Soccer Saturday

It's amazing how 95 degrees in the shade can feel so much cooler than the 110 degrees we are used to! Hopefully our game days will start to be a bit cooler, but Miles, Penelope and I found another nice shady spot to hang out during the game. Claire is playing full back or goalie mostly and is doing a great job defending the goal. She didn't let any goals in while she was goalie, and she gets to be by Matt quite a bit since he stands behind the goal coaching her (he is Assistant Coach again). Matching hair ribbons for the new season of Tiger Lilies soccer!

Student Star - Good Job Claire Bear!

Claire was chosen as student of the week from the kindergarden classes - my understanding is they pick one student per grade, per week. They had her name up on the TV screens in the classroom, and I guess they would have had a video too but she was sick the Friday before when they wanted to make the video. Week 2 of school - not bad Claire :) 

More Quotes - Hope You Aren't Sick of Them Yet

Claire has extensive conversations on her cell phone (my old Blackberry). Here are a few things heard during Claire's calls - I can only imagine what the other side is saying back :)

• "I am calling about the contract. You need to give 65 and 111 percent."
• "I really don't know what to tell you... I just can't make it!" 
• I will send you an email

Claire said to me recently, "Mom, I was hoping that Penelope would be on our team but she has blue eyes instead of brown. But that's OK - I love her!"

Some of Miles favorite little phrases of late are:

• "That makes sense!"
• "All riiggghht, I wiiiillllll"
• "Hug, hug, kiss, kiss" 

Claire and Miles were discussing their full names and their initials. Miles said, "Your name is Claire Bear." To which Claire replied, "My name is Claire Abigail Hiller...Bear."

New Soccer Season

The Tiger Lilies are back in action this season. They take the summer off, and yet it was still over 100 degrees at Claire's game on Saturday. Fall weather can't come soon enough. Claire is number 8 this year - her second choice was number 4. She was a little upset that she has a new jersey color - dark green this season instead of orange for Tiger Lilies like last season.

Here she is playing defense - kind of hard to see her with my iPhone pic from pretty far away.

Miles, Penelope and I hung out under the shade of one of the few trees on the field. Miles always manages to get his own share of the soccer snacks - orange slices this time. Classic.

Tummy Time

Swimming Again!

Miles got his cast off last week! He held his arm bent for the first day, like he still had a cast on, but then he quickly got used to using his left arm. He was able to buckle his car seat without help again. He looked down at the straps, smiled and said, "Hey! Two hands!" We went swimming to celebrate since we had been avoiding the pool - poor Claire, she had to have a ban on swimming too. Miles traded one injury for another though - he scraped the skin off his nose after doing a belly flop into the shallow part of the pool. This boy....

We got the bill for the ER visit to set Miles' arm - $4100 before insurance, $75 with insurance. Thank goodness. Haven't received a bill yet from the orthopedic doc, but I decided I should keep these bills so I can add up the total cost of Miles' ER visits. So far, he has 3 bills for his 3 years of life. That total amount might come in handy some day - as in, "No Miles, you can't have a new car because you have already cost us $23,217 in medical co-pays!"

Kiddo Quotes

Matt and the kids found one of the CDs we gave out at our wedding (that is probably a really old school thing to do now, huh?) and it has a picture of us on the case (the same picture of us is at the bottom of this blog). Miles said, "Who is that with dad?" And Claire said, "That's Dad's old girlfriend. Oh wait, that's mom!" And then she wistfully added, "They were so young then..." Ouch Claire, double ouch.

We have been making up bedtime stories - usually a variation on a classic story. For example, sometimes the three little pigs find houses in Las Vegas, living in the castle (Excalibur), the pyramid (Luxor), or the In-n-Out on Tropicana (that was Miles' house). So one night Claire was making up a story about a princess who had everything she ever wanted. She said, "The princess had a castle... and a backyard." Bless her little heart, she loves to play outside. I do wish we had a backyard for her.


Also, Claire has started using air quotes - she moves her fingers with each word, it's pretty funny because she knows how to use them correctly. I asked her where she learned that, or if she had seen me do that before - she said, "I don't... know??" But not in air quotes :)

While we were watching the Summer Olympics, we finally caught a men's basketball game. The USA vs. Spain (or team ESP as Claire called them  = Espana). Spain has a player named Serge Ibaka (ee-ba-ca). Miles heard the announcer say his name, and he started laughing at his own inside joke, "He he he - Star Wars!" Close buddy, very close.

The other day, Claire drew a picture of our neighbor, a very nice single dad who happens to be kind of tough to live next door to sometimes. She told Matt that she was going to draw an X threw him because he chooses to smoke and she doesn't like smoking. We tell her that people choose to smoke, but we don't. Same goes for alcohol, tattoos, etc.  Matt said - let's circle him instead so we can be his friend. She agreed that this was a good idea, but she said she would still put little X's near him for the things she didn't like (I am starting to think we talk too much about our neighbors in front of the kids). She had a reason for each of her X's - he smokes, his TV is too loud through the window, we find his cigarettes by our house, and his motorcycle is too loud. Time for a few 'Love Thy Neighbor' family home evening lessons.