Andrew had Tommy join a soccer league and volunteered to the be the coach! Oh boy, what did he get himself into?
They had their first soccer practice on Thursday and their first game was today. Tommy did not have a good first practice. He was having a bad week but I was still hopeful for Saturday.
Huddled up and ready to start playing. In the 4 year old league, the coach gets to stay on the field.
Charlotte and I had front row seats for the game! ;)
Andrew put the kids in a formation because that's what the other coach was doing. Ha! This is Tommy and his new friend Sage, I think is her name. It was evident we were playing some kids who had definitely played before and might have been a little older.
Tommy was much more prepared with his soccer uniform today. He also looked adorable too. :)
Coach Andrew giving a thumbs up!
Here are some highlights from the game. I almost think it's more fun for the parents than the kids! At the beginning of this video, Tommy is holding his side. He just got nearly leveled by another girl on his team. Whoops! But he hung in there for a little bit. The kid with the faux hawk is really good, obviously. By the end of the season, they should really get how to play. :)
After the game, they did the obligatory, "Good Game" handshake walk.
After the game, the parents make a tunnel and they run through it. It's the cutest thing and a perfect tradition. Love it. First practice was rough but the first soccer game was a success!
The weekend before my birthday, we planned a trip to go out on Lake Wawasee. We packed up Friday morning and headed out.
The kids decided they wanted to dress themselves that day. Charlotte chose to turn my High School State Champs t-shirt into a dress. Nice work, Char! Project Runway, here you come!
Tommy decided to don his Captain America costume. Yep, we took him to lunch at Sonic wearing that. He was a big hit!
We arrived in Syracuse and hit the beach. This is the best little beach and they have paddleboards and kayaks available for anyone staying there to use.
We had both kids out on the boards/kayaks. They loved it.
Don't fall!
Tommy made some sand angels. He was a sandy mess!
We got the boat in the water and took it to the Channel Marker for dinner. Late night boat cruises are the best. Oh wait, I forgot about the bugs. Blech. But other than that, they are great. :)
The next morning, this was my lake view. Hello, cutie! Hello, lake!
My parents, Adam, and Emily took the boat out early in the morning for smooth wakeboarding water. We joined them later. My boat selfies are not on point. ;-)
Charlotte took a turn driving.
Tommy floated on the tube at the sandbar.
So did Grandma and Charlotte. Sun queens!
Tommy rode behind the boat on the tube.
He hated it. Andrew loved it! Just kidding. He was just glad it was over.
However, it was not over. Adam and Andrew rode the tube all the way back to the hotel. Boy, was he sore!
Not quite the spring chicken he used to be. :)
Charlotte was ready for a boat break at that point so she went up to the room with Tommy, Gaga, and Pop, and they had naptime.
We continued boating and saw a dude on a water jet pack or aqua flyer or whatever it might be called. For a cool $100 grand, you can do this too!!
Instead we surfed behind the boat and drank beer. I also surfed but I don't have any pictures. Waaahh waaahhh. :)
Here's a video of Uncle Adam's beer roll that Andrew caught on camera.
Later that night, we went to the bar and I somehow ended up with this picture on my phone the next day. In fact, there were about 20 of them. Thanks, guys! ;)
On Monday, after we got back, it was officially my birthday. I got to hit up my favorite places, Target, the mall, 9 Irish Brothers and Red Lobster. At Red Lobster, we took selfies.
I had to get a pic of the boys too!
Then it was time for a mom/kids selfie. Looks about right...
Nope, that's more like it!
Even my car wished me happy birthday!
It was a wonderful birthday weekend. Lots of fun and celebration!
These two are!! Their first day of school was August 10th. (Have I ever mentioned that school used to start after my birthday? Well it used to, back in the olden days. :) Anyway, Tommy is moving into Pre-K (learning to read, field trips, homework??? Whaaaa?) and Charlotte is moving into the two's class (potty training, colors, numbers, letters, oh my). They're growing so fast.
Check out their super cute first day of school outfits. Awww!
This class is for real now for Tommy. It's kinda crazy. He had a poster project the second week! Make a poster for homework? What's next, a powerpoint presentation?? Yikes!
So here's the poster. The project was make a poster to show why you're special. It was pretty open ended. This is what we came up with. I had Tommy pick the pictures. He picked out and put on stickers. We only had Elmers glue (no glue stick) so we intervened with the gluing. There was still glue EVERYWHERE.
It was really hard to let go and let him do it. He wanted to write his name in the middle in pink crayon. He did but you couldn't read the letters on the dark poster board so I offered to cut out letters. That did not go well. But he was having a bad day. The next morning, I showed him the letters I cut out and he was totally excited and glued them on himself (with a teeny bit of a OCD mom help ;-) I thought the poster turned out great! It cracks me up that he put all the stickers in one spot. Super cute. He's got an eye for design, I think. Don't you?? ;-)
Tommy LOVES his new class and new teacher. He is also glad Cooper is back from summer vacation. He barely says bye when we drop him off. It makes me really happy that he loves it so much.
Charlotte, on the other hand, is going through a separation anxiety stage with her new class. :( Drop offs are not going well right now. She's also having trouble following classroom rules. I hope it gets better quickly. I remember Tommy having trouble at this age too. It's only been two weeks so hopefully she comes around and gets used to the new class very quickly. Potty training was going well at the very first few tries but now she's not interested anymore. She's not even two! Hopefully she's show interest in doing that sometime soon too.
The morning we had to check out, Snoopy was in the lobby again!
Charlotte was once again terrified. Tommy was cool as a cucumber.
Stay away from me, bro!
She truly loved the carousel horses in the lobby though.
We took a family picture in front of the hotel. We're all in it and no one is hiding! Yay! A second one!
Brandon's family got a pic. They took serious ones but this one is way better.
We also got a family pic. Tommy was not very excited about it.
We tried to get a grandkid picture but Tommy wasn't having it. You could say he was vacationed out.
But we did get some of the grandkids in a jumping photo. Ha!
Tommy took some time away from everyone after the dreadful experience of having his picture taken. Charlotte was sure to check on him. "You otay, Tommy?"
We loaded up and headed out of the park. We drove by all the coasters on our exit. There's one of my top 3! The millennium at 300 feet! Love it!
Here's the Blue Streak and the Gatekeeper at the same time!
You're welcome for visiting! :-) We had a great time!
We headed back to our Indiana home.
Here's a quick roundup of the GoPro pics that I haven't included yet...
The most serious high five you've ever seen on the Gemini.
A Gemini selfie!
Here's one with me on the Gemini too. Great sunset!
It's a long way up on the Magnum!
It's much longer going down though! Hands up!
Great view of the go-cart track, er, I mean, sunset. Of course. :-) Gemini to the left.
Adam and Brandon selfie on the Windseeker. Great angle to see the Wicked Twister in the background. Man, that is high.
Did I mention that is high?
Here's an awesome shot of the hotel atrium. Tres cool.
We were so sad to go home. Tommy decided he didn't want to go to school anymore. He didn't want to be at home anymore. He only wanted to be on vacation from now on. Me too, Tommy Hawk. Me too.
Wonderful vacation! Thank you to Mom and Dad for another wonderful family experience. We are so lucky!
