Fall Misc

Here are a few miscellaneous pics and events from our family this fall...

Paces 4 Pink

My sister and I ran in this 5K race in October. We both came in 1st in our age divisions, but Kim actually won first female overall!! She was amazing!

Hanging with Grandpa and Grandma

During their visit for Jason's ordination, Grandpa and Grandma treated our family to a Chick-fil-A meal... always a treat. Adley was especially thrilled with the ice cream for dessert.

Community Trick-or-Treat

On Halloween week, I took Adley to our community public works building for an indoor trick-or-treating event. Grammy joined us for the morning as well. It was a chilly morning, so it was very nice that this event was indoors. Adley went from door to door in this office building and collected a bucket FULL of candy. Most of the workers were standing outside their offices and were even dressed in costume. It was such a cute event. Adley liked posing as a fire fighter.

After the trick-or-treating, Grammy came with us to library storytime where we listened to Halloween books and made this Frankenstein.

Rock Climbing

One Saturday in October, Cody and Jaden had a double header soccer game to make up for a missed game earlier in the season. Between the games, we decided to visit a nearby library. A neighboring church just happened to have fall festival activities set up outdoors, so the boys tried out this free rock wall. It was a bit of a challenge to climb in cleats, but they did it!

Family Photo Shoot

In order to get some good photos for our Christmas card, we asked a photographer friend of ours to do a family photo shoot. Her pictures turned out amazing! We were so pleased with her work.

I'm pretty sure these are the faces the kids wanted to make all along!!

K'Nex Building

Over Thanksgiving break, I brought out this K'Nex set that my brother had given Jaden and Cody as a gift a while back. The set was a little too challenging for them when they first received it, but it was perfect for them now. They worked hard on this set and completed it in just a day and a half. They loved how the roller coaster was actually motorized and could run by itself. What a cool set!

Family Thanksgiving

My brother Andrew and his wife Sarah hosted a relaxing and delicious Thanksgiving dinner for our Texas clan. We didn't get any photos of our time together at their home, but Sarah did take this beautiful family photo before church that morning. We are so thankful for our family!

Fall Playdates

Since the start of the school year, Adley and I have continued meeting with our playgroup friends. We try to meet twice a month-- once as an outing (a play place, splash pad, park, etc) and once at someone's home for a themed play date. I hosted a music play date in September. Everyone got warmed up with a "Shake your Sillies Out" song on youtube.

Then, the kids made jingle bell tambourines. We went on a musical parade around the house when the instruments were completed.

At the end, we listened to a sampling of different musical genres so the kids could get a taste of everything from opera to rock n roll. Then, I turned on some classical favorites and gave the kids ribbon rings to dance with. The rings helped to get even the shyest kids moving around. It was an active, musical morning!

In October, my friend Amy hosted a Halloween playdate. My nephew Nathan even joined us for this one. All of the kids looked so adorable dressed in their costumes.

Amy planned some fun activities for the group. First we made flower pictures with candy corn. These turned out so cute!

Then, we let all of the kids practice trick-or-treating. Each child took a turn standing inside to hand out candy to the rest of their friends. The kiddos were all so excited to close the door and knock each time!

We made sure these little ones remembered to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" each time. Who knows if it actually paid off come Halloween?! ;)

Our last activity was decorating pumpkin pictures with sticker dots. You wouldn't think these would've turned out as different as they did, but each child had their own creative flair to this. Nathan filled up nearly every inch of his pumpkin with stickers! He definitely had a longer attention span than the younger ones. They all seemed to enjoy this activity though.

What a cute looking crew! We love our play group friends!

In November, we met at my friend Sara's home for a fall-themed play date. Sara served us some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip bread that morning and then led the kids in a cute tree-making craft. The tree was made from the kids' hands and the leaves were their fingerprints. The kids loved painting with their fingers!

We are so thankful for this fun, creative group of mommas and kiddos and look forward to our adventures with them each month!

Soccer Highlights

Jaden and Cody's fall soccer team had the same coach and nearly all of the same players from last year's team. The bright orange uniforms (which the boys absolutely loved) inspired their new team name, the Tigers.

The most exciting change for the boys was adding their cousin Ryan to the team! How fun it was to see these cousins play together and look for each other on the field. We, of course, loved having Ryan's family with us on the sidelines for every game too!

As a team, the Tigers were strong players. After a rocky start at game 1 (a 0-7 loss), the players kicked their skills and aggressiveness into high gear. They won all the rest of their games, except for one game that ended in a tie. The Tigers even beat that initial team that they had lost to when they faced them later in the season. Their games were usually fast paced and exciting to watch. All three Schleicher boys definitely contributed to the team's successes this year.

CODY

Coach Kyle pegged Cody, along with Ryan, as a defensive player this season. Those two created quite the defensive wall for their team, hardly ever allowing the ball to go past them. Most teams only scored one goal, if any at all, against the Tigers, and that was largely due to Cody and Ryan's attentive game play. Cody was always ready to boot the ball down the field with his power kick if it ever got close to him. He timed his approaches well and would put his whole body into his kicks. 

The coach often chose Cody to throw in the ball at the sidelines. He got a lot of practice with his overhead throw and learned to keep his feet grounded.

Because Cody played so much defense, he wasn't given a lot of opportunities to score this season. But, whenever the coach put him in as midfielder, he often would still score a goal. One of Cody's biggest strengths on the field was his speed. He could outrun many players and catch up to opponents who had (temporarily) gotten away with the ball. Cody always worked so hard and gave his all. We were very proud of our #9 soccer player!

JADEN

Coach Kyle particularly liked playing Jaden at the midfield position, and this suited him well. Jaden frequently was able to take control of the ball and dribble it long distances down the field. He really made some great strides this season with keeping good control of the ball as he dribbled. Jaden started off the season (on game 2) with a hat trick-- three goals! He got two other hat tricks over the course of the season and ended most games with at least one or two goals. Jaden wasn't afraid to be aggressive and seemed to know just where to position himself. He was also called upon to do many of the goal kicks and corner kicks for his team. We were proud of our high-scoring #5 this season! 

We have such a wonderfully supportive family and were so blessed to have EVERY SINGLE family member (even our out of town relatives) attend at least one of the boys' games. Wow! Look at these amazing cheering crews!

After our last game, the players (and siblings!) enjoyed some donuts while Coach Kyle affirmed each player and handed out trophies.

Adley and Nathan (and Ian too!) definitely earned themselves a donut with all their hours spent watching their brothers, often in the cold!

One final Tigers team photo:

Ryan, Cody, Matthew, William, Zak, Jaden, Alex, Dael, Carson, Van
Coach Kyle, Assistant Coach Dennis

And one final Goooo Tigers cheer! What a fun team and a great season!

As much as we loved our team, these three boys were by far our favorites! It was so fun watching them play and celebrate on the field together. Cody and Ryan would often high-five or hug each other after their team scored. ;) We were so thankful these boys had a chance to be on the same team.