Our Little Soccer Player

Bradley missed the cut-off for PeeWee league soccer by thirteen days, but the board decided to let him play anyways and that is good thing because he really wanted to play. He is about a foot shorter than the other boys on his team, but I think that is going to be a standing issue for the rest of his sports and school career.

He is still trying to figure out how the game works and which way the ball is supposed to go. He likes his coach (Mark Warne) and the other kids on his team. They have now had three games and a handful of practices. Bradley hasn't scored any goals, but this is the first experience he has had with soccer. He does stay with the group most of time when they are running and every now and then gets a kick at the ball. We just need to work on him being more aggressive when he is on defense, I know he has it in him, I have seen him interact with Jaxson !

 

 

Bradley doing a side-kick. (I think that it is what it is called. Mr.Craw, my summer PE teacher would be so disappointed in me for not knowing the rules for soccer that he taught and tested us over.)

See what I mean by the height difference?

 



 

Bradley playing the tough looking goalie !

The Windy City Via Train

Last weekend we went to Chicago for the day. Bradley had been wanting to go on a real train ride and Jaxson has continued his obsession with "choo choos" so we paired up with another family and took the Amtrak to the city.

All together we had four adults and five kids and the kids were so excited!

 

 

Jaxson spent a lot of time on the train ride looking out the window repeating choo choo, choo choo!

 

Madison, Owen and Bradley at the beginning of the train ride before they realized the real length of a two hour ride.

 

 

 

The conductor took the kids to the door on the back of the last car and let them watch what was behind us, they thought it was pretty cool! (Yeah, I know there is a weird angle on this picture.)

 

 

We finally arrived at Union Station! Now it was time to determine how we were going to get to Navy Pier, we ended up catching a water taxi. The kids were pretty excited to see all the big tall buildings and ride on a boat through the middle of all of them.

Once at Navy Pier we ate lunch and then we went to the Chicago Children's Museum. We have been to the Indianapolis Children's Museum a couple of times and it is fantastic, so it set a pretty high bar for Children's Museums, however the Chicago Children's Museum was almost as awesome.

 

 

Jaxson's crawling through the cardboard exhibit.

 

The waterways exhibit, Jaxson liked this a lot, he was soaked by the time he was finished exploring.

 

Aside from toting double strollers and all the kids' stuff around the city and up and down stairs, we had a great day.

Another 1st Day of Preschool for Bradley

On Tuesday, Bradley went to his first day of his second year of preschool. Last year he went to preschool two days a week and he will do the same again this year. I sent him last year, because I was home on maternity leave and I thought it would be good for him to interact with other kids, his birthday is in August so he kind of fell within the cut off and best of all he just might learn something.

Next year he will go to preschool four days a week and he cannot wait, he was ready to go four days a week this year. So, I guess you could say he is on the three year plan for preschool, but it was by choice and he already knows all his letters and their sounds. I just don't want him to grow up too fast!

I meant to take this picture yesterday on the first day of school, but I forgot, so we did it today.
 

I got this idea from one of my sorority sisters. I would like to do this every year until he refuses, I think it will be interesting to see how his ambitions change over the years. I am not sure how to feel about this, his dad has been gone a lot lately, but he also loves doing stuff with his dad. And yeah, I know he has a goofy smile, this is what he does lately when you tell him to smile for a picture...

 

This was in the morning before we left to go to school.

 

This is from a small group once he got to school.

 

I also took a picture of how he is currently writing his name, I would like to do this each year to see how much his handwriting changes from the beginning to the end and over the years to come.

 

Now if I can just figure out how to freeze time so that I can enjoy all of this fun and cuteness a little longer!

 

A Trip to the Boys Favorite Eatery

The other night we had to go up north to pick up some things for our investment property and we needed a break so we stopped at Tyler's Tender for dinner.

We make a trip here every few months, because this restaurant is so enjoyable. Bradley really looks forward to visiting Tyler's Tender and I am pretty sure Jaxson will now too.

Jax has a new infatuation with "choochoos" since his up close encounter with the a freight train engine. Also, there are train tracks that run behind the investment property and the boys have been spending a lot of time over there so it has been very exciting for these country boys to watch the trains come through on a regular basis.

Tyler's Tender is great they have a large display model train with buttons so the kids can interact. There is also an indoor train that the kids can ride.

 

 

Jaxson was so excited and he really did not want to eat or leave, he just wanted to stay there and make the trains move all day... (Hmmm, not sure where he gets that instinct from...)

 

 Jax did not want to ride at first and adults ride free, so guess who rode with him?