Waldo, Elsa and Spider-Man

The week before Halloween, Collin's class had character dress up day.  I showed Collin lots of examples online, but he chose Waldo.  Easy enough, an $8 purchase on the internet and we were set.  His school has "family Fridays" where we can walk the kids to their class, so Maya and I came along to snap a few pictures before he started his kindergarten day.  

She's always happy to skip into his elementary school, despite her expression here!

Our Waldo came home excited about the compliments he received throughout the day.

On the Friday before Halloween, our church had a trunk-or-treat.  Members provided games out of the trunks of their cars.  We kept the Waldo theme going, and hid Waldo among the tons of stuffed animals our kids own. We invited the community that lives near our church, and our kids had a blast eating too much candy and playing on bounce houses while I almost lost my voice by the end of the night conducting our trunk game.  

Our game was to hide a small Waldo under one of three plastic cups, and then spin the cups around to see if they could find Waldo.  Children who played our game thought they were going to win a stuffed animal and were always a little disappointed with a Hershey bar!  Plus those eight year olds are good - at least half the time I had no idea where Waldo was in the cups I was spinning, and yet they picked him at least 80% of the time!

After a crazy rainy Friday night and all day Saturday, the rain stopped just in time for trick or treating.  We once again crashed our friends' neighborhood with the best block party.

Spider-Man and Elsa.  This is probably the 25th time these have been worn in the last few weeks.  My kids love dressing up, which means we have Elsa glitter EVERYWHERE!  And we had a panicked search for the Spider-Man mask minutes before we were supposed to leave, since it's been worn and taken off in various rooms throughout our home a few times each day.

Maya wore her dress the Friday before Halloween to a fairy tale ball at her school.  She told me that after I put on the dress I should tell her, "Beau-ti-FUL!" in a loud, singing voice.  Clearly this one does not have a self-esteem problem!  And clearly we tell her how beautiful (and smart and strong and silly) she is ALL THE TIME! 

Maya was not a fan of the witch that made noises, but Collin was game to pose with it -  

We walked down the street to the block party, full of pizza, chicken nuggets, snacks and desserts.  Collin made a bee-line for the doughnut game (you're not supposed to use your hands, cheater)!

Here's most of the gang of kids.  The cul-de-sac where they meet is across the street from my great aunt and uncle's old home, so I grew up visiting the neighborhood.  As an adult, I am so jealous of how well the neighbors know one another and what a sweet group of families live here.  Luckily, we've been able to meet several through their schools and church.  Collin again saw lots of kinder and soccer friends, and my kids (front row) are sitting in between some friends from church and two of Maya's friends from pre-school.

Walking along, lollipop in mouth.  She wasn't the fastest trick-or-treater, but she ate the most candy.

Stopping along the route for a photo opp.  The homes near the block party starting point have families sitting on their driveway, so their jack-o-lanterns were filled with minimal walks up to front doors.

Another lollipop!

Collin didn't touch his candy until we got home, but he did have fun with his glow stick / weapon.

Thankful for these beautiful ballerinas and their wonderful family that invited us allowed me to invite ourselves to join them for Halloween again.

We stopped by three homes in our neighborhood once we got home, but one of our neighbors invited us inside and we got to meet his family more than we had in the three years we've lived on our street!  Halloween 2015 was a great night with friends, fun meeting neighbors, and a sugar-filled evening with Spider-Man and Elsa!

Fall Festival

I haven't been doing a great job lately of taking photos, and I've been doing a worse job of posting them on the blog.  But a few weeks ago, the park near our home had their annual Fall Festival.  It was even more fun this year because we knew several families from soccer and elementary school, which is helping me feel more connected in our neighborhood and community.

Collin greeted several other kindergartners, and Maya followed him all around.  At the bubble machine - 

Stopping for a fro-yo break -

Intense about her desserts!

Maya was not a fan of the fire truck -

Collin decided on his own to move some pumpkins for a better photo scene -

He also felt like he and Maya needed to hold some.  His photography vision paid off!

We love our sweet kids and are so grateful for how much they love each other!

Collin's first soccer goal - and the rest of his Saturday full of "highs"

On Friday morning, Collin's school had their first performance - just a few weeks into the school year, and they had learned enough songs in their music class for a patriotic performance.  Kindergarten through second grade sang in the first round, and Collin donned his red, white and blue to sing "Yankee Doodle," "My Country Tis of Thee," "Grand Old Flag" and more.

Maya, clutching her raisins which we brought to keep her quiet, proudly watched and waved from the benches.  The cafeteria was packed with kids, parents and siblings.  

Also on Friday, we finally experienced some fall weather, and we took full advantage.  I had to work, but was able to meet Cas for a lunch date on a patio.  After I picked the kids up from school, we grabbed my grandma, went to a park, and then we met Cas again at an outdoor patio, this time with the kids in tow, for dinner.  

Saturday morning Collin had a birthday party, so Maya and I played for 2 hours at his elementary school playground.  While Maya napped, Collin had a soccer game.  He was cheered on by Grammy and Great Grandma "B." 

And Grammy, B, and I witnessed Collin's first goal.  It was remarkable.  He was slightly in shock that no one stole the ball from him, and he made a great kick into the corner of the goal.  His expression afterwards was priceless - a mixture of surprise and wonder with happiness and pride.  Most of the game we were yelling at him to run toward the ball, but his goal was a shining moment on Saturday!

Doing "fast feet" on the field to try and be ready for the ball his teammate was gearing up to kick -  

After the game, the parents from both teams form a tunnel for all the kids to run under, so Grammy and B joined the cheering tunnel -

Proud of Collin -

We celebrated his first goal with a trip to a cupcake bakery.  Then B went to church, and my mom met us back at the elementary playground.  

Glowing sun, crazy hair, on the swing -

In the morning, Maya tweaked a game she played with Cas and me where we pretend we're sleeping and she startles us awake, and then we tickle her.  We found a bench on the playground where we'd take turns sleeping, the other running around the playground and then waking the sleeper.  She'd instruct me before she took a nap, "tunnel, slide, good job, Mommy."  She wanted to play in the afternoon, while my mom took pictures of the action.  Waking me up -

 Surprise -

Talking Collin into the game, what a good sport he is!

Maya's turn, sleeping with a grin on her face -

The lighting was gorgeous for pictures, but my kids were busy snacking or sipping water -

Then Collin starting blowing raspberries, and his copycat sister followed suit -

Collapsing for tickles and giggles -

Silly boy -

And our silly girl - after church with her over-the-top cheese face -

On Saturday night when we were running through "highs and lows" of the day, Collin said it was one of his best days yet - birthday party, Dave and Busters with Cas, soccer, goal, cupcake, Grammy and B going to his game, going to the playground, and then dinner at yet another restaurant patio complete with a popsicle for dessert.  

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!