Liesl turns 8!

We celebrated Liesl's birthday on Saturday in fine fashion -- she had special requests for breakfast, dinner, and her cake; there were presents, with a scavenger hunt to find one of them; a family visit to Lakeview Farm for pumpkins and the corn maze; and the final Blunicorns soccer game of the regular season (celebrated with cupcakes and trophies). Liesl was so happy throughout, and sad when her long awaited but always too short birthday came to an end. But at least there's her party to look forward to - swimming and a sleepover with her besties - in a couple of weeks, when our schedule permits.

On Friday night, I hung up our birthday banner and twirly streamers, and picked up a unicorn balloon and a dozen pink roses, making our dining room pretty and festive. Liesl requested challah French toast, bacon, and raspberries for breakfast.

After breakfast, it was time for presents!!!!

 

Always a couple of books, of course, yay!

A really cool present: an Instamax camera! She was pretty excited and immediately wanted to test it out, taking photos of us, of Jasper, and then of her friends.

And then we were off to the Blunicorns last regular season soccer game, and then to Sebastian's soccer game, down in Lake Oswego, during which I went to a recruiting event at PSU for high school seniors, and it wasn't until 2 pm that we all reconvened at the house. We headed out to Lakeview Farms for a pumpkin patching adventure (separately blogged), and then came home to get warm and dry, eat dinner and cake, and embark on a scavenger hunt for the last present.

The scavenger hunt begins!

Steve suggested that a Google search might help with one of the clues... which referred to a tallyman counting.

And.... the final prize!!! An hour-long horseback riding lesson at a nearby stable!!! She's been asking to ride a horse for months, so this was a really exciting present. She can't wait until next Sunday!!

And then it was dinnertime - at Liesl's request, we had stromboli, New York steak, buttered peas, and fruit salad, with a carrot cake and cream cheese icing for dessert. Yum.

Thorns player visit

I blogged a month ago about our amazing coach Courtney's staging of a Go Thorns! photo for an instagram contest. Well, unsurprisingly, we won! And our prize was a school visit from a Portland Thorns player - she would hand out autographs and answer questions and pose for photos. Liesl and her teammates were super excited; they all wore their signature Blunicorns socks as well as Thorns tshirts and scarves to school on Thursday.

Thorns star defender Emily Menges with Liesl's class and another second grade class.

I love how excited and proud Liesl looks in this photo -

Re-creating the word "Thorns" in the photo that won our team the visit from Emily. Such a cool little experience.

praying mantis

Liesl found this beauty outside the school and brought it into her classroom to impress her teacher and home to impress us. :) She was sad when we made her release it back into the forest.

Sebastian's soccer

Sebastian has been having a great fall soccer season as well, playing with the LYS Red U12 team (the top team for his age level in our community club), in the division 1 bracket (the middle level, below premier and above div 2). His team has won 5 games, tied 2, and lost 1, so it's been successful, and he's definitely been developing as a player, especially on defense.

The game last weekend was at home, on a gorgeously crisp and sunny fall morning. Perfect weather for sports.

Forest Park

I don't blog about it much, but the beauty and solitude and wooded grace of Forest Park has remained one of the chief joys of my life in Portland. I love that I get to walk and run here multiple days every week -- my delight in stepping into the forest never feels old -- and that happiness has only been amplified by the company of Jasper. This fall has been particularly beautiful, with piles of brightly colored dry leaves, multiple sunny days, crisp mornings and evenings. Jazzy and I run 4-5 miles, usually on some portion of the Wildwood, or the old Leif Erikson road, and come home tired, thirsty, and happy.

Sebastian and I went for a walk on Sunday afternoon, tossing a frisbee to each other down the wide Saltzman trail, looking out for leaves to catch, and playing hide and seek with Jasper.

Liesl's soccer

Liesl’s soccer season has been a joy to watch. She has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few months, learning how to kick the ball more accurately and powerfully, to pass to open teammates, to keep her spacing on the pitch, and to have confidence and aggressiveness in her play. I love to see her game face when she’s confronting the ball or an opponent - she runs at the ball like she wants to get it and she wants to score - and that kind of attitude is worth so much in girls sports at this age.

Her recreational team is once again the Blunicorns, coached by the inestimable Courtney, who both teaches them how to be much better soccer players and makes it super fun. Liesl loves playing with all of her friends on that team. They are undefeated, I think, although no official score is kept. Liesl regularly scores 4-5 goals per game before she is tasked with defense.

Her competitive team is the LYS Black team - the 2010 cohort. There are two teams at her age level (Red and Black) drawing from all of the Lincoln High catchment district, so including girls from Chapman and Ainsworth Elementaries as well as FPE. Most of the girls are in 3rd grade this year, with another year of soccer experience under their belts and a little more height than our girl. She’s used to being one of the biggest, strongest, and fastest among her grade year cohort, so it’s interesting to see her have to catch up among her birth year cohort. But she’s doing great, developing confidence, and will continue on with this team for winter futsal and then spring soccer season.

These pictures are from Blunicorns - I forgot the camera for Sunday's LYS games.

GOAL!