Soccer 2010!!

This week the kids started their first season of soccer camp. Every Monday evening until June, they'll be running around a field working on learning soccer skills and at the end, they get to keep a soccer ball.

The camp is non-competitive for ages 4-6. I asked if Sadie could sign up (even though she's only 3) and it turns out that there were several younger siblings who were hoping to play. So Sadie's in, on a team with a few other 3 yr olds and while it was a rough start for her, she eventually liked it and got into it.

Caleb, on the other hand, was so excited from the start. He happily introduced himself to the coach and gave him high-five. Then he was all about listening and then practicing kicking, dribbling and stopping the ball.

I spent so much time watching them and giggling. I hope they have as much fun with it as I did growing up.

A Couple More Easter Shots

My it's been awhile!

Well, too much to cover in a short post but I was asked by my DH if I would post Easter pics of the kids some where that he could see them at work (right now all my pics are on Facebook)

So here they are...

We had a fun time out in Derry at G'ma Suzie and Papa Joe's. There was a ton of food, an Easter egg hunt and plenty of sweets. The kids even cooperated some so that I could get a few Easter pics of them.

Snow storms and Bookstores

Well, what a start to 2010. That's the last time we get the kids bikes for Christmas. Any other year, we'd be having a heat wave and I'd be going crazy trying to come up with things to do for the kids. This year, we've been stuck inside and still going crazy trying to find things to do.

30+ inches of snow! Absolutely crazy! It shut us down for a week. We did manage to get the kids out in it a bit but even then there was too much snow for them to do anything in. Poor Sadie was confined to the shoveled sidewalk. She attempted to make it to the backyard one afternoon but she just kind of fell on her face and when she started loosing her boots, I said that's enough.

In true Sadie fashion though, she was able to come up with her own games. Apparently Sadie has an extensive interest in collecting snowballs and her collection covers most of our yard. While Daddy shoveled, Sadie collected her snowballs and carefully his them back in the piles of snow. It was so cute to watch. I really wish I had taken video of it. We managed to get Caleb out in the snow too and took a couple of walks down the street. Sadie picked up more snowballs for her collection on the way.

Caleb enjoyed the snow only until his gloves got wet. As soon as he could feel the wetness, he was done and ready to come inside.

The kids missed almost 2 weeks of school. That was not really fun. While they played pretty well, towards the end of week #2 they began to really start picking at each other. We made it back this week for 2 days but today school was closed because of more snow. I'll be so happy when spring gets here.

Since we were stuck inside for so much of the time, the kids had to come up with new games. Well, recently, Caleb decided to open a bookstore in his bed. He lays out the his books and Sadie gets one of her bag and shops. He'll also happily tell you that his bookstore also sells toys (and this week keys when Mommy locked Pappy out of the house). He's also been known to show movies in his bookstore and they'll climb into his house (his bed) and sit there pretending to watch movies. Unfortunately, many of the movies that Sadie requests are not being shown (he can be such a stinker).

His bookstore is appropriately named, Caleb's Bookstore. Maybe he'll be opening a chain. But don't worry, he's still a policeman and he'll quickly tell you that but it's nice to see him branching out. He's also been following Handy Manny and dons his trusty tool belt to fix things throughout the house- like the elevator button? Well, he still likes to go along with a script but it's so great to see him pretending more and more these days (and not just going along with whatever wackiness that Sadie comes up with).

Well, I'll be posting snow pictures later but that's all for now.

part 2

Here's the second part of Caleb's Christmas video. See the story below...

Caleb's Christmas Present

One of Caleb's presents was stuck under the seat of Santa's sleigh so it wasn't delivered until today. ;-)

In truth the boy didn't mention wanting this until 2 days before Christmas and we didn't think he would have his heart set on it. After several days of hearing how disappointed he was with not getting (plus that it was on sale), we caved for the cave crusher. The little guy was so cute about it- not a brat and not even whiney and the reaction on this video was completely worth it.

Bellefield's Christmas pagent 2009

The Sunday before Christmas, our church, Bellefield Presbyterian in Oakland put on a little Christmas pageant with the children's Sunday school classes. Sadie's class were sheep. Caleb's class were shepherds. Unfortunately with the events of the past month or so, we haven't been making it to Sunday school with regularity. The kids had learned their song "Away in a Manger" but didn't really know beyond that what they would be doing. To make matters even more complicated Saturday morning we were supposed to have rehearsal but mother nature decided to send us a heavy snow fall. Rehearsal was rescheduled for right before the service.

Well, Caleb was not even remotely interested in playing this game. He knew very well that there were no policemen in the manger scene and therefor no place for him. He couldn't be a shepherd when he's always been a policeman. He happily sat with Daddy watching the practice and performance.

Sadie was all dressed up in her Christmas dress but a little unsure of all that was going on. Then came time for putting on her little lamb costume (a pillowcase). Well, she wanted nothing to do with covering up her pretty dress. She reluctantly put it on and came downstairs to rehearse with the rest of them. A very sad and pouting Sadie came down to rehearse. I went to ask what was wrong, seeing her so upset, and all she had to say was "I look silly." I've never been good at lying and while she did look adorable, she also looked a little silly with the pillowcase on. I tried my best not to let on and reassure her that she looked like a little lamb but she was not having it. Her class went up on stage to practice and she refused to sing at all and stood there pouting. It was heartbreaking to watch and still so funny because the poor thing was convinced that she looked ridiculous.

Rehearsal finished and the little ones were sent up to their rooms to wait for the program to begin. I talked to Sadie and talked to her teachers and we agreed that she didn't have to wear the pillowcase if she would be happy and sing with the rest of the kids. This made her very happy. After a short time of playing, it was time to take the lambs all down to the sanctuary. This meant getting pillowcases on 8 or so 3 yr olds (most of which were not interested at all in wearing them let alone being up on stage singing). One of Sadie's classmates put on her pillowcase and the next thing I knew, Sadie was happily wearing hers and was ready to sing.

She went with her class up on stage, wore her pillowcase and even sang a little. It was very cute. We even had a black sheep in her class. Actually the little guy was wearing a bat costume from the dress-ups but we decided that he was the little black sheep and it was adorable.

It was a very cute program, complete with a newborn baby as the baby Jesus and I hope they do it again next year. Who knows, we might even be able to convince Caleb to be a shepherd.



Notice the black sheep on the left



Sadie pouting