Fourth of July

Our Fourth weekend was really fun and busy with activities.  The kids were so exhausted by the end of the weekend, we could hardly keep them awake past dinner time on the last evening.

We started with the Ada parade on Saturday morning.  Carter drove his Jeep in the opening kids section of the parade.  Dave roller bladed along side him.  Mia and I scoped out our parade watching spot and cheered on the boys when they drove/bladed by us.

Here are more pictures from the parade...it was a pretty long parade and about 2 hours into it, we decided to head home.  You can only see so many fire trucks, large farm vehicles and people running for some sort of political office.  Overall the Ada parade is pretty good though.  (And Carter loved trying to catch the candy).

We also did a lot of playing outside.  Dave bought the kids a slip-n-slide Saturday afternoon so we decided to try it out.  Neither of the kids seemed too enthused about it.  Carter would hardly put his big toe on it and Mia would just walk around on it screeching.  Dave even tried to show them how it works, but neither were impressed.

We also played in their little pool and dragged out every outdoor vehicle and bike we own.

On Sunday we headed to Meredith's parent's house on Silver Lake in Rockford.  Their lake goes all out for the fourth, complete with boat parade and a spectacular fireworks show at dusk.  Carter and Dave even rode on the jet-ski this year.  At first he was unsure but Dave said he loved it when they got going.  Carter was able to stay up for the fireworks and really enjoyed them this year.  He also loved doing sparklers, except when one tiny spark landed on his hand...then he was done with them.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth as well!

Soccer Class

Carter started soccer a few weeks ago.  He goes every Tuesday night at the YMCA.  Each week he has been really excited to go to class and we've only had two incidents of crying since we started so I think he really enjoys it.  It's a class for 3-5 year olds, so none of them seem to have a huge soccer background.  It's pretty much a pack of kids running for the ball and a majority of the time one of the kids will simply pick up the ball and run it down to the goal.  It's very entertaining for the parents on the sidelines.  His teacher, Kristy, seems very patient with the kids and they all love her. 

He does pretty well with dribbling the ball down the field, we were impressed since he's never done this before.  He's definitely not aggressive however, when the pack of kids are running for the ball, he usually ends up near the back of the pack.  If it comes near him he will only go for it if other kids aren't trying to go for it as well.

We were hoping to enroll him in an AYSO soccer team this fall, but unfortunately the kids have to be 4 years old by July 31st in order to play on a team in the fall.  So we plan to keep doing classes and enroll him in the spring (if he still enjoys it).