Rainbow Tiger Sharks with some private coaching by Uncle Alex

With Collin in kindergarten, we finally entered the world of organized sports.  We selfishly held onto our Saturdays as long as possible, but we wanted Collin to experience the fun and friendships that often come with sports.  There are two main options where we live - a competitive, multiple weeknight practice and game league or a low-key church league.  Of course we went with the church league and asked to be on a team with other kids from his elementary school.

And we ended up on an amazing team - with wonderful coaches, sweet parents with siblings who love Maya and play with her during practice, and all but two of the kids are in kinder with Collin at our school.  The team also has 8 girls and 3 boys, so they are named the Rainbow Tiger Sharks.  Cas refuses to cheer for them by their name, but does yell for the Tiger Sharks.

Our first game happened to fall on the weekend my brother was in town for a wedding, so he was able to join us for Collin's first game - a 45 minute drive to make the 9am game - that is some uncle dedication!  The game was pretty much exactly as I expected.  Collin plays soccer like I did - hangs back and waits for the perfect kick rather than aggressively being in the mix and pursuing the ball.  We tried to encourage him to kick the ball as many times as he possibly can.

He prefers the "boomer" position (defender in front of the goal) over the "scorer."  We have one boy on the team that does dive kicks every time he comes in contact with the ball.  We had kids kicking it the wrong way.  Every time we'd throw the ball in, the rest of our team would stand there and watch as the other team ran for the ball.  And surprisingly, we won!  

Most of the kids - including Collin - want to be goalie.  Maybe because it's 90-degrees at 9am and that's the one spot where they got a rest.  Our goalie yawning away - look alive, Collin!

After he had the penny jersey over his head impairing his vision, we sent Uncle Alex to private coach.  Basically the message was, let's not look like a moron, watch the field.

Oh, and stand in front of the goal.  There's no good stopping the ball if the goalie is inside the goal!

After the game we asked Collin how he liked it (great) and how he thought he did.  He initially answered that he was the best player on the team.  Then he reconsidered after remembering how they gave the game trophy to another girl (team trophies tend to be instilling confidence) and said he was second best.  Oh, the confidence of my five-year-old.  He's definitely in the bottom 50% of skill level, but we're delighted that he's enjoying himself and learning a new sport.

And his sister couldn't be prouder, cheering away for him from the sidelines!

After the game, we came back to cool off in the pool.  Uncle Alex, with the thicker blood from his Midwest winters, was ready to swim, but my kids hung out by the heated bubblers.   Maya, playing with Uncle Alex -

Giggling and splashing away -

Collin and Uncle Alex hanging out on the trampoline -

Long jump contest -

I put down the camera to play "dead man" where the person who is "it" finds the others on the trampoline with their eyes closed.  And Alex and I marveled at how we played this growing up but our trampoline was net-less!  We cracked up at how ridiculous the "it" person looked blindly groping around the trampoline, and Collin was happy to have someone other than Maya on the trampoline with him, as her only game is "Ring Around the Rosie."

On Sunday, after a bbq lunch and some board games, we told Uncle Alex good-bye.  We had such a great weekend with him and can't wait to see him and his beautiful bride at Thanksgiving or Christmas.   Big hugs for our uncle after tumbling and wrestling, block building, soccer coaching, playing and swimming together -

This was the visit where Maya forgot about being a mama's girl and started having a blast with my brother!  We were thankful that his old roommate got married in Houston and gave us this time with him!

Kindergarten Rocks

On August 24, 2015, Collin started his first day of kindergarten.  He's at a wonderful public school fed by lots of great neighborhoods.  We got to meet the teacher the Thursday before his first day of school.

His teacher seems really sweet and nurturing, and she had a room scavenger hunt prepared for meet-the-teacher night.  She sent the kids home with a cute poem to read the night before school and some "magic confetti" to put under their pillows to help them sleep.  

On Monday morning, our whole home was up by 6am, and we were ready in plenty of time.  Of course we needed some first day of school photos!

Maya and I had a Monday morning gymnastics class, but we put her in a cute dress my mom made for photos, then changed for gymnastics after the drop off.

Father - son picture as we waited in the cafeteria before going to his classroom.  

We followed the kindergarten line to the classroom for a few last waves as Collin and his 17 classmates waited on the carpet.  Collin, though on the quiet side, confidently strode into the room.    

I forgot to get any photos with Collin, but snapped one with Maya in the hallway, fighting back tears after dropping my firstborn off for kindergarten.  Maya and I met a few other families at a "boo hoo" breakfast, and then we headed home and to gymnastics.  

The first week of school - and every Friday - families are allowed to walk their students to the room.  Maya and Collin heading to school.  Almost every day after dropping him off, Maya would remark that she wanted to go to Collin's school.  

Thankful that two weeks in, Collin describes school as "awesome" and "great."  Though he's not leaping out of bed at 6am, he's not complaining about going to school - even today when he heard Maya and I were going to a skating rink.  He didn't know anyone in his class but is doing an amazing job at meeting friends.  So far, we all agree with the book he read on his first day - Kindergarten Rocks!

Wrapping up the Summer

This is the reason we were quite worried about how we'd ever get Collin to school on time.  We sent him to his room to brush his teeth.  He comes back to the living room with an arm full of rubber bands and dirty teeth.  

Collin didn't take many Fridays off over the summer, because it meant missing show-and-tell and soccer.  Maya and I grabbed as many days off as my work schedule allowed, one Friday hitting a nearby park and splash pad.  Sporting her shades on the playground -

She was just a tad excited about the splash pad!

 

Collin hit some milestone (eating correctly, not whining, can't remember what the goal was for the week) and earned a trip to Baskin Robbins.  We took Maya along for her first BR experience.  A happy occasion for all!

Lorenzo and Nico came over to swim and celebrate Lorenzo's second birthday.  He was pretty serious about his cupcake and ice cream -

Icing faces!

Maya jamming to ABC's at an after-school visit to my grandma's house - 

Near the end of August, Collin went to his last full day at his preschool.  He's been at this sweet school run through a church since he was 8-months old, and he still joins Maya there after elementary school in the afternoons.

Side shot of Maya's ponytail - the first time I got the majority of her hair in a rubber band.  And wow, my house is often messy but normally not this bad!  Looks like Maya was helping us unpack after our Florida vacation.

Last day of summer gymnastics class - Maya's favorite activity was the trapeze rides!

Spiky bathtub hair!

On the last day of summer, I met my mom and grandma at an indoor play area.  Maya got an early snack and posed with her ham-it-up "cheese" face - 

Selfie with my girl!

Maya had a great time on the slide and jumping areas -

Collin was quite brave in the 5-year-old-and-up obstacle area!

Collin loves his great grandma B, and ice cream with B was a second reason to smile!

After the indoor play area, we drove a few blocks down the street for delicious, locally made ice cream.

Then I tried to put Maya down for a nap.  Collin, though he wouldn't admit it, was exhausted too, since I had been waking him up at 6am all week to prepare for kindergarten.  He suggested they take a nap together.  Here's how that went:

Full of giggles and cuddles -

Not full of sleeping (though a flashing camera in their face did nothing to encourage sleep) -

Now their new routine at night is for Maya to yell "cuddle me, Collin" and them to spend a minute giggling before we settled everyone into their bedtime routine.  What sweetness!

On the last Saturday before school started, we rewarded Collin with a doughnut after waking at 6am and getting ready in 45 minutes, our ideal school routine.

Summer wrapped up way too quickly, but we enjoyed lots of swimming, lots of family time, and lots of ice cream and sweet treats before the school year began.