Life Lately | October 2022

It’s the first week of November! Eek!

So much life has happened this fall, and by “so much life”…I mean, so much SOCCER.

This fall sports season is the first time we’ve signed up all four kids at the same time. Add in Naiya participating on two teams and Alexia playing for the high school (read: practice EVERY DAY), my life these past few months has had me logging in the kind of miles of an uber driver (without the pay).

Whew!

It was fun, it was exciting, it was exhausting.

This is going to be a long one, so grab your coffee and settle in. Here’s a little life lately from the month of October.

Hazel is now six months, we’ve finally turned a corner where she doesn’t have accidents in the house anymore. We have a good routine and everyone knows what to expect. She still gets into things and chews them up (pencils, notebooks, shoes, shinguards, etc.). In fact, I just had to send an email to Josiah’s teacher this morning that our dog ate his spelling notebook. So in that regard, I do still find myself muttering under my breath “dumb dog”. Mostly though, she is a sweet girl and a fun addition to our family life.

October is birthday month for our little guy. Josiah and I are the only ones with Fall birthdays, everyone else celebrates theirs in the Spring.

Josiah turned EIGHT!

We spent his actual birthday on a class field trip to the Baltimore National Aquarium. These two cousins have become best friends this year being in the same class together and on the same soccer team, it is so sweet!

Love these kiddos! Josiah and Madilyn are 4 weeks apart.

After dinner one night, we played “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”. Ryan collected a bunch of fifth grade related trivia questions, teams were divided into everyone vs. Noah (our resident fifth grader and scholar). Noah won. #nooneissurprised

We hosted our third annual Consider the Lily fundraiser in our barn. It was such a success, we were able to reach our goal (and beyond) to purchase a much needed vehicle for the CtL family. You can read more about it HERE.

The following weekend, my friend Lauren randomly invited us to a Filipino Fest being held in Annapolis…

At this festival, we were able to air our Consider the Lily video and they gave Ryan the mic and he shared more about the organization.

It was such a fun opportunity, albeit random!

If you know, you know.

We spent Columbus Day weekend at Naiya’s soccer tournament, where Alexia was able to join as a guest player.

On our way to the field, we saw this little farm which has huge significance! I took the girls to this pumpkin patch with my mother in law in 2011 and Alexia rode her first horse. She was always a reserved toddler, so I was sure the pony ride would end in tears of fear. We were shocked to see nothing but a huge grin the whole time! And from there, her passion for horses began.

Which leads us to…

…horses are officially on our property. This is a dream come true for this girl right here. Selah is a four-year old mare (female) that we bought for Alexia to train on for Eventing. At this point, Alexia has really only focused on jumping, but hopes to explore dressage and cross-country to round out her Eventing experience. We were given a second horse, Lady, to keep Selah company. Lady is a seventeen year-old mare, that is sweet as pie and gets bullied all day long by the more dominant Selah.

Alexia made the JV women’s soccer team for her high school, which was fun for us all to experience the high school team sport arena (brought me back to my good ol’ days).

Riding the bus to away games was definitely a highlight for her. Stopping for dinner on the way home from games, listening to music, hanging with friends, and sometimes falling asleep on the really far away games, all the bus experience can offer when you shove 17 fourteen year-old girls in a bus together!

My running route is turning into a fall wonderland and my heart couldn’t be happier.

And since it’s fall, our fridge is stocked with all the fall goodies that Trader Joe’s has to offer! This one here is my favorite!

Post-run breakfast. Yum!

If you’re looking for the perfect fall after school protein-packed snack, try my Pumpkin Spice Energy Balls.

I’m not the only one that’s feeling the fall vibes in the kitchen! Naiya was getting super creative with her pumpkin muffins…

…she was very excited about her jack-o-lantern chocolate chip muffins.

Another first for this girl (and us all), was going to Homecoming. Alexia went with a few girlfriends, took pictures before dinner, then we all drove together to Bridges Restaurant.

At the restaurant, a few more of their friends joined for pictures overlooking the bay, followed by dinner. For our meal, the kids sat at a table altogether, while the parents sat nearby at our own table. It was so cute!

When we first moved from Annapolis, across the bridge to the eastern shore, Alexia was entering a new school for fourth grade. One of the things we prayed for her and Naiya (our boys were still pretty little) was that God would give them one friend. His answer was this smart, funny, low-drama girl in the pink dress. Caitlin’s house has been a home away from home for Alexia. We always laugh that she lives her best life when she’s at the Somers’ house (boat rides, ice cream, eating out at fun restaurants, beach trips, souveniers, and so much more). It’s been six years of a sweet friendship and a whole lot of fun memories.

And then when our girls switched schools for middle school, Alexia met another BFF, Lacey. Their friendship has been such a blast from the past for me, remembering all of the hilarious moments of my middle school and high school years. These girls make me crack up all the time and I’m pretty sure I have hearing loss from all of the times they have cranked up my van radio and sang at the top of their lungs.

My sister-in-laws and friend (but basically sister-in-law), Bailey, celebrated Ryan’s sister’s upcoming wedding by having a girls night-in bachelorette party. We had dinner out in Easton, then spent the night at Jenna’s. We stayed up talking far past my bedtime, but it was worth every lost minute of sleep!

We woke up the next morning and had coffee on the porch and talked, before heading out to Bark Barbecue Cafe for breakfast. I ordered the breakfast egg burrito with chopped beef brisket, so good!

If you saw on stories, you know that we had our pool filled last month! Just in time for cooler temps and falling leaves.

Alas, our patio project was completed! So exciting! We’re still waiting on windows and doors for our poolhouse, and needing to come up with a purpose for the brick smokehouse that we’re converting into an indoor living space.

Even with the falling temps that October always brings here in Maryland, with an equally cold pool, it has not stopped Ryan and the kids from making a daily habit to get in the hot tub and then taking a plunge into the pool. My current fave has been waking up on the weekend and spending the mornings out on the patio as a family, all bundled up in blankets.

Last month, we had a client of Ryan’s host their retirement party in our barn. We love being able to offer our space to friends, and by now, we have our system down pat of prepping for large gatherings. In lieu of gifts, they asked their friends and family to make a donation to Consider the Lily and Ryan was given the opportunity to share a little bit about the organization. It has been so fun to see these little pockets open up for us to advocate and spread the word about CtL.

The three younger kids had their school Fall Challenge, a school-wide field day of sorts. All three of my kids, plus their cousins, Caitlin and Madilyn, were all on the Red Team. Naiya ended up winning the MVP award for her team (due to her willingness to help the younger kids), but I would be lying if I didn’t say she came home recounting all of the reasons that led to her team’s loss. “Weak links” may have entered the conversation. (Sigh). #enneagram3

One of the final projects for our pool and patio was laying sod around the perimeter of the pavers. It is such a huge transformation! I am so blown away by my husband’s capacity to dream, execute, plan and organize multiple massive projects all at once. On top of his day job and the daily maintenance of our 27 acres. He is so faithful! And I think I’ll take a nap on behalf of him.

Soccer season has come to an end for Josiah. Every game was basically a party with friends for both the kids and parents! Josiah and Madilyn were on the same team, so Jenna and I had a couple opportunities to coach their team when the head coach couldn’t make it. Both my sister-in-law and I played college soccer, so we can both be juuuuust a little intense and competitive. Josiah would have my hide if I didn’t also include that their team went undefeated. I’m pretty sure most games, the cousin duo each scored hat tricks. #proudmamas

This is Naiya’s second year of playing BUSA, a travel soccer team that is Brazilian led and coached. She’s loved making friends and this week is the final week of the fall season. She also played her last year of the local rec soccer league (she ages out as an 8th grader), but had fun on a team made up of mostly girls from her travel team. Those girls rocked! Most of them have been chosen to play for the All-Star girl’s team, where they go against another local rival soccer league and try to defend their title!

Now that our hosting opportunity has ended with our favorite Brazilian coach, Paulo, we LOVE running into him on the soccer field! My boys always wear their jerseys gifted to them by Paulo and his wife, Victoria. They each represent rival Brazilian professional teams, and always cause a stir with the Brazilian coaches wherever they go.

And just this last weekend, our extended family had dinner to celebrate…

…Aunt Tanya’s birthday! By the end of this month, Tanya and Erik will be married!

And to finish out our October, we went trick-or-treating with the families of some of Naiya’s BUSA teammates. (Sadly, Alexia was home sick). The kids came home and promptly started separating and organizing their loot, some even made spreadsheets.

Anyone else’s kids do this?

That was our October!

I am SO excited for November! I just love the fall because with each new month, comes something new to celebrate! October is for pumpkins, November is for Thanksgiving, and December is Christmas!!!! My heart is so happy!

Happy Wednesday!