Fall [soft] ball

 There is a fall softball league that helps the girls get more practice in the off season.  Bob helped to coach this league and Ashton enjoyed playing with many of the girls from her all star league.

 I didn't get to see many of the games due to overlap with the rest of the schedule but the games I did get to showed a real improvement in the skills of the girls.  They are now really confident stealing bases and fielding plays.

 And the best part of the season was winning the championship trophy.

Volleyball

Since she didn't have enough going on this fall, Ashton decided to give Volleyball a try as well.  While calling this logistically complicated is an understatement, mom was really happy for her get a chance to play volleyball as I loved the sport when I was a teen.

 Watching elementary volleyball for the first time I had a few observations

1. The games are very short -- if you are 15 minutes late you are likely to have missed a good %age of the game.

 2. They smartly have a good amount of flexibility on where the girls can serve the ball.  This really impressed me as it gave the game less waiting and helped the girls build skills at the same time.

 3. It's super hard to get a decent photo with an iPhone.  Both because the light is bad and the zoom is really grainy.

Ashton loved the sport and was able to develop some good confidence and skills in the short season.  This was especially nice since she was one of the only fifth graders who had never played before. 

Halloween 2013 - scary indeed

 And the costumes this year were Avenger's theme...Black Widow for 3rd grade.

 and a complex 5th grade group collaboration of M&Ms that took a satisfying couple months to plan...

Jaq and her teacher are ready for some candy.

 and a parade...

 She insisted mom dress up and wanted to go back to the 50's theme (said I could do odd/even  with the costumes)

By the end of the night they were pretty tired...

Broken Arm

 Upon picking Jacqueline up from theater practice I noticed she was holding her arm funny.  When I asked her what happened she said "I don't want to tell you".

On our way to urgent care after a series of questions and short responses (and assurances that I wasn't mad) I finally got the story that she had fallen off the monkey bars during a short break.

Of course, we went for an xray that was visibly painful for her but she never cried.  In fact, she never mentioned the fall to anyone at the practice.

 but clearly you could see that the bone was broken.  She got 2 trips to urgent care, and 2 trips to the ER that night to finally end up with a splint and instructions to see the Orthopedist in a few days after the swelling went down.

 After some painful "manipulation" of her wrist she emerged with an orange cast and the words of wisdom that a "crooked cast is a straight bone".  OK then.


At this point when we asked her what she had learned from the ordeal she was quick to state that hanging upside down on monkey bars with pants was not a good idea as pants are too slippery.  Instead she recommends pulling the pants up so that your legs grip better.

A few weeks later she got another cast, this time she went for blue and it was much straighter.

Walk-A-Thon

 The PTA decided to kick off the year straight into fund-raising.  You can imagine my enthusiasm.

Kids were excited to do the walk-a-thon as ever, and thankfully the weather held as well.

Jacqueline and Sofia were quick to spot Ms. Chan walking.

Ashton on the other hand appears to be more excited about the orange slices as the photos show...

AYSO Goofy Goobers

Soccer season this year only Ashton played.  She worked really hard this season getting the "golden gatorade" on more than one occasion for working hard on the field.

 Ashton was a solid team player, often recognized for listening and working hard both in the games and at practice.

 She played goalie for much of the season but by the end tended to prefer to play forward. 

S

And of course, what is a sporting event without fans?

Tae kwon do

 After several times asking we finally were able to get Jacqueline into Tae kwon do.  She is having a blast.

 Of course a big part of the appeal is having a BFF in the class with her.  Although it does appear this sport draws on a lot of her strengths.  Kicking, hitting, yelling, etc.  She really is a natural!