Breakfast with Santa and The Reds

We were so blessed this Christmas season to get the opportunity to attend Breakfast with Santa and the Reds.  This was a new event at Redsfest and since my parents are season ticket holders, we got to go! 

The kids were BEYOND excited to see Santa!  Sadly though, as soon as the mascots came into the room, poor Santa was pretty much ignored.  The Redsfest staff gave us a great picture of the kids with Santa, so there were none on my camera, but I got some great pictures with the mascots!!  The food at this event was super yummy and it was somewhat exclusive, so there weren't very many kiddos there.  This meant that our kids got a lot of one of one time with the mascots!  Gapper colored with them, several mascots played "catch" and "hot potato" with them...so fun!

I'm A Little Turkey, My Name is Ted

One of our biggest events at the preschool is our Thanksgiving Dinner.  The teachers plan a program for the students and we have huge Thanksgiving meal in the hall downstairs after the program.  We usually feed about 250 people.  This year was no different, EXCEPT Lilah is a preschooler this year!

She was soooooo excited to sing her turkey song in front of everyone.  She's about the furthest thing from shy, so putting her in front of a crowd is right up her alley.  She made it VERY clear that any family member not in attendance would be in TROUBLE.

Not to anyone's surprise the little ham did a great job during the program.  Again, thanks to Teri for these photos.  Mama was too busy being in charge of the event to take any of her own!

U6 Soccer

This fall was Brian's last season for U6 soccer.  Technically, we should have moved him to U8, but we wanted to give him one more season in U6 to see if it clicked.  He has played since he was just 4 years old and while he enjoyed it, it didn't seem like he would ever have an aggressive enough personality to really "get it." 

Well much to our excitement, he finally got it this season!  He scored 4 goals (jn 6 games) and really seemed to understand the concept of defense by the end of the season.  It was awesome to see.  His first goal came after a bribe from Nana, but once he scored and got a taste of success, he was determined to do it again and again!  He's such a perfectionist that he insisted on scoring by dribbling right into the net, so he had the ball A LOT and only scored when the situation was perfect for him. If we can get him to take shots from further out, he could score many more goals going forward.  He'll have to adjust to U8 in the spring, of course, so we'll see how it goes!

It was so exciting to see him doing so well though.  The best part was his little celebration run back down the field after scoring.  He looked just like his Daddy when he played in high school.  Some things are just genetic!

So in the spring, we will move onto U8.  It won't be long though before we'll be back on the U6 field with Lilah next fall.  

Photo creds go to Aunt Teri.  Thanks, Teri!