FOOTBALL!

If you know my kids

you know that football is an all-consuming pastime for them.

Since the little girls have watched the older kids do this literally all their life,

Ruby, Ivy and Elizabeth were very excited to actually be allowed to "play" the game

as opposed to being shooed from it.

When Elizabeth plays football,

she mostly just stands in the midst of the action and yells, "hut!!".

Ruby loves all things "boy-ish" (that's her word, not mine)

and has slowly earned her way into their world over the past months.

Christopher has been growing like a weed and his pants no longer cover his ankles.

(He's on the right.)

Ivy determinedly kept up.

Her hands were cold, but she wasn't going to stop long enough to grab some gloves.

Her understanding of the game is basically this: 

Run. 

From one end of the "field" to the other.

This guy, Elijah, has grown tired of the assumption 

that football was only Christopher and Andrew's thing.

Noooooosir, he likes football just as much as they

and he is ready to prove it this year!

Um, so, yeah.

This is pretty much what she wears every day.

Her hair is usually done, but she had taken it out by this time in the evening.

Abram is in the fun stage of just running around in the midst of the game

wearing all the appropriate gear. :)

Here he is feigning a play in which he was "tackled".

The older kids are always very tolerant of the younger ones when they play football,

as long as the little ones are not purposely sabotaging the plays

or crying over every unintended minor collision.

He righted himself soon enough,

applying his own helmet tap.

He's a good sport that way...

Ivy and Abram 

"Readaaaay.....seeeeeet.........HUT, HUT!"

but "running" is a slow thing when your boots are four sizes too big.

This kid cracks me up.

He kept returning to the line,

ready for the next "play".