Partners In Art

We are blessed to live in a community that cherishes the fine arts and instills those values in our children.  We have a terrific civic auditorium, the Sturges-Young Auditorium in town, that hosts the Sturgis Council of the Arts.  They bring in many fine musicians, plays, comedians, and shows to our small community.  One of the many great programs funded by the Council of the Arts is "Partners in Art."  This year, I am also president of a local non-profit group, the Sturgis Junior Women's League that fundraise and volunteer in our community.  Last year, one of our recipients from our money raised was the Partners in Art program.  Little did I know at that time that my own Olivia would be blessed by this program.
                                                 
For Partners in Art, 40 school age children, grades K-12, each have one piece of artwork selected and have each of them professionally matted and framed including a small plaque with the artist's name.  There was a beautiful reception where all the works of art were on display at the auditorium and friends and family were invited to come see all the talent our school age students have in this town.  I loved that we got to choose who we wanted to have invited and they sent out invitations to our guests of our choice.  Of course we invited all the family living in the area, but I thought it would be special for Olivia to invite Jackie and Ms. Roberts.  Neither disappointed us, and they showed up for the guest of honor.  Each piece of artwork is leased by area businesses and put on display for one year.  Wouldn't you know, Olivia's piece was leased by Warren English and will hang at Nana's work for her to enjoy everyday.  Well. everyday she works that is, since she is now semi-retired.

The proud artist standing by her masterpiece.

                                                   

Jackie was one of the special invited guests and she gladly came.  Olivia was thrilled she came, as was Mia.

The Smith family of course came out to support their cousin, Olivia as well.

Olivia and her 2nd grade teacher.  She was in Ms. Roberts' room when she created her sun painting.

It was a terrific event and so fun to see all the other amazing works of art created by all ages in our schools.  I'm proud to call this community my home when I see great programs like these continue.

Soccer Stars

I have become a "Soccer Mom," and truth be told, I've loved every minute of it.  Both the girls have played our local spring soccer season in Sturgis for 2 years now.  It's at a very instructional and fun level.  We only play other teams from Sturgis and focus on the fundamentals of soccer.  It's a one month time commitment and my girls have enjoyed that.  At the end of the spring season we were given a note about tryouts for the travel soccer team, which I immediately dropped in our recycle bin.  I knew we were not ready for that level, nor did I want to commit to traveling every weekend.  A month or so later, I was contacted by Olivia's spring soccer coach asking me if I would let her tryout.  He really wanted her on the team.  We talked about it as a family.  It was a big commitment for time, financially, and much more competitive.  Of course Olivia was thrilled at the idea and we proceeded.  She made the team, but truth be known, we barely had enough girls to field a travel team.  This is the first year Sturgis has ever had a girls travel team this young.  In addition our team was very young and inexperienced compared to the teams we would be facing from Kalamazoo, Portage, and Galesburg.  Those towns did have tryouts and many cuts to make the team.

Post season celebration.  Pile on the coaches.

A team photo after the last game.  The girls were being superstitious and wouldn't let me take a photo prior, because it would jinx their chances of winning.

A pregame photo from their first game of the season in Galesburg.  

They grew a lot as  team since this photo was taken.  Most of the players went in to the season with not much experience, although we do have a few that are standouts.  Under the coaching staff of Matt Sutter, Ramon Lugo, and Geoff Smith, these girls learned teamwork, how to be aggressive, and work together as a team.  They learned sportsmanship, how to lose gracefully, and looked phenomenally better by their last game. Thank you coaches for your commitment to our girls.  The season consisted of 8 games.  We played 4 teams each twice, once at their home field, and once at our home field. They ended the season with one tie and no wins, but got better with every game.  The first game against every team usually resulted in a wallop of a loss.  By the second time we played each team, it truly was a competition and the girls held their own well.  They seemed to come alive by the second half of every game, often giving up no goals at all in the second half and showing much more aggression and running plays like the pros.

Olivia saving a goal.

Early in the season, they tried Olivia out as a goalie.  After two games I think everyone realized that wasn't Olivia's strong suit.

Number 3 running the ball down field.  

Olivia and Brooke working together.

Olivia getting ready to pass the ball to Brooke.  Olivia had no goals herself for the season, but this play resulted in an assist while Brooke scored a goal.

This picture shows the size of players our girls were often up against.  My number 3 and Kalamazoo's number 3 are a little mismatched in size.

I loved this picture here.  It's hard to see, but that's Olivia behind her good friend Quinn.  I thought it was neat how they were running in synchronized form down the field together.  

Traveling to away games meant eating out a lot, which is always fun, and we also met up with Csaba, Kristian and their kids after one game.  (My zoom lens was on, so I didn't manage any photos because they were too close up).  I think we were ready for soccer season to come to an end, but look forward to it resuming again in the spring.  Travel soccer was a year commitment so the same group of girls will play again in the spring.  Hopefully they can add some wins to their record at that time.  For now, swim season has be resurrected.  Olivia definitely keeps active, and we are thrilled she has found some activities that she is passionate about.

All About Olivia

October 20th of this year, my sweet, opinionated, attention loving daughter, Olivia Jane turned 9.  I found myself writing her age down on something the other day and had to stop and think if that was truly her age.  I'm mean, really, 9!  How can she be in her last year of single digits already?  That's half way to an adult!  Everyone tells you how quickly they grow up, but it hasn't quite sunk in with me yet.  I haven't been blogging much the last few months because life has been soooooo busy, and quite a lot of that has been because of our active daughter, Olivia.  Since it was so chaotic we didn't even know how to squeeze in her birthday party.  We celebrated her birthday with family on Monday night, her actual birthday.  She is blessed to have family close by and that shows up for her whenever she needs them.

The day she turned 9!

Olivia with her Nana

Mia hugging her big sister with the new fox pillow Mia picked out for her (courtesy of Aunt Jen), while Jane looks on.

Papa squeezing in some snuggle time with Mia.

One of her new dresses.  She has quite a fashionable wardrobe.  I wish it was my size.

Mia being Mia with Aunt Jen.

Olivia and her new Under Armour sweatshirt and cute Naomi in the front.  Under Armour is all the rage with many kids these days.  I don't quite get it when I see the price tags on things, but it flashes me back to my obsession with Umbros when they were popular in my youth.

Dressing up in whatever crazy outfits they could find and dancing around the house.

I've never been one for big over the top parties with lots of friends, but as she gets older, I also understand her wanting to have some friends over for social gatherings.  So we decided on a slumber party the Friday night before her birthday.  We didn't advertise it was her birthday, just a sleepover.  The girls I believe had a lot of fun.  Andy, on the other hand, not so much.

From left to right Citori, Brook, Quinn, Averie, and Olivia

My camera had some changes on it that I couldn't quite figure out so a few pictures are out of focus.  Sorry.

The girls all got to make their own pizzas for dinner for the evening.

Being silly

Lounging out

Hoisting up Olivia

Pretending their sleeping all curled up on the sofa together.

Olivia also made a travel soccer team and these girls are all on her team.  I will get caught up soon and have lots of pictures from the fall soccer season.

Where the Wild Things Are

Our house has become, where the wild things are.  Not only because that is what we allowed our little darlings to dress as this Halloween, but because they seem to have developed to fit the part.  Mia was (or is) Max, king of the wild things, and Olivia in turn was one of the wild things.  Olivia really wanted to be the king, but the costume wasn't her size and Mia fits the part much better.  She's been one obstinate, ornery little girl lately.  She tests every boundary, refuses to do what she's told and will sometimes smile and smirk as she tells you, "No!"  Her mouth is learning that a bar of soap isn't the tastiest thing around.  I was the hellion out of my sister and I, but cannot relate to some of her antics.  I didn't really talk back, and I was angelic at school.  Mia is not a naughty kid at school, but she's far from perfect.  The other day at recess when they were lining up to come in, she wouldn't stop talking so they sent her to the wall (that's where students who are disobeying go).  She walked over there and continued to talk to everyone, including me, like it was no big deal.  I would have been bawling my eyes out to ever be sent to the wall.  She just doesn't seem bothered by many consequences, nor the fact that she should just want to obey because that's the right thing to do.  We will continue to work on this, but in the meantime if anyone has any pointers, I'll gladly take them.  I love her regardless and am happy that she is her own person and still loves to snuggle her mommy even when she calls me, "mean mommy!"  That is in reference to taking her for a shot yesterday.  I couldn't even get her out of the car.  She held down the lock, so I had to climb through the other side and deal with hitting, kicking, screaming, and biting.  Good thing I just had a refresher course on how to safely restrain violent students.  The nurse and I got quite a workout trying to hold her down.  But she's caught up for quite some time now.

The first house we stopped at

It was a terribly cold Halloween.  We saw our first snow flurries of the season today, with a rain drizzle and whipping wind.  Terrible, but typical trick-or-treating weather for us.  We are attempting to list our old house on W. Electric Ct. with a realtor and got our renters out (that's another long story), so it sits vacant.  That neighborhood is the best in Sturgis to go trick-or-treating in, so we buddied up with our friends the Sterlings and went around our old stomping ground.

The only photo I managed of all five of the kiddos facing a camera.

Walking the 'hood.

Mia and Mazie

Olivia is still a wild thing, but not king.  She is a rule follower and responsible.  Her attitude is too old for her age in my opinion.  She is quick to anger and react, which I cringe at seeing, but I am working on my own reaction.  If I just snap right back at her, I'm only reaffirming by example what she does. (That by no means means, that I don't ever react poorly to her attitude.) Being a parent is hard work.  I could easily write a book on how I want my kids to turn out, what a parent should say, do, and how they should act to make it happen, but it's another to actually be able to be that "super parent."  We are all human and at least I am aware of that.  We are all made in God's image, but are flawed with sin.  As long as we continue to strive to be better and do more, I think we are on the right path.

Happy Halloween!

Back at it

Summer has come to a close and my overly neglected blog will once again be resurrected.  Since my last entry, which I didn't even look back to see when it was, a busy memorable summer was had.  Lots more swimming, seeing friends, a trip to Alpena, teaching summer school, house projects, including concrete work, new windows, a painted front door (3 times I might add), a little landscaping, school open houses, and yes, the first day of school have all happened in a flash.

Olivia ready for her first day of 3rd grade.

Mia getting ready to start kindergarten.

Both girls anxiously awaiting leaving for the first day.  They were asking to leave over one hour before they needed to.  I'm glad they look forward to school.

In front of our newly painted front door (FYI, this was supposed to be red.  This was the first attempt.  We've got it correct since).

Olivia excels and loves school so it wasn't too bad having to send her to a new building this year.  I know she will thrive put in any situation at school.  She was eager and has quite a few friends in her classroom this year.  She has already got a regular meeting spot with some of her friends every morning where they meet up before school, and then a crew she walks with after school.  Mia on the other hand I was a nervous wreck about.  I had taken her into school with me a lot try to help her get acclimated and not be so nervous.  She started knowing all the students names in my summer school class and other students just by coming for the breakfast and lunch program.  I finally thought she was going to be fine, that is until open house night.  She clung to me, wouldn't speak to anyone, including some of her best friends or her teacher, Mrs. Tetzloff whom she knows very well.  My anxiety level was once again heightened.  Eventually I got her to go to her classroom with Olivia later that evening and she cooperated, but I still dreaded the first day envisioning tears and screaming for mommy.  My dad and Patty were in town and took both the girls to school on the first day for me.  I went outside and saw a beaming ear to ear Mia standing confidently first in her kindergarten line.  She was a champ!  No tears shed, not even by mommy, but close.  She's loving school and ruling the roost because she is so comfortable.

Andy is back helping with the Building Trades program.  They have a house to build this year on Sand Lake in Nottawa.  He seems positive about the students in the class this year, as opposed to some from last year's group.  He is once again back in the fields picking corn again too.  He just started back up this weekend and is excited to get to drive the big tractors again.

Splish Splashing

One wonderful feature with our new home is the pool.  We are getting a lot of use out of it this summer.  Mia was the first to take a dip, when she fell in before we even had a chance to clean it.  It was the absolute most filthy thing I had ever seen, but after vacuuming, a new pump, blowing out the lines (we had a plastic 6 inch tent stake stuck in the line) and some chemicals, we were swimming in it six days later.  We've had many friends over for swimming.  The girls are in the pool almost every day.  I enjoy it, but come to find I enjoy a rainy or cool day now and then.  I am always on "mommy watch" and can't enjoy it so much myself, that it's nice to not have a day of sitting in the hot sun watching the girls and their friends swim.

The girls even got Grandpa McNeil to go down the slide.

Jimmy Lamb striking a pose as he enters the water.

Mia and Abe saying good byes.  It was wonderful having the Randalls here for quite a few weeks this summer.  They came and swam on many occasions.  

Mia snapped a picture of Tina and I after our final swim together.

The girls loving on each other poolside.

Emma and Olivia getting ready to jump.

And there they go.  Splash!

The pool truly has been a blessing.  Now our focus has turned to the outside of the home instead of the inside.  There is crack that is increasingly getting bigger in the top step of the pool that allows it to leak water.  We are trying to wait patiently for the company to come and fix it, meanwhile we are refilling the pool almost daily.  Our biggest project is concrete work.  The rooflines have the gutters all draining at a couple spots and the ground slopes towards the house.  We are digging down, piping it all away from the house and pouring concrete over and sloping it away from the house.  It's been fun (sarcasm).  Hopefully it is done in the near future.  We are currently in the "it has to look worse before it looks better" stage of this process.  

If you're in the neighborhood, bring you suit and towel and come on over for a swim!

A Duo of Triathletes!

After this morning, all the Feyes girls in our household are now officially triathletes!  Both Olivia and Mia completed the Goshen Kids' Triathlon.  Nana, Papa, and Aunt Jen braved the grueling walk over from the far off parking and hustling all over the park to cheer on the girls.  Thanks for your support!  

A prerace photo of the duo

The triathlon consisted of a 25 meter swim, 1.2 mile bike ride, and finished with a 1/2 mile run for both girls.  Next year, Olivia will move up to the next age bracket and have a longer duration of all events.

It's hard to see because only one parent is supposed to be inside the pool area, but that's Olivia's arm in the water in the end lane with Andy watching on.  She was the first out of the pool in her heat.

And she's off on the bike portion.  The bike is her strongest leg I would say.

She lowered her seat, and didn't appear as comfortable as usual to us, but she still did great.

Finishing strong!

Almost there

And she's finished.

High fives from dad.  (Thanks to Aunt Jen for taking a lot of these photos.  I actually wasn't at the finish line, because Mia was getting ready for her heat to start.)

Mia swimming with all smiles!

She's out of the water...

and off she goes...

On her bike...

rounding towards the finish line.

The end of the bike course is near.

Running hard.  She was definitely getting tired.

Finishing strong still.

And she officially completed the race!

Two happy girls for their post race picture!

Andy hoisting Mia up to reach the misters in the tent and cool off.

Some of you might recognize the two boys pictured here too.  Mia's buddies Easton and Cooper were there cheering on Mia along with their sister Lola and two cousins!  It was a pleasant surprise for all of us.

A photo opp with Lola and her cousin Alexa.

Now we added Lola's cousin Myla to the picture too.  Olivia had a friend, Brooke, compete today as well, but we never managed to get a picture with her.

A family photo

Mia placed 5th for her age group!

Olivia placed 4th for her age group!  Way to go girls!  Mommy and daddy are very proud of your hard work and not giving up.  We celebrated after the big race at Olive Garden with Nana, Papa, and Aunt Jen.