Soccer

Eli is playing soccer for Idlewild.  This is the same church where Madeline went to kindergarten and Eli will go to kindergarten next year.  We love the diversity and fun spirit of this league.  

They run practices in a pretty fun way!  They have different stations the kids rotate through.  This one is "trapping."  They have to kick across to a partner and stop the ball with their feet.  

Here's shooting...

Throw in! They all love this one!!  The coach kicks the ball to them and they have to pick it up and throw it in!

I think this one was passing...

There was a dribbling one, too, but I was talking to another mom and missed a picture of that rotation -- can you believe me missing a picture because I was gabbing!!!???  Ha!

Here are some pictures of the games.  They have a few weeks of practice and a few weeks of games.  Eli really just loves to run up and down the field.  He is chasing the ball in the right direction and having a fun time running!  He's not super interested in making contact with the ball, but I'm just glad he is having fun with friends and learning the beginning skills of soccer!

He is very lucky to have Nate on his team!

USA Gymnastics

The day after Eli's party at Lichterman, we went to the Fed Ex Forum to see the USA gymnastics team exhibition.  We were all enthralled with the Olympics this summer, especially the gymnastics!  We went with the Mangusos and had a great time watching the women's and men's team perform. So amazing what they can do! 

The security wouldn't let me take my good camera in, so these are from the phone.  You really can't see much, but there is a girl from our team in each ring!

After the show, Aunt Fran got to spend the night with us!!!! What a treat!  She had her high school reunion here in Memphis at Auto Zone Park!  It was a quick visit, but we had a super fun time!!!

  

I love my sweet college friend, Fran!  So glad we got to catch up in person! 

There's something about those grade school, high school and college friends - nothing else like them!

(Not the best picture of me for sure, but I'm glad I got it!!!)

Birthday Part 3

Party, Party, Party!

We had some good friends and their siblings to Lichterman Nature Center to celebrate with us!  

Tim had found a guy who comes to your house with reptiles for birthday parties - perfect for our little guy!  Well, the guy doesn't do it anymore.  We tried the zoo - $400 - NO WAY!  So, we called Lichterman!  They do a nature walk, craft, and can show a live lizard and snake.  This sounded great and turned out to be a super fun place to celebrate, enjoy nature and have space to run and play!

Missed picture this time - the kids in front of the Lichterman sign (was about to do it on our way in, and got distracted...) also missed one of all 5 of us! 

But, we loved the sign the party coordinator, Dory, made for Eli!

Eli helping to set up - taping up his birthday banner!  Got this tradition from our friend Brittany Spence.  Love it!  I just cut scrapbook paper from a template I have.  Sometimes I computer print the letters, but this time, Archivers was having 50% off their paper, so I decided to go there and use their die cuts to make the shadow letters.  May have to go back there....

Eli and Cal checking out the HUGE lily pads and the beautiful view!

WOW!!!

The kids making their snake craft..  pipe cleaners for the back bones, cheerios for the ribs, paper head and tongue, googly eys!  Very cute!  We did this outside on picnic tables right beside the pond!

Nature hike.. we stopped on this boardwalk to talk about some plants and animals living on the grounds.

Kids got to touch all kinds of things:  fur, beaver tail, lily pad seed pod, tree branch, etc.

Feeding the fish and ducks!

Eli's favorite part!  A blue tongued skink.....

A speckled king snake...

Cupcakes!

Cal using the lizard that was on top of the cupcake for a spoon!

Our Manguso buddies....

What a cuite!

Lots of space to just RUN!!!  They all loved that!

Eli's buddies:  Kit, and Trexler from Miss Alyson's house, 

Nate, 

Lucas and Andrew from Kindermusik years ago, and 

Cal (a brother from our ballet friend, Ammie!)

AC, Kit's brother, is in the back!

Fun group of boys!

Eli's friends brought donations for Le Bonheur which was so thoughtful and generous!  Because we collected over $100, The Peter Pan Children's Fund will also give $100 to the hospital!  Yay!!

The girls! 

Dahlia - Trexler's sister

Ammie - Cal's sister

Lindsey - Nate's sister

Lulu - Kit's sister

Evia - Trexler's other sister

Our little ones were a little late for the group pictures!

Sweet Miss Alyson came to his party, too!  So nice of her to come!  

Whew!  Lots of fun this week!!!

Birthday Part 2

"You say it’s your birthday 

We’re gonna have a good time

I’m glad it’s your birthday

Happy birthday to you"

 Love that song by the Beatles! 

We learned a new tradition this year from Madeline's friend, Frances!  In her family, when it's your birthday, you get streamers on your door frame!  

Love it - we can do that!  Eli loved it when he woke up!! 

We went into the living room to open a few presents and read cards from our out of town family!!! 

He got a new bike!!  He really needed a bigger size and we found this one on Craig's list!

He's been wanting gloves like Daddy for more than a year!

Mimi and Pop sent him a new train set with really flexible tracks, a tunnel, and a train that has a headlight that lights up and has a remote control to go forward or backward!  

He loved all the cards, too!  Thank you to Non, Granny, Aunt Stephie, Uncle Chris, Jake, Morgen, Uncle Mark, Aunt Kathy, Dacee and Ryen, and Uncle Barry and Aunt Bonnie!

With his dinosaur cupcakes for Mrs. Merritt's class at Downtown Elementary!

His birthday was on a Thursday, our violin day most weeks.  Our awesome teacher, Mrs. Ann, comes to our house to teach Madeline and Eli.  Our friend Lindsey started taking violin a while ago, too, and comes for her lesson at our house.  After violin, most Thursdays, we have dinner and a play date! 

Here we are singing Happy Birthday and about to eat a lizard shaped brownie!

YUM!

Good buddies!

Before bed, he just had to ride that bike!!!!!  

Great day to celebrate!!