails I get are ones stating that the association needed coaches and that kids would not get to play unless five more people stepped up to coach.  I briefly contemplated coaching a team but thought I better not, at least for her first season.  I have coached in the past but I felt that Caleigh needed to be coached by someone other than the person she already spends so much time with. 

Finally an email was sent out saying that uniforms could be purchased again during the first week of practice and that a coach would be calling each child by the Sunday before the first week of practice to let the child know what team they were on, who their coach was, and when/where they would be practicing.  We finally got our call and Caleigh was officially a member of the Little Allstars!  We practice on Thursdays, however our first practice would be the following Tuesday due to an already scheduled vacation.  Tuesday arrived and practice was cancelled due to the threat of bad weather as a result of Hurricane Issac.  The bad weather turned out to be sunny and beautiful but practice was still cancelled.  Caleigh was very disappointed to say the least.  To make things better, Caleigh and Chad practiced on their own in the back yard instead. 

She still needed a uniform and they scheduled the last two pick up days for Wednesday and Friday before the opening game on Saturday.  I went to the field on Wednesday only to be told they still did not have her size uniform.

Thursday was her first practice day.  She met all of her other teammates, with the exception of one who was on vacation, and her coach for the first time. 

Practice lasted about 45 minutes and then I headed to the equipment room again.  I was told they still did not have any more uniforms in.  I inquired about what to do if she did not have a uniform for opening day on Saturday.  They assured me that she would get to play regardless, but told me they would send an email on Friday when the uniforms were supposed to arrive.  I was told not to come on Friday unless I received an email.

I never got an email.  But, I decided to drive all the way over to the equipment room just in case.  And I am glad I did.  I FINALLY got a uniform for her at 7:45 the night before her first 9am game!  Crazy!

Justing Pinning Around

Pinterest has been part of my life for a little over a year now.  I try not to become too consumed with it because it can suck me in for hours at a time.  The ideas and recipes people put out there are amazing. 

Every now and then, Mish gets deeply involved in it and likes to pull out some of their crafts and recipes to make.  This past week was one of those times and Caleigh and I got to reap the benefits of it. 

Mish and I made this amazing Garlic Cream Cheese Bacon Wrapped Chicken!

We can't rave about it enough.  The pieces were so large that none of us could eat the whole thing! 

The entire meal was amazing.

On another Pinterest inspired night, we played with Caleigh's hair.  We washed it and added some hair gel and then used paper towels to roll her hair up.  She is very impatient.  But with both Mish and I rolling, it did not take long. 

She wanted it down very quickly, however.  She didn't want to keep them in.  We took a diffuser to her hair for about 30 minutes total.  Even that amount of time did not get her hair completely dry.  When we took her hair down, it was still damp and the curls did not look very good or last very long.  It would probably be better if she slept in the rolls overnight, but she was still cute playing around with the paper towels all in her hair! 
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Bound to Happen

I think I knew it was bound to happen but I guess I didn't want to believe that it would.

Caleigh loves her hair.  She has always had tons of it (since birth).  At six months I could put her hair in one large "Pebbles" style ponytail or even in two sizable pigtails!

She did get her bangs trimmed a couple of times a year and the ends trimmed up by her aunt Chelsea, aka Chachi.  But other than that, she never had any desire to do anything with her hair except "grow it long like Rapunzel."  The longer it grows, the more work it is for me. 

It's more washing, conditioning, drying, styling, etc.  But it has always been so pretty.  It is a light brown color with natural blonde highlights that people would have to pay gobs of money for in the salon.  Hers is just what God gave her.  I guess I adore her hair about as much as she does.

So, that fact made this event quite mortifying for me.  I walked in our office where Caleigh was seated at her small table doing some "crafts" as she calls them.  I looked down at her and only halfway inquisitively asked her if she cut her hair.  She brushed my question off with a very quick "No."  I made her stand and look at me and to my horror I saw that she had cut off a rather large chunk of hair from one side of her head while part of her hair was in a ponytail. 

I was almost in tears.  I did not want to believe that she would do something like that.  She has always treasured the time she gets to go see Chachi and sit in the salon chair and talk to her aunt as she gets her hair cut.  Now, she had cut that same hair herself!  She became very sullen and upset when she saw that I was not happy with her handiwork.

I took a picture and immediately sent it to Chachi pleading for help.  I knew it was probably way less worse than it felt to me but I still felt it warranted professional help.  She was gracious enough to ease my fears the very next day. 

Thankfully, Chachi was able to make layers around her face and the length was preserved.  The shortest layers no longer fit into a single ponytail and Caleigh has continued to try to grow out her bangs.

After all was said and done, she let me snap a few more pics of her new hairstyle.  Looking at these two pics makes my heart melt.

 

No matter if she has the hair the length of Rapunzel or is completely bald, I LOVE HER! And, I knew it was bound to happen, I just didn't want to believe it!