triplets

10 + 10

| Pam Kocke

I’m in Orlando for this year’s Grand Meetup (which of course I’ll blog about later) so Daddy had to fill in as the photographer this month.

I am leaving my wonderful colleagues a day early because the boys have a soccer tournament this weekend, so while I am sad to miss a day with everyone here in Florida, I’m excited to see my boys again. (Oh and guess where the soccer tournament is? That’s right. Florida. I’m flying home from Florida tomorrow and I’ll be driving back to Florida with the boys in the afternoon.)

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Soccer champs!

| Pam Kocke

The boys’ team (with the catchy name 07B Louisiana Fire WB Red or something – you try yelling that while cheering them on) had their first tournament last weekend, and I guess I spoiled it in the title, but they won!

(Their division, I mean, which consisted of four teams.)

It was only their third, fourth, fifth, and sixth games as a team, because so many other games were rained out, so that makes their victory especially sweet.

We had to get their early Saturday for the first game. It was hot. They won! Yay! Warning: Lots and lots of photos to follow…

(Linus is 90, Miles is 91, Oliver is 92)

Miles
Linus
Miles getting a pep talk from the coach
Oliver (92)

The second game wasn’t until late in the afternoon, so we went home and I took a little nap and they rested and ate. If I thought it was hot for the first game, that was nothing compared to the second game. It was scorching. George and I sat there sweating while the boys sat on the bench.
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Girls’ day!

| Pam Kocke

Last Thursday, I took the day off to spend with Ellie, who was in town while her parents went gallivanting around New York City with some tennis players or something.

Yes, this Ellie! ❤

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Okay, not exactly that Ellie. More like this Ellie:

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She’s a little taller now. I mean, 13 years does that to a person.

We dropped the boys off at school, and got beignets (her first! okay, my brother says she’s had them before but she doesn’t remember so they don’t count)

and wandered around the sculpture garden at City Park a little bit (shh it wasn’t open yet but the gates were open so we wandered around a bit and didn’t get caught – we’re such rebels!)

Then we went to get manicures. She got blue and I got red.

After that, we went to my favorite local fabric store and she picked out some blue fabric so I could make her some pants for school. With pockets! Then we went and met our cousin Lisa for lunch at this great place called Toast. Ellie and I had crepes, yum! I didn’t take any pictures at lunch, boo! So unlike me. Ellie was very excited because there was a Tesla parked outside. She is a tad obsessed with Teslas.

It was pouring, so we headed home so I could start on her pants before we had to head to the bus stop to get the boys. We didn’t embarrass them too much there but of course, I did make them take some pictures together.

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Goofballs. Don’t worry, that house is vacant.

The boys were supposed to have soccer that night, but it was canceled. For the life of me, I can’t remember what we did for dinner. I know the night before we made pizzas, which was notable because we got a cauliflower crust from Trader Joes for one of the pizzas and no one noticed! SCORE! Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really matter what we had for dinner that night.

The next day we headed to Baton Rouge to hang out with my brother and sister in law, who were back from NYC, and we did fun things like swim (MY MOM WENT DOWN THE WATER SLIDE) and went to LSU to take the bench picture again and I made Jennifer an apron for her birthday. Pics!

Jennifer in the apron I made her
Ellie in the pants I made her
Jump!
In the pool!
Linus and Miles and Ellie underwater
Miles
Miles
Ellie

Later, we went to LSU to take the bench picture again (here are the 2012, 2015, and 2017 versions) but it was pouring rain. When there was a break, we got the photo. Whew!

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Playing in the rain:

They went home the next day, but we’ll see them again in just a few months at Thanksgiving!

Soccer and sewing (again)

| Pam Kocke

Two things taking over my life right now – soccer and sewing.

Let’s start with soccer. I took a lot of pictures at Saturday’s game, but don’t worry, I won’t do this at every game. But it was their first, after all, and they even won! (Can’t say the same about the game on Sunday, though.)

Some of my favorite pics from the game:

Miles usually was playing closest to where I was sitting, so I got more pictures of him, but for the next game I’m borrowing a 300mm lens from a friend (this one only zooms to 105mm) so hopefully I’ll get better pics of all three. (Linus is 90, Miles is 91, and Oliver is 92.) I mean, if someone wants to buy me this, I won’t say no…

In sewing news, you know that Upton dress I made the other day? Well, I wasn’t super thrilled with the fit, so I made some adjustments and was able to squeeze the dress out of less than 3 yards of fabric I had lying around. And this time, it’s much better!

Observe:

The fit on the right is more like how it should be. I also raised the waistband an inch (well, I lowered it 3″ the first time I made it, but only 2″ the second time) and went down a size in the bodice, but up a cup size (Cashmerette patterns have different bust sizes, which is awesome.)

 

Before, a bit too loose
After, much better!

Also, I got a zipper foot for my sewing machine, so I was able to get my invisible zipper slightly less visible:

Couple more pics. Note to self: the waistband pieces should be cut upside down if they’re directional, because I have a little bird peeping down from the waist. Hee!

Next time, I think I might try the box pleated skirt version. Or add sleeves. Who knows?!!?

 

First game!

| Pam Kocke

Today the boys have their first soccer game with their competitive team! Ok it hasn’t started yet, so I’m blogging these from my phone as I roast while they “warm up.”

Here’s to hoping no one gets heat stroke.

But don’t they look handsome?!?!?

Numbers!

First day of 5th grade!

| Pam Kocke

Yes, you read that right.

FIFTH grade.

Thank goodness they don’t go to an elementary school because if they were going off to a middle school next year I’d probably be freaking out a lot more. But as it is, they’ll be staying at the same school so it’ll be less traumatic for everyone. (Also maybe less exciting though they will get lockers next year at least.)

Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, when they started at their school, they looked like THIS:

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and today they look like this:

 

Holy cow.

This year the bus picks them up in the neighborhood, which is exciting. There will be some kinks to work out, just like there were last year. It was 40 minutes late picking them up, for instance.

OF COURSE I brought my camera!

Well, it’s just as well the bus finally arrived because yesterday my van broke down. Hooray. So this was how I spent the latter part of my morning. Yippee.

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Now go and pity-buy some grocery bag dispensers or tote bags, why don’t you?

A trip to King’s Dominion (367 days ago)

| Pam Kocke

The subject of King’s Dominion theme park came up this morning in conversation at work and so, as I do, I went to my blog to illustrate the conversation with photos, and *gasp* I realized I hadn’t really blogged about our trip that day! And it was a really fun day! I posted a bunch of pictures on social media, but that’s not good enough. So I hope you don’t mind a little trip down memory lane. Kristina and the boys might have to fill in some gaps for me later, though.

(I know it was 1 year and 2 days ago, thanks to FB reminding me Saturday.)

So let’s see…we were visiting Kiki at that point in our trip to Virginia, so we left Woodbridge and headed to wherever King’s Dominion is. I remember we stopped at a rest area and saw something on the news. Oh yeah, the flooding in New Orleans. 😦 Anyway, we got there and it was pretty empty, which was awesome! I think it was some day in the middle of the week, I guess that’s why.

I was excited to see that King’s Dominion was basically Peanut-themed! SO MANY LINUS PICTURES!

Anyway, we rode lots of roller coasters…that’s a lie. Kiki and the boys got me on ONE roller coaster and after that evil ride, I was like NO THANKS and stuck to things like the swings that go in slow circles and kid rides instead. Much better.

Before the evil roller coaster of doom
Miles was proud of the bloody lip he got on it!
Just Kiki and Linus on that one
More my speed.

Later, we headed to the water park area, where Linus impressed the hell out of me by going on this terrifying water slide where you stand on a platform and the floor drops out from under you and you fall down this tube and well no thanks, but I can’t believe one of MY children did that. (Also Kiki did, but she is super brave and makes me sit in the back car of roller coasters so I’m not surprised.)

Also there was a water slide where we all sat in a huge round tube together and that was really fun but sadly, no pics from the water park because my phone was in the locker and I didn’t bring my waterproof camera. DANGIT.

Anyway, we rode more rides after, and there was a cute part later where the kids got to drive around a tiny little town with roads and traffic lights and stuff. And then they got their caricatures, and then Miles kept falling down, and was getting really pissed, so we decided it was probably time to go, so we did. But it was a great day! Yay! And I’m glad it’s now been recorded on my blog.