Pele!

Watch out, Pele! There is a new footballer in town! Week one of indoor soccer was stressful and quite depressing after our typically go-getter son decided to have what seems to be an anxiety attack during the first huddle up. Troy and I were completely deflated and without direction. We are not the parents to push our kids into doing anything and everything. Nate has been begging us to play soccer. Selfishly in the past we haven't let him because it was usually on football saturdays. So, not pushy parents here, eh? We were frustrated because we knew he wanted to do this as evidenced by him begging to sign him up and playing soccer in the house for the last month in preparation. When we got to the gym he was running around warming up and playing with all the other kids. And, then, wham, his head exploded during the huddle with the coach, many tears ensued and no one could get him back on that field. Anyways, time, a couple calls to the school psychologist and many, many bribes (by the way, that was not a psychologist recommended tactic! sshh!) and we have seemed to move past this. Week two came and Nate warmed up, huddled up and mastered the field! There had to have been a significant glare from that gym that afternoon because I'm not sure if Troy and I or Nate were beaming with pride more!

In the past we have always been able to identify a nervous twitch that Nate acquires and repeatedly demonstrates particular to each event. For little league it was pulling up his pants. Particularly taking his catching hand out of his glove to pull up his pants even though his pants were cinched as tight as could be and were not falling down. This drove us and his coach bananas! Well, in soccer, it is definitely pulling up his socks! The kid was wearing his shin guards nearly on his knees! Above you can see him adjusting his socks before he kicks a ball in to play.

By the way, in the future I will be trying to obtain a better picture of the Coach as pictured above in the royal blue. His calves are GINORMOUS. The man definitely had his day playing soccer. He could crush skulls with these things. Troy and I are also convinced he wears eyeliner.

Monkey Sea...

Boz got Nate some Sea Monkey's for Christmas. Yeah, Sea Monkeys! What a blast from the past. We followed the directions to the t warmed the water and let it settle, put it in the proper lighting, slowly feeding this stinky powder potion into the water every day, then every other and so on. And, lo and behold, we have a sea of....well, they don't look like monkeys to me, but they sure are some interesting little flagellated things. Nate is quite proud and keeps feeding them. The directions don't go much beyond the birth of the monkeys. It is now Nate's prerogative to grow giant sea monkeys. I think he thinks they will actually turn in to monkeys. Our luck, they will. Stay tuned.

Kuther King Martin Day

Nate and Tessa having a hat brunch for Kuther King Martin Day. Nate learned all about Martin Luther King Jr in school. He got a little bit confused by his name but nonetheless came away with the message that discrimination is not cool. He was telling Troy and I how the "brown people couldn't used the water fountains" and "the yellow people couldn't even sit on the bus with the white people." Apparently this is how they simplify these historic times for kindergartners! He was horrified by it all. How sweet and wise is the mind of a child. What better way to discuss these matters than with a hat on and over a bowl of cereal!

Living With Children

When you are preparing for your first child you get the registry and pick out all of the very important things this small little person must have for survival. Of course you plan on making a room or a nursery chock full of a crib, dresser, changing table and all the other baby fixin's. Being a little bit of the hippie, minimalist-type I expected that my baby would need nothing but a blanket to be swaddled in and me. Well, my kid got a crib, a changing table, a dresser, an awesome ceiling painted like clouds for which we paid way too much money, a closet full of clothes and more than one blanket. And, this was just the list in the nursery. I didn't think that the kid would need space in the bathroom and kitchen and the garage! And then there are the toys. The toys that despite having a designated toy area or room manage to sneak and seep out into all living spaces! Today as I was getting ready to prepare some dinner for my family...that surprisingly didn't involve any chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese...I came upon a toy drill neatly tucked away in the silverware drawer. These are the little things that make you want to scream but seem to make you smile even more! I will choose to look on the bright side. At least the toy was "put away."

Pretty Clean-ish

Never fails. You actually get your kids clean and how long does it last? Pretty much only while you are still in the bathroom toweling off. Here's Miss T fresh from a shower and a cereal bar has attacked her face, hands and was all over the couch. Please notice she's wearing her awesomely cozy smoking jacket given to her for Christmas from Gramma Char.

Toddler Mind Overload

The above picture of Tessa gambling with her penguin friend has nothing to do with my commentary today.

Nate has been coming home with all sorts of kindergarten knowledge. Well, Miss Tessa is similarly learning a lot and only wants to do what her brother is doing. She's just been growing and maturing at the speed of light lately! So, I had to laugh at her little mind working overtime the other day. This was evidenced by her counting for me and when she got to 15 she followed with "thank you, amen." Seriously? We're obviously working on numbers, manners and praying! Ha! Back off mom and dad!

New Years Eve

Sometimes planning nothing turns into something really fun! We don't get caught up much in the hype of NYE...anymore, I should say. This year we got a phone call from the Allens that they wanted to come to visit. Having nothing extravagant planned we welcomed our friends and only slightly modified our plans of cooking up some dinner for a few more people and getting a few more juice boxes for all the kids to fuel up and let them run until they dropped. As it turns out, some other folks in and around town didn't have plans to get dressed up and go out or just simply did not have a babysitter booked for the evening. So our casual evening remained quite casual but did turn out quite a crowd. Pork tenderloin, chicken nuggets, juice boxes, wine, beers, champagne, games, including a full on adult basketball tournament in the kitchen and the kids playing mermaids with garbage bags and I think even some BB gun shooting in the driveway is how we celebrated the evening. The kids, donned in a wide variety of dress up clothes from the toy bin, knew no different and celebrated NYs at 10p sharp with a video clip of the ball dropping. We tossed their tired little bodies into beds and sleeping bags and continued to enjoy the evening much longer than rational adults should. See ya 2010.

Kelsey, Naomi, Lisa and Kelly

Kelly making salad while Nate collects "dinosaur eggs" commonly known as an avocado pit.Nate, Tessa, Allie, Kayleigh, Katie and Sam.
Jay, Nate, Abby, Kayleigh, Sam, Katie and Maya.
Kelsey...the best baby in the world, hands down.

Chicken Nugget Feast.Tessa wearing her mermaid suit.Mermaid friends Abby Storch, Kayleigh and Allie.Tessa, Katie, Maya and Jay anxiously awaiting the ball dropping!Kaleigh Boike, Allie McKaig, Abby Storch, Katie Allen, Maya and Jay Sinha and Nate