Bowling Fun

Today was a good day for the three older kids. Not so good for Seth. Poor kid woke up with the stomach flu. I was sad as this meant we couldn't all be at the bowling alley to watch the kids compete. It's the first time all three made it into the roll-offs for bowling and I was hoping we could all be there. Rob stayed home with Seth and I went with the older ones.

They all did really well. Jonathan and Nathaniel were on seperate teams so they were competing against each other :) I was hoping both teams would place. There were 5 Future All Star teams bowling for 1st-4th place. Nathaniel's team took 4th and Joanthan's took 3rd. Phew! Down on the other end of the alley were the Tiny Mites. They had 4 teams bowling for 1st and 2nd. Elizabeth's team took 2nd :) So all three kids walked away with trophies for placing. The boys received a small trophy for perfect attendance, pretty good considering there are about 32 weeks in the season. It's nice with bowling because if you can't be there for a Saturday you can pre or post bowl and it still counts as showing up. The flexibility is great! Nathaniel also walked away with a trophy for boys Most Improved! We are very proud of him. He started the year off pretty rough but in the last few months managed to find what worked for him. He's able to out-bowl me now most days :) LOL

All the kids ended up with some really great kids to bowl with. Jonathan's team consisted of Aedan and Luke. Really nice boys and so happy all the time. That was needed to balance out Jonathan's not-so-happy attitude, haha. He's like his mom, gets grouchy when he isn't doing well :) Nathaniel had Zach and Dalton. I appreciated their patience with Nathaniel since, like I said, he hadn't started the year off well at all. I was hoping the kids would end up with the same teams next fall but Zack let us know he was moving up to the Teen Strikers. Elizabeth spent the season with 2 other really cute girls about her age, Gracie and Morgan. They had a lot of fun together!

Was a bit weird after the awards and pizza party to have the kids say good bye. We've seen these kids every Saturday for most of a school year. You just get used to it. Actually, come to think of it, the boys all bowled together during last summer too, so it's been a full year! Weird to think they may end up with different team mates next fall. All three of our kids have choosen not to bowl the summer Jr leagues so we won't see these guys again until fall, IF they all come back.

We have choosen to bowl one of the family leauges over the summer and I am looking forward to that. Get to spend Tues nights with our little family and my dad and brother. 2 teams of three each. And it's No-Tap, meaning if you bowl 9 pins with the first ball it will count as a strike. Hoping that works to my advangtage this time around :) LOL I'll probably start bowling 8's, I just know it. There will be pizza too so I won't have to cook, which on a Tues is GREAT as I have scouts in the afternoon and if I'm not well planned ahead nothing gets made for dinner on Tues. I don't have to worry about it now for 10 weeks! LOL

Here are some pics of the kids and their teams:

Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!!

My oldest is now 12!! I am now OLD :) haha. I was totally ok with having a 12 year old until someone pointed out to me a few weeks ago that I would have a child in the Young Mens program at church. I am the mother of a Mutual aged child. Oh... my... gosh!! I've been ok with getting older, been ok with my kids getting older. This particular birthday of Nathaniel's has been hard for me. More changes come along with 12. Not only does he enter Young Mens he gets to take on the responsibility of holding the Priesthood. In the LDS church young men receive the Aaronic Priesthood at the age of 12, when they are ordained as a Deacon. Today he received that ordination in church. Next Sunday I get to watch my "baby" pass the sacrament for the first time. I just hope I can hold it together, I get so emotional over these things :) Silly, I know.

Nathaniel is loving all this new responsibility. He is even looking for opportunities to be more independent. I think that's what is making this birthday harder. Nathaniel doesn't need me as much anymore. He has already asked that Rob not attend a scout campout, he wanted to do it without his dad around. He started asking at the beginning of the year if he could walk to school, he didn't want me to drive him. Nathaniel has gone out of his way to find out about the upcoming school play and even went and tried out for it! We are anxiously waiting to hear if he got a part, fingers are crossed. Oh my gosh, at his age I was still so painfully shy I would never have been able to do the things he is willingly doing. He's even decided to tell all his teachers and friends at school he wants to be called Nate! When was he allowed to decide if he wanted a nickname?!! haha. So, while I love seeing him grow up and learn to be independent and responsible it makes me sad too. It really won't be long before he's 19 and packing up to go on a mission. Makes me realize how short a time we have them here at home. I remember thinking 12 years ago this age was so far down the road but when I look back now it hasn't been long enough. Nathaniel is a great kid, we love him dearly. I look forward to watching him become a man but at the same time wish he could stay my little baby :)

He got to bowling with friends for his birthday.
After, we came home for pizza and brownies.

Later that night we had a small family party with the traditional ice cream cake.

A Few Other Pictures

Had to share some photos of Jonathan and his bowling team/league. He's starting to get pretty good with his bowling now.

Jonathan with his team "The Three J's".

All the kids in the league. Jonathan is kneeling middle right.

He said the way they made him kneel was killing his foot and he couldn't wait til everyone was done taking their pictures :)

Also a few days before this was our ward's Blue and Gold dinner for scouts. It's tradition that the boys make a cake every year for the desert. Since I'm tired of tons of cake coming home with us afterwards I asked Jonathan if we could do brownies instead. He readily agreed :) He loves chocolate as much as I do! Our theme was Amazing Games so he made a checkerboard, one of his favorite games to play.

He did pretty good, though he got tired of trying to squeeze the bag for the frosting so I'd help every now and then to give his hand a rest. We had fun making it.