Kicks, Jumps, and LONG strides towards sleep!

This past week the girls got started on all of their extra activities. This year those activities include soccer and cheerleading for Mary Kathryn and tumbling and cheerleading for Hailey. Of course, we always remind them that school and grades are ALWAYS first and have to be the BEST that they can be! Hailey has always done great in school even while participating in cheerleading in the past, so I hope Mary Kathryn is also able to do this. If not, then no extra activities! Bella, of course, is not quite ready for those things, but she is working very hard on cooing and smiling and heading towards a full night of sleep!



Kicks



Michael, with his full house of girls, has been waiting for one of them to play a ball sport. Lucky for him, Mary Kathryn has been begging to try soccer and after her first couple of practices, she is very much into it. She listens very carefully and really concentrates on trying to kick the ball just like the coach tells her. She did complain after the first practice that she was kicking the ball and a boy kicked it away from her. It took us a little while to help her to understand that he was just doing what he was suppose to do. That the other team is supposed to try to get the ball from her and she is supposed to try and get the ball from the other team. After the explanation I think her feelings were not hurt quite as much!



Here is a cute picture of Mary Kathryn at soccer practice.







And here is what Bella does for most of the practice....


And here is what Hailey does....

Jumps



Hailey also started on a semi traveling cheerleading squad this past week at ECCATS in Greenville. Needless to say, she LOVED it! Just in the first 2 hour practice she learned SO much. Her coaches are great and she went on and on about how nice everyone was. What I love about ECCATS is the room overlooking the gym especially for parents. It runs the full length of the gym with huge windows so you can see everything going on below. Mary Kathryn stood at the window watching and once she saw that there was a squad of 5 year olds just her size, she was beside herself for us to sign her up. After finding out that they practice at the same time as Hailey's squad we agreed and she will start next week. Since then that is all we have heard about. Everyday she wants to know how many more days till cheerleading! Next week Hailey will also start tumbling for an hour before her squad practices. So, if you have been adding up how many hours we will be spending there, it is 3 hours total. But the great thing about it is that it will be only 1 night a week. Once soccer is over next month we will only have that one night of cheerleading and nothing the rest of the week! I was very thankful that there was a room off to the side upstairs that other nursing moms were using to feed their babies. I am so glad I will not have to go to the car every time I need to feed Bella! Also, there is a Fresh Market grocery store ( love it!) right down the road from the gym, so I may use that night for me and Bella to get our grocery shopping done for the week. Unfortunately, I was so busy filling out paperwork, tending to Bella, and attending a parents meeting, that I wasn't able to get any pictures of Hailey's first practice. But, I am sure there will be plenty of cute cheerleading pictures and videos to come! Until then, I have put a link to a video on ECCATS website. To see the video of some of the fun things Hailey and Mary Kathryn will be doing, click here.



LONG strides towards sleep!



The past week or so Bella has only been waking up ONCE throughout the night. We give her a bath (Oh my goodness, that child adores a bath) at about 9:30pm after putting the older girls down. I feed her and put her down for the last time at about 10:30pm. After that she only wakes at 2:30am to eat and goes back to sleep until 6am. Yay! Hope it lasts!:)