Indoor Soccer

We decided to participate in another round of soccer with Alex. This time, it's indoor soccer. It's so fun! The game is much more fast paced, because the ball stays in play the whole time...no kicking it out of bounds. The only time the game really stops is after a goal is scored. Alex seems to really enjoy himself at practice and the games. And I'm glad to still have him in a structured activity a couple times a week. He is playing with his same coach from spring, so that is fun as well!

This was his first game of the season...it was kinda tough to get a good picture. But the one above you can see his smile..he really likes playing, especially goalie!

End of School Party

I guess the second time you do something, it becomes a tradition. Last year, we celebrated Cadence's last day of school at Chuck E Cheese. Cadence specifically asked for cupcakes for our "party." We decided to do it again this year with Alex and Cadence. It was fun to celebrate the end of the school year, and the beginning of summer vacation! Just look at all these happy faces!

And the good times begin!

First Day/Last Day

First day of Kindergarten:

Last day of Kindergarten:

They grow up so fast!

Kindergarten Graduation

Alex's last day of school was Friday, June 3rd. His class had a little graduation ceremony, where his teacher highlighted each student's accomplishments. The really fun part of the graduation was that she created individual awards for each student, and Alex's was the "Mini Sportscaster Award." She talked about how Alex came in nearly every day with a sports update...the score from the Stars game, how the Rangers were playing, news on the basketball games. Luckily, his teacher is also a pretty big sports fan, so she really enjoyed his daily sports updates. Here's a few pictures from his last day of kindergarten (sniff, sniff!!)Here is Alex and Mrs. Stapleton. I have so much love and respect for all kindergarten teachers, especially now after having one of my babies go through kindergarten. Mrs. Stapleton was fantastic! I don't think we could have hoped for a more perfect match for Alex. We had actually requested a different teacher for Alex at the beginning of the school year, but Alex was placed in Mrs. Stapleton's class instead. It's funny how things work out though. When I walked into Mrs. Stapleton's room, and saw all the baseball decorations in her room, I knew they would be two peas in a pod! And they were! Alex grew and learned so much! I'm so grateful to Mrs. Stapleton and all her hard work this past year. Now, we've got our eyes forward to 1st grade!

Book Parade

The last week of school was a really busy, fun week for Alex at school. One thing he participated in was the annual book parade. This was really, really cute! Each class at his school picked a book to represent in the book parade. The classes made all kinds of "floats" that illustrated their books. Each class had six students that could march in the parade. The students were picked based on good citizenship. I was so proud when Alex's teacher let me know that Alex was picked to walk in the parade for his class! Such a proud moment to know that your child is a good citizen at school: makes you feel like you're doing something right as a parent!

And Alex was so, so excited to participate in the parade. He came home a couple weeks before the parade telling me all about it, the book they picked, how he was supposed to get dressed up. It was really sweet to see him so excited!

Um, could you tell he was excited!?! The book his class chose was Bingo, so all the kids were dressed up as farmers. Alex wore the whole nine yards: boots, Wranglers, shirt, hat, bandanna!

Here's his class on the "parade route," aka the drive thru lane at the front of the school.

Originally, Alex's teacher wanted him to walk her dog in the parade. Then she thought her dog might be too hyper for the parade, so she opted for a stuffed version of a dog. Too bad because Alex was stoked to walk her dog!
Here he is at the end of the parade route. I thought this was such a fun idea that the librarian started at Alex's school. She was a great lady, and retired this year. At the end of the parade, all the classes displayed signs saying, "We Love You Ms. Pike!" It was so sweet, and the librarian was really touched! Such a fun morning!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

We have started a summer tradition of going to at least one Ranger's game with Alex. He looks forward to it every season! Once Alex starts hearing or seeing advertisements for the Rangers games, he starts asking Roger and me about going to one. This year, we bought tickets on Mansfield ISD night, with the tickets being nearly half price. It was such a deal! Unfortunately, Alex wasn't feeling great at the game, but I think he made the best of it and enjoyed himself.

Alex likes to eat his hotdog, then the bun.

There's no crying in baseball!

The kids also enjoyed playing some games while at the ballpark. It was a hot, but fun night. We left early in the ninth inning because the game was tied. The game ended up going way, way late into the night. So we were glad we left when we did. It was a fun night!

Out with the Old, In with the New

I'm trying desperately to catch up on my blogging. I hate, hate when I get behind! May was so crazy busy. I think I say that about every month. In the midst of everything else we had going on (birthdays, Nana's visit, end of school craziness), Roger tore up our carpet and laid a wood floor in our living room. He's been wanting to get rid of that stupid, cheap, builder grade carpet for years. So we finally did! Here are a few pictures of the transformation.
Ah, the wood floor is so beautiful! Even better than I had imagined. And so far, we've only broken one glass, and had only a couple falls on the new floor. It's a little more slick than carpet! But well worth it!