Happiest Kid in America

One of the parents of twin boys who are some of Ben's best buddies told me the other day that their family calls Ben "The Happiest Kid in America." 

  

I'll have to remember this sweet thought on those many days when Ben makes me want to pull my hair out!

Fall Piano Recital

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, E's piano teacher held a "Fall Recital" for her students to showcase their progress.  Since this was E's second recital experience, she was not as nervous as she was the first time around . . . though she still held her dad's hand until it was time for her to go up on stage. 

She played three pieces this time:  "The Juggler", "Kite in the Sky", and "Lightly Row".  It appeared that she had all three memorized, though I know she was worried beforehand that she would not remember all of the notes. She performed without a hitch and finished with a smile on her face. 

Ben's Thanksgiving Program

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Thomas and I attended the Thanksgiving program at Ben's preschool to see Ben perform in what has become a Thanksgiving tradition. 

Both Eleanor (as a turkey) and Hayes (as a pilgrim man) participated in the same program during their Pre-K years.  In addition, during H's first kindergarten year, his school put on a similar play and Hayes was a turkey.  

This Thanksgiving, Ben got to fill the role of an Indian man.

  

His lines were, "Big and brave!" 

  

Ben did a great job making himself heard as he belted out his lines at the top of his lungs.  When it was all said and done, Ben gathered with his Pre-K class for pictures.

 

Thomas even admitted afterwards that he felt a little sentimental, 

 

knowing that this was our last Thanksgiving performance at the Preschool.

Our family has a lot to be thankful this holiday season, but we are especially thankful for the wonderful staff of loving teachers at the Preschool. 

Green Machine

This past Sunday, we attended the last game of the season for Ben's Green Machine.  Ben's progression this season has been fun to witness.  When the season started, he preferred to run alongside the action and not bother to stick his foot into the melee.  He was usually part of the "herd" (as is customary in four-year-old soccer) so at least he wanted to feel like he was part of the action.

He enjoyed just being a part of the team, on the sidelines cheering on his friends. 

By the end of the season though, Ben had figured out how to dribble the ball down the field,

 

and chase after the opponent.

Ben's best game was his last one as he scored two goals.  For the first goal, he took the ball the length of the field and kicked a strong shot on goal.  For the second goal, there was a scrum in front of the goal.  Someone took a shot, the goalie caught it but then dropped it, and Ben was right there to kick the ball into the goal.  With both cupcakes eaten and a trophy received after the game, Ben could not have had a better afternoon!

Hurricanes

In addition to Eleanor's soccer season drawing to a close this past Saturday, Hayes played his last game of the fall as well that day. 

 

The Hurricanes,

 

after moving up to the 7/8 year-old boys league, still held their own and finished the season undefeated with 1 tie.

 

Hayes loves playing with this team (four of his best buddies from his kindergarten class are on the team) and he runs up and down the field with a smile on his face. 

 

He looks forward to continuing on with the Hurricanes and Coach Cody next spring.

World Cup

This past weekend, Eleanor experienced her first soccer tournament.  Once you reach the "club" team age at Tophat soccer, you participate in the World Cup tournament at the end of each season.  Each team in her age group represents a country, and for this school year, Eleanor's team is Spain.  

 

To officially mark the beginning of the tournament last Saturday morning, the day began with a parade of the countries/teams.  Each team walked around the soccer fields in creative costumes impersonating people/ideas from their respective country.  Here is team SPAIN! 

Since this was our age-group's first World Cup experience, we did not know what to expect in terms of costumes.  We quickly realized that people took this whole dress-up thing quite seriously!  I had to take pictures for future costume ideas.  Here is Italy . . .

Argentina,

Germany (with their scientists),

Mexico,

France,

England (with their Alice in Wonderland characters),

China,

 

and Greece.

Once the parade of countries was over, the girls had to quickly remove their costumes and get ready for their games.  Each team played five back-to-back games. 

  

Unfortunately for team Spain, they played the best team first and that was a little deflating.  It took them a game or two to recover, and then they started playing some good soccer.  They finished up the day in a nail-biter that ended in penalty kicks.  Eleanor had her first opportunity to take a penalty kick in a game situation.  You could tell by the way she was carrying her shoulders that she was very nervous.

She kicked the ball hard

  

but team Canada had a strong goalie who stopped the shot.  Team Spain finished up the day going 2-3 and in 6th place out of 8 teams.  

We all look forward to next year's World Cup to see what team will come out on top!

Candy for the Troops

This week, instead of consuming the mountains of candy the kids received on Halloween night, we decided to give all but five pieces each to the US troops in Afghanistan.  A community service club at Morris Brandon collected candy each morning at the front door of the school so the kids packed up the candy and donated it to a worthy cause.

Tiger Cub Scout Campout

Last weekend, Thomas and Hayes joined Hayes's Tiger Cub Den and all of the other cub scouts from Morris Brandon in Blairsville, Georgia for a night of camping under the stars.  It was Hayes's first time sleeping in a tent, and he was very excited to see what it was all about.

On arrival, they spent some time getting the tent up and their sleeping bags arranged.

The weather ended up being beautiful.  The boys and their dads spent time hiking, doing relays,

 

throwing the football, and hanging out.  Thomas reported that they ate very well considering that they were camping.  A fellow dad in the den owns a wonderful local restaurant and he was in charge of all of the food.  They ate burgers for dinner

 

and a big hearty breakfast the next morning. 

The big unknown going into the trip was how Hayes would sleep. He's our deepest sleeper here at home but we were worried that he might get scared in the outdoors.  Thankfully, he was so exhausted by bedtime that he had no trouble sleeping. Thomas, on the other hand, struggled to get much sleep as he heard the on and off again rain and felt the hard floor on his back.
   

Overall, Hayes had a blast.  His favorite things about the trip were playing football with his den friends and their dads and eating all of the delicious food.  Thomas thought the bonfire Saturday night where the boys were presented with their Bobcat badge was pretty cool.  

Hayes can't wait to return next year and to Thomas's credit, neither can he!

Landform Project

Hayes's first grade teacher is on maternity leave until December.  His long-term substitute has been eager to keep the kids engaged in the classroom. Along with regular class work, she has incorporated fun math games and science experiments.  Her latest assignment was a landform project.  Hayes had to (1) create a poster depicting 20 or more landforms, (2) produce 20 flashcards describing different landforms and (3) build a diorama showcasing one specific landform.  Here is Hayes with his final poster and his river diorama to his left.

 

 Now he's a landform expert!

Tie Dye Shirts

For "T" week, Ben's class made tie dye shirts.

 

Ben's primary-colored tie dye shirt has become his weekly favorite.  The morning after I wash it, he is ready to wear it again.  He usually pairs it with his red corduroy pants or blue shorts.  

 

Doesn't he look sharp?

Happy Halloween

Well, another Halloween has come and gone.

This year, we had Mimi and Papa here to help us celebrate All Hallows' Eve.   They were able to experience first-hand Halloween in our unbelievable neighborhood.  Instead of dressing up with a family theme as we had done the prior two years, this year the kids wanted to do their own thing.  Eleanor decided to be Athena.  Hayes wanted to be Chipper Jones and Ben was eager for a superhero turn as the X-Men's Wolverine. 

Before trick-or-treating, we walked down the street to the annual Beaverbrook Halloween Potluck Dinner.  Each year, residents on the street bring chili and hot dogs for all of us to enjoy

 

before we follow our dinner up with a lot of candy!  At the street gathering, the kids got an early opportunity to see what costumes all of their friends donned. 

Just before it started to get dark, we noticed trick-or-treaters were beginning to hit our street.  That was our signal that it was time for our kids to go door-to-door.  Ben stuck with Joey Djuric.

Hayes ran around with Graham Woocher and Henry Djuric. 

 

Eleanor hung with her girls Francie Tucker, Maddy Djuric and Selle James.  Papa actually walked around the neighborhood with the boys

  

while Mimi stayed at the house handing out candy.  I ended up having to run home mid-way through the trick-or-treating because we had forgotten to light our pumpkins! 

Towards the end of the night, when their legs were too tired to walk any farther after a trip over a few streets to visit the neighborhood "troll who lives under the bridge", the boys came back to help me pass out candy before it was all kids on the living room floor, counting and sorting their candy. 

Thank heavens Ben did not have school the next day and Eleanor had a RAD day (Read All Day) so the next morning was not too rough.  All in all, it was another great Halloween for the memory books!