Check out #3!!!

Yep - Emma just finished Basketball tryouts and this morning I drove her to school after piano lessons and just had to sneak inside to check out the sports board . . . she made the Jr Girls Basketball team - again!!!  YAY!!!  She was the only Grade 4 last year that made it so she was really hoping that she'd make it again this year, and of course she did.  There were 50 girls trying out this year so I'm thinking she did pretty good!!! (oh and this year her best friend made the team too so Emma's really excited about being able to play on the team together!)

I just had to brag though - I'm her mom, what do you expect?!?!?  So, it's back to a busy season of early morning basketball practices.  April will be our slow month because once May comes it will be craziness in the Bailey household as all 3 kids are in baseball, which will equal up to seven practices/games a week - although they won't all be on separate nights as the kids are on 3 different teams - it will be divide and conquer and sometimes see if a kid can hitch a ride with another player as there are only two parents in this family.  I guess we should enjoy the slow pace of right now :)

A Break from Regular Programming (not a Disney post!)

Today Emma had a borden ball tournament that she was able to go to instead of regular class - which is never a bad thing in her eyes!  For those of you like me who have no idea what borden ball is, let me tell you what I found online as a definition.  

"Borden ball is a 2 team game , Each team consists of 6 players , 5 fielders and a goalie.This game is played in a gym and all you need is an indoor soccer ball 2 basketball nets and 2 soccer nets.The object of the game is to score on the other team and there are 3 ways to do this.You can shoot the ball at the basketball net which gives you 5 points , you can throw the ball in the goal under the basketball net which gives you 3 points or you can kick the ball in the goal which gets you 1 point.The game starts with a tip-off like in basketball , when carrying the ball you can only take 3 steps then you have to pass the ball , shoot the ball or drop it to the floor and switch to soccer.Once the ball is dropped to the floor you cannot pick it up , you either have to play a soccer game or kick it into a teamates hands ... you can also kick it off the wall into your own hands."

It is kinda weird watching because you expect them to dribble the ball, but you aren't allowed to let the ball touch the ground.  For their game they only threw it into the soccer nets and not the basketball ones.  Emma was the center and she did really well, scoring twice in one game!  They only play 18 minute games, so they aren't very long to watch.

This is my favourite shot!!!

If you can't see the below video then just go to the link here and you can see Emma (number 25) score one of her goals!

They won their first game, lost their second and tied their 3rd.  They ended up losing in the semi-finals to the winners of the tournament - losing 7-6.  So close!

June to October in Pictures

Braden is the Account Director at his job and his client is McDonald's Europe.  This means that he is going overseas usually once a month for a few days.  This is a photo of June in Paris.

The kids love baseball so Braden took them to an Ottawa Fat Cat's game and they LOVED it - I have a feeling more will happen next week.

Our anniversary wknd - kids to "The Landing", first time eating calamari for the kids (Emma didn't like it - hehehe!) then to a Medieval Festival to see sword fights, try stilts, catapults and so much more.  Oh, and the kids locked Daddy and Kaleb up and threw water sponges at them - so much fun!!!

The kids love it when Brade reads to them.  He had a trip to Russia so this was his last night before he left for the week.

While he was gone Gramma McGifford came to look after all of us - seeing that I wasn't up for looking after the kids by myself yet.  We had a lot of fun and she kept the kids soooooo busy - camping in the backyard, picking raspberries, feeding ducks and more. (oh and weedings - hours and hours of weeding!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (i had to put this one in - sorry mom, but it was just hilarious when a boat's waves started knocking the little dock around mom tried to get the ground fast, but i think the rocking dock helped her there faster than she anticipated - and i laughed - yep - laughed and laughed and laughed!!!   hmmmm..... i guess i'm not that sorry for putting the picture in!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here are a few pictures that Braden took while in St. Petersburg, Russia for the week. 

When he came home we got to still have Gramma for a few more days - which meant family pictures :)

The kids were stuck outside in the rain and put a tarp over the playhouse so that they wouldn't get wet - creative children!!! 

They also decided to have a lemonade stand outside our house - selling freshly squeezed lemonade and homemade chocolate cookies.  The neighbor kids came over to help too and they actually made a bit of money - they even had a car stop to purchase - so funny!  Their advertising . . . signs on the little brother and sister - hmmmmm.

Our neighbours were moving so let us have the pool for a weekend, in-between them leaving and the new neighbours moving in - the kids loved it!

  

Hockey season starting in September and we have weekend passes for the Ottawa 67's (OHL).  The kids are loving it and have so far been to 5 games with many more to come!

  

First day of school came after Labour Day weekend in September.  Emma is in Grade 5, Kaleb in Grade 3 and Navia in Senior Kindergarten.

Great Gramma McGifford came up for the weekend so we got to hang out with her and had a lot of fun.  Even took her to 'The Landing' for ice cream - yummy!

Emma was in Cross Country again this year - but this time had to run 2.2 kms.  She did well and is wearing the blue tank top number 3 with maroon t-shirt under it.  She came in 47 out of approx 140 grade 5 girls.

October started with Navia's first field trip of the year - to Valleyview Little Animal Farm with all her friends!

Grampa Bailey came up for a week in October and Emma was really excited because she'd finally have someone besides us cheering her on.  Emma made the Jr. Girls Soccer team and had an all-day tournament that they came in 3rd.  She played hard and they only lost after an extra inning, regular shoot out and then a final to-the-death shoot out.  She loved that Braden took the day off work to see her play, along with Grampa and even Kaleb got the afternoon off of school!

Grampa spent a couple of days at Braden's work, just seeing what he was doing and checking out the local record shops - which I guess are pretty good around his work.

We did McDonald's breakfast - as the tradition has been set - and then went to find the perfect pumpkins!

The kids had a hard time with him leaving, but are glad that we're going to Saskatchewan for Christmas! Yay!!!

Emma's class did a haunted house and Emma's spooky short story was the idea behind the entire event.  She had a lot of fun reading the story to each class as they came to see it - 900 students in all!!!

Then it was Halloween time - the kids carved pumpkins (and Braden dremelled them as the designs were a bit intricate.)  We had a cowgirl, black ninja and Princess Belle.

And now I am officially caught up - and you are officially tired of looking at waaaaaay toooooo many pictures - hehehe!  Hopefully I'll be going back to regular posts now!