Chris and Abby visit

Chris and Abby came in to town this weekend to visit us all in Florida and for a vacation from the cold weather in the Midwest. They flew in Saturday, but with Connor's birthday party we weren't able to get together with them until Sunday. After Connor's friends went home from the sleepover, we drove out to Barbara Jean's to meet them for lunch. It was an absolutely perfect day out and we ate outside and watched the boats go by.

After lunch, we went back to our house and Connor opened some presents and played a bunch with Uncle Chris.

Grandpa got Connor a couple neat air cannons for his birthday, you can see him blasting poor Connor in this pic.

Connor liked playing with his new football guys and we got him the new Madden football game on the Xbox, so Connor, Chris, Grandpa and I played together.

Unfortunately, Connor picked the Tennessee Titans against the Colts and we didn't win. He was pretty upset about it and was pouting for a while as a result. Connor had stayed up very late for his sleepover party, so he was a little grumpy.

Paige and Abby played with Paige's princesses for a while, those princesses always have a lot of drama.

It is still too cold to warm up the whole pool, but we heated up the hot tub and some of us got in. Connor was still upset over the football loss, so he stayed inside.

After swimming for a bit, we ate some Chinese takeout and then some more of Connor's birthday cake. Aunt Abby told Paige a bunch of stories for bedtime and Chris told Connor some stories too. Both kids really enjoyed having Uncle and Auntie to play with and it was so nice to see them and for them to visit.

Andrea's new BMW X3

This past week we finally took possession of Andrea's new BMW X3. She's had her BMW 328 for a few years now and while it's been fun to drive and was very cute, it was getting a little tight for our family. We looked at a bigger sedan, however most cars weren't much bigger and the back seats especially were not great for the kids. Since I've already got a big SUV, we didn't want another big vehicle. Andrea came across the X3 and it was a perfect size. Definitely bigger than a car, but still got decent gas mileage and also very fun to drive!

Andrea did all her research and negotiating herself. We found one locally that seemed perfect. We went in and talked to the dealer and were planning to buy it. We took it for an extended test drive and planned to keep it for the weekend. After we drove it around for a while we fell in love with it, until we were in a parking lot and tried to open the doors and realized it didn't have a "comfort access" feature that Andrea had grown accustomed to with her old 328. We returned that car and Andrea looked everywhere for a car that had everything she wanted. Eventually she found one in Georgia that was perfect. She did all the negotiation over the phone, settled on a price and arranged delivery. A trucker met us in a truck stop near us and we exchanged her old 328 for the new X3.

Andrea's been driving her new X3 around for a few days now and so far we love it. It's a great size and a good fit for all of us. We will miss her little race car! I took a pic of her next to it one last time before we gave it up.

Connor's 7th birthday party - NINJA sleepover party!

Today we celebrated Connor's 7th birthday with a Ninja Sleepover party. We've had a few sleepovers here and there with friends, but this was the first time we decided to have multiple boys overnight at the same time. Andrea's been planning the party for a while and had asked Connor what he wanted to do for his birthday. He's in to all kinds of sports, but he still loves Ninja Warrior and ninja stuff, so that was the theme. Andrea got all kinds of Ninja decorations and all the boys got ninja costumes to wear and keep as party favors. Andrea asked Connor who he'd like to come over and he picked Logan, Trevor, Nick, Adrian and Danny.

Before everyone arrived, we got a few family pictures with all the decorations.

The ninja cake turned out super cool.

After all the boys arrived, we snapped a few pictures of them with the decorations.

Then everyone put on their ninja gear!

After they got all suited up, they started off just running around outside fighting. It devolved in to a chaotic free-for-all and there were some kids that ended up getting smacked pretty hard in the face. We didn't want to ruin their ninja fighting fun, but decided we should have some rules. To make it interesting, I set up a tournament where the winners of one-on-one fights could progress to see who was the ninja champion. Boys are so competitive and they took it very seriously. I love the pic where Connor's getting ready to fight Trevor. You can really see their focus in their eyes, while Danny and Adrian are watching intently just moments before the fight starts.

The first tournament went pretty quick and since everyone gets cut in each fight it's pretty easy for me to fix the fights and call them the way I want. I let Connor win the first tournament since he was the birthday boy. He did fight well, but I'll admit I played favorites. Connor, if you're reading this, sorry buddy it's true. Danny cut you at the same time you cut him in the final round. Anyways, we had lots of fights and I tried to be sure everyone won a few.

After I got tired of arguing with the kids over who got cut first, we went to their favorite part of the party. I'd set up a couple ninja obstacle courses upstairs. The first one we did was the spider web course. I'd tied off strings across the catwalk and they had to negotiate the course without knocking down any of the strings. I wanted it to be fun, but also challenging so they wouldn't be too bored with it. For a while I thought maybe I'd made it impossible. There were lines crisscrossing across, diagonally, and if you weren't aware of all the lines it was very easy to knock one down. In the end, all of the boys that took it seriously made it through, but not before messing up at least 4-5 times each.

I was hoping the kids would like the spider web course, but I was really surprised how much they loved it. They couldn't get enough of it and most of them went through it at least 10 times each. It was exhausting resetting the strings, but it was awesome seeing how much they enjoyed it and how much satisfaction they got when they completed it.

After they all went through the spiderweb course a few times, we moved on to the jump course. It is more similar to the kinds of obstacle courses I've set up for Connor in the past, but I made it a little more sturdy than in the past. We borrowed a balance beam from one of our neighbors and I bought some plastic stepping stones that are intended for jumping on. They don't slide like some of the things I've used in the past and are a little more challenging and sturdy. The jump course was challenging, but all of the boys got through it after a few tries. Connor was very disappointed it took him three tries, but he did make it through.

After we worked up an appetite it was time for pizza! 

It was beautiful out all day, so the kids ate outside.

After dinner, Andrea lit the candles on the cake, we sang Connor "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his candles. The cake was yummy with vanilla tie-die on top and chocolate on the bottom. As usual we had way more cake than we needed, but it's worth it and we always enjoy seeing what Andrea comes up with.

Most of the boys snarfed down the cake and went back inside right away to play on the obstacle courses some more. Adrian was sitting outside by himself and Andrea sat down with him and asked him if he was having fun. Adrian said yes, then paused for a second and followed it up with "This is the best sleepover ever!". Although Danny had his birthday party just yesterday, he told me that he wished he'd had ninja obstacles instead for his party. It was nice to hear that the boys were having a good time.

Once it got dark, we decided we'd let the kids swim. We heated up the hot tub and the we all goofed off in the pool together. The boys had a splash/bellyflop competition and I was the judge. Andrea took some pics and some good videos of us.

After we were done sleeping, the boys played a little longer and then went to bed. As we expected, it took them a few hours to settle down, but finally at about 11:30pm they all fell asleep. I snapped a few pics of them sleeping and now I'm going to bed too!

Connor's first soccer game of Spring - Academy

Connor had his first game of the Spring session with The Academy soccer club. He's on the most experienced and difficult slot with the best players. Most of them are a full head taller than him and most are much older too. He is awfully small playing against them, and we were worried he wouldn't keep up well.

It's amazing how much the level of play has progressed in the short time he's been with this group. The kids are doing all kinds of complex moves to control the ball, they're working together as a team and passing the ball purposefully. Connor doesn't have all of the moves down yet and he mishandled a couple balls that came his way, however he did really well overall and kept up with everyone. There weren't many goals scored at all, the defense was very tight, but Connor still scored 5 goals today.

I got one on video. You can see Connor and the other kids working their butts off.

We couldn't be much more thrilled with the effort Connor puts in to soccer and he really loves it. He had an awesome time playing and he has a good instinct for the game. You could see him working with the team to set up plays and Connor always manages to be in the right place at the right time. It's so much fun to watch our little man do his thing.

Paige watched for a while and after about halfway through the game we realized the soccer game was really near the park. Paige is a good sport watching Connor and cheered for him for a while, but was much happier to goof off at the park. 

She climbed around like a monkey today and was pretty brave. 

Football skills with Daddy

Connor and I play catch quite a bit out front when the weather's nice. He recently likes to make it more challenging with scenario based catches and this past week we were working on sideline skills. He did pretty well getting his feet in bounds after the catch. We did a few moving drills and I decided I'd take a video while he was staying still on the sideline and making his catches while trying to keep his feet in. It's not the best video to showcase how well he can catch, but he has a few decent catches in it and I thought I'd post it anyways.

The video's a little shaky since I'm filming with one hand and catching/throwing with the other. Not easy to do!