Kade the soccer player

Kade was really sad when soccer came to an end.  He was getting so into it and he could play it every day if he could.  That is, with his team or any other kids because he won’t play by himself and Anika and all the other kids at home are not old enough to play.  Ehren was Kade’s coach and he really enjoyed it too except for most of the kids on the team having no interest in playing the game.  That always makes me sad for Kade when I see other kids not caring about playing soccer at all and he’s out there so eager to play it.  But I guess that is expected from 5 year olds.  During the games the kids had to take turns because they only played 3-4 players at a time.   Kade could hardly wait for the next time he could be in and kept asking the coach if he can play, while some of the girls were crying on the sidelines because they didn’t want to go in.  Ehren and I were quite surprised watching Kade get better and better with each practice and game.  They really didn’t get into much of foot working or details like that during practices but Kade just naturally started figuring out some moves and that was very cool to see.  I told Ehren that maybe it’s my brother’s genes coming thru since he was playing soccer for many years and still does with friends.  I already started prepping Kade for next summer though because if we are able to go to Slovakia he won’t be able to play soccer.  He is pretty sad about that but reminding him about it makes it easier because he kept asking almost the whole school year when the soccer would start already this last time.   Maybe his uncle and cousins will play a little soccer with him when we’re over there.

I really hope Kade can find some friends to play soccer with.  When we went to visit our friends the other evening Ehren and the other dad played soccer with the kids and they all had a blast with that.  I got to be  a goalie too for a bit until I had to chase after Kason.  Maybe when our kids are all a little older our whole family can have fun playing it.

the Fair

I guess the small town kids’ highlight of the summer is the county fair.  It lasts for 5 days, starts with a parade, and there are rides every day, farm animals to check out, horse riding competitions, bull riding, demolition derby, etc…, and of course the greasiest food you can imagine.  Truly, I only go for the kids.  We made it to the parade with friends on Wednesday night and it was so cold we had to wear sweatshirts.  I was still cold though and looking around there were a lot of people covered with winter blankets.  What can I say, every year we get shorter and shorter summers.  This was Ani’s first year when she really understood that she was getting candy and was so excited to pick them up.  It was funny how scared she was of all the blow-up costumes but the huge loud trucks didn’t bother her at all.  On Friday night Ehren had to help out at the church so I took all 3 kids to the fair, just to look at the animals that time.  Kade and Ani loved watching the animals but Kason was not that amused.  He wanted to get out of the stroller with all his might and finally when I couldn’t keep him in there any more without him screaming his head off we had to leave.  So that’s why I don’t attempt to take him with us to many things other than parks where he can run free.  Even a 15 minute shopping trip at a store is too much for him and he’s getting all antsy to run away.  Anyway, Saturday I promised Kade we’d go to the fair again so he could go on some rides.  It was great to see he had such a fun time, he could have been there for hours and hours but with Anika being so tired and bored out of her mind we had to leave after about 3 hours.  I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture of her before we left – covered with black dirt from head to toes.  First I took both of them on a merry-go-round and I had both arms around Anika so she wouldn’t be scared, but she still cried the whole ride and wanted to get off.  So after that I didn’t attempt anything else with her except the little train and she wanted to do it over and over so at least she liked something.  Otherwise she had to just keep waiting with me for Kade to get done with one ride after another so of course she was bored and started playing with the black gravel that was everywhere.  We did go look at all the animals again and the kids loved it.  Anika is such an animal lover and she went right in with the goats and was petting them all.  We also bought a couple of greasy treats like mini doughnuts and it was really funny because Anika took one bite of it and spit it out.  That shows how much we eat doughnuts.   Kade made up for her though and finished them off.  It is just crazy how that stuff tires you out though.  I was ready to crash, but then had to go home and make some home-made pizzas for our friends who came over for dinner and we played their wii for a while, which Kade really enjoyed.  Ehren and I got into the car racing a little also, crashing into everyone and I really beat him in tennis.   I just wish I was that good in real life tennis.  So it was a good and once again very busy weekend.  We got together with some other friends on Sunday afternoon and the dads played soccer with the kids.  It was so cute and fun for them, I really wish people around here got together more to just play soccer, volleyball or whatever.  If kids in Slovakia had all those fields set up like we do they would never be empty for long.

at the parade

picking up candy

Ani trying to eat one already

some girls sport

an example of what Anika was scared of. She just ran to me so I couldn’t get a picture of her.

another “scary” thing

Anika’s favorite ride

Winter activities

Here is what keeps us busy during the day when we can’t go outside because it’s too cold.  Kade and Anika play downstairs pretty well for a long time so it’s always nice to send them there when I’m making dinner.  And Kason just likes watching the two of them play.

Santa Claus Day

We’ve had our traditional Slovak Santa Claus Day yesterday, meaning Santa came last night and left treats in our boots.  It was fun to watch Kade get excited about it, he couldn’t wait to clean his boots last night.  Anika gets excited about anything Kade is excited about so she had fun too although she probably didn’t have a clue until she woke up and saw all the treats in her boots.  Kade is getting a little bit of a mixed message about Santa because he’s watched some tv shows where he comes at Christmas so how come he’s coming for Santa Claus Day?  We had a little talk about our house and that Angels bring the gifts at Christmas time to us and he likes that idea.  A funny thing was that I forgot to put a couple of things into his boot this morning so I just dug it out this morning and gave it to him saying Santa forgot.  He was almost onto me though because the night before I bought clementines and here they got clementines in their boots so he questioned that right away.  I just said Santa and I were putting things in there together which raised more questions like “did you talk to him?”  and “what did he look like?”  “I wanted to see Santa at our house…”  Maybe Ehren will have to put a Santa costume on one of these years like my dad did, but I think we all knew it was dad after a little while.  It was a busy weekend though because Ehren was helping with the sound for the children’s Christmas musical which was tonight.  Kade sang 3 songs at the beginning and quite enjoyed it so that’s what the pictures are of.

the big brother

Kade is a big kindergartener and growing up so quick.  He loves going to school and is starting to get very interested in math, writing, coloring, reading and stuff which is fun to see.  His personality is very much like Ehren’s where he doesn’t like to try new things until he is sure he knows how it works or until he knows he can do it.  We have to praise him a lot and encourage him with everything new because he wants it to be perfect or else he won’t do it.  But I think he’s getting a lot better at it and will say to me or to himself :”it’s ok if I make a mistake” as he’s writing his letters.  Ehren and I are so proud of him, he is just a very smart boy and has a big heart.  He loves his brother Kason and on the weekend mornings when he doesn’t have to get ready for school I find him in the crib with Kason, laughing away and entertaining him.  He says “I was just playing with my brother”.  I love seeing that and that he will play with smaller children even though they can’t play with him on the same level.  It makes me a little bit sad for Anika because not too long ago she was in that crib and Kade used to climb up in there and the two of them would giggle it up some mornings.  Now she has her girl room.  But Kade and Anika can play really well together too, Kade just gets frustrated sometimes because Ani can’t do something well enough.  He is such a social person though and still hates being by himself so having Ani by his side is sometimes fun because he’s not alone.  It especially helps with going outside because he won’t go unless Ani is going too.  If he could, he would go to some friend’s house every day and he asks me almost every day if someone is coming to our house or if we’re going to someone’s house because that would be the highlight of his day.  It is just hard to believe he’s getting so big and responsible.  You can tell he’s the oldest and wants to keep everyone else in line which causes some tantrums for Anika.

One thing Kade really likes to do now is to play “computer games” and he thinks we own these games even though it’s just web sites like Nick JR.  With google he thinks he can just type in anything and games will appear.  He will try to spell out nascar, different kids characters and just assumes he will find a game about that.  He does find web sites on nascar or else shopping sites where he finds toys he “needs”, which is strange to see a 5 year old do because I didn’t even know what a computer was when I was his age.  The other time when I was looking for something at Amazon he saw some toys he thought we needed to buy and when I said we can’t buy that he said “but it’s easy, just put it in the cart and the mail guy will bring it.”   Yes, it’s just that simple and an empty pocket later…

We have to be careful though about what we say to whom now because Kade is paying attention to everything.  The other day we were driving somewhere and Kade goes “what if a bad indian guy comes into our house and steals daddy’s birthday cake?”  I asked why would an indian come to our house, not even addressing why he would choose to steal the cake.  He came up with a reason that it’s like when the indian stole our red car.  To that I replied “how do you know it was an indian?”  “Because you told your friend on the computer, mom”.  Ooops! I had to explain that it might not have been an indian and that they are not all bad.    We all love Kade just the way he is and he brings so much joy to our family.