8 Years Old

Yes, Charles is 8 years old already. Can you believe it?

Since we just moved to a new town and Charles only started school a week before his birthday, we decided against inviting any friends to his party. Instead we might let him celebrate his half-birthday in February and have him invite a few boys for a game night/slumber party at our house. I think he'll have a blast doing that and he should have lots of new friends by then.

Part of Charles' birthday was the surprise trip to Legoland which we managed to keep a secret from the boys until we walked up to the park entrance. But we did get him a few presents, some books, legos, games, clothes. Seth's parents got him a couple new wii games, new batter pack & charging pads and a fun scrabble turbo slam game.

I'd say it was a success; he couldn't help but smile the whole time.

Both boys worked together putting the Captain America Lego Super Hero together. It took them about 30 minutes. I enjoyed sitting in the livingroom just watching them work on it together. They were a great team! Ryan would gather the pieces together for the next step, and then Charles would try to snap it in place. They only needed my help twice on some difficult snappings. I was very impressed with their teamwork and with their immagination as they immediately started playing with the toy after it was put together. I even let Ryan discover where I had hidden the Hulk version of the same toy that I intended to save for Ryan's birthday a month an a half later. Ryan put that one together all by himself and in less time! When he finished, he went down to show Charles, and then a few minutes later came back upstairs and quietly came up to me and gave me a hug! Aww, melted my heart. He was super happy that I had gotten him that toy.

Football

Ryan asked us if he could play football this year, and since he is finally old enough to play in the "baby boomer" league (5-6yr olds), we signed him up. Ryan is doing very well, he listens to the coach and does exactly what he is told. And he's enthusiastic when he plays. He doesn't like to be pushed down, so when he does, let's just say that it generally doesn't happen twice in a row! Our city has three baby boomer teams, Ryan is on the third one.

Each team is the Niceville Eagles, so Ryan's team is just called Niceville Eagles Three. Seth graduated from Niceville High School, so he's happy that Ryan's team shares the name and the colors of the high school. Ryan's first official game was a tie against Niceville Eagles Two. This last game was almost a tie, but the other team scored within seconds before they called the end of the game. They were much more organized than the week before, so the team is improving and doing well.

The team took too long on their warm up routine for the first game and didn't have time to have the players run through the Niceville banner at the beginning of the game, but for the second game they had enough time.

This picture makes me laugh when I look at it. I didn't realize it at first, but one of the players, Carter, is getting trampled. I think he was the same one in the game who when pushed down in a play looked like a bug on his back and waved his hands in the air for the coach to come over and pull him back up on his feet. He did that every time. Hilarious. Ryan is definitely having fun playing footbal, and we're having fun watching him.

New School Year

Charles and Ryan started school together for the first time. It was an exciting day for the whole family. Amy was also moving up to a new classroom at daycare. Ryan was super excited about Kindergarten and Charles was also excited about starting 3rd grade at a new school.

Here they are with silly grins.

The only thing that maybe could have made the day better was if it hadn't been raining that morning. I barely got any pictures the boys ran to the bus so fast. Notice Ryan's blurry foot, and Charles covering his head with his three ring zipper binder.

The bus comes at 7:40, so much later than the bus last year that came at 6:20. We are glad for the extra time in the morning and the boys are in such better moods and even have time to eat breakfast. Seth takes care of getting the boys to the bus in the mornings while I leave earlier with Amy and take her to daycare then head off to work. In the afternoons, the boys both take a different bus home to their grandparents' house. Seth then comes and gets the boys after work while I go get Amy. We usually are all together again around 6pm which is also when the boys sometimes have their ball practice. Seth also makes sure that the boys are ready for their practice. So far school is going great! Charles keeps bringing home good behavior stamps and although he has daily math homework he is able to do it on his own and in less than five minutes! Ryan is also doing very well and even was the first kid this year in his entire school to be awarded the exceptional student of the week award. Apparently they only chose one per week and not one per grade, so it was quite an honor. Charles even heard the announcement and said out loud, 'hey, that's my brother!'.