Everybody sing: Weeeeee are the Champions, my friend!!!

WOOHOOO!!!

We hosted the league's Long Distance Championships for the northern teams this past weekend. Our results were combined with the results from the southern teams' meet from 3 weeks ago and WE WON!!! Most of our kids held their placings and we ended up with almost twice as many points as the second place team.

Bean had a great meet. She is a very young 13 in the 13-14 age group and her results are:

1500 Free -- BRONZE
800 Free -- SILVER
400 IM -- BRONZE

In each case, the people placed ahead of her were 14. Hmmm, could she be turning into a long-distance swimmer?

Pumpkin Farm

Bean and I took a girls' day (with Hubby still deployed, "girls" is kind of a given, but you know what I mean!) to go try a Gyro and then visit a pumpkin farm.

A good friend told us that we could actually get Gyros on FLATBREAD (instead of a big fat bread roll) at a kiosk in front of the local hardware store. They were awesome (although, I will remember for next time that when the nice girl asks me "do you want spicy?" the answer is "NOthankyouverymuch!" I hope eventually the feeling will return to my lips and tongue)! I can't wait for Hubby to get home so we can take him there.

After the yummy Gyros (aka Doner Kebap here in Germany), we headed out to find the pumpkin farm. After Pioneer Woman's posts last week about making your own pumpkin puree, I thought it would be a fun and loving gesture to make Hubby his favorite dessert really-really from scratch this year. The drive there was gorgeous!! I don't remember us having fall color like this any other year (maybe that means we'll have a *real* winter this year, please oh please oh please??). Here are some pics Bean took while we were driving: Even without my GPS, it was very easy to find. Here are some of the sights that greeted us once we got there:

Nope, I don't think we can take this one home!!!

We got one perfect carving pumpkin, 3 cooking pumpkins, a baby pumpkin for Bean to do something with that she won't tell me what it is, and some SUPER yummy pumpkin butter. It was a perfect fall day and I made some great memories with my girl. Thanks, Bean!!

Viva Espana!

We returned to Spain for another swim meet. The resort was every bit as beautiful as it was last year. The food was fab-O again and Bean had a great meet! We really wish Hubby could have been with us again (that way I could have had his cup of complimentary gazpacho! Yummy!). Here are Bean and Chiken chillin' by the pool at the resort (and refusing to pose for the camera, so this is what you get, girls!):

Happy 13th Birthday, Bean!!!

Wow! I can't believe there's actually a teenager in my house! Yikes!

We had a great day. Bean invited some of her best friends to go paintballing so she could try out the new paintball equipment she got from her Grandpa for her birthday. Some of the girls weren't too sure at first about shooting each other, but they all got into it eventually.

That's Emalion, Tiger, HB, Bean, Bear and Cookie all geared up like Warrior Chicks!

After paintball and lunch, everyone went home to shower and do a tick-check. Then, it was over to our house for pizza, cake and a sleepover! Bean had a great time with all her friends! Thanks everyone for making her segue into teenagerhood so much fun!

Last year of "Junior High" starts!!

We started 8th grade today. Everything went really well. We ended up deciding to put off Spanish until next year. Bean felt like she could handle it, but this Momma didn't feel like her Espanol was up to snuff for teaching without a net! We'll let Hubby handle that when he's home next year. Yay!!

The Schoolhouse Planner by TOS

SisterChick is giving away a free copy of the all-new, super-cool Schoolhouse Planner that was just released by The Old Schoolhouse. This planner looks to be everything you could possibly want to organize your home, your homeschool and, heck, even your life. Go forth and enter her contest!!

News

I've been trying to think about how to post what our past month has been like. How can I adequately describe what it was like for us, what it meant to us, to have Hubby here and then to have him leave again? The answer is that I can't. He was here for two weeks and he left two weeks ago and we can't wait to see him again.