Tyler Plays Soccer, week 2...

Today's soccer lesson was about kicking with your laces to scoot the ball forward while dribbling, then they were split in two and played a real soccer game!

 All soccered up, getting ready to get going...

 Big Kicks!

 Getting ready to gather the cones to warm up...

 Only the green ones, one at a time...

 

 Practicing their dribbling with their laces...

 

Now onto the real game!  

  

Then they practiced freezing when she blew the whistle...

 

Finally a cheer for playing so well!  

 

Next week we are moving to the next time slot with the slightly older kids.  He's able to be in either group and they only have 2 people, so he's on the move!  

Fieldtrip to the Library....

 Tuesday Tyler's class had their first field trip of the year, a visit to the library for story time then a picnic at the park.  We love going to the library, so this was one we both enjoyed. 

Ms. Stephanie is a great story teller.

 The Hungary Caterpillar on the felt board.

 Popcorn kernels...

 then they popped! 

We also had Ty's official post-op appointment that afternoon.  Although his incision is healing nicely, his thumb isn't.  Mostly it is all do to fear of the unknown on the Ty's part, fear it might hurt if it's moved.  So he's been protecting it for the last week and a half, curled up and now it won't move.  He was fitted with a custom brace that puts his thumb out into a straight position.  We are to take it off at night and a couple of times a day so we can work on movement.  In the last day and a half we've had it, I can see where it's starting to straighten things out a bit.  Depending on his progress over the next two weeks, we may or may not be heading to physical therapy. 
Needless to say, the simple cut and release has not been our case at all. 

Crafty Blog...

I've changed the address for the crafty blog, so if you have it bookmarked, please update it to this:
http://goodbadcraftyblog.blogspot.com/

Go check out what I've been working on...

Tyler plays soccer...

Tyler started his soccer class today through the parks and rec, once a week for 30 min. He had a great time, but said it was really short.

Getting ready to go, powering up...

Warm up kicks...

Warming up their legs and pulling the feathers from Coach Sara...

Stretch...

Learning the 3 big rules of soccer; no hands, no kicking with stinky toes, and have fun!

Learning to put your foot on the ball when the whistle blows...

today's lesson was all about dribbling and stopping...

or falling...

more dribbling...

Then they stopped the ball with their head, elbow, ear and bottoms...

Stay tuned for next week's lesson.

The past week and such...

The past week and a half have been a whirl wind of crap. Some good, some bad, some just awful, and some just crap.

As most know, especially if you are reading this on Facebook and not on my actual blog, Ty had to have hand surgery on the 9th. He has a trigger thumb, where his thumb won't straighten out, and they went in and released the squeezed tendon/ligament. This has been a very trying time.
And again, if you've read FB or seen me at soccer/school/store, you've heard.

I'm still waiting for his kid to re-emerge...

with a fully functioning hand. I'm fairly confident the surgery did what it was supposed to, but trying to convince the 4 year old to move things around has been a challenge. We've had bandage issues that caused pain. Now he's freaked out that anything to do with it will hurt. What's worse is that since last Thurs, 16th, he's had his hand balled up into a fist to protect it. This has made for stiff fingers and a stuck thumb.


Moving on, he has had some fun the last week. The boys dumped out their dress up box and proceeded to put on most everything they owned.

Hmm, his thumb almost looks better there, wishing we didn't have to take the big bandage off when we did...

PTA has kicked into gear this past week. We had our first general meeting, and even had a decent turnout. My job this year is fundraising, so I've been on the phone and meeting with people to get our first things going. Most of this has been done by the seat of my pants without much guidance and in the end I'm praying I haven't missed some big, important step.

Mon morning I met with a person about a reusable bag and bottle fundraiser we are going to do along side our cookie dough in Oct. After the meeting I'm hoping that we can actually pull it all off. They have only done this at one other school, so she's taking suggestions, and if I have ways to make it go smoother to please pass those along. I also met the head of the PTA at the other school that they piloted at last year, I only thought I was involved. So we will see....

Our Internet connection likes to flicker in and out, mostly because of the wireless router we have. It's so freakin' frustrating, especially when watching Nexflix on the Wii and it has to keep reloading every 15 min. Someday new computers and equipment will come to our house, someday...

Cody played his first regular season soccer game on Sat. They did lose 4-1, but he played well. He's getting a bit more aggressive as the time goes and hopefully he'll start to see the field better throughout the season so he can judge where he needs to go to help out.

I took my camera, and intended to shoot some pictures, but only took 2.

I'm already "that mom" that yells, didn't want to be the one standing right on the side line as well.
I keep thinking that coaching would be a good place for me, until I have to help out and deal with the attitudes. You know, those same attitudes that made me decided not to ever work in Cody's class again last year. Only this year they are bigger, and mouthier, and they are just little turds.
Maybe if I start with Ty next year, it won't be so bad....

Finally was able to get a bit crafty this past week as well. The membership coordinator for PTA needed help putting together a bulletin board to show how many members we have and so that the kids could find their names if their parents are members. She had a paper punch that kinda looked like a flame, so that was the starting point.

This is what we came up with...

My dragon, forgot that drawing cartoons is kinda fun!

I'm also getting ready to take the plunge into crafty seller. Cody's school his having a craft and vendor fair in Nov, with a cheap $20 buy in. So I'm going for it, starting off with reusable produce bags, juice pouch bags and ribbon sweaty bands. I may add more, but have to get what I have now down first.

This week isn't as busy with meetings and such, just the normal school and soccer. Thanks to Gramma, we are adding a weekly soccer class for Tyler that starts this Thurs, he's way excited.

Tyler's 1st Day of school...

Tyler finally had his first day of school today! Finally because it happened 3 weeks after Cody started and we were all getting restless.

Ready to go...

This is where he goes...

Ready to start his day!

A lot of what they do in class this year is the same as the last, with the one major difference being that instead of coming in and starting to play, they come in and sit on the rug to do a circle time. This is preparation for next year's jump to Kindy.

He said he had a fun day, with old and new friends, made a stick person, played blocks and ate a snack of pretzels, cheese and juice.

Here we go again!

Folsom Cyclebration Treasure Hunt...

Saturday we took advantage of our soccer bye week and headed over to Folsom for the Cyclebration. They had a family treasure hunt that sounded like fun so we searched around and found a trailer for Ty and we were off.

Grandpa and Ty getting ready to go...

Once registered we had our map....

At each stop we had to answer a question or do a task, so at the first stop we had to find some information about the Folsom Powerhouse.

Next we stopped at the chocolate shop to find out how many chocolate confections they made last year (531,000!)

We rewarded here for our hard work...

Then to the Folsom train yard to search out some more answers...

Hard work!

At the train table, we were to turn it half a turn and then have it signed off by the staff.

Grandpa hopped on to encourage them...

All done!

Next we went to the bike shop and bakery, but they only had a table set up out front and a person giving us answers. But they had lemonade, so not all was lost.

We headed over the bridge and found out when it was dedicated, then to find out what the first settler's main diet was...

After this we headed over the foot bridge and looked for the amount of the fine for going faster than the walkers ($5), headed back up the hill to the Folsom Zoo to write down the names of two of the bears as our last stop.

We were then rewarded with goody bags full of vendor discounts and snacks and the boys were giving gift certificates for free meals at Round Table and Island burgers as well as free dessert from Macaroni Grill!

Labor Day Pow Wow...

Over the Labor Day weekend the boys headed out to the Pow Wow at Camp Pollock here in Sacramento. Keith has been to many pow wows with his friend Jeremy, but finally caved to the pressure and decided it was time to put together an outfit and dance.

The boys all ready for Sat night...

Keith's mom made the outfits themselves, then Keith did his yarn (orange) work and I did the the boys'. There are a few borrowed pieces as well, but they were happy with getting to dress.

Hanging out before the night started...

They do a grand entry where all the dancers in outfits come out in the circle and do their dance.
Cody decided he would go out with our friend Orion.

JP on Sat...

JP and Misti...

Tyler was our random boy, he would be sitting down and all of a sudden he was up and in the circle. He had a great time, has a bit of rhythm and it will be interesting to see how far he goes.

Dancing away!

Tyler with Keith during a friendship dance where everyone shakes hands...

The boys stayed out and camped both nights, I however decided to head for the comfort (and quite) of home. They had a lot of fun running around and playing with the other kids.

Orion's outfit for Sun...

Boys ready for Sun...

Misti was the honored veteran for the weekend and had the duty of carrying the US flag.

Keith was a flag bearer for the weekend as well as he's past military...

The boys in the grand entry circle...

This is the head woman's and men's dancer for the weekend. On each night one was honored with a special dance and they presented gifts to people throughout the community for various things. Josh present all the kids with wooden flutes, which they loved.

Josh's oldest boy, so cute in his outfit...

There's our littler dancer, out on Sun...

They also had a rabbit dance, which is a ladies choice dance, and Cody was asked to dance by one of the women in their camp. He was quite embarrassed, but did very well getting the steps down.

So now we have a winter project. We hope to make the boys new outfits that are in more of the tradition grass dance style, like the boys above had. Keith will also be working on improvements to his and adding pieces.

I'll try to edit and post some video as well later...