Sucker Balls

When Keaton first started getting suckers for treats (yes, bad parents) he called them "sucker balls".  I wanted to capture this memory in the soccer blog since it was really cute.  He has now grown out of that and calls them suckers and thinks they are the greatest treat ever!

So now that he knows what a sucker is and what a soccer ball is we thought it would be a good time to get him started in soccer.  Really I just thought it would be really cute to see a bunch of 2 year olds kicking a soccer ball around and did it mostly for my enjoyment.

His first practice was Saturday.  There are about 5 or 6 others kids in the class and a great coach who is very enthusiastic with the kids.  In the beginning Keaton was very focused on kicking the ball around and we were thinking he might have a future with the Seattle Sounders.

 

 

They did lots of short, cute games with the kids. The kids were suppose to act like different animals when kicking the ball to the flags.  Keaton quickly learned that he could get to the flag much faster if he carried the ball and then dropped it in front of the flag and then kicked it.

 

 

He sure is a typical 2 year old with a very short attention span.  The 30 minute class was too long for him and he started having more fun running away and having daddy chase him.

 

Preschool Project

TJ and I had our first experience helping out with one of Keaton's school projects.  I knew this day would come but didn't think it would be when he was 2. This was a new world for us but I think we did pretty well.

Keaton's co-op preschool had an auction and each class worked on a class project to bid on.  Every parent has a job in the preschool and mine was to help out with this along with another lady.

The parents voted and decided on a bookshelf and each parent donated their child's favorite book to put in it.

A parent in the class donated the bookshelf but it was in rough condition so TJ refinished it so that it looked brand new.

Another parent Susan, who was also helping out on the project, made bookends that were images of the 2 teachers in the class.

We had pictures of all the kids in the class but didn't want to permanently put the images on the bookshelf since there were people from different classes at the auction making it less mass appealing.  So we decided to hang a decorative banner on it. This was the perfect opportunity for me to get rid of a bunch of miscellaneous scrapbooking paper that I had laying around...and I got to do something crafty since it has been months. 

 

TJ and I didn't stay for the entire auction but we found out that the winning bid was $200.  I thought that was pretty good!

Cousins!

Seeing the fun these three have together is so amazing...and exhausting to watch!  Each day they saw each other started with huge smiles and them running towards each other to hug!  Keaton has been quite disappointed this past week because when the doorbell rings it's not his cousins.  He was getting pretty use to it being them every time!

They were so busy that we couldn't even keep up with them for the entire week.  But we did fit in a lot of fun.

One night Keaton and I spent the night at Grandpa's with them and then helped babysit the next day while Becky was at doctor appointments.  Keaton got to try out some fancy high heel shoes.

 

Keaton has ALWAYS called me "mommy" or "mama" or even "daddy." He must have noticed a lot of others calling me "Rachel" because he started calling me "RachelMamma" when they were here.  It is really weird to hear your child call you by first name and I really didn't like it. Luckily I think he has forgotten who "RachelMamma" is.

 

Emerald's friend Claire came over to our house one day, which was really fun because we all got to meet Claire's new little brother and sister (twins).  I was surprised that Keaton was more interested in the babies than Emerald and Crystal.

 

Our intention was to go to Whirligig at Seattle Center one day but it was a giant craziness of bouncy houses that had "lost child" or "ambulance ride" written all over it.  So we went to the Children's Museum there instead, which was more fun and safer.  The kids sure liked the grocery store here much better than the ones I take them to.

 

The weather was pretty nice a few days so we went out to Alki Beach, somewhere we don't go nearly enough since it's in our backyard. 

 

 

We are probably due for a trip up to their house next time, perhaps for the Summer Solstice in June to watch the baseball game that starts at midnight (since it's light out).  Maybe Keaton and I can convince daddy to come for a few days also.  TJ has had plenty of practice "fishing" lately...just not sure the type of fishing he has been doing is what they do up in Alaska (another story another time...The dog + fishing pole=craziness!)

 

Easter Extravaganza

I was sure that Keaton would be ready for Easter egg hunts this year.  So sure that I got the Easter eggs out a week before Easter and started putting treats in them.  I'd leave a trail of eggs from his room when he was napping.  I even put the dog's treats in them.

We went to three Easter egg hunts but even with all the prepping, he was still a bit too young to get it.  The first one was at a community center in West Seattle and he just ran wild through the tennis courts where they had the eggs and didn't know he was suppose to pick them up.  The second was at the West Seattle Thriftway where they had over 35,000 eggs.  He'd open one egg, get really excited by what was inside, and be totally happy with just that one egg.  The third was at Lincoln Park and by that time I think he'd had enough.

So we didn't hide eggs on Easter, didn't even dye eggs (since none of us eat eggs so they would have gone to waste).  But we did tons of Easter celebrating as you can see by the pictures.  Keaton got lots of really cool stuff from the Easter Bunny (and his grandparents and cousin Wyatt).  And we were all given a beautiful, warm, sunny Easter day which doesn't happen often.  So we were very nontraditional and had a BBQ with friend's (Brian, Ryan) and family (Grandpa Morgan, Uncle Rich).

Easter Party at High Point Community Center:

 

 

Thriftway Easter Egg Hunt:

 

Easter Sunday: