Mini-Mitey Bulldogs

Liam has played hockey for the past two seasons, and this year, Cole has joined in. I must say, hockey practice is very enjoyable. Jeff & I get the boys ready and then all three head out to the ice. I go sit in the stands and knit. Yay me!

Liam seems much faster this year, which is fun to watch. I was a little concerned since he barely skated at all this summer, but his stride is longer and smoother.

Cole has spent much of the eight practices thus far practicing standing still, but he does get places, albeit slowly. I was very proud of him today, though, because he is now able to get up all by himself, and quickly. He was very proud of himself and even more happy that Grandpa & Grandma Engelhardt were there to see him.

Halloween 2010

With the exception of last year, the boys have always been coordinated for Halloween. In 2007, they were Clifford and T-Bone. In 2008, Liam wanted to be a black widow spider and Cole to be a fly. Morbid, but okay. This year, Liam was a knight and Cole was a dragon. We went back to the old neighborhood to visit with friends and trick or treat.

While walking around, Liam ran into another friend that he didn't even recognize through her costume. That got them talking about what to be next year. Cole has mentioned being Darth Vadar, but Liam thought that sounded cool, too. He ruled out R2D2, and then decided to be a storm trooper. Cole said, "I'm going to be Darth Vadar. I'm gonna be your master, Liam!" Wouldn't that be a turn of events?

Boy of Fall

I heard a new song by Kenny Chesney today entitled "The Boys of Fall." Well it's turnin' to face the stars and stripes It's fighting back them butterflies It's call it in the air alright, yes sir we want the ball And it's knockin heads and talkin trash It's slinging mud and dirt and grass It's I got your number, I got your back When your backs against the wall You mess with one man you got us all The Boys of Fall . It would make a good concept for a scrapbook page of a high school football player.

Liam, obviously, is not in high school. He is a football player, though, having just completed his first season of touch football. The kids were coached by Gustavus players and did rushing, passing and recovering a fumble drills. They each had the opportunity to play offense and defense and play games against the other teams. Liam's preferred position was quarterback, although I think he would've been just as easy happy standing there trash-talking the other team.

Another Year at Little Saints

Today was Cole's first day at Little Saints Preschool, this year in the 5-day program. We're probably nuts, but he enjoys it and keeps up with the rest of his class.

Jeff was golfing in a tournament today, so Cole hung out with Grandma in the morning who then brought him over to St Peter. I left work for long enough to walk him into school. We took a few pictures; he didn't need me at all, of course. He's good. Grandma picked him up after school and then returned him this evening, along with Liam.

As usual, Cole didn't bring home any projects. He also didn't want to talk about his day. I learned from his friend Nora that she played with the cash register, though.

I want to be helpful

Being helpful has been a recurring theme for Liam over the last month or so. He has offered to weed, sweep, cook, act as a waiter (that one was particularly cute). He's also fond of our replacement washer and dryer and likes to do laundry himself. I watched him take clothes out of the dryer today and was very impressed when he even cleaned out the lint screen. Jeff gets annoyed with me because I never do that. I guess Liam's learning from the right parent!

First Day of First Grade

Liam (and we) have been anxiously awaiting the start of first grade. We signed up for his conference a few weeks ago and found out a couple of his friends would be in his class. Yesterday, we met his teacher Ms Walters who seems very cool. We even played school yesterday afternoon. (I think he got a kick out of calling us Kim and Jeff.)

This morning was rainy and crazy at South, but we still got our pictures taken and made it in on time. He put all his stuff away, chatted with a couple people and was off as a first grader. He's going to have an awesome year!

Hangin' with the Grandparents

Today we all traipsed off to the Almelund Threshing Show. They had huge amounts of rain over the last few days, so it was very muddy. Fortunately, it was warm and dry today and the boys were good about walking carefully. We saw a bunch of tractors, including the tractor parade that we watched for 70 minutes before leaving with no end in sight. We watched the saw mill and the big engines and some threshing. Mostly, though, we hung out with Mom and Dad. All of their work Thursday evening was blown away, basically, so they spent most of the morning resetting their stuff. Liam was very helpful. I think his first statement to Mom, in fact, was that he wanted to help. He wrote out tags, moved things, announced to people looking that it was 10% off (today, but he wasn't sure about tomorrow).