Nev and Opa

I always love it when I get a good picture of Opa with my kids. Isn't this sweet of him and Nev. Nev sure loves her Opa!

Isn't Opa and Kathleen's deck gorgeous with views of the hills and fields and with the beautiful flowers which are all over the deck!

I love Nev's smile behind her hair :-)

Gotta Love Her!

Genevieve has always liked clothes and had an opinion on her clothes very early on. Now she is starting to really want to dress up. She was very excited to buy a princess costume for Halloween, then she got some Dora pajamas and wore them for about 36 hours until I was finally able to convince her that it was time to throw them in the wash. Today she talked about wanting to be a soccer player like her sister and asked to wear soccer shoes (hand-me-downs that are almost her size) and then really got in to being all the way dressed like a soccer player. She looked so cute and was proud to pose for some pictures. Here are a few including one of her Dora pj's. Her posing cracks me up!

Dairy with Cousins!

Amber came to visit last week with Jacoby and Antonia and it had been way too long since they visited! Genevieve had an absolute blast with her cousins and has asked nearly every day since when she gets to see them again. We, of-course, took a walk on the dairy when they visited and Amber took some great pictures. There was so much activity that day with lots and lots of trucks coming in and out with the harvest and some construction going on. Jacoby was in heaven with the trucks and Nev was in heaven with her cousins; Nia was just a good sport enjoying it all!

Checking out the concrete work going on in the barns

A little ride in the skid steer

I love that Nev has a girl cousin so close in age to her!

J loved his ride in the corn harvester

Nev insisted on wearing her Dora slippers for our walks!

Cade's Soccer Team in the News

I have been meaning to post this for a while now. About six weeks ago, Cade's soccer team was featured in a news story. Cade's the one who yelled "Hi Mom" and had two other quotes; love it :)...

And here's the news story which is on the TV station's website:

"The Eugene Metro Futbol Club seems to grow larger and larger each year. For the U-14 Boca Juniors, they have been growing together. Hunter Hayes says, "It pays off a lot playing so long with each other. We kind of anticipate what we're going to do."

For many of the guys on the roster, this isn't just a summer thing. "We have league soccer in the fall and spring and winter we do indoor," states Liam O'Conner. For the Boca's, there is no such thing as a summer vacation. Just ask Cade Ficek. "I'd rather be doing soccer than going on a vacation really."

Tournaments-a-plenty for the squad and the biggest one this year was an appearance in the championship game at the State Cup in Portland. Gio Brigola still can't believe it. "I was amazed how far we had gotten and then some of the teams we played beat us a million times before. We just outplayed them."

"We won every single game except our final game which was, sucky," so eloquence told by Juan Salgado. After thumping a team from Eastside Portland in an earlier round, the Boca's admit they lost a bit of their edge come the title match. Ryan Langley felt, "I think we were getting too cocky."

Ficek had the same thought. "The motivation that I have is seeing the other team winning and that's just ingrained in me and that's not going to happen again."

The boys were the first club team from Eugene to make the State Cup and they plan on going back and Brigola knows it. "We kind of have a little target on our backs, oh those guys were in the State Cup finals, so now we have to play our hardest every game. Salgado helps sum it up. "You want to be better because you want to be the champions. Who doesn't want to be a champion?""

Back to School

Another school year began today with Cade entering 6th grade, Gabrielle entering 5th and Willem entering 2nd grade. Though the kids were not too excited about school starting, they got up and ready this morning without a problem. I was a little sad myself dropping them off and hope they all have a great school year. As usual, Gabrielle was a little excited about going to her first day, wearing her new clothes, using her new supplies and excited about her teacher. Willem was pretty quiet about it all, just accepting that this is the new routine. Cade was least thrilled about the start of school but took it all very well and much better than the last couple years. Genevieve was pretty upset that she couldn't go to school with her siblings and I think she will be so ready to go by the time she can go with them next year! As I write this I am hoping their days are going well....

Something they will never forget

Chad took our boys archery hunting this past weekend near the coast and it turned out to be a very memorable weekend. They all would have loved their time together in the mountains even if they did not get to see any elk. But this trip turned out to be extra special because they not only found a herd of elk, 'called in' several of the elk and got within 20 yards of an elk BUT Chad actually was able to shot an elk with his bow with the boys' help. Chad says it is something he will never forget - being there with his boys and making those memories. And the boys keep asking when they get to go hunting with Dad again! They all cannot wait to taste the jerky and steaks!

I'm so glad Chad thought to take pictures on his iphone; I especially love the ones of Cade and Willem having fun together...

 

More than just soccer...

...in our summer! I adore summertime and summer vacation so much and am so sad to see it coming to an end. Not surprisingly, our kids have inherited my love of summer as well and are in denial about the fact that school starts next week. Though our soccer tournament weekends, soccer practices and soccer playing in the yard take up a lot of our free time in the summer, there are other things going on at the Ficek household all summer long. I tried to capture some of the happenings around our house this summer in these pictures I took over the past three days...

Willem still spends a fair amount of time in our backyard sand box working on his dairy

Cade started this raft a few weeks ago but ran out of extra lumber...to be continued next summer maybe?

 There has been a ton of bike riding all over the dairy this summer

 Which resulted in a few nasty spills. Willem got this road rash on his side from zig-zagging through this tires obstacle course he made

Gabrielle and Cade have spend some time in our bunkhouse/fitness room working on their pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, box jumps and more. Gabrielle really wants to get an unassisted pull-up!

Chad has taken the kids out to rifle or archery shoot many evenings this summer

 

It wouldn't be summertime at the dairy without some blackberry picking!

 The kids also picked raspberries and blueberries from our neighbor's farm and we made yummy smoothies

 We were lucky to get some smaller hay bales recently and the kids quickly made hay forts with them

 

The big kids have taken Nev out for walks most days this summer. She will really miss her siblings when they go to school!

 

Nearly every warm day this summer, the kids have gone swimming with cousins in the creek! I used to love doing this too as a kid with my siblings!

 

Ready to swim through the culvert!

 I love this view of the dairy from the lagoon with the silos, Coburg Hills, barns and my dad's house off in the distance

 

Another favorite activity....playing in the cottonseed!

 There are so many pretty places around the dairy

Amber took this picture of Chad and me earlier in the summer. One of my very favorite things to do in the summer is take evening walks with Chad in the fields. We didn't get to do it as much as I'd like this summer but I cherished each time that we did and hope for a few more walks with my hubby before fall.