Lots of Orange this Fall

Looking through my recent photos, you would see a lot of orange....

At the end of September, we had our National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which our family spent at Manning Park.

My kids all wore their orange shirts, a symbol that Every Child Matters. 

Jason took us to a spot where we could see lots of birds and ground squirrels, some even tame enough to eat off of Janae's hand or crawl onto Alaina's lap.

We also hiked part of the Paintbrush trail, which was beautiful with the fall colors.

Then, this past week, we went to get some pumpkins at our local pumpkin patch!

We had a rare afternoon where everyone was free, so I took the kids to the farm where we used to go when they were little. I hadn't been since 2019, so I loved seeing all the old familiar (but cheesy) photo spots. 

Janae and Eric were "caught having a good time,"

Janae and Alaina got into character as Little Miss Muffet and a spider,

I found these four sweet little pumpkins on a wagon,

and the three youngest posed as a goat, pig and sheep on a tractor ride :)

The pumpkins were amazing this year--and with our dry fall, there wasn't even any mud!

We know the rainy weather is coming, but we've definitely enjoyed our beautiful, sunny fall.

"Real" Soccer for Eric

Eric discovered soccer in Grade 1 when he started playing with his friends at school. He loved the game and wanted to play more, so we signed him up for a summer program. Every week the class practiced skills and played informal games, but Eric was one of the older kids and didn't feel like he was getting much out of it. 

This spring we tried again with another after-school program through our local rec center, but still, it wasn't what Eric was looking for. He wanted to be on a team. He wanted to have a coach, to play against other teams, to have his own jersey and cleats.

This took me way out of my comfort zone, but I decided I really did need to enroll him in "real" soccer. I found a community league, created an account, found Eric's category and signed him up.

We picked up his uniform a few days before his first practice ... when Eric was isolating at home with Covid (which he'd caught during the first week of school).

Still, he wanted to try it on right away!

Janae and Alaina said he looked "just like a Christmas elf." You might think this kind of teasing would embarrass Eric or put him off of his uniform, but he just went with it :)

So, now we've spent the past five weeks attending Thursday night practices and Saturday morning games. I was dreading the cold, rainy evenings, but so far we have lucked out with uncharacteristically warm, sunny weather. Janae and Alaina have come with me to practices (although they have been known to ask "how much longer" several times during the hour), and Ben and Jason have joined us for the games--Jason even helping out as a lineman this past Saturday.

I, for one, have learned a lot about soccer: on the first day alone I discovered that the shin pads go under the socks and that the grass and dirt on the field are fake. This past week I actually learned what FIFA is.

We have also discovered that Eric is a great defenseman--his coach described him as "fearless in the net" when he plays goalie. It's fun to watch him play, and to see all the little soccer enthusiasts walking around in their various sizes of red attire. Soccer is pretty popular--who knew? :)

This past week, Eric was exhausted after his piano lesson, picking up his sisters from jazz band, running around at his soccer practice, and then taking Janae to piano--but in true Eric fashion, he just made himself a bed at the music school while we waited for Janae to finish. 

He thinks it's worth the trouble to be finally living his dream of playing on a soccer team!