Alex soccer

Alex has been having an absolute blast on his soccer team this year.  This is the 3rd year he’s been on the same team, with the same excellent coach, with a handful of them returning for the 3rd year as well.  This year they have 4 kids on the field instead of just 3, with the additional player playing “sweeper-keeper” (aka goalie).  Alex loves getting physical, has amazingly good foot skills, and the goalie is a fun position for the kids to all try out.  I have a lot of sweeper-keeper pictures of him because he isn’t moving so fast that I can actually capture him! 

 

He is so fun to watch out there on the playing field.  He’s having fun and asking his coach when he can go back in.  They play hard!  When the soccer season starts in late August and early September – there have been some game days that have been ~88 degrees when they play.  Hot!  We haven’t hit the rainy weather yet, but we know it’s coming. 

 

 

How Boys U8 “decompress” after games (dog-pile!).  Of course, Alex is right in the middle of it all. 

 

 

 

 

After a really hot game – he likes to douse his head with water and make a mohawk. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex’s 7th Birthday

We had a blast on Alex’s 7th Birthday this year (back in March, I’m just a wee bit late). 

 

I can’t believe my boy is 7!  We invited a few friends and they got to ride the bus home on a Friday afternoon.  They played a bit in the backyard and then we were off to a go-cart place.  They had a blast there and back to our house again for pizza and cake and then home they went!  Alex had so much fun! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basketball

 

Basketball is in full swing and the difference between first year playing and second year is amazing!  Alex is having so much fun and Lance is the coach!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two first teeth

 

 

Alex lost his two first teeth and was SO happy about this.  You can see in the pictures below how excited he is.

 

It was new, and it was very exciting! 

 

And it means you’re a big kid in kindergarten and first grade – big time!  He was so sad last year when he didn’t loose any teeth saying that “everyone” else had lost teeth.  He would even have me feel his teeth saying “see Mom – it feels loose, right?”  I would nod my head and say it felt a little tiny bit loose. 

 

It would come out when it was ready, and since there was so much change going from preschool to kindergarten, that maybe they were just waiting to settle down into first grade a bit before they came out.  I even joked that Mama had had enough change with him starting kindergarten and that I wasn’t ready yet  -  wasn’t ready for him to have too much happening!  At the end of kindergarten, he asked me (break my heart!) if I would be ready for him to lose his teeth.  I said yes, of course! 

 

And right on queue, September of first grade rolls around and he has a slightly loose tooth.  We go see the dentist and she makes a prediction that the two bottom teeth will be out before Halloween, and what do you know?  They are out before Halloween!  The first one about 3 weeks before and the second one just days before Halloween. 

 

I love him growing up so much – but at the same time I want to just freeze him and keep him this way forever.  I just love this age!

 

For the record, he lost his first one at home (thank goodness!) with Daddy taking a paper towel and gently pulling it out (quickly).  The second one came out at school and the dentist gave him this tooth necklace to put his tooth in if he lost it at school.  Perfect!

 

Those new big kid teeth are coming in fast now!  I’ve heard once they start to loose teeth – they come out all in rapid succession – and it’s very true!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Tooth

 

Alex lost his first tooth a few weeks back and it was SO exciting.  That tooth was loose for a while, but wasn’t ready.  He wiggled and wiggled until finally we came home and saw that it was wiggling so much that it stuck out 90 degrees!  He was a little scared, but Daddy took a paper towel, grabbed a hold of that sucker and pulled gently and out it came.  Not even hurtie!

 

Such a proud picture!

 

He was so excited since “everybody” had lost a tooth in kindergarten and he was sad that he didn’t yet.  We visited the dentist back in September and they said it was only a matter of time, and predicted they’d be out by Halloween!  Guess what – they were right!

 

Lemonade stand

 

 

The kids have had their first lemonade stand and it was amazingly wonderful.  Alex and his summer camp thought up the idea about having a lemonade stand at camp for another class.  And he was so excited to tell me all about it.  They made their signs and poured glasses of lemonade to all the friends in the other class.  He was so excited and wanted to bring it home.  We were having a  cleanup at the entry of our

neighborhood this past Sunday, and I told him that it would be the perfect time.  Hot and sweaty workers and fresh cold lemonade.  A perfect mix. 

 

He already had his sign (“Mom – the “e” is silent – that’s why it’s not there).  All we needed to get was the lemonade.  When I initially asked him how much he was going to charge – he said 10 cents.  Then a little bit later, he said that he just wanted to have fun at it and wasn’t going to charge anything.  Then one of the neighbors drove by while we were setting up and asked what he was charging – he said 25 cents.  Fair, but reasonable.  Love my boy!  He was so happy and loved giving all his neighbor friends lemonade after a lot of work cleaning up the entrance.  We were all thirsty and lemonade hit the spot!

 

I hope we do a lemonade stand again soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growth Stats

Sara

40.1 inches (97%)

34 lbs (79%)

 

 

Yep, we knew it already – she’s tall!  There are some 4 and 5 year olds that she’s evenly matched with – let’s just say that!  Our girl is wearing size 5T and is growing up so fast!  She wants to be just like big brother and wanted to wear his mitt for the picture.  She happily posed for the picture and says her usual “cheese”. She’s got little freckles coming out on her nose, I’ll have to try to capture those!  The sun is helping a bit on this one even though we slather her with sunscreen.  She’s got the most beautiful skin though, so creamy and soft.  And then she’ll roar at you like a lion!  Watch out!

 

 

 

 

Alex

48.4 inches (92%)

50.5 lbs (74%)

 

then I had to show this one that his little sister already posed for a picture like this and that he should too!   But, he wasn’t smiling, so I had to say “smile like you’re going to go to Target and get Pokemon” and this is what I got!  Wonderful!  Also, it’s funny Alex is 92%, but there is at least 5-10 kids in his class that are BIGGER/TALLER than him.  He looks “medium” compared to these others.  It’s so funny.  I think his body is just waiting for another growth spurt!

 

Let’s play ball!

 

 

The baseball season has started and Alex is out there and playing!  This year he’s on the "Bats” team.  And it’s coach pitched, not T-ball anymore!!! 

 

 

 

 

And in this sequence he’s doing exactly what they’ve been practicing for a long time now – scoop up the ball, throw it to first base.  Each and every time they get a ball – it’s the same thing.  Look at that tongue!

 

 

 

 

 

So cute in his batting helmet!