Bike Rodeo and Soccer beginnings

Friday was the school Bike Rodeo.  I volunteered to organize it again and am happy with how it turned out and even happier that it is over.  There are two new PTO co-presidents this year and they really wanted to try to control the chaos.  The basic idea was the same, come and ride your bikes/scooters at the school but we did add a little more structure this year.  Each child got a wristband when they arrived and if they went to each station (Safety, chalk courses, police) they could go back to the table and collect a glow stick.  It seemed like there was a great turnout and everyone I talked to had a great time.  There were as always a few crashes but no serious injuries.  One change this year was the amount of High School volunteers we got.  There were about 12 kids and they were so awesome.  They were helpful and hardworking and happy to be there.  It was so nice.  It is still my favorite school event.  As long as they want me to I will plan to run it again next year and then maybe take a break.  I really didn't see Lydia a whole lot but she seemed to be happy when I did.  I reminded both of them to bring money if they wanted to buy anything and they both got some ice cream which made them pretty happy.

We started setting up at 5:00, officially began at 6:00 and closed it down at 7:30.  Finishing 30 minutes earlier was a really good idea.  Even this early in September the sun has set by 7:30 and it gets dark quick.  We finished cleaning up by 8:00 and it was fully dark.  I am grateful for Mark's help and all the great volunteers we had.  Jared and Lydia said it was the best one they had attended so I guess we did a better job than I did last year?

It's always nice to see lots of kids out being active.

Both Lydia and Jared are playing JAG soccer this year.  Mark is the assistant coach for Lydia's team which she is happy about.  She has been very attached to Mark lately so any extra time she can get with him is helpful.  She ended up with a really strong, fun team.  There are 3 people from our ward who could have been on her team but she didn't get any of them. In some ways I think its nice because it helps her and me interact with friends we don't see outside of JAG soccer. 

Jared has three kids from our ward on his team, two boys and one girl.  And three kids from our ward are on the other team (they are all brothers) so thats a lot of ward members on two teams. JAG soccer ages out at 10 so it is his last year playing. I don't realize how much he enjoys JAG soccer until it starts up again and he is so happy to be playing.  He did really well on Saturday and scored his teams 3 goals.  The other team scored 3 as well.  They are pretty well matched teams.  Lydia has made it very clear that she is only playing for the snacks but it's fine.  She is working with a team and running around and getting delicious (to her) snacks so its a win.  The season is ending about 2 weeks earlier which I think is great. Our family has recently discovered the greatness of "Hamilton, the Musical" and are pretty obsessed.  Its so catchy and informative! Makes my little history brain that I often don't pay attention to happy.  So I played "My Shot" for them on the drive to the field Saturday and it will now be their weekly pump them up song.  Sort of like a walk up song for baseball.  It was fun. 

"Best Bowmasters" (Jared could not explain to me what they were)

The Jaguars