The Avonlea Way: September 11, 2025- October 31, 2025

It's been a really nice fall. Jacob really enjoyed playing flag football with almost the same team from this past Spring. He got the chance to be the player rushing the QB on defense and he did so great. He also scored a touchdown or two (I forget exactly). He seems to be improving, and also having fun!

Maggie and Logan aren't officially doing any sports this fall, so they have been sporadically taking private tennis lessons together. Logan wanted to play flag football, but it conflicted with robotics. Logan and Maggie will both play rec basketball this winter, and I'm so excited for that!

Logan's robotics team is having a bit of a tough time with some of the functions of the robot, but he is having fun and I think he's learning a lot. He was put on the 7th and 8th grade robotics team, as the only 6th grader. There are 8 boys total on that team. There are two spots to be the "driver" of the robot at the meets. Most kids really want to be the driver, but the guy in charge of the program has said that most of what happens with robotics, happens before the meet. The coding and building of the robot, are two critical components that happen before the meet. After that, the driver can only do so much during the meet. All that to say, they had try-outs to be the driver and took a lot of things in to account: driving ability, knowledge of the rules of the game (it's complicated), ability to do well under pressure, attendance at robotics practices, etc. And much to our surprise, Logan was selected as one of the two drivers! He was so thrilled!! They said it's kind of like the starting QB... it can be changed at any time, as they see fit. But either way, he got to be one of the two drivers this past Saturday at the meet, and he was so pumped. He did really well, but their robot has some problems with it's coding and throwing mechanism, etc, so they didn't do super well. But either way, fun stuff!! It's a big learning year, because he has done LEGO league for the past three years, and this is very different.

On a random note.... Penny has been bringing us so many mice. She has probably killed 17 mice in the last 30 days. It's past the point of it being gross. Last year, she probably brought us 8-10 things all year. I don't know what is happening. Jacob said she's "doing a 30 day challenge." Hahaha!

Alrighty... I'll let the pics do the talkin' .....

This guy caught the fish, but wasn't sure about holding it, so Jacob was showing him. :)

Maggie's first official sleepover..... at Juliet's house!! They were PUMEPED! Right across the street :)

And the same night, the boys had a sleepover in our basement.... Wyatt and Beckham spent the night. Lights were out by 9pm, lol.

Sleepover morning :)

Maggie and I took Penny to the vet. We were a little late because Penny was outside, and then we couldn't get her in the crate. Maggie finally got her in, while Penny was hissing and angry about it. Maggie is SO good with cats!

Lifegroup!

Fun Lifegroup Game! We will be multiplying in to two groups this January!

Hot tub is in!

Visit with Gie. She doesn't really say too much, so I just talk about what's been going on. I read her James 1 the other day. :)

Christy!! College friend... she was in Columbus for her husband's work, so we got to spend the afternoon together!

Justin went to Nemacolin with 7 other guys for a golf weekend. They had the perfect weather!

Still enjoying the Tonal (workout equipment that is attached to the wall and it is all lifting focused)... I feel like I'm getting stronger between Orange Theory, Melt and the Tonal. :)

Trick of Treat on October 30th. Kids are doing their candy swapping. Justin was Bert at work that day, so he busted out the costume again. I kept cracking up. The little kiddos did not like it!

The Year of the Inflatables: a cat, a banana, and a cowboy on a rooster :)

Justin's manager team at work- Sesame Street!

The Finneys took Jacob and Maggie to a pumpkin patch!

Cousins!

I had a girls night away at a friend's cabin that was 1.5 hours away. We did a 6 mile run... very hilly! There were 12 of us total, someone got this pic though. I'm far right. :)

Group run.... unfortunately one of our friends fell on the run bc there was so much loose gravel. She ended up having to get 8 stitches in her knee.

While Mama's away, Daddy and the kiddos go bowling!! He sent me this pic while I was gone! So cute. They love their Daddy Time :)

Logan entered a rated Chess Tournament. Everyone plays 5 rounds. He lost the first round and won the next four rounds! So he was 4-1. It seemed like he was second place, but based on tie-breaks or something, he got 4th place out of 19 total players. So so great!! And the match that he lost was over 30 minutes, which is a pretty decent length of time for this age level. Go Logan!!!

Trunk of treat at the kids' school!

Cute Winston!

Lifegroup!! We had 4 people from our partner church in Puerto Rico in town. Russ and Justin had been on separate mission trips to Puerto Rico this past year, so it was fun for them to reconnect. We had dinner with the leaders before the actual Lifegroup.

A new park/playground just 5 minutes from our house. The kids really liked this. They all said that this was scarier than it looked!

Winston, Jacob and the fire!

Taco Bell ;)

Halloween Camping weekend!

The "magical" hayride, where you plant a pumpkin seed and then come back and there is a pumpkin!

This year's pumpkin's were pretty big!

Maggie found this kitten at the pumpkin patch!

Logan's first band concert! He plays percussion.

Lifegroup! Thank goodness for great weather most of this term... because we've had around 20 kids each week. Beginning tonight and for the next four weeks, we are able to meet at the church, instead of someone's house.

Paint Wars for Students! Logan has been enjoying Student Group on Sunday nights from 6-8pm. It's for 6th-12th graders.

New hair! I got my hair done... twice... this first time it was way too dark, so I went back. I even went against the lady's recommendation. I like the revised version ;)