Fall 2024 Activities

We are almost a month into the new school year. I keep joking with my friends that I am one activity away from a mental breakdown. Our schedule is out of control, but I have to keep reminding myself that the kids are all happy and doing activities that they love. Here's a quick rundown:

Taylor has drill practice three days a week:
1. Mondays from 3:10 - 5:10
2. Wednesdays from 4:00 - 6:00
3. Thursdays from 5:00 - 7:00

She also has dance three days a week:
1. Ballet on Mondays from 5:55 - 7:10
2. Contemporary on Tuesdays from 7:45 - 9:00
3. Jazz on Thursdays from 6:45 - 8:55

Matty is playing football for the first time. He has shown a little bit of an interest in trying it, and I told him that if he has any inkling that he'll want to play high school football, I want him to put pads on before he reaches the high school field. His practices are three nights a week, but the days, times and locations vary week by week. As an example, this week he practices:
1. Monday from 7:00 - 9:00
2. Wednesday from 7:30 - 9:30
3. Friday from 6:00 - 8:00
Two of his practices are at Maywood Middle School and one is in the Issaquah Highlands, which is 30 minutes from our house.

Matty also has baseball twice a week; generally on Tuesdays from 5:00 - 7:00 in Woodinville and Saturday afternoons in Seattle. He has has a scrimmage game this coming Sunday.

He also had tryouts for Liberty Select Basketball last weekend. I can't even think about that schedule yet.

Brayden is playing rec soccer, which practices on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30 - 5:30. Games are on Sundays. 

Additionally, he is the soccer manager for the middle school soccer team. This is the first year the middle school has offered boys soccer. I was so pumped when I heard about it. I signed Brayden up for tryouts and assumed he'd be excited to give it a try. Well, it turns out that he was nervous about being cut. I can't blame him - there were over 60 boys trying out for a roster of 34 for two teams. I was not confident that he would make a team, but I thought he had a chance. The weekend before tryouts started, Brayden announced that he did not want to try out. Tommy and I both spent time talking with B and encouraging him to go to the first day of tryouts. The tryouts were scheduled to take place over four days, so we encouraged B to go to the first day and see what it was like. If he hated it, I told him I'd let him drop out. Thankfully, B agreed to give it a go...

When I picked him up from the tryout on Monday, he was standing on the school sidewalk with some other kids and was all smiles. He got into the car and said he had fun! I asked him if he was the worst player on the pitch, and he said, "Nope! There were some boys trying out that had never played soccer before." Then, he proceeded to tell me he had a great play and a great block. I was feeling pretty happy about this report when he said, "So mom, where do I return my tryout penny tomorrow because I am not going back?" BRAYDEN! I said, "Buddy, I thought you'd want to continue with the tryout because you had such a great day?" He said, "You told me I only had to go to the first day. I'm good." 

So, Brayden did not complete the tryout, much to my dismay. When I emailed the soccer coach to let him know that Brayden would not be returning, he replied and asked if B would like to be one of the team managers. He said that he encourages his managers to practice with the team, and it could be a confidence booster for Brayden. And yet again, Brayden surprised me and said he'd like the job. So, this is a long-winded way of saying that now I have another activity to worry about and I don't even get to watch my son play soccer. Ha! He is really enjoying it, though, and I am beyond thrilled that he is getting involved at school.

These activities are the regularly-occurring activities. There are always other things going on throughout the week like curriculum night, fall sports night, booster club meetings, driver's ed drives, ASB work parties, etc. It is an exhausting phase, and an expensive one. Tommy and I are spending about $200/week in gas.

One other thing to note is HOMEWORK! My, oh my, has it changed for all three kids this year. I have never seen any of them study as much as they have in the last month. Frankly, I am surprised that it was Taylor's sophomore year of high school before she felt the crush of homework, but I am also surprised at how hard Brayden is working in 6th grade (granted, he is taking advanced classes). 

Between activities and homework, we do not have a lot of family time. We started watching the TV series "24" as a family last week, and the kids are loving it. Unfortunately, we are only able to watch an episode or two once or twice a week. 

Savoring these crazy days. They are fleeting.

Above is this evening's schedule. The fact that I did most of this driving and wrote a blog post is pretty impressive if I don't say so myself!