The Ficek Family: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! This year's Halloween was extra fun because Genevieve was so very excited for it. For 2-3 weeks before today, she asked me most days, "How many days until Halloween now, Mom?" She was excited to go to bed last night because she knew when she awoke, it would be Halloween! She was even really excited to go to school for the Halloween party and festivities. So much fun!

Nev and I picked out pumpkins at the grocery store a couple weeks ago and we finally got around to carving her pumpkin a few nights before Halloween (the other kids weren't into carving theirs this year)...

On Monday we got Boo'd via a package from my sister, Amber, and crew. That was so fun for our kids and Elle got really into Boo'ing a couple families back, which was fun...

Halloween finally arrived and here's our crew. Elle is a nerd, though Cade called her a hipster. Willem chose his outfit which is a Darth Vader M&M. Cade also picked out his hippie outfit while shopping with friends. And, Nev and I went together to pick out her Snow White costume which she was very excited about (of-course a few days before Halloween she tried to tell me she wanted to me another princess so we could buy another costume we saw in the store but, after a firm NO from me, she was happy to be Snow White again :)....

After Genevieve told me that grown-ups don't dress-up for Halloween, I had to show her otherwise and pulled out Elle's costume from last year and went as an 80's girl for Nev's class party and my workout this morning. Here I am with some of my workout buddies..

And me squatting, 80's style...

After my workout, I went to Nev's classroom for her party and a class sing. Nev was very cute with her singing. She was very into it and sang all the songs loudly and did all the dance moves/hand motions. It was so cute!

Later in the day, we returned to school for the bigger kids' costume strut in the gym. Nev LOVED seeing all the costumes and was bouncing up and down most of the time with excitement, pointing out all the costumes. She was particularly enamored with Mrs. Flint's Alice in Wonderland costume...

Elle and Jorja as nerdy hipsters...

And, the crew that came home with me after school (Meleesa and Will's buddy Max joined us for the afternoon and then trick-or-treating)...

Elle and Meleesa had a short soccer practice, then it was off to Subway for a quick dinner with all of us. We then met up with James, David, Carsten, Athena, Julie and Jorja for trick-or-treating. We let the four girls, Elle, Athena, Meleesa and Jorja, go off on their own for trick-or-treating (in the same neighborhood as us) which they loved. Cade also met up with buddies in that neighborhood and he had a great night just hanging out with 10+ kids (mostly St. Paul 8th graders). That left James, David, Julie Sherman, Chad and me with Nev, Carsten, Will and Max which made it feel pretty relaxing given the high adult to kid ratio :). We really lucked out with the weather, it was not too cold and only sprinkled a little bit in the end. Nev had so much fun, almost shouting trick-or-treat when each door opened! We had to move fast to keep up with her as she had no fear going up to house after house....

After about 50 minutes, however, Nev was tired and said she was ready to go home :) She snuggled with me as we continued to trick-or-treat with the boys and then went on Chad's shoulders for the last half hour or so and then fell asleep on the car ride home. It was really a great day!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Fall Soccer Update

I can't believe fall sports season is coming to an end. The kids just finished their fall soccer league play and will play in an end of season soccer tournament (Director's Cup) the first couple weeks of November. Of-course Gabrielle and Willem have already started basketball. And, Willem and Gabrielle start indoor soccer in a couple weeks. And, Cade will be starting training for winter soccer league with the EMFC Boca Jrs. in a couple weeks. But, I've got to update sports again on my blog at some point so here goes....

Gabrielle has been busy with her EMFC U12 Sol Blue team which is playing in the Oregon Premier League (OPL) Division 1. Her team finished the fall season with a record of 5-3-4 and 6th in the league out of 14 teams. Her team had hoped to finish in the top two but just were not consistent enough. Elle had a great season though. She scored a couple goals (off a free kick and one off a corner kick) though mostly she played as one of two central defenders. She usually played about 10 minutes per game at center-mid and then the rest of the game at central defense. She often played the whole game without subbing out or was out a maximum of 10 minutes the whole game which is great considering the team has 18 players (usually 17 at each game).

Cade has not been playing on his regular EMFC Boca Jr. team as those boys are playing high school soccer in the fall. Instead he's been playing on the EMFC U14 Juventus team. He has definitely missed his Boca teammates and has often been frustrated playing this fall. Luckily, two of his Boca Jr buddies (Liam and Malachi) are also playing on Juventus this fall which has made it more tolerable for him. Cade just isn't the 'go-with-the-flow' kind of kid. He is intense and has high expectations which can cause some frustration :) He also had to sit out three weeks (6 games) because he strained his back at the beginning of the season. Despite only playing half of the games this season, Cade still finished as the team's leading scorer with six goals (out of 14 total this season). His team finished 3-7-2 (9th out of 14 teams in Division 1 of the OPL). Cade will be so excited to be playing with the EMFC Boca Jrs. this winter.

Willem has been playing with the EMFC U11 Valencia team in the OPL Division 1. He has been a lot of fun to watch despite his team's struggles to get wins (and goals). Willem usually plays half the game in goal (getting lots of action) and half at forward but the last few games Coach Pete has played Willem the whole game in central defense as he tries to shore up the back. Willem always gives all he's got and plays very physically. He is strong and tenacious. His coaches have been very positive and he really enjoys his team and teammates despite his team's 0-10-2 record. I think Will scored a couple goals but honestly there haven't been many scored by his team in this league. Will did guest with the team his own age for a couple games and he played great, scoring two goals per game and helping that team get a couple wins (in the Keizer league). Willem has been in 3rd grade boy sports heaven with his 7 days a week of football and/or soccer!

Here are some pictures from the season....

After game fun and shopping with teammates at Bridgeport Mall!

Elle's Sol Blue soccer team (clockwise from left: Coach Kristy, Delaney, Kameron, Elena, Elle, Jorja, Daphne, Brooke, Eliza, Mary, Coach Robin, Haley, Emily, Madison, Jenn, Annie, Maia, Chloe, Maddie)

Willem didn't play this season with Massimo but they hung out at the fields together when they could

EMFC Valencia (with a few players missing)

Monday, October 29, 2012

Flag Football Champs!

Willem's 2nd/3rd Kidsports flag football team finished the regular season last week with a 7-0-1 record. The top four teams in the league played in the championship tournament this past weekend. St. Paul won their semi-final game last Friday 13-7. Willem scored one TD and got the PAT. His buddy Ayden scored the other TD; after a fake hand-off to Willem, Ayden ran it in.

Willem then had to make the tough decision as to whether he would play in the football championship on Sunday or play in his last league soccer game with his EMFC Valencia team in Portland which took place at the same time. Willem did not want to disappoint either team and really struggled with what to do so we made the decision for him! We knew championship games don't come around very often and that he shouldn't let down his team in a championship game, so we told his soccer coach he would miss Sunday's soccer game.

It was a pretty neat atmosphere at the championship game on Sunday. The boys played at the Churchill High School turf field with an announcer on the loud speaker calling the game. Chad and I were both there as was Uncle Marcus, Grandma, Grandpa, Cade and Nev. We got to hear Willem's name a lot as he did the kick-offs, ran the ball a lot, played some QB and got lots of 'tackles'. The boys played a team they barely beat in the regular season 24-18 with one particularly fast boy, Jermaine, so we expected a good tight game. The other team scored first but St. Paul responded quickly when Willem returned the kick-off for a TD. Will then caught a pass from Ayden and ran the ball in for the extra point making it 7-7. After a good defensive stop, St. Paul struck again when Ayden faked a hand-off to Willem and the defense followed Will, allowing Ayden to run it in over 50 yards (Ben, Jackson and others on the line made some great blocks which also allowed Ayden to have a lot of room to run and Ayden had to run fast as Jermaine was right on his tail the last 20 or so yards!). St. Paul made several other great defensive stops as did the other team until, in the 3rd quarter, Willem ran the ball over 50 yards for another TD making it 20-7. It was a blast watching Willem and his teammates play so well. They have all improved a bunch this season and lots of other boys made great tackles, great blocks and ran some good runs. The game ended at 20-7 with lots of happy St. Paul boys!

After the game, the coaches asked if Willem still likes soccer more than football. Though Willem said that yes, he still likes soccer more, I know he had a TON of fun playing football and definitely hopes he can play again next year. We also had a ton of fun watching him and are very proud of our boy!