Penelope's Soccer Season

My mom reminded me I haven't posted in a while so I'm going to try to post a few before I have Christmas things to post about.

Penelope played on the high school JV soccer team this year.  She had less experience than most of the girls but she worked hard and did a great job.  She got to play the forward position which she was excited about.  She went about half the season without scoring a goal, but  after she did score one she was able to score quite a few.  It was really exciting for her.

When the season ended the coach gave her the most improved player award.  She got so much better during the season I'm glad her coach noticed.  She made friends on the soccer team and had a great experience.  

Tucker made a highlights video for her.

Penelope's 15

Penelope is 15!

She is doing great in school and church.  She plays soccer and has friends. I'd say she is really thriving this year.

She is really starting to make the shift from kid to adult and I can see that in her personality.

Penelope is thoughtful and cares about other's feelings more than most.  It might be more accurate to say that she is observant and has a good sense of other's feelings.  She doesn't like to leave anyone out and is really good at reading people. 

I love that Penelope really knows who she is and doesn't change to be like her friends or the people at school.  

While she has started to care more about her clothes and dressing similar to the other kids I would say it is only a slight shift.  She is not interested in make up or many of the trends she sees the other kids doing.

This year Penelope had a family birthday party and one with friends.  She didn't want to leave anyone out and we ended up with 22 girls at our house!  They first played ultimate frisbee at the school and then we transported them to our house for pizza and a movie.  She choose "High School Musical," which neither of us have seen.  It was a ton of people but I think it went well.  She did say that next year she would invite less people because she was having a hard time hanging out/pleasing everyone.  Several of the girls did not know the other girls and Penelope wanted everyone to feel comfortable.

This water bottle was top of her list and now that it has been a few weeks she is still really happy with it.  I guess it is important to teens to have a good water bottle.  

Penelope's Soccer Season

Penelope worked hard and made it onto the middle school soccer team.  I was proud of her but also felt for the 20ish girls who didn't make it.  I really wish school sports were all no cut, but funding doesn't allow.

She got to play forward just like she wanted and she did awesome!  

She played on the JV team which she was happy about.  I guess the JV team is where her friends were.  She also noticed the JV team girls were more supportive and it was an all together more positive environment.

Penelope had many great plays and several assists that led to goals.  She shot at the goal several times but unfortunately she never made a goal.  She wanted to so badly. 

I'm really happy with her effort.

Penelope's 13

Penelope is officially a teenager!  

Penelope is really a sweet honest teenager.  She does get frustrated with me and her family sometimes, but she is learning how to handle it.  I can tell that her brain is growing and wanting to be more independent while at the same time she still needs quite a bit of help.  She is definitely not a child but also not an adult.  When she is upset she pretty much just talks back and needs a minute to calm down.

I think her biggest challenge is going to be learning to speak up for herself.  She is very strong willed and doesn't compromise on her principles but she also doesn't voice her opinion or advocate for herself.  If she doesn't agree with someone outside of her family she will just keep it to herself.  She is working on being brave and asking her teachers questions when she has them. 

Penelope really wanted a picture with Mochi in it.  Luckily when we are outside Mochi comes to be with us and see what is going on.

Penelope has been using my pink shampoo and is liking the change in hair color.  She also likes to wear this striped shirt as much as possible and loose pants.  She has friends at school, and always tells me about her day.  I love how open she is with me about what her friends are doing and saying.  I hope this doesn't change as she gets older.

This summer she did a lot of babysitting for our family.  She also enjoys the library book club, playing the violin, and young womens.

Penelope's Birthday Party

Penelope sometimes puts a lot of thought into things and her birthday was one of those things.  She had been thinking for a month about what she wanted and what her cake should look like.  At first she didn't have any ideas for what she wanted so I was the one asking her and got this whole thing started.  I also knew that it often takes a month for us to order things online and we have limited shopping options so we usually buy online.  I had to figure it out early.  She said she really wanted a large teddy bear.  At least as big as Leon's hippo.  We measured and it is about 44", so a pretty good sized stuffed animal.  I wanted to buy her the giant one Costco sells but it is over $200 and way beyond our present budget.  

We ended up finding one online that said it was big, but it had mixed reviews so we were all waiting on edge as she opened the package to see how it would be.  It came prewrapped in this bag so Bob and I did not see it beforehand.  Many of the ones online were deflated looking so we weren't sure.

It is huge!

It is longer than her bed and she loves it.  The only downside is that now all the kids want their own giant teddy bear and we just don't have room for that sort of thing.

For her cake she had drawn me several pictures and even made an origami replica.  I tried my best but the pink frosting just wouldn't stick.  She ended up really liking it was was totally happy about it. 

She invited a few people over and had a friends party.  It was a little difficult because we had to limit it to 10 people including Penelope, Scarlett, and me.  I made sure to do it during naptime so Calista and Beatrix didn't need to be counted and Tucker and Leon left and went elsewhere.  I'm ok with only inviting seven people.  That is a decent number, I just feel horrible to leave anyone out.  There are many girls her age in our ward right now and it seems like most of them have sisters who are Scarlett's age who would also like to come.  We ended up with ten exactly.  

We did a paint party.  All I did was buy some painting supplies and find a youtube paint party video.  It was an hour long, longer with our pauses, and the girls all had a good time.  I loved how all their paintings turned out differently. After that we ate cupcakes and ice cream and the girls ran around playing hide a seek for a few minutes before their parents came.   I can't seem to find the memory card that I took the pictures with though.  So I quickly took another one of just Penelope and Scarlett and their paintings.  Hopefully one day I'll find the rest of the pictures, but I wanted to take a quick one just in case.

And thats a wrap.  Even with all the restrictions we managed to have three out of four friends birthday parties.  Scarlett's was a no go so she will have a friends party next year even though no one else will, I like the every other year thing.

Penelope's 9 Video

I have less then a month left of summer before school starts again.  That means its time for me to hurry up and put together my yearly compilations of the kids pictures/videos.  First up is Penelope.  Check it out.

Penelope's 10

This girl is ten!  

Penelope is such a thoughtful child she is a joy to have in our family.

She is so honest it is really remarkable.  I told the kids they should read the scriptures every morning and she has been keeping it up for over a year now.   I think the other kids only lasted about a week.  She is so good at doing what I ask even when she doesn't want to that she asked me if she could stop reading them because no one else does.  We had a talk about how she is going to get more blessings for doing what she is supposed to and I think she should keep going.  She also helps me to read everyday.  I don't feel right skipping my reading while knowing that she is reading because I asked her to.

Penelope is crafty.  She likes drawing and making things with beads.  Out of all the kids she has given me the most cards or other little things she has made.  It is very sweet.

Penelope gets up very early every morning.  I think around six.  I asked the kids not to come out of their rooms before seven so she just hangs out in there, reads, and cleans.  She doesn't love the cleaning, but she needs to have her room clean before breakfast and she knows that Scarlett isn't going to do it.

She is very brave.  There are a lot of things that she is scared to do but has to anyway.  Mainly things that involve talking to other people.  Quite often I am making her get out of her comfort zone and talk to people.  I'm not sure why it is hard for her and easy for others.  But she does get really scared about it and we are working through it. 

 Now that Penelope is ten she got her military ID.  It is kind of a big deal around here.  Basically she can now get on and off base by herself and according to base rules she is allowed to stay home alone and go shopping or pretty much anywhere without an adult.

Her birthday was actually in September but it has taken us a few weeks to get out and get these pictures done.

Happy Birthday Penelope!

The Princess and the Pea

All last week the four older kids went to Missoula Children's Theatre and put on a play.  They auditioned on Monday and went to practices all week then had two performances on Saturday.  The audition on Monday was pretty scary for the kids.  They didn't need to have anything prepared ahead of time, but the directors would ask them so say specific lines and do a couple different things.  I was really proud of my kids for just doing that.  It was hard for some of them to say lines in front of people.  I heard from others that in the past lots of kids get cut, but thankfully this year they had room for everyone who tried out.  I hate the idea of kids getting cut from activities they want to do.

Scarlett was a Winter Wind Worker.  Penelope was a Blizzard Bringer.  Tucker was a Grinder, and Leon was the cutest dust bunny ever.

Practices were at different times for different kids so it was a lot of back and forth to and from base for me.  Leon also had the least practices so we got some time together without the older kids.  I had most mornings all week with just Beatrix and Calista.  Having only two kids at home was soooo easy.  I got a ton done!

Another cool thing about they play was that everyone had speaking parts.  My kids each had three lines and they were nervous.  But they didn't forget them and I could even hear them!  Great job guys.

Here are a few videos from the play