Halloween 2011 WPS Style

Scary dude!!

What a day ... Halloween at WPS!!  Nothing like trying to get 4 kids in costumes (no dressing up for high school!), lunches, backpacks and all their party stuff together and get on the road by 7:10!!  Early, early morning for mom!!  Loved the kids costumes this year - Batgirl, Flamenco dancer, brave knight and a scary some type of medieval fighter!  

It was a rainy day so the parade around the track became the parade around the lower school campus.  All the middle schoolers lined the campus and the lower school paraded around in their costumes giving out candy!!  We were even covered by the local Fox channel!!!  Matthew was on TV!!!

Exhausting day but so much fun!!  We celebrated on the Friday before Halloween so Halloween this year went on for days!!  Fun for the kids!

We think she is a Super Hero!!

Ready to dance!

Buzz and our Knight

First grade friends

Friends saving the world!!

Our pretty Halloween girl!

Eew ... brains!!

Four graders!!

Too much WPS Halloween!!

Veteran's Day

Pawpy in the Air Force

Looks so much like Sean here to me!

Definitely one of the best events at WPS each year is the amazing Veteran's Day / Grandparents Day celebration. Oma and Pawpy came up this year!! They were very impressed by the attention to detail and the patriotism of our school. So many of the grades performed .. Julia's sang a few songs and had an adorable procession to the stage singing and waving their flags. Katie handed out veterans poems and pins for Student Council and help serve refreshments afterwards. What a great morning!!! The pictures above were on the big screen behind the performances!!

"I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America"

Matthew was so happy his Oma and Pawpy were there!

Half smile from Julia. So, so shy in the classroom!!

Christmas Photo Shoot

This one made the final cut!!  Love this picture of Team Kane!

Nothing like Christmas card photo shoot day to stress out our family!!  The most stressful part of this process is coordinating the clothes.  It was fun, Katie really got involved this time helping me out with the clothes.  We always start with the girls and build from there.  The boys tolerate the process and definitely don't go with us shopping.  We keep bringing things home, returning, etc.  

We have known Mackenzie for almost 10 years ... what a beautiful, young woman with a spirit about her like no other.  She has started a photography business (at the ripe ole age of 16!).  We met her and her mom (my great friend Debi) downtown Windermere for the photo shoot.  I didn't go with the crew this year ... thought that the kids would respond better (another way of saying behave better) without me there.  I think we got a lot of great pictures.

My team of five!!  Love these kids and all their unique personalities!!  They make me whole!

My three sons

Not quite sure what this is .. maybe a fish face!!  Weirdo!

Pretty sisters - don't think they look alike very much!

So sweet - time is flying so fast!!

A little posed ... but cute!

The U!!  This one is framed for Daddy!

Mackenzie surprised me with this one!  Love it!

Love this picture in black and white!  Definitely framed in the house.

Steph and TJ were with us this weekend and we snuck them into the shoot.  We surprised their parents with a photo for their Christmas card!

Mini Club - Katie

In addition to playing on the WPS Varsity team, Katie also played mini-club.  That meant 2 times a week she doubled up on  practices and had 2 or 3 varsity games per week and tournaments on the weekends.  Although it was pretty taxing, it paid off!!!  She had a great season on both teams!!

Serving specialist!!

She played a lot of middle during mini club!

Fun getting to play with a lot of different players.   

Coach Vonn and the tournament winners!!

We've Got Spirit Yes We Do ...

Sports day ... William wearing the NFL jersey at everyone loves!

Spirit week at WPS was a bit stressful ... each campus had different days (and remember, I have 3 campuses!) and so close to Halloween, I felt like I spent all of October focusing on costumes!! But the kids had a blast and Julia really loved spirit week this year.  William participated but wasn't that into it, and Matthew endured my encouragement to dress up!!  Of course, Katie was totally into the whole week and Andrew ambivalent.  I didn't snap a lot of pictures because we were always running around frantically in the mornings trying to finish up our costumes!!

Wacky Wednesday ... loved the Boa!

Even with spray painted hair, we still had matching bows. 

Superhero day ... Cutest Supergirl I have ever seen!

Movie Star Day - Matthew as Leonardo DiCaprio

Middle school Twin Day!

Wacky Wiliam 

Purple Day - Anti-bullying!!  Love the big J shirt!

Kind of hard to find purple for the boys!!

Another Volleyball Girl

Well ... we did it!!  Another one playing sports in the house!  Julia started playing club volleyball this all at OVA!  She is only 6 years old so she had to play on a 10 and under team.  Besides being the most adorable girl in the entire club - she is pretty darn good!!  Thanks to Katie and her friends for teaching her this past summer, Julia really liked it!!  Sometimes she lost her concentration, but she is known for being a great server (sounds like someone else I know!).  She played in 5 tournaments and is excited to play the full Spring club season.  And by the way - we had to have her spandex made.  

They don't come in size 6x!! 

Stretching out!

Vianne, Olivia and Jules

Another great serve

Julia's first team!! 

Serve receive!!  

Pop Warner Football

Matthew switched teams to Olympia Pop Warner this year because of our move to Windermere.  This was his 4th year of Pop Warner - another year at Mighty Mites.  He had an incredible year!!  It can be a little intimidating to start on a new team not knowing any of the players or coaches.  The first day of practice he showed up and I think the coaches noticed him for his speed (and his bright yellow shirt - good thinking Moo!!).  He ended up playing quarterback on offense and linebacker on defense.

The team had a great year - only losing one regular season game!!  We were blessed with great coaches - very tough and high expectations but fair and respectful!!  That goes a long way!!  Matthew was a workhorse - never missing a practice!  Always giving 100% - huge intensity!  Football is definitely his sport!!  Was so very fun to watch this team.  Great news - his coaching staff is moving up to Jr Pee Wee with him next year!!

Great form!! Always in the game and ready to go!

Our best weapon - #24 Kevon!

Another handoff to Kevon!

Coach Steve motivating the offense

Playing a little defense and sporting the pink socks for breast cancer!

Quarterback keeper

Handing out with his friends!!

Touchdown - even sweeter since it was against Celebration!!

Happy dance!

Happy Moo - best part of football for us!!  

Pick Six!!

Favorite Picture of the year!!  Andrew getting some community service hours!