Soccer is Evil! :-)

Soccer season is now in full swing for the Richardson kids. Connor is finished with his league games, but he has 3 more tournaments to play before his season finishes. Rylee is playing again this season, and her friend Kayla's dad and Justin are coaching. It should be interesting. Tatum has decided to play soccer this year for the first time, so we are going to have crazy Saturdays. Coincidentally, they all ended up with the #6 this year. Hmmmm.....

I'll post a schedule for February, in case anyone can make a few games. Family and friends are always welcome! All the games for February are at the Gilbert Youth Sports Complex (GYSC) at the Southwest corner of Germann & Greenfield Roads.

February 19th

Connor - 8:15 pm at GYSC Field C2

February 20th

Connor - 11:00 am at GYSC Field C2

Connor - 2:00 pm at GYSC Field C2

February 27th

Rylee - 8:30 am at GYSC Field D1

Tatum - 11:30 am at GYSC Field E7

I'll post March in a few weeks. That schedule will not be as nice and neat as February, as Connor will be playing the state playoffs for his league, and those games are all on the West side. Hope to see a few of you around at the fields! :-)

Let the Countdown Begin...

Anyone who knows us, knows we are all crazy about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. We've all read all the books (even Justin & me!), and have been counting down to the movie. Yesterday, we went to an event at Changing Hands bookstore, and we had a lot of fun. Connor even won tickets for he and Dad to see an advanced screening of the movie this Thursday!!! The rest of us are heading to the big screen on President's Day to catch this awesome flick. We can hardly wait!

The Family Dance

So every year the school puts on a family dance around Valentine's Day. Since Connor is on student council this year, he actually had to be there to work it. So we all dressed up, borrowed Kamryn for the night, and hit the family dance.

There was a photo booth at the dance, and my friend, Maria, was working it. She was nice enough to let me snap my own picture of the girls, since it was pretty much dead. The girls put on the feather boas and hammed it up for me.

Rylee really let loose at the dance. She had a blast with her friends. I've never seen her so carefree. She was dancing up a storm!

Connor had to sell "Smencils" at the dance for a student council fundraiser. They are scented pencils in all different flavors. He was lucky enough to get the shift with his good friend, Corinne, and they had a lot of fun together. It made his shift fly by.

And of course, our little attention starved Tatum had a great time, too. She and her friends were goofy all night, as you can tell. The kids all had a great time, and Justin and I had a blast watching them out there. I'm sure it won't be long before they won't want to be seen anywhere near a family dance, so it was nice to enjoy it while we could. We made some great memories...

Happy Birthday, Tatum!

Today our baby turns 7 years old! I can hardly believe it. Tatum is such an energetic and fun little girl, with tons of personality to spare. We are so lucky to have her in our family.

Birthday tradition in our family is to let the birthday child pick the restaurant she wants to eat at for her birthday, so we're going to Red Robin tonight once Dad gets home from work. Then tomorrow, she's picked out a few close friends to go see Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells Batman Smells at the Tempe Center for the arts. Tatum loves Junie B. because she has Tatum's sense of humor, and Jingle Bells is one of her favorite books. We're super excited to see how they adapt the book for the play. It should be lots of fun. We'll post pictures of the special event really soon...

Connor's First Strings Concert

Connor had his very first strings concert last night. He's been playing double bass this year, and has really enjoyed it. It is very similar to his guitar, so he was quick to catch on. He and Rylee have even played a few duets for us. So his first concert was last night at the high school. Unfortunately, the auditorium was so packed, we weren't able to get good seats--so no pictures of the concert. We did snap a few afterwards, though.

Wow! Look at that thing! When we have it upright, it is literally bigger than he is.

And of course, carrying it home poses quite a problem as well. Luckily mom and dad were around to help out. We were so proud of him. He did an amazing job. Way to go, Chacho!

Disneyland... finally!

So I am finally getting around to telling you about our Disneyland trip last month. This year the Richardson family reunion was in Disneyland, so we spent 4 fun-filled days at the Happiest Place on Earth. We had been looking forward to this trip for well over a year. My kids love Disneyland, but combine it with their cousins and grandparents, and it was pretty much the best.trip.ever.

We had annual passes, so we decided to head up a day early and start our fun. The first day was just our little family, and it was pretty low-key, for Disneyland anyway. We hit all our favorite rides... as you can tell from the pictures, Rylee's favorite ride is NOT Splash Mountain. That ride stresses her out, so naturally, we had to go on it twice that day. We had to get a picture to commemorate her favorite part--the 50 foot drop!

We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel this year instead of the Disneyland Hotel. It was a little bit longer walk, but the view from our room was worth it. We would come home at night, open the windows, turn out all the lights, and fall asleep to the lights of Paradise Pier below. We made some great memories!

The second day we met up with the family. The kids were beyond excited. We had early entry into Disneyland that morning, so we got several good rides in before the crowds arrived. Janell's boyfriend, Scott, came with us this year, and all the girls just LOVED him. He was so good with them, and they were always wanting to ride with either him or Jaylen's wife, Blaire. We've been to Disneyland a lot, but it was so much fun to share it with family. We had a long day on Thursday, as we stayed up for the Halloween Screams fireworks show that evening. It was such a good show... and Jack Skellington was the master of ceremonies, so you know our family was happy!

We spent the third day all over the place. We spent some time on our own, and some time with the family all together. The kids LOVED riding Indiana Jones with the whole family. I think we took up a whole car every time we went, and you could hear Blaire screaming wherever you were sitting.

So the last day was the actual reunion. We all wore our Richardson reunion shirts, which Jaylen and Janell had made. Each of us got to pick a Disney character for the back of the shirt. We went with a family theme, so we were Jack, Sally, Lock, Shock, and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so great to have the shirts on, because it was easy to find each other. We had a great time on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride, but I think Justin beat everyone again... Dang it!

It was great to catch up with everyone at the reunion. We all had lunch together at one of the restaurant pavilions and played games and caught up. Then we went right back out into the park and had some more fun. By the end of the trip, we were all worn out. I don't think I've ever seen my kids turn down a day at Disneyland, but when we asked them if they wanted to catch a few rides on the morning of Day 5, they elected to sleep in. A definite sign of a good trip...

Goodbye, Jed...

We had to put our beloved Jed down after 13 1/2 wonderful years with him. I know I have a bunch of posts to catch up on from Disneyland to Halloween, but now that I have a few moments to do it, I just don't feel like it. I'll catch up in a few days, but right now, everyone around here is pretty mopey.

R.I.P., Jeddy. You were the best dog EVER!