Spikes

Chase has naturally spiky hair on the top towards the back. (It WILL NOT lay down!) I spiked it just a little more in the front during his bath. I just realized the irony of his spiky hair with the Stegosaurus on his sleeper. :)

Soccer

Addison started soccer this week at Locker Soccer. It's indoor, so we'll be able to do this all winter long if she likes it. We had to take a break from gymnastics to fit this one in, so we'll see which she prefers. I have such a hard time deciding which activities to put Addison in because I love them all....music, gym, now soccer. I also want to enroll her in dance, but there's just not enough time now with preschool and trying to preserve Chase's nap schedule.

Addison is in the 2 1/2-3 age group. She could probably be in the 3-4 group, but I wanted her to start in the younger group because the parents stay on the field and participate. The class is also a bit shorter than the 3-4's. Addison is not a shy girl, but I had a feeling she would be a little timid her first class.

They started by letting the kids pick out a spot (circle mat). Addison picked her favorite color, lellow (yellow), of course! She put it on the ground and sat right down. Then they took attendance. She was supposed to raise her hand and say "here" when her name was called, but she put on her shy face instead.

Her instructor, Coach Chad, is great and really made Addison feel comfortable. Within minutes, she was off running around with the other kids. I stood back for most of the class.

After attendance, they warmed up by playing a freeze game where the kids would kick the ball around while music was playing and had to freeze when the song said so.

Next were stretches where Coach Chad pointed out the calf, quad, and hamstring as we were stretching those muscles.

After they stretched, Coach Chad set up cones that they were supposed to dribble around and try to score a goal.

Coach Chad said they would get extra credit if they shouted "Goal, Baby!" when they scored. Addison was the only one I heard do it.

After that exercise, they lined up against the wall and ran relay races, again zig zagging in between cones.

I think there are 8 kids in her class (only 2 girls) - obviously some weren't following directions! :)

Addison did pretty good with this, but missed a few cones along the way.

The last activity was Sharks and Minnows where the parents were to kick the ball and try to (lightly) hit the kids with it. If the kids were hit, they had to lay down and wait for one of their friends to jump over them and "save" them. It was really cute and the kids actually had the hang of it. Addison said she had a lot of fun at soccer...yay!

First Day of Preschool

Addison had her first day of preschool today! She is going to Lewis Center United Methodist 2 mornings a week. She will be in the 2 1/2 year old class since she doesn't meet the cutoff for the 3 year olds. There aren't many programs around the area that take kids under 3, so I was happy to have found one I really liked because I felt that Addison was really ready for school this year. She's been talking about it for a year!

Although today was actually "Meet the teacher day" (a condensed version of her real first day where parents attend with them), we treated this as her first day. We packed her snack, had her take her backpack...the whole works.

When we got to school, we found her classroom and the hook with her name above it. She thought this was pretty cool and loved hanging her backpack on her all by herself. I took these two pictures so I could remember her classmates names. There are 7 kids in her class - 5 girls and 2 boys. They are all the names listed in the top row.

Addison, Abby and Shelby are all previous playmates from my Mom's Club, which is nice. I also really like the small class size - 2 teachers:7 students. Addison will get a lot of personal attention. I think this environment will be great for her!

After we hung up her backpack, her teachers, Mrs. Ramsey and Mrs. Reed met us at the door to the classroom, introduced themselves and gave Addison a name tag necklace. She made herself right at home and walked right to the craft table.

Her first craft at school!

Then she and Abby made a new friend, Danielle (in the middle), in the reading corner.

Coloring with Shelby, while wearing some dress-up clothes.

Mrs. Ramsey came to sit with her as she was making her masterpiece.

She was so proud of her work and wanted to show it off. First stop, Mrs. Reed!

Next, the other parents and children!

And just in case Mrs. Ramsey didn't see enough of it, she wanted to show her again!

She really liked playing with the beads.

"Mom, you're embarrassing me!"

After school, the 3 friends held hands

had a little pow-wow

and raced one another. Too cute!

Addison's first day of school was a success! Hopefully Thursday will go just as well!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Julie!

Julie's birthday is today, so while we were in Cleveland and Julie and the baby were still in the hospital, the kids decorated a cake for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT JULIE!!

Cousins

We tried to get a good cousins shot. Keyword tried. :)

Love Addison and Chase looking at one another in this one!

He's almost as big as her!

This one would have been pretty good if I wasn't out of focus.

Introducing Faith Ann

My beautiful niece, Faith Ann Sobel, graced us with her presence on the morning of Friday, September 3rd. She is a little peanut at 6lb. 9oz. and 19 inches long. We had the pleasure of going up to Cleveland and spending her first 2 days home with her. She is absolutely gorgeous with very light, almost blonde hair and dimples in both cheeks!

I used my buggy and wonderful-camera-that-I-aspire-to-learn-about to take some pictures of her that I thought turned out pretty decent. It helped that I had such a precious subject!