Flag Football

Jack had his flag football tournament on Saturday. He was Christmas-level excited about it and even woke up extra early the morning of the tournament. His team this year has been really good and they went undefeated all season. Unfortunately, their best player was out of town, and just enough of his team showed up that they didn't need to forfeit but there weren't any substitutes either. The first game was really exciting. His team played excellently, even without many of their best players, and they ended up winning in overtime. Their next game was the semi-finals against one of the best teams, and they lost. Jack was devasted, but we had some good talks about practice (his team didn't really practice at all this season and just let their best players carry them), and about actionable goals vs dreams (he kept saying his goal was to win the tournament, but there wasn't really any action going into that). Even though he was sad they didn't win, Jack played a great game and it was fun to watch. On the way home I had a great idea for Jack to get some daily practice by strapping some flags around savvy, and then having Jack try to pull her flags while Jared and I toss her fetch ball back and forth to each other😂 This has actually been more effective and fun than expected so we may be keeping it up until next season to see if it really improves Jack's game. It's great exercise for Savvy too and just an all-around good time.

Other things this week....i'm kind of blanking honestly. Oh! Jared got sucked into prime day and wanted to finish all our Christmas shopping for the kids. I honestly wasn't ready for this, but knew Jared would buy all the gifts for them on prime day regardless, so I would need to figure out what I wanted for them if I was going to have input. We scrambled a good list together and I think succeeded in buying enough for the kids' Christmas. I'll end up being grateful when Black Friday rolls around and most of our shopping is done.

I think that's about it for this week! Our house is decorated for Halloween and I am pulling up Halloween shows and movies as needed. I wish I could get it together enough to host some neighbors before daylight savings hits us, but with this hurricane weather and wanting to figure out family pictures, that may have to wait. We are hosting our primary class this week if the weather holds up. I'm still feeling really grateful that we are not preparing for a move this fall. I need to hold onto gratitude for that. I'm loving having space for seasonal activities this year, even if there isn't enough space for ALL the activities and hosting, etc. It may take another few seasons but we'll get around to meeting more neighbors. Now for some pictures from our week:

^^The patio furniture that was formerly on our front porch is now living on our back patio, so we are in the market for some new front porch furniture (especially since we have an unobstructed valley view this year we'd like to enjoy, as it will definitely be blocked by new homes sometime next year). Before looking into all the Prime Day/end of summer clearance sales, I went to check out my favorite antique mall to see if they had anything great and cheap in their outdoor section. Nope. It was all mediocre and expensive so we ended up ordering a little porch set on Prime day after all.

^^Alice is still young enough that I'm really only catching about half of Jack's football games and spending the other half helping Alice stay entertained, but each season I am able to watch a little more, and that's a lot of fun.

^^We put up the carved wood mirror and brass candle sconces I thrifted years ago in our entryway. It is PERFECT for Halloween. Eventually I will need to replace the old wooden table with something ultra-modern and possibly acrylic to balance it all out. But I am LOVING this corner for spooky season.