Halliday Family Blog

WOW!  It’s hard to believe it!  Sarah turned 16 today!  It’s amazing how fast time flies!  It was just yesterday that we were poor, struggling, college students bathing our little Sarah in our kitchen sink when she was only 3 months old!  🙂

Brittany planned a GREAT surprise party for Sarah!  She invited a bunch of Sarah’s friends and planned everything.  She even called them all on the phone, extended the invitation, cleaned up the basement, decorated, got all the kids situated, and led the surprise when Sarah got home from a “shopping” trip with mom!  🙂  Sarah had no clue and was VERY surprised!

We really love Sarah’s choice of friends.  They are great people and Sarah is lucky to have them.  they are supportive of her and we know that when she is with them, she is in good places.

Brittany had some games planned which they did, after introducing each other, saying one word that described Sarah to them, and then their favorite food.  After the games, we ate cake and ice cream and hung out and had a great time!

After the games, we got a group picture of everyone that came (sorry to the couple that had to slip out before and we didn’t get you in the pictures)!  🙁

After everyone left, we cleaned up all the popcorn, pretzels, and other miscellaneous items all over the basement floor, and then had our little family celebration.  We were so full of cake, ice cream, and junk food, that we didn’t really have a proper dinner.  🙂  Most of us just ate a few small bites of leftovers or had a bowl of cereal.

Sarah spent the next half-hour responding to all the happy birthday wishes on Facebook and e-mail.  🙂  Carmen and Marta even saw on Tuenti that it was Sarah’s birthday and sent her well wishes from Spain.  🙂

Many had asked if Sarah was getting a car for her birthday and the answer is (and has always been) no.  🙂  She has about 15 more hours of driving left before she can get her license, and we will probably look into getting some kind of car soon, but we’re not sure.  What scares us even more than Sarah driving is that now she’s old enough to date!  😐  YIKES!  We’ll cross those bridges when we get there, but until then, I’ll be at home polishing up my gun!  🙂

Happy Sweet 16 Sarah!

Today was Zachary’s first full soccer game.  The last 3 weeks have been spent in clinics and scrimmages for the Kindergarten-age kids.  The team has become MUCH better since the first week they practiced!  🙂  Zachary’s team won 5-2 and ZACHARY SCORED A GOAL!!!  🙂  He was playing fullback and got the ball.  There wasn’t anyone on his team in front of him to pass it to (not like he would have known to do that)  🙂  so he took the ball all the way down past the defenders and scored!  It was awesome!  He was SO happy and we couldn’t believe it!  He talked about it all the way home.  It’s really fun to coach these little kids.  There’s no pressure and the whole thing is all about having fun!  Go Zach!

Zachary with two of his teammates waiting for team pictures.

Zach had soccer practice this morning and then team pictures this afternoon.  It’s really fun being their coach, and it is quite humorous too!  During the clinic and practice, the expert leader teaches them some things and then we go back and practice.  It’s funny to watch them.  During the scrimmage part of the clinic, they forget everything they learned and bunch up together like bees on huney and move around the field, kicking anything that moves!  🙂  It drives the leader of the clinic nuts, but they’re just in kindergarten.  They’ll learn.

Soccer pictures were really quite cute.  Only 5 of the 7 kids showed up so the pictures were very small.  While they were waiting, they couldn’t help jumping in the water, running all over, and pulling all the loose threads off their socks!  🙂

Tonight we had a church activity (HP Group) going to a Chicago White Sox game!  A friend of ours in our ward works for Waste Management and they have a box suite at the park.  We hung out, ate food, watched the game, and had a great time!  The Sox won 2-0.  It wasn’t close to the game you went to see, Carmen (the famous no-hitter), and even though they don’t have a chance to go to the post-season, it was great to see!  🙂

Today was quite the day.  Zachary had his first day of soccer!  He was SOOOO excited to go this morning!  Angela volunteered me to be the assistant coach so I was involved today as well!  🙂  It’s been a LONG time since I played soccer but it really doesn’t matter that much with kids in Kindergarten.  He looked so cute in his new socks, shin guards, jersey, black shorts kicking his ball around!  🙂

The first three weeks of soccer for them are actually clinics where experts come and teach the kids what to do.  The coaches then take their teams to a designated area and practice with them. It’s really funny to see how much they listen.  There are many daydreamers in the groups.  🙂  Our team has 8 kids and one of Zachary’s friends is on the team with him and she is excited.  They practiced side foot kicks, shoelace kicks, trapping the ball, and dribbling it.  We need to practice a LOT!  🙂  After the clinic, the kids play against other teams there and it is absolutely hilarious to watch.  They swarm around the field like a bunch of bees kicking at anything that moves (including each other).  Some kids reach in and grab the ball and run with it becuase they want to have “their turn” to kick the ball.  🙂

Although we need to practice a bunch, Zach is still very excited and can’t wait until next week so he can play again!  Go Zach!