Two more weeks and still no losses.

Well another two weeks have past and the Beard kids are yet to lose in soccer. Brooklyn's team went 1-0-1 and Maddux went 2-0. Brooklyn's team has had a dramatic turnaround as they have gone from worst to first. They are the number one seed heading into the tournament. Quite a change from being at the bottom of the league last season. Last week was very cold and rainy. You could tell that the girls didn't want to be out there and were very sluggish. The game ended in a 1-1 tie but on the bright side Brooklyn scored their one goal. That is just her second goal ever. Then yesterday they played the best team they have seen this year and ended up winning 1-0. The game was very defense centered but they did manage to score a goal in the first quarter. With that win they are the only team that has not lost this year and should have a first round bye in the tournament. They have a very good chance of winning the whole thing. That would be the perfect end to a season and team that has seen great improvements over the past year.


Brooklyn lining up to take a goal kick. One of the perks of playing defense.


Here she is tracking down the ball preparing to clear it up the field.

Maddux and his team continued their dominance of the U6 soccer league. They went 2-0 with two very impressive wins. Last week they won 10-0 with Maddux scoring 8 of the goals. Then yesterday they won 8-2 with Maddux scoring 7 goals. He is very aggressive and always going after the ball. While other kids are looking around and waiting for someone else to do something Maddux is off to the races. Jennie and I were talking the other day about how fun it will be to watch him play on a regular field. He has definitely mastered this league.


Maddux dribbling up the field with only one player to beat.


Maddux leading the pack on his way to one of his seven goals.


This is the sight for the majority of his goals. The only thing standing between him and another goal is a wide open soccer field.

Next week I will try to get some video of the games so you can see the real deal.

Brooklyn's 8th Birthday.

On Friday our big girl turned 8. It is amazing how fast the time has gone by. It seems like just the other day we were holding her in our arms. It has been such a pleasure to watch her grow up and develop into a little lady. We started out the morning by having Brooklyn's favorite breakfast, french toast. Then I took her out for lunch at Pizza Hut with her best friend Riya. Then we had all her friends over to our house for pizza, games, movies, fingernail painting and some cotton candy. Brooklyn then had 5 of her friends stay up all night and have a sleepover. It was such a fun time and I know that Brooklyn had a blast. We got extremely lucky as the weather was calling for severe thunderstorms all night and we really didn't get much at all. It allowed all the kids to spend most of the night outside playing on the trampoline and swing set while burning lots of energy and having a lot of fun. It was also very nice for us to have them all outside instead of running all around inside the house.


Here is Nolan with the marshmallow gun not knowing exactly what it was.


There was a lot of wrestling going on outside and here is Maddux getting dominated by Meghan.


Cannon getting beat up by just about everyone. You can see Maddux trying to help out but the boys were outnumbered and not very effective.


Brooklyn and Riya swinging on the swings.


This is everybody but 3 of the kids. I think we had a total of 20 kids at her party which made for a lot of kids and a lot of fun.


Bill was kind enough to bring over his projector so the kids could watch a movie on the wall. They watched Brooklyn's new favorite movie, The Princess and the Frog.


Brooklyn and Riya all cozy on the couch watching the movie.


Cotton candy machine was a big hit and a lot of fun for the kids. It is a little messy but I would definitely recommend it to anyone having a party. It is very cheap and makes a lot of cotton candy.


Not only was it Brooklyn's birthday but it was also her best friend Riya's birthday. Not only do they share a special friendship but they also share a birthday. We were glad that her family allowed her to spend the night with Brooklyn at her party. I know Brooklyn was very excited to have Riya over and is excited for Riya's party next week. Well another year has past which not only means that Brooklyn is another year older but also means that Jennie and I are another year older. It is amazing how fast the time goes by and we are just blessed to have Brooklyn in our family. Brooklyn, we love you very much and wish you a Happy Birthday. For those interested Brooklyn will be baptized on June 18th. We will have Jennie's whole family in town that week and are excited to have them share in her special moment.

And the Wins Keep Coming.

Well the kids have played two more weeks worth of soccer games and went 3 - 0. While Brooklyn had a bye week last week Maddux won 10 - 2 with Maddux scoring 9 goals. This week marked the first time this season when the kids played at the same time so I went to Maddux's game as Jennie coached Brooklyns. Maddux won again 9 - 0 with Maddux scoring 7 goals this game. He is just all over the field and usually a lot quicker and more aggressive to the ball. Some times I feel bad for the other kids because they don't have a chance against him. He had one goal this game where he blasted one of the other kids with the ball. The kid would just stay back by the goal and try to kick the ball out when our team got close. Well one time he wasn't quite quick enough and Maddux kicked it as hard as he could and drilled the kid in the side. The ball went in the goal and needless to say he didn't stand there the next time that Maddux came near.


This is Maddux breaking away from the other kids in route to one of his 7 goals.


Here he is getting right in the middle of the action while most of the other kids stand back and watch.

I was able to watch the first quarter of Brooklyn's game and they were up 3 - 0 when I left. There has been a big improvement with her team from last year. They are scoring a lot more goals and are playing better defense. They have doubled their win total from the last two years and are no longer the worse team in the league. It is fun to watch because the girls are having fun and it is nice to see their work pay off. The team that Brooklyn played yesterday was actually short a girl so Brooklyn got to play for them the first half and then another girl played the second half.


Brooklyn trailing the play just in case. She has become a very good defender and is starting to get a little more aggressive in her play.


Brooklyn right in the middle of everything helping her team get the ball out of there.


Nolan and Payton hanging out at Maddux's game.


Nolan is so ready to play soccer and should get his chance in the fall.


Payton just having a seat waiting for the game to end.


I love Payton's facial expressions.

1 Weekend, 2 Wins.

Well it is officially soccer season again even though we started off playing in the snow this weekend. What better way to start the season with a pair of wins. That is nothing new for Maddux but Brooklyn's team matched their win total for all of last year; and they did it in their first game of the season. It was a very good way to start the season and hopefully will be a sign of things to come. You have to love Maddux's haircut in the above picture.


Maddux beating the rest of the kids down the field for the ball.


Here is Maddux leading the fastbreak on route to one of his 7 goals. I don't know what the final score was but I do know that Maddux's team didn't allow a single goal.


Maddux again racing down the sideline with the ball.


Brooklyn playing some stellar defense in helping her team to a 3 - 1 victory.


Brooklyn practicing her dance moves trying to keep warm. Notice the left hand position. Remind you of anyone? It is not uncommom to see Jennie strike the exact same pose.


Brooklyn measured this one up and kicked it with all her might. It is actually a very good play as long as she is on defense, which she was. An easy way to get the ball out of your area and back towards the other teams goal. She just has to make sure that she doesn't wind up and miss the ball. She has been known to do that from time to time.


The pregame huddle. It was a very cold morning and even featured moments of snow fall. Nothing like starting off the season in 40 degree weather.


Brooklyn was not a fan of the weather as it took my sweater to get her to stop crying and get on the field. Once she started running around she realized that if she wanted to stay warm that was all she had to do. She ended up shedding the sweater during the first half.


Payton and Maddux doing their best to stay as warm as possible. They made it through the first half and then sat in the van for the rest of the game.

We did have some beautiful weather the days leading up to the cold weekend. It was in the 80's for much of the week which allowed Payton to take a ride in her swing. She loves the swing and does not like it when others are in her swing. I love the facial expressions she has in these pictures. She is having the time of her life.


I think this is probably my favorite one.


Another good one. We are all hoping that the weather comes back soon so we can get back out there and enjoy the sun.

Grandma Wendy Visit

Last week my mom came for a visit with Blake and Ashlynn. It was their spring break and we were happy to have them for a visit. I just feel bad because I couldn't take any time off of work and the kids were in school so they had to find stuff to do on their own during the day. It was still good to see them for a week and I know that our kids loved having their cousins around to play with.


Grandma Wendy with Payton.


The grand kids minus Payton. She was not in a picture taking mood that morning and we were not going to fight with her to get in the picture.


We were lucky that the weather was so nice and the kids could spend most of the time outdoors. The trampoline, basketball hoop and water hose got a lot of good use last week. Here is Maddux clamping down the defense on Ashlynn.


The kids were very creative in turning these storage bins into miniature pools. The water was extremely cold but the kids didn't seem to mind getting in. Look at those muscles. Maddux has free tickets to the gun show if anybody is interested.

In addition to all the playing outside Blake and Ashlynn got to go to the Great Lakes Science Center as well as the Natural History Museum. I think they were a little bored with them but we tried to make up for it on Saturday when Grandma Wendy and I took all the kids (minus Payton) to the IX Indoor Amusement Park for a whole day of roller coaster riding and games. It was a long day and the kids were spent by the time we got home but we all had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from the day.


Dad and Nolan on the giant indoor ferris wheel. Nolan and Ashlynn were the only kids who were brave enough to get on.


Here are Nolan and Ashlynn enjoying the ride. They really liked it when the ferris wheel went above the roof and was actually outside.


Here are the boys on the spinning bears. I use to be able to ride those all day long but now I will limit myself on the number of spinning rides I go on.


Brooklyn and Ashlynn getting ready to spin around and around and around.


Blake and Maddux on the twirling dragons. This is one of the two spinning rides that I actually did go on. It was mainly so I could get some good action pictures. You can tell by the look on Maddux's face that he is having a blast.


Maddux was very hesitant to get on his first ride but once he did he was ready to go on anything. This is about the third adult ride that he went on and I was very surprised that he went. This was the inverter and was a ride that swung you to the top upside down. There was one point when we hung upside down for about 10 seconds before the ride came down. I felt bad for Ashlynn who really wanted to go on the ride but was about 1/2 inch to short and the guy wouldn't budge. Maddux had a lot of fun and had no issues with this ride at all. It is funny because he is so hesitant to go on the rides but after he actually gets on the first ride that is all he wants to do the rest of the day.


Maddux and Ashlynn going on a caged ride that you can spin around and around in circles. I didn't think they would actually cause the cage to spin around but that was all that they did.


Here are Blake and Brooklyn waiting for the kiddie rides. They had zero interest in going on any of these adult rides and had to just sit and wait them out. I felt bad for Nolan because he wanted to go onto all of these rides but was too short. The two people who wanted to go on all the rides, Nolan and Ashlynn, were the two who couldn't go because of their height and the two tallest, Brooklyn and Blake, wanted nothing to do with these rides.


This was the ride that started it all for Maddux. Once he went on this he wanted to go over and over again and then wasn't afraid of anything. I was actually surprised that Brooklyn actually went on this one. I love Nolan's look while on this ride. He had his arms raised the whole time he rode this and most other rides. He is a true roller coasterer.


Here is everybody getting ready for take off. Notice that Nolan's arms are raised and ready to go.


They had a live tiger show which the kids really enjoyed. Well I should say all but Nolan. He fell asleep about 2 minutes into the show and slept on my shoulder for the next 20 minutes. I guess he just needed that power cat nap to get his second wind. This is a white tiger standing on her hind legs with arms folded.


This was Maddux and Nolan performing in the backyard circus as a lion and a tiger. They got to play dead and then jump through a hoop.


Brooklyn and Maddux feeding a baby goat. They had this huge petting zoo where you could fee some goats, sheep and cows.


Nolan feeding a sheep. He was hesitant at first but had no problem after the first bite.


Brooklyn, Maddux, Blake and Nolan on the caterpillar roller coaster. Ashlynn wanted nothing to do with this as it was "boring".


Brooklyn, Maddux and Nolan racing down the giant slide. As you can see Maddux won quite easily. I also think that he might have gotten a little bit of a jump on the other two.


Brooklyn's reflection in a mirror on the carousel.


Blake riding the carousel and you can see Maddux's reflection in the mirror.


Brooklyn riding her horse.


This was one of the last rides that we went on and one that I hope I never have to go on again. The only reason I went on was because they weren't going to let Nolan on without an adult and I couldn't break his heart. I barely fit into the seat and it was very herky-jerky.

Well we all had a lot of fun with Grandma Wendy and the kids and just wish that we didn't live so far away. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and already miss them. We thank them for coming and hope that they has as much fun as we did.