First Busy Fall

This fall will be a little different than our autumn's of the past. We have scheduled ourselves to be pretty busy. Roo started at his new preschool last week and has enjoyed it so far, they start their actual preschool portion of the day this week. I'm hoping he continues to build on what he learned last year and gets even more confident with his hand writing. Oh, and that he includes the number 13 when he counts.

We also have both boys in sports. Roo is in soccer for the first time in a couple of years and is on his friend Connor's soccer team. So far he really enjoys it. His practices are on Thursday's with games on Saturday mornings.

I took Bug to Roo's last practice and couldn't keep him off the field. The only soccer available to kids under 3 is the tots soccer at the field house. So I signed him up and he had his first session this past Saturday. He loved it! He absolutely loves kicking and dribbling the ball and had fun participating in each of the different activities. The kids were all worn out by the end and I thought for sure he wanted to go home but instead wanted to continue with our normal Saturday trip to Wegman's. He took a good nap that afternoon!

And today Roo had his first swim lesson. He was so funny in the car on the way there asking me to stay with him the entire time because he's shy. We got there and they were put into groups based on their swimming ability so he and one other little girl were with one instructor and life guard. I left and exercised a little and then came back his his instructor nodded to me that he was doing great. He was so happy, smile on his face the entire time he was in the pool. It was great and hopefully it'll continue to go well!

I'm excited for our busy fall, it's great to have the kids learning new things and participating in group activities. Stay tuned for pictures from these fun times!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Hope you're having a great day golfing. We all love you very much and look, we made you a cake! :)

Happy 8th Birthday Baxter

You'll always be a puppy to us. Glad you were able to teach Uncle Matt your appreciation of the word "hamburger" and hope you got a ride out of me saying "do you want to go for a R I D E?," oh how we miss saying those words to you. Happy Birthday!

How They Spent Their Summer

The boys spent a ton of time in their little pool on the deck this summer. They lounged in it in chairs, they swam in it, splashed water at each other and us from it, filled water guns with water from it and generally had a blast. Oh, and they at lots of popsicles in the pool too!

I put the pool under the deck in preparation for the hurricane and am not sure if it'll make it back out as we get into a busier fall routine. Can't wait to pull it out again next summer!

Roo's 1st Soccer Practice

We signed Roo up for soccer this fall. We decided to put him on a 5-6 year old team rather than the 4-5 year old smart start program so he could be on his friend Connor's team. Roo's really shy so we figured having a friend on the team would help get him out on the field. Connor wasn't able to go to the first practice because of the earthquake. Roo went and was very reluctant to go out on the field. I finally convinced him to go out there and he did what I expected. He stood around a lot on the field during the scrimmage portions but did follow the coaches instructions when they were doing a few drills. We need to practice basic skills with Roo so he can better know what he's doing on the field. He's actually not very aggressive at all, which isn't a bad thing, and after a little coaching I was able to get him to chase and kick the ball on a few occassions during their scrimmage portion.

His favorite part of practice was probably running to and from the field for water breaks. If Roo lacks a sense of competition in a scrimmage environment, he for sure showed it running to and from the field to the bench. He was always trying to be the first to get his water and fastest back to the field.

He's enrolled in swimming too, and that starts later this month. We're curious how he's going to do once he learns to swim. Is he going to be an individual team sport sort of kid who wants to be his own score but still have a team of friends? Only time will tell.

And finally, the next day after practice Roo noted that he had bumped into another player and they both fell and was that ok. He had fallen a couple of times either from bumping into or being bumped and got up well on his own, no crying or that sort of thing. I told him that sometimes you bump into people in soccer and it's ok as long as you're not trying to hurt the and you say sorry and help them up. He seem relieved. Can't wait to see how the season progresses!

Earthquake

I may be a bit behind on other blog posts but I want to make sure I document the kids reactions to the earthquake today.

When I asked Roo about whether or not he felt it and what his feelings were about it, he said that it woke up him from his nap and that he thought it was great.

I don't think Bug recognized what happened at all though I think the sitter got him up from his nap just to make sure he and her home were ok.

It was pretty crazy and we were really lucky the house was fine and nothing broke. Grandma and Grandpa had some damage as they're pretty close to where the epicenter is. Wow, still can't believe we had an earthquake!

Little Superheros

A picture from earlier this summer!

Let's Go See Fish

We took the day off of work today since the sitter was off and decided to take the kids to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. When we left the house we called Uncle Matt to see what he was up to and he decided to meet us there. The drive didn't take too long and we had everything we needed packed for the day. We got there and met up with Uncle Matt and wandered around the exhibits for a few hours. We saw the 4D Dora show as well. The kids seemed like they were getting a bit tired and hungry so we left and got lunch. We decided on Chipotle since we all like it and it's easy to get food for Bug there. The kids enjoyed their lunch and playing around with Uncle Matt. On our way home we stopped for ice cream and dinner. Shocking how much food those kids can pack in on a given day. We had a great day and it was so much fun to just do something different with the kids for the day! Roo's favorite fish were the sharks and Bug's favorite were the little Nemo's.

Aunt Carol...Let's Go Fishing!

For Roo's birthday, Aunt Carol and the Bloob's got Roo a great fishing vest that holds all sorts of goodies, a new fishing rod and a tackle box. Roo was super excited when he got to open his presents and figured out as soon as we told him what the vest was what the other two portions of the gift were. He loved having a multi-part gift!

He opened his gifts late enough in the evening that it was past fishing time, but we promised to take him over the weekend.

When the weekend came along, we took the boys in the late afternoon once it got a bit cooler out. We picked up worms at the gas station and then headed over to the lake in the neighborhood.

Bug was also really excited to fish so we brought one of Daddy's big fishing poles with us as well.

Roo was so excited that he asked us if we had caught him a fish yet. His attention span for fishing consisted of running in and out of the gazebo we were fishing from and onto the beach and into the water and back and forth and so on. Bug had a bit more patience but we still weren't catching anything. He did have a lot of fun feeding the ducks though!

As it was nearning time to go home and have dinner, we really didn't want to leave without catching a fish. So we decided to cheat and fish off the part of the gazebo that is close to the beach, there are always a ton of fish swimming around in there.

It only took a few minutes and Bug caught a tiny little Bluegill. A few minutes later Roo caught a larger Bluegill.

The boys had a ton of fun fishing and I'm sure we'll return many evenings for some nice relaxing fun!