Soccer

Saturday was the first soccer game for Blake and Dylan. Blake's team name is the Dragons and Dylan's team name is the Hot Shots.

Dylan does not like having his shin guards on the inside of his sock. So when the ref made him fold the socks over his shin guards he wasn't very happy because he likes his socks to be super long. He didn't play in the game for awhile because he was being grouchy, but once he did, he had fun. He has good hand eye coordination and a great kick, but isn't super fast.

At this age it is co-ed and it's a good thing because 2 of the girls scored all the points. This is the first year (age 3) that kids are allowed to play with the soccer group that we are in, so these are newbies, but completely adorable. They play 6 minute quarters. The coaches are on the field to help.

They played the Tot Shots, but the Hot Shots won. Hopefully Dylan will want to play more during the next game. Blake was playing at the same time, which I thought would be great because then it meant a shorter time at the soccer fields, but Dylan was sad that Aaron couldn't watch him. Fortunately or unfortunately this was the only Saturday of the season where they played at the same time, so hopefully future games will be better.

Blake was super excited to play in his game. This is his first year playing because this is the first year that he has wanted to play. He is some learning to do, but enjoyed every minute. He is friends with a lot of the kids on the team already so that makes it even more fun for him. He has become a little social butterfly. After school we have been playing on the play ground for about 15 minutes (that is about as much as we can tolerate of the heat). Blake is going up to everyone saying hello. Very different first week of school than last year. He is super happy when he gets out of school.


Coach Michelle and Coach Jake are Jonathan's mom and dad. Jonathan was in Blake's class last year so we know him and his parents.

Aaron and I switched at half time so I got to see Blake play in the 2nd half (they play 20 minute halves) and Aaron went over to see Dylan play. It was totally different at Blake's game. They are a little more strict with the rules, but they still have fun.




Blake did great. Rhett (the kid above) was awesome and the best part was he wasn't hot headed about it.


Aaron grew up playing soccer, but I didn't. Soccer isn't my favorite sport mainly because I think it is kind of boring. Yep, Aaron hates me whenever I say that, but how exciting can a game be when the teams usually don't score more than 3 goals? The nearly misses...don't get me started. So....when you have young kids who can't play defense and aren't very good at being goalies, but who love to run and score, it actually makes it more entertaining. Sure there are no cool moves, but it seems like a lot more is happening. Of course it also helps that they only play 40 minutes :)

Dragons won their game. The day was great for soccer because while we had a 9am game, it was only in the low 80s AND overcast.

We came home and went swimming and then watched "Home." Then we had Stake Conference.

Thursday morning went I went running, the moon was red. It was really cool, but then I heard a noise and looked over and saw an armadillo right next to me. We see a lot of them dead on the road so it was a change to see one that was alive.

1st Day of 1st Grade

Back to School! Happy Day! Blake was excited to start school again.



He gets his own locker.

Dylan and I were able to walk with Blake into his classroom. Rhett is the only other kid from his class last year. He was in there when we walked in, along with his parents. Rhett is on Blake's soccer team. Blake was totally bummed that we have a new crossing guard this year. He was telling me how nice she was, etc and then we walk into his school and there was the old crossing guard. She stopped us to say hi. I told her that we missed her...especially Blake.

At Blake's table are Brighton, Paxton (on his soccer team) and Deyana (new to the school). It is kind of fun to see all the parents again, especially at pick up. Dylan and I had fun at home. It was so much quieter and no fighting. It was super hot picking up Blake so we came home and went swimming since homework doesn't start for another week. He said he likes Mrs. Sias a lot. He had PE today, which is his favorite, so he was excited about that. I was talking with one of Blake's friend's moms about Mrs. Sias at pick up because her daughter had her and she said that she is the best and is great at communicating. She emails ALL the time.

Blake is friends with Mrs. Sias's son, Kenny (he has a different 1st grade teacher). He said that they were so excited to see one another at recess today, but then it was too hot outside so their recess was only 10 minutes. We are looking forward to seeing Blake learn this year and make new friends. He is hoping that I can help out more in his class this year. I'm going to try to do just that while he still wants me to come to his class :)

Splash Pad

Last Wednesday night it rained (but Aaron was able to make his flight back home okay) and Thursday it was cool. And by cool I mean it was in the high 70s. So, we have been in the low 100s so that is a big change. So we went to the park because it wasn't blazing hot.



And played at the splash pad. No one else was there. I thought that was crazy. Finally nice weather and no one is outside?






They had a blast. We then came home and I finally signed a contract with some roofers and submitted the HOA paperwork.

That night we went to Blake's Meet the Teacher. His new teacher is Mrs. Sias. She loves to give hugs and Blake isn't a big hugger especially to strangers. So she was saying good bye to him and tried to give him a hug and it was this super awkward thing for him...hard to explain but very entertaining to see. We then went to see his Kindergarten teacher and she was excited to see Blake.

After that, we went to Blake's soccer practice.

Friday I got notification from my HOA that they approved my roof. Wow, that was fast. The roofers will be coming out in a couple weeks. Saturday we nailed down our fencing contractor. I know no one else is excited but I am, well, I will be excited once it is done.

We also cut hair, gave father's blessings and got everything ready for school.

Dallas Zoo

Yesterday we braved the 100 degree weather and went to the zoo. The boys each had a free ticket and because it is so hot, the zoo discounted the tickets so I got in for half price. The trip was worth my $7.50 admission.

Penguins are just fun. One was swimming right by us.



We saw the safari animals.












Here is a crocodile. He wasn't in a great place to get a picture, but it was interesting to learn about this guy. We got there as they were cleaning his water. They treat these pools of water just like pools. The guy had a bucket of what looked like chlorine so I asked him if it was chlorine. Yes, they do the same stuff to pools that we do to ours. It makes sense, but I had never thought about it. The cool thing is that it keeps the water clear so we were able to see the crocodile, but we also saw his teeth at the bottom of the pool. They were not small.

My boys are obsessed with statues. Remember San Francisco?


The chimpanzees following one another up the hill. So it wasn't that long ago that we went to the SF Zoo. So I will compare. Dallas Zoo has a lot more space for the animals, which then means a lot more walking for us to get to each exhibit. The play area at SF was much cooler though.

We watched a show, but I only got a picture of the armadillo. This isn't a Texan armadillo because it only has 3 bands and it isn't gray.


The look on this bald eagle's face I thought was interesting.

Galapagos tortoise. They are huge.



They had a Jurassic area with the same dinosaurs (pretty sure) that were at the Heard Museum earlier this year.


I was talking to the zoo keeper while the kids played and she said the going rate for a TRex tooth is $1,000 per inch. This tooth is obviously not real.


The albino alligator.

I had to take several pictures for Aaron's mom because she loves snakes so much. Blake really wanted to pet this python. Blake! He is usually the one that doesn't want to touch animals.


Dylan pet him too.



I also did and it was super smooth, which I wasn't expecting. 14 years old and has never bitten anyone.

They played on the park.






I love this picture.

We spent 5 hours there, but we were hot so we went home and swam. What a fun day!

That night we found out Dylan will be in the Tiger classroom for Preschool and his teachers are Ms. Christie and Ms. Susan. We also found out that Blake will have Mrs. Sias, who is the teacher I was secretly hoping for. She also happens to be his friend's mom. Our neighbor, Ashley is in the same class, 2 kids from his soccer team, some kids from his previous class. All but 2 he knew. He is excited to start school. We go meet his teacher on Thursday night right before soccer practice. School is almost here.