November Update (Lily 10 and Clara 7)

Now the McFalls family is fully in the swing of the holiday season but at the beginning of November we were just warming up. The girls finished up their soccer season and are about to start basketball. They went to a local girls scout troop’s Harry Potter night and the last football game with my parents while I enjoyed a quiet afternoon/night at home.  

Lily's November update: 

Lily and I had a night out together to see the musical Six, which she loved (to no one’s surprise). She has been singing and dancing along with the soundtrack since then and even says she wants to be one of the characters for Halloween next year. Her favorite character was Anne Boleyn and her song “Sorry Not Sorry”. Lily was really sad to be done with the soccer season since in the spring she will move up an age bracket and won’t have the same coach. Lily was also able to go to a friendsgiving at her besties house the week before Thanksgiving. The one thing Lily has not liked was Fantasy of Trees because there were so many people (and the fire alarm got pulled). She asked Santa for a new iPad (I can’t really blame her.....she has been using my 10 year old iPad that has been repaired several times).  

 

Lily loves: 

-reading the “One and Only Ivan” series 

-The Hobbit (I let her watch the movies and am enjoying her observations while watching) 

Clara's November update:  

Crafty and creative are both words that described Clara this month. She loves disappearing into her room and coming out with some kind of craft or invention. A few days ago she decided what our living room was missing was an infomercial. She found a stick outside, tied a rope around the stick and her waist and said that it was a safety device so the elderly wouldn’t drop their canes and then talked about it and all it’s awesome features for the next 40 minutes. She created a newspaper with facts of the day (One of the facts was that bees poop).  Clara has asked Santa for arts and crafts and science stuff, barbies and LOL dolls.

Clara loves: 

-reading the Press Start book series 

-inventing things 

-sleeping in 

Clara no feet where we eat

dinner before Six

The Juniors made dinner for the parents

proof that she does know how to do dishes

trying out basketball shoes at Dicks Sporting Goods

cookies for friendsgiving

on our way to Fantasy of Trees

October Update (Lily 10, Clara 7)

Spooky season is officially over (no seriously....I took down the decorations today). This month started off with the girls fall break, a trip to Wilderness of the Smokeys where the girls got to swim, slide and arcade to their heart's content. It was a great trip because the girls love to swim, stay in hotels, and play arcade games but they don't like driving anywhere...I highly recommend it. We also celebrated Lily's 10th birthday with a family party and also her first friends sleepover at our house. I was worried about how the sleepover was going to go but it turns out I'm a night owl so staying up until midnight was no big deal...heck I'm typing this at 12:30am. 

Lily's October update:

Lily's favorite part of Wilderness was the wavepool where she spent most of her time trying to do handstands in progressively shallower water while waiting for the waves to start. Lily has already reached her AR goal for this 9 weeks and has really gotten into the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. For Halloween Lily decided to be Stitch. I'm glad she went with Stitch because her other options were Beetlejuice or a leopard gecko and I had no clue how to do that. 

Lily loves:

-reading

-the show Lego Masters

Clara's October update: 

Clara's favorite part of Wilderness were the 4 slides. I can't tell you how many stairs we climbed over the course of 3 days but there were at least 90 steps and we went on the slides at least 15x per day (we all slept very well). Clara finished out cheer for the season but we went to the banquet (at a pumpkin patch) were Clara got the award for the most encouraging. For Halloween Clara decided to go as "pink Stitch" from the 2nd Stitch movie. One of the people handing out candy asked if the girls were a "pink bunny and a blue bunny.

Clara loves:

-putting on shows

-Lego Masters 

-Math class (she's gotten really good at addition).

bowling

ready for the waterpark

I thought I captured a really sweet moment....

and then Lily told me her knee was stuck in the railing.

Pirate Dinner show

You can try mine if I can try yours

Lily got moved to defence for a few minutes and picked up the ball out of habit...

now she is lying on the ground contemplating all of her life choices. 

Covid and Flu vaccines....suckers make it better

Wacky Wednesday at school 

Clara music performance

Lily requested an ice cream cake with vanilla chocolate 

and mint chocolate chip

pumpkin patch

ready for the sleepover

decorating our "gingerbread" house

Pink Stitch and Stitch. 

September Update (Lily 9, Clara 7)

Much like forgetting how much it hurts to give birth I always forget how busy we get once we get into the swing of school and football season. " Hey you! Yeah you busy lady….do you only have 2 days a week to get things done and relax? Well we're going to take away one of those days so you can sit outside and watch sporting events". On the plus side I did get to go (child free) to the UT vs South Carolina game which was amazing (Thanks Nana and Pop)! In other news this month we were able to take a Stevenson/McFalls trip tubing down a river in Townsend. Unfortunately since electronics and water don't mix the only picture I have is one of the girls attempting to sleep in the grass where we stopped for lunch. Sadly my car got into an early morning disagreement with another car on the way to work. It got totaled (I'm fine)….it's not exactly hard to total a 10 year old car and left me searching for a new car. 

Lily September Update

This month Lily has become a reading fiend. She ended up doubling her AR goal and had so much fun at her fall AR party. Lily is back in her favorite position on the soccer field (goalie) and so far they have won all of their games. In a strange turn of events when my mom asked the girls if they wanted to go to a UT game Lily said yes and Clara said no (we thought it would be the other way around). Since Clara didn't go to the game Lily was able to invite her BFF and they had a blast. 

Lily loves:

Reading
Swimming 
Soccer
Choir club 
Lily doesn't like:
Tailgating (although it's better since I got a portable wifi)

Clara's September Update:

In September Clara finished up cheer and can't wait to do it again next year. She is playing soccer again in the position of either defender or midfielder. The girls team is playing really well  since this is their second year for most of them to play together.  I was very proud of Clara when we went tubing. There is a spot that you can get out of your tube, climb up and jump maybe 10 feet into the river. Clara was very nervous to jump (she's never been a fan of heights) but we ended up jumping together (after she started to slip off the rock and I gave her a little push so she didn't hit the rocks on the way down…what a wonderful mom I am). Both Clara and Lily have gotten really into swimming at the indoor pool near our house. We usually end up going 2x per week…. Usually on a Sunday and then after dinner if their homework is already done. 

Clara Loves:
Swimming
Playing in the rain
Helping
Reading

Clara doesn't like:
Having to leave the pool

floating down a river is exhausting 

Clara (#13) and her teammate (#8) look so much alike 

from the back....I have yelled at the wrong one during a game. 

It's so convenient for pictures when the girls play 

positions near eachother. 

grandparents and Clara (did the grown ups mean to line up by height?)

got a new bench for the front porch and clara 

decided to model it. 

the real Hatfields and McCoys would have 

ended differently if they had squirt guns

self taught back flips

UT vs South Carolina