Sibling note passing

I was in Jack's room the other day putting laundry away and saw some papers under his bed.  In Peyton's room, I would not have even looked twice, as her room is ALWAYS a mess and things are always sticking out from under her bed.  But it did catch my attention, cause Jack's room is always spotless....the only thing the kid does in there is read books and go to bed.

So, I dug the papers out and took a look.  It appeared to be notes that Jack and Peyton had been passing back and forth.  Pretty funny...pretty cute....but poor Maddie.  She got dissed in one of them, but included in the next one....ha!

Trolls Movie

The day before Thanksgiving the kids had off school and we had nothing to do.  I decided to take them to see the Trolls movie.  I had heard it was super cute and I thought Maddie would really like it. We brought some waters, grabbed some movie theatre candy from Walgreens and then of course bought the unlimited popcorn from the theatre.  Peyton and Jack can EAT THEIR WEIGHT in popcorn!!!!

The movie was super cute, as I had heard.  It actually kept Maddie's attention....she didn't have to "go to the bathroom" one time.  The only thing I had to leave the theatre for was to refill the popcorn bucket, and Maddie didn't even want to get up and do that with me.

After the show on the way out, the big kids told me that when I told them what we were going to go see, they weren't that excited.....BUT....it turned out it was one of their favorite movies!  All three loved it.  WIN for mom!!

Walk Thru Tilles Park

This year, we discovered that Tilles park sells tickets to WALK thru the light display, the weekend before they open.  The tickets to this sell out as soon as they go on sale.  We didn't have tickets but I found some the day-of on the swap and sell so I snatched them up and we went that night.  It was actually a ton of fun to walk it.  Very festive and pretty.  We parked at the church across the street and they had the church open for everyone and was serving cookies and hot coco for after the walk.  They had some Christmas caroling as well.  The kids enjoyed it, even with the cold temps.

A boy and his dog

Still love our Annie dog more than ever...she's the BEST!

Peyton's Last Soccer Tournament

Peyton played her last SLSG soccer tournament the weekend we got back from our trip.  They played a great tournament, but came up just shy of the championship game.  She had a fun season with her new teammates and new coaches....they will be back at it in the spring.  Here are some pictures I snapped at her last tournament game.

Disney Cruise

We surprised the kids with a Disney Cruise a couple weeks ago.  They were surprised and had a blast.  Jack claims it's his favorite vacation of all times, and Maddie just this morning asked when we can go on another Disney Cruise.  I told her she'd have to talk to her dad about that.....

I will make a separate book for this, so I'm not gonna blog much more, but I'll add a few pictures.

Jack's First USTA Tournament

Jack played in his first USTA tournament a couple weeks ago.  He did a great job, despite some things he isn't used to.  They use orange compression balls and smaller courts.  Took him just a few minutes and then he got the hang of it.  He won all of his games on his side of the bracket and made it to the championship game.
For his level (orange ball), it's for kids 8-11.  They can level up once they have enough points and they get points for playing in tournaments and even more points if they place in tournaments.  Jack was facing a much older, much stronger, and better tennis player for the championship.  Jack played him extremely tough, beating him in the first set.  The kid and his parents were frustrated that Jack was playing him so well.  They went back and forth, back and forth and finally had to end with a tie breaker.  The tie breaker went on and on as well, as you have to win by two points and he and Jack kept going back and forth.
At one point during the tie breaker, Jack made a bad line call that would have allowed the kid to win. The kids call their own games, which is kind of nerve racking, as they are gonna make bad calls every once in a while.  Once Jack made that bad call the parents started getting fidgety and the kid did too.....and I did too.....that's a ton of pressure on a kid to play tennis intensely but also watch the lines and Jack was a rookie at it (not a cheater).  So once the kid finally won, I was relieved that Jack's bad call wasn't gonna take the tournament title away from that kid.  The parents were happy too, they were all smiles once their kid finally beat Jack.
Jack had a great time, and I'm sure has the tennis fever now!