Back to School!

Thatcher started his 3rd year of preschool a few weeks ago. 

This was him one year ago in the exact same spot ready for his second year!

This year.

Last year.

This year.

Last year.

This year.

Someone wasn't getting enough attention that morning. 

Do you think I will be able to get him to wear miniature ties on the first day throughout elementary school? I will certainly try. ;)

Thatcher moved up into Ms. Laurie's class.

And the best part about this year is having the Stone family back at Good Shepard!

Little Jessie is almost 3 and doing two half-days at preschool.

It's sweet that Jessie and Thatcher will be together at the Preschool Christmas Concert just like Samantha and Connor were way back when. 

Celebrating the new school year with the most obnoxious ice cream. This is Rite Aid's cotton candy flavor and boy was it messy (but very good from what the kids would let me taste) ;)

See, messy!

Each time I would look at them it would get worse! 

Someone else was very excited about the new school year. She wanted me to take a picture of her in front of her school supplies.

She remembered lining up all her supplies last year and taking a photo.

This year. 

Last year.

First day of 1st grade!

First day of Kindergarten!

This year.

Last year.

Samantha has team teachers this year, Mrs. Godlis and Mrs. Lopes and so far we LOVE them! They are both so sweet, excellent communicators with us and while I was skeptical at first with the team teaching idea, they've been doing it for several years now and have the routine down pat! Plus, they encouraged parents to drop in ANYTIME and already have a schedule going of classroom parent helpers. Three cheers for feeling welcome! ;)

Out of the 20 students in class, only 3 are from Samantha's kindergarten class so it is great for her to be surrounded by a new group of students.

Cinnamon Roll Fridays are back in action! 

Happy to be back with her friends!

After school treats! 

Picture day!

Visiting her classroom on Back to School night!

Loving her Picasso-style self portrait. 

Hooray for the new school year! 

(Thatcher didn't get the "Hooray" memo this particular day).

Soccer Times Two!

It's double the AYSO soccer fun this year as both Samantha and Thatcher are playing. We have their schedules and some games are at the same time, some are back to back and some have a large gap in between so the All Your Saturdays Occupied acronym for AYSO will be happening ;) The truth is, we don't mind. Out of all the sports Samantha played last year, this was definitely the sport she enjoyed the most.  

Samantha went up a size and a half from her cleats last year and these are the fancy shoes she picked out. 

First Practice!

Her team consists of six girls from her elementary school, four of which were Rainbow Sharks from last year, and two new friends. 

We've got the awesome Coach Jules again AND

a very handsome assistant coach, Todd! ;)

The NEW shoes match the NEW uniform ;)

Team Name: Blue Wave Dolphins!

More practice!

Thatcher's first practice!

Thatcher's meeting new friends and a few boys he already knows that will be going to kindergarten with him next year at Peabody.

Sweaty and tired from practice which is another reason why I LOVE this sport. 

Green Ninja ready for his first game! 

The boys were still getting the hang of it the first half of the game and there were frequent water breaks, subbing players in and out and some complaints of being "too tired and too hot." Thatcher's shorts were WAY too big and kept falling to his ankles so he would run back and forth to us to tie them but they wouldn't stay tied for some reason.

Also, the opposing team was more playing tackle football with their own team. They kept running and diving on top of each other. The refs had to break them up several times which thoroughly confused our team.

You'll notice Thatcher's shorts are a little shorter now. I finally rolled them up and tied a huge knot in them and immediately his game changed and he scored his first goal!  

Thatcher only subbed out for about 30 seconds and played the rest of the time and was having a blast! Scoring that first goal was such a game changer as he played the rest of the game with a gigantic smile on his face. It could also have been the short-shorts I made him ;)

Here he is going in for his second goal which, by the way, I was so excited that I had the camera out and ready this time.

Only seconds left in the game and as he is about to score...

The tackle football player from the other team comes out of no where and tackles Thatcher! At this point I threw my phone down and all the parents from both teams were on the field. Thatcher ended up being okay and the boy who tackled him was forced to apologize. I was told by his parent that her son, "wasn't feeling himself today and was tired." Sure didn't seem tired to me ;) 

These two were our goal scorers for the first game and actually the opposing team scored a few in our goal too so the Green Ninjas did pretty good ;)  It will be fun to see the boys improve throughout the season and get the hang of the game more. 

Samantha ready and excited for her first game!

Sadly, we had to miss her first game because we had a wedding to go to. We weren't sad to attend the wedding of course but out of all the weeks to have a late afternoon game it had to be this one :( 

Todd was able to take her out to the field and watch the pre-game warmup and a few minutes of the 1st quarter but then had to leave. 

I admit, I was texting with some of the Blue Wave Dolphin parents while we were waiting for the bride to walk down the aisle. In my defense, the wedding didn't start on time ;) I had to get some updates on how Sam was doing: 

"Samantha is dominating!"

"You owe Samantha $5 because she just scored a goal!" yes, I pay for goals but not normally $5. This was special for the first game ;) 

"Sam was awesome on defense!" 

"Samantha played so great! Super focused!"

So, SO bummed we had to miss her game but we were so proud to hear she did great and had such a fun time playing! 

Cheers to All Your Saturdays Occupied!