Life Lately | June 2022 -

Happy Wednesday!

Our summer is in full swing over here. Lots of travel, spring sports ending and I pulled off an epic surprise for our kids this week!

It’s a little bit of life lately today here on the blog…

Anyone else?

Let’s add mounds of dishes, as well. I’m in need of reconfiguring responsibilities now that they’re home.

The girls finished up their spring soccer season and went undefeated! Naiya and Alexia were able to be on the same team this past year as they combined age groups, so it was fun to watch them progress individually and as a collective team. This spring they also had their school classmates tryout and join the team, so it made it especially fun for them. A highlight for the girls was we gave them freedom to walk as a group from Monday practices to youth group.

The girls ended the season with a President’s Cup tournament, so we had three days of soccer. Since the field complex was far away and Sunday’s game was at 8:00am, a few families decided to stay in a hotel on Saturday night. This was a highlight for us all!

In the semi-finals, Naiya scored the game winning goal at the very end, which had all of us parents jumping and screaming and hugging on the sidelines. Man, I love a clutch goals! Unfortunately, they lost in the Championships after double over time and then penalty kicks. There were lots of tears from the girls (rightfully so), but they played such great soccer the whole weekend, we were so proud of their team!

Summer swim team has started up. Although my kids have only been to a couple practices thus far, because of other sport commitments and traveling. Today, evening practices switch to morning, which I’m all for! Kids wake up and have purpose for their morning, get all tuckered out, and then have every right to lounge around the rest of the day. 😆

Our boys have spent most of their days this summer playing soccer with our roommate, Paulo. This spring and summer, we agreed to host a Brazilian soccer coach (an exchange program of sorts, through the soccer organization our girls play for), he has been such a breath of fresh air for our family! Not to mention, he does the morning dishes almost every day. Up until last year, Paulo played professional soccer (goalkeeper), so soccer training sessions are also happening over here lately.

We’re coming along with the installation of our pool. Currently, we are in a 3-week waiting period as the form is needing to cure.

The kids have enjoyed playing this game (it’s an individual game)…

…and Josiah (my 7-year old) keeps requesting to play this game as a family after dinner…

Yesterday, we enrolled Alexia for high school. What the heck?! She is going to our local public high school and couldn’t be more excited. Thankfully, she will have her whole graduating 8th grade class (5 students total) going with her next year. It is the first time every student graduating is attending the same high school. When did our baby girl get so BIG?!

The biggest news over here at the Grossman house lately has to do with an epic surprise I pulled off (if I do say so myself) for the kids. Yesterday I took the whole morning to drive to Pennsylvania to pick up our surprise for the kids…

When I arrived home, Ryan told the kids I needed help bringing in groceries from my van. When I opened the trunk, there she was in a crate!

It was so fun to do this covert operation. I only told Ryan and one other friend, a neighbor, and of course my aunt when she came to visit last weekend. IT.WAS.EPIC. Who am I kidding, it still is epic! We’ve never had a dog (on purpose…it always sounded so tiring and daunting when I was trying to keep baby humans alive), Ryan and I really didn’t grow up with dogs either, so this is a new adventure for us all.

The kids are still trying to agree on a name for her. She is a Cavapoo (half King Charles cavalier, half miniature poodle), so will be a small dog, which I wanted. The thought of a large dog running into my hip while I’m trying to cook dinner was too much for me. My only concern is that she gets picked off by something here at the farm! She is 8-weeks old and is sweet as can be, and only had me up two times for her first night here. Granted, I did have to clean up poop and pee in her crate at 1am. I know that is to be expected though.