Catching Up

I have gotten so inconsistent about blogging that I'd pretty much given up on it. One more thing I just don't have time for. But let's be honest here. What do I really have time for anymore? Not a lot of things I want to do. I'm also tragically un-organized. I know this comes as a real shocker to all of my friends. When you think of Liz, you think prompt and organized, I know, but I'm trying to be honest here. Needless to say, the task of unloading and organizing pictures and sitting down at the computer long enough to have a complete thought seemed like one more thing down the toilet. But a few weeks ago I had the first year of our blog printed in a book. It's so neat. I love having this journal of sorts of our families year. Scrapbooking, journaling, and organizing photos fell off the radar long ago. So I've decided that maybe blogging isn't so impossible after all. If I just keep taking pictures, posting them, and keeping track of the silly things the kiddos say I'm kind of on the ball. I'm going to try and catch up some of last year so I can add that to a certain to be small 2010 book. So feel free to skim through the next several posts as I'm doing them mostly for my benefit.

Soccer Star

As previously mentioned, some of us are more gifted in the athletic department than others. Hailey falls into the athletic category. She also has the energy of 3 children. Soccer is one way we deal with it. She's been playing soccer since we moved to Spokane a few years ago.

Besides having a ridiculous amount of energy, she's also fearless. She doesn't hold back at all, pretty much ever. This year she moved up to a different age group with a bigger field and different rules. Also a lot more elbowing and shoving. The coaches are supposed to act as referees too, let's just say some are a little more fair than others. We can always count on Ha to get out there and give it right back.

Hailey is a freakishly strong. I haven't been able to wrestle her down for a few years now, (an unfortunate, but necessary skill with her). On the plus side, she can kick a ball farther than any girl on her team. It's also really helpful when I need something opened and Dave isn't home.

I'm so glad she has something that she excels at. Her Sensory Processing Disorder often makes things more difficult for her. She just doesn't handle things the way most kids do. I love to see her feel confident and good at something. I hope that one day she can channel all that strength and energy into doing something great.

Back to School

Since our new house is in a new school district, the kids all started new schools this fall. The girls' new grade school is just a few blocks from our house, so once again we are walkers. Thankfully, unlike our last place, I don't have to try and heft the double stroller over a chain link fence to get to the street. So that's a huge bonus (I could only manage it sometimes, I had to bring my muscles =Celeste). I like the idea of having a neighborhood school. Once upon a time this neighborhood was packed with young families whose kids all went to that school. Now those young families are all in their 50's and 60's so we are the neighborhood kids.


One of the perks of our new school district is that they have an early childhood preschool with kids with delays. Two mornings a week, Connor goes to school where he receives speech and occupational therapy. He also gets to interact with other kids, which really helps with his language development.
Greg has this one last year before kindergarten. Normally, by now we've sent our kids to preschool. Back in the good old days when we were super broke (as opposed to just be broke now) the kids got free preschool. Our solution was to join a preschool co-op. There are 6 kids in the preschool, each mom takes a turn having preschool at their house. Hopefully its enough for Greg to move past some of his shyness and obsessive mommying.

The girls ready to leave for their first day of school. The funny part that isn't obvious in this picture is how differently the girls dress. McKenzie is very traditional. She likes simple clothes, uniforms, things my Grandma used to wear. Stuff like that. Hailey pretty much idolizes the 80's rocker look. Target had this clothing display featuring that style, the kid just about crapped her pants. She managed to find ALL her shoes (P.E. ones too) glittered and rhimestoned. She has leggings in pleather, sequins, lace print you name it. They are a study in opposites.

We took the kids for one last hurrah before school started. We took them to Triple Play for mini golf and bowling. Being as they do have Paulitz genes in them it was a pretty funny site to see. We are an extremely uncoordinated group of people. It took most of us so many strokes to get the ball in, we just stopped counting.
Dave trying to help poor Greggers. McKenzie and Greg are the most Paulitz-y of the family, therefore the most uncoordinated. Let's just say we won't be holding our breath for any athletic scholarships.
Connor and Hailey, on the other hand, are more like their father. They are both freakishly strong. Connor was so funny swinging that club like it was a bat. He just went for it.

The kids so strong he insisted on carrying his own ball. Which I'd like to add is only 2 pounds lighter than the one I use. Ahh genetics.