Siope the Speller

Siope made it to the spelling bee final again!!! He won his class spelling bee and went on to compete against the top 5th graders. Once he won his class competition we knew he would be progressing to the final, we just didn't know when that would be. Every day he would come home and I would ask what was going on with the championship. He had no idea- had received no updates. Last Friday I get a phone call waking me up. It was Siope's teacher telling me that Siope would be competing in the championship spelling bee THAT DAY. It was a little frustrating because that meant that Siope would've found out about it that day as well when he got to school. So I went in to his school that day feeling intimidated. Neo happened to be in town and the 2 older boys are out of school so we all headed in to the multi purpose room to cheer on our bud. The competition started and the spellers slowly started to drop off as the words got harder and harder to spell. Siope ended up making it to the final 2! It was so exciting to see him compete. It was clear that the final 2 contestants were the strongest of the bunch. They went head to head for quite some time and in the end... Siope took 2nd place. I am so proud of this little guy!!!! His curiosity is constantly driving his urge to learn more. I often find myself asking him for help on spelling words when I get stuck on a text or email. He is our smarty pants and we are excited to continue to cheer him on on whatever other adventures he decides to take on.

MDW 2016

Ti was home for Memorial Day weekend this year. We thought about traveling, but the boys had basketball games so we ended up staying in Vegas. Since we all had a long weekend we decided to make the most of it and we took a little staycation. 

View from our room.

The kids wasted no time getting into the pool.

Grilling on Memorial Day.

There was also a basketball court and tennis court which we took full advantage of.

Winner Winner Turkey Dinner

Siope's class was challenged to write a Thanksgiving essay using a list of 85 vocabulary words. Siope told us about it yesterday and expressed how much he wanted to win the contest. His teacher had purchased an assortment of food items that are often found at Thanksgiving dinner and would be giving them away as prizes for her students that participated. Today like normal, Mote and Nic got home from school first. Shortly after the front door opens, and in walks Siope with his arms full. He had won the grand prize! He was so excited to bring home his turkey. And what perfect timing. Ti will not be home with us next week so we are having our Thanksgiving meal together as a family tomorrow. 

Siope's turkey will be at the center of our holiday feast tomorrow :)

Carving Fun

Ti and the boys carved pumpkins yesterday while I worked on costumes.

Honor Roll: Siope

Went to Siope's award ceremony to see him receive his certificate for A-B Honor Roll.

Proud of this little munchkin :)

Soccer: Fall 2014

Just wrapped up a season of soccer. The journey came with more bumps in the road than we anticipated, but in the end it's been a memorable experience. At the end of summer we asked the boys if they wanted to play football and I was surprised when they seemed uninterested. Mote asked me if I could sign him up for soccer and I pretty much dismissed his request thinking he would forget about it. He didn't. He was so persistent and continued to ask me if I could register him. I called the league and the team he wanted to sign up for was full. Thinking this would persuade him not to play I told him and to my surprise he was still determined to sign up. Since he would be playing I convinced the other 2 boys to join and it was settled... all 3 would be playing Fall soccer. It's been years since they've last played and I didn't expect them be as great as they were. Mote absolutely blew me away. He is a natural and I was hesitant to say this at first, but he reminds me of Fatu on the field. The other 2 don't have the "average" physique for soccer, but they did amazing. I am so proud of their growth this past season and their discipline to learn this game. It was so fun to watch them play! It was definitely hard to work things out with my schedule and I lost A LOT of sleep, but it was totally worth it. I'm so glad we took this journey. I feel like the conditioning they got will only help them in any other sport they decide to take on. It was hard for Ti not being able to be here for every game. I would text him throughout both games to keep  him updated on scores and plays. There were days that we would spend 9+ hours at the park. On those days I would wake up before the sun was out to pack our cooler full of sandwiches, snacks, and drinks. We would load our cooler, blankets, pillows, and chairs in the back of the truck. Between games we would hang out under the shade of trees and eat or take naps.

These were the days - the days that we had double headers, that were probably most memorable. These days and days that I had to run the boys to 2 different parks to practices that overlapped made me appreciate my parents... and it gave me a lot of respect for Fatu. I remember him having the busiest schedule as a kid. I don't know how he was able to handle all of the chaos at such a young age. On Ti's last week off he actually flew out early to watch the boy's games. It was seriously the best surprise for them.

 

We ended the season yesterday at a duel for the championship. Mote & Nic's team actually made it all the way to the end. And what better way to go out than a shootout. The game was tied 2-2 which resulted in a shootout. Thank goodness it wasn't Mote's first shootout. He came through for his team to sink his goal. To make things more intense we were tied after the first round of shots, so we had to push things into a 2nd round. This time whichever team missed first, lost. Nic was the first one to shoot from our team and I seriously think I gained an ulcer from the stress. But he made his goal! In the end we won and came out champs!

It was such a sweet way to end the season. Not sure what sport is next, but I'm sure it'll be just as much fun.

Siope finished his tombstone project for school. Everything on here was his idea. Whenever I work with the other 2 boys they gladly accept my help and suggestions. That was not the case with this guy. He had a vision and wasn't straying from it. He had no problem turning down my ideas lol. We started with a trip to the dollar store and when all our supplies were gathered we got to start on the tombstone that paid homage to Jedidiah Smith. He probably had the most fun using the glue gun. Here's the finished project.