Thank You

Recently I received a nice acknowledgement from Iowa Grasslands. He has awarded me with the Arte y Pico. I don't consider myself particularly inspiring, but am honored that someone may have gotten some inspiration from me at some time. This beautiful award, pictured here, has the normal blog award rules.

"This award was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creativity and their talents, and for contributing to the blogging world in whatever medium. When you receive this award it is considered a “special honor.” Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to 5 others. What a wonderful way to show some love and appreciation to your fellow bloggers!The rules for passing this honor on are: Pick 5 blogs that you would like to award this honor to.Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award from Arte Y Pico."

I don't tend to read very many blogs on a regular basis. The ones I do read, I enjoy quite a lot though. Since I don't read many and some of my reads have deservedly already received a Arte y Pico, I will give you my best list of inspiring reads.

Father of Five is a Dad from MN who I read on a regular basis. Just the fact that he and his spouse have been able to keep their sanity while raising five kids is inspiring.

I was also fortunate enough to be honored with an award from one of my regular reads, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The diamond award recognizes blogs of excellence and reading enjoyment. Many of my favorites have already received this award so it is difficult to choose whom to bestow.

Iowa Grasslands is a blog relating stories from the Midwest. Russell seems to effortlessly post on a vast variety of topics and is always entertaining. His nostalgic pictures also add to the interest of his topics.

I know my lists are short but that doesn't mean there aren't many more deserving blogs. Like I mentioned earlier, most of my reads already have won one or both awards. Go ahead and try them to see what you think.

Goal!

Sweet Pea's soccer season ended last Monday with her soccer Jamboree. All of the teams met at the fields with their coaches to get their medals and water bottles. It was nice to see the girls show their pride in their team and clap for each other as they got their medals. Her coaches did a great job and you could tell they were having just as much fun as the girls.

After the 'awards ceremony' , kids from all of the teams got to take turns climbing into a real firetruck. They got to see the inside of a police car too. I hope that is the only way she will see that. The kids also got to see the police dog, 'Buck'. Buck entertained the crowd with a demonstration of how to take down a criminal. Another officer 'volunteered' to be the bad guy, as Buck dragged him down and tried to shred his arm. All the kids cheered for Buck.

The evening ended with the firetruck spraying the whole crowd with water. And on this 90 degree day, it was welcome. There were a lot of screaming, squealing and soaked kids.

When we got home we had a Popsicle and Sweet Pea showed her medal to her big brother who was quite impressed.

Our area really has an impressive number of opportunities for kids to be involved in group activities. Kids can choose just about any sport they want and can participate in something pretty much year round. In addition to sports, the community also offers many fun classes and camps for kids to learn and have fun. Where I grew up, we didn't have such choices. We could choose to participate in the one activity offered, or we could mow lawns. We consider ourselves pretty lucky to have so many different things for the kids to try and experience.

I hope Emery wants to play soccer next year. She likes to play with other kids and likes to do physical things. She also doesn't mind getting dirty. Sometimes she will complain about being too sweaty. But not very often.