Bennett's 1st soccer game

Bennett had her first soccer game on Sunday.  It's crazy because there are 15 girls on her team, so there are 2 consecutive games of 4 on 4 going on next to each other so more kids get to play.  Brandon and the other 2 coaches did a good job of coordinating it all! Bennett did well.  She got some touches on the ball.  She was a little tentative at first, but by the end she was right in the mix with all the girls.  I was mostly impressed with her stamina.  Most of the girls on her team preferred to sit on the bench and tired out quickly.  The coaches were having trouble keeping 4 girls on the field.  Bennett never asked to come out once and played a lot.  Must be all that running she does with daddy that paid off! Grandma Joje and Pa came to spectate, and Miles was a great little cheerleader as well!

She also happened to be playing her best buddy from preschool, Anna's team.   Anna ended up playing on the other field so she and Bennett never actually played against each other.  That was probably good because they most likely would have been having more fun chatting than playing soccer!

 Go #4!!

 Bennett and Anna hadn't seen each other in a little while, so of course they had to compare how many teeth they'd each lost so far! 

Rivals and friends.  :)

Miles just started his own little soccer program on Monday, so now he thinks he should play every time Bennett has practice or a game too.  This should be interesting!

Camping night! (and another tooth)

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day here, so Brandon decided that it was finally a good night to take the kids camping in the backyard.  Bennett has been asking all summer, but it has just been way too hot! This is Miles's camping debut, and he was very, very excited about sleeping in the tent! We had brats and veggies for dinner, then made some S'mores! It was the first time Bennett would actually put all of the S'mores parts together (she typically likes food very separate), and she liked it that way! And, of course, Miles dove right in to the S'more eating adventure! Then, at about 8:30 they headed out to the tent armed with headlamps and books.  Hopefully they go to sleep sometime soon and make it through the night.  I think they will.

Bennett's parting words to me were, "Mommy, I'm just worried about you that you'll be lonely sleeping in the house all by yourself." 

HA!

 A quick lesson on how to behave when you stand near fire

 The boys roasting Miles's first marshmallow.

 Clearly caught him in the middle of saying "cheeseburger!"

Bennett's turn!

The first bite!

 Because I didn't quite catch Bennett's first bite.

 Ready to go in the tent!

 Bennett being goofy because she thought Miles's other picture was funny.

On a totally different note, last weekend the tooth fairy visited again for Bennett! Now she has a giant hold in the bottom of her mouth! The tooth fairy brought her 4 quarters sprinkled with pixie dust and a Cinderella puzzle.  Bennett was so sweet and asked if she could share 2 of the quarters with her brother since he hasn't lost any teeth yet.  

And, of course, she had to put the puzzle together right away!

Hilarious story

I was using Brandon's tape measure to measure the window in the baby's room the other day.  I asked Miles to help me because he loves anything having to do with tools.  As I was writing down my measurements, he was using the tape measure as well.  I asked him how long the window was that he measured.  He looked up at me and said 92.3 WIL!!

(For you out of towners, that is one of our local country radio stations!)

1st Day of School

Miles had his first day of school today! He is back in the 2 year old Butterfly classroom, where he spent the end of last year.  He's familiar with and loves his teachers, Ms. Amy and Ms. Jan.  He will be going to school on Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9:00-11:45.  He was a little reluctant going this morning, saying he wanted to stay home with me.  However, after we did some "Yay for school! We love school!" cheers in the car, he had a big smile on his face going into school and went right to playing.  I don't think he even noticed or cared that I left.  Yay Miles!!

Movember

Over the long weekend, I made an attempt at growing a moustache.  "Why did you do a stilly thing like that, Brandon?"  Glad you asked!  Movember of course.  Not familiar? www.movember.com.  Or even better, consider following www.midwestmoustachealliance.blogspot.com as we attempt to bring awareness about men's health issues to our friends, family, and community.  Prostate cancer, for example, will affect 1 in 6 men.  Yet most men don't see a doctor frequently enough to detect it in time, and there is very little effort given to getting conversations started.

Along with hundreds of thousands of other "Mo Bros" throughout the world, I will grow a moustache for the month of November.  People will inevitably ask, "What's up with the really cool fu manchu?"  And another conversation will be started.

A Big Boy Week!

Not only has Miles started sleeping in his big boy bed this week, but we have also had tons of success with potty training towards the end of last week and all of this week.  It's actually pretty amazing how quickly he has had success.  I guess Bennett went to Kindergarten and Miles decided it was time for him to grow up too! (tear!)  He has been 100% successful all week with #1, but we are still struggling with #2 a little bit.  He has even been dry overnight most nights! I'm really proud of my little buddy! We have just been wearing Pull Ups all week, but this morning I put him in some big boy underwear and he's pretty proud of himself! (Thanks Great Grandma and Grandpa Caskey for the cool race car undies!)