Soccer!

Eli and Milena are playing soccer right now, on a team where they get jerseys and everything! Eli is on the black team, and he's doing great. There is another Eli on his team, and I've heard the coach yell out, "Way to go, Eli's!" a couple of times.

They meet Saturday mornings, and start out doing drills. Halfway through they switch and play a game. Here is Eli getting ready to chase down a ball. They must destroy the hated light blue team!



Milena is on the all-girls, all-pink team. She is actually one of the bigger kids on her team. It's definitely much more of a social event on the girls' field, a humorous contrast to the competitiveness going on ten feet away.



After soccer, there is time to go to the playground. Eli has fully learned how to swing on his own, as you can tell by his big smile and high elevation.



Kelson comes to watch, but generally spends most of his time on the playground.

Kelson Graduated!

There is nothing more important in a young man's life than graduating from Preschool. Where else can you make a hat out of a bowl and paper, and make it seem official?

Kelson makes his entrance, apparently using some strange ESP skills he has, since his eyes are closed and his hands are in his pockets.



Before they could graduate, they needed to agree on a bonding bill to pay for future Preschool classes.



Kelson receives his diploma and flower from his teacher. Then poses dutifully.



The class of 2008!



Kelson absolutely loved preschool. It will be fun to see which of his friends end up in class with him next year at ... [gulp!] ... Kindergarten.

Wow.

Goofy Pictures

Just a couple of goofy kindergarteners.

Eli.



And Milena.

Do you Webkinz?

Two months ago there were no Webkinz in our house. Today there are about 15 Webkinz. They breed like rabbits. Imagine if you had a Webkinz rabbit! I shudder at the thought.

Here is Kelson doing what every child in our house wants to do 24 hours a day - sit in front of the computer and play with a virtual version of a fake animal.



We are actually having a Webkinz break at our house right now. It was getting to be a bit much. We've unplugged the electronic games for at least a week.

Go climb a tree!

Eli up a Tree

We are finally able to play in our back yard, after a long absence (two summers ago we built on to the house, last summer the backyard was a mess and then finally fixed). Eli's tree climbing skills have apparently improved.



He has actually been to higher, more dangerous places on the tree, but we try not to watch when he does that.

Mother's Day, Caching, and Vomit

Mother's Day. It's a day for mothers. As such, we went to my mother's house yesterday. Bella is off being trained, so we brought along Stevie - we didn't want her to be too sad. On the drive up to Plymouth she figured she could be one of the kids. Kelson isn't so sure about the arrangement.



After a lovely Mother's Day meal, we (me, Michelle, Eli, Milena, Kelson & Grandma) went geocaching. We walked for a couple of miles, and found three caches which were off the Luce Line trail. Here is proof that Eli was along.



Here is one of the caches we found. A film cannister nestled in a tree branch. I won't give any more information, because then I would have to kill you. And that would suck.



Even though we used Koleman's GPS, he didn't come along. Before we left, he said that he had a headache.

[Yes, the vomit part of the post is fast approaching. But keep reading, it's kind of funny.]

As we finished our walk and returned to Grandma's house, we saw that Grandma's van was in the driveway, doors open, with lots of items that were previously in the van sitting on the driveway. What happend was that Grandpa Gary and Koleman brought Lindy and Lu home, and on the drive back, Koleman threw up in the van. Grandpa tried calling my cell phone three times, but it was on vibrate and stuck in a backpack - so he was on his own.

This is a guy who has never changed a diaper.

He actually handled it quite well. He got Koleman into the house, out of his clothes, and into the bath. Koleman told Grandpa that he should wash Koleman's clothes, but Grandpa didn't even know which machine was the washer and which was the dryer, so that wasn't going to work.

But he did put the clothes in the wash basin to soak, so he gets bonus points for that. And he cleaned out the van pretty well (I really should have taken a picture of the vomit chunks on the driveway).

It's never good when your kid throws up, but the thought of it happening while Grandpa was driving, and with no help, does make for a good story.

I think it will be a Mother's Day to remember.

Take that, Cow!

As everyone knows, cows think they are God's gift to the farm. As far as they are concerned, they're all that and a bag of chips. But let's be honest - they're just half a ton of stupid.

If Bessie was so smart, would one quarter of her be nicely packaged and waiting to be put in my deep freeze?



Yeah, I don't think so.