4 1/2 Year Old Adventures

So the activities have begun. Alena had her first soccer practice last week and I had no idea what to expect. We had anticipated going as a whole family but it was a little chilly and windy that day so I braved it alone with my little 4.5 year old.  We drove the 1 mile there because we didn't want to be late, but I love that if we wanted to, we could walk to the soccer fields, (another plus about our location).  As instructed we got there early and found the field where it looked like other 3-5 year olds were running around.  Alena jumped right in playing with the other kids while we waited for the coach to show up. I was quite impressed at how well she was able to run, dribble the ball, and kick the ball.  When it's nice outside, she likes to play soccer with a set of twin boys at school.

Finally the coach appeared, (a young Australian :)), and grouped the kids together, then divided them into two separate groups.  Alena was easily the tallest girl and possibly the tallest of all the kids there.  They spent their first practice working on different basic skills and playing a few games that 3-5 year olds would enjoy.

I am always so proud at how good of a listener AJ is.  Her teachers have never had any trouble with her listening skills and I'm glad this skill seems to have carried over to sports, too.  In fact, all of the girls were good listeners, but there were three boys who wouldn't give the coach the time of day.  Multiple times the coach  had to ask them to stop messing around and listen to him.  I looked around to see where the parents of these boys were because if those were my sons, I would have pulled them aside myself and set them straight.  Yet, as I looked around I saw parents chasing after younger siblings, playing on their phones and even one father reading a book.  That explained a lot.  I purposely left my phone in the car so I could focus on my daughter who kept looking over to the sidelines to make sure I was watching.

One of the doesn't-know-how-to-listen boys was messing around and somehow got a bloody nose.  That was the end of his lesson.

LW wanted to try out the soccer gear

Alena said she really enjoyed her first soccer practice and is anxious for her next one.  She doesn't have any games this year d/t her age, but would next year if she wants to participate again.  Although when we got back in the car after her practice, she told me she wanted to do t-ball this summer.  I guess it's nice she wants to try a variety of sports and honestly, Justin and I wouldn't be too upset if soccer just wasn't her thing (as long as she tries volleyball and goes out for track :)).

In other 4 1/2 year old adventures, my first born is learning to read.  It's is so fun watching her learn all of her letter sounds and start to put these sounds together to make words.  Most of the words are 2 and 3 letter words, with a few 4 letter words, but it is still pretty impressive, especially since she won't be in kindergarten for another year and a half.  She loves to write her letters and spends most of her "nap" time on the weekends, copying words from her books onto paper.  We have to give a lot of credit to her daycare for helping her learn her letters and work on spelling/reading, (and as I have said a million times, we LOVE our daycare-it's worth every penny!).  We had her 6 month conference today, and her teacher mentioned they had planned to move AJ up to the next reading group, but there are other students who will be going to kindergarten this coming Fall who they need to move up first, yet are behind AJ.  Hopefully, the teachers will continue to challenge her and she won't be bored over the next year and a half.

Yep, we are two very proud parents!

Easter Fun

Easter is another one of my favorite holidays and I love following tradition.  I'm not a huge fan of taking my kids to the mall to see some random person dressed up as a big stuffed bunny or weird Santa, but Alena wanted to visit the Easter Bunny so one rainy Sunday we ventured to the mall.  Two out of three kids were content sitting on the bunny's lap, which I thought was a decent percentage.  I didn't know the Easter bunny didn't talk though so AJ wasn't able to tell him/her what she wanted for Easter.  All three enjoyed the train ride more than anything.

Dying eggs is another fun tradition that all three kids enjoyed this year.  I may be a  more creative next year and spend a little more money on the decorating kits because I'm just not impressed with the cheapo ones.  I've also heard of using kool-aid to dye the eggs which would have been a great idea this year since Lauren kept wanting to put her colored egg in her mouth.  I hate hard boiled eggs so I think Justin ate most of our dozen eggs, except for a few I was able to get the little ones to devour.

The weather Easter weekend was beautiful so we attended Urbandale's Easter egg hunt.  They separated the older kids from those 4 and under and had eggs scattered at Walker Johnston Park.  The hunt lasted about 30 seconds, but everyone had a great time.  L was pretty proud of the one egg she gathered, C kept dumping his eggs out and recollecting them, and AJ enjoyed discovering what was inside each of her eggs, (she definitely needs to be more aggressive next year ).

We spent Saturday night in Ames to make it a little easier to get to the early church service.  I love seeing all the little ones dressed up in their fancy dresses, nice dress shirts and shoes.  Unfortunately, L threw up on her pretty sweater and dress on the car ride to church so she smelled like puke during the service, but otherwise everyone was well behaved.  At the very end of service, L had had enough and was ready to get out of there so Justin took her to the back where many other little ones and daddies were playing.  CW saw daddy leave and wanted to follow so Grandpa also got out of staying for the whole service!  I'm sure that was planned :).

After church we went home to take a few pictures before everyone put on their play clothes and prepared the food for lunch.  Of course, picture taking did not go well and Lauren was upset because she wanted the truck that her brother had.  Good memories!

We enjoyed a delicious ham with yummy side dishes and two homemade pies.  Pat and Willard joined us-it is so great they are back in Iowa.  Besides a little wind, it was a beautiful day which was mostly spent outside, watching the kids play on the driveway and venture around the acreage.  The adults even got to play some cards while the twins napped.  AJ got the movie Frozen and a Frozen book from the Easter Bunny.  She asked me how the Easter bunny knew she wanted the Frozen movie since she didn't tell him.  Good point, Alena-guess we'll have to mail him a letter next year!  Smarty pants!  I love holidays!

Last Sunday was beautiful, so we decided to make our first trip of 2014 to the Blank Park Zoo.  We are so fortunate that Grandma and Papa buy us an annual pass each year because we love taking trips to the zoo, even if it is only for an hour.

Grandma and Papa met us there right after it opened to join in the fun. Unfortunately, I had to run a quick errand shortly after we got there after we realized one little missy forgot her shoes and was missing one sock.  (Have I mentioned how difficult it is to remember EVERYTHING for a little outing, especially when you are rushing around like a crazy person, while two toddlers tug on your pants begging for you to hold them?).

Many others had the same idea as us during this beautiful day and the zoo was hopping!  I wasn't sure how the twins would react to seeing all the animals.  I have decided there are two types of toddler sight seers:  Those who love to gawk at every exhibit for as long as possible, and those who barely look at the exhibits and are more interested in the "non-exhibits," (other zoo visitors, workers driving the gator throughout the zoo, or the child crying because he ran out of goat food).  Alena is definitely the latter.  She loves going to the zoo and seeing the animals, but we could probably walk through the entire zoo in 40 minutes and be done.  The twins, we discovered are both oglers.  They loved the zoo and couldn't get enough.  DQ enjoyed pointing her little finger at every animal.  We spent two hours there and didn't even see everything.

Another great thing about zoo days is the kids take a nice long nap after their adventures.  Point for mom and dad!  I'm sure we'll be back many, many times this spring, summer and fall!