Birthday Football Outing

For his birthday this year, Alex took a few friends to the Chicago Maroons football game. The kids had fun, Dave and I survived (barely), and his birthday week came to a good close.

Three boys ready for the game

Alex's neighbor buddies were able to join us after soccer,
so we had a bench full of kids

Free seats on the 50 yard line -- hooray for Division III football

Group shot outside of the stadium

This goofy picture is a more accurate depiction of the day

Alex picked an Oreo ice cream cake this year
Easiest cake ever! No ordering in advance,
just pick up at Target

Cracking each other up over the cake

Alex's Eighth Birthday

Alex turned eight this week. He was showered with love and gifts from friends and family (thanks all!!), had a celebration with his class that included poetry and Skittles, and overall had a terrific day.

We let him open a few gifts the night before to spread out the fun

Action shot of the super cool soccer kicking gear
from his Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins

So excited to finally have a Weatherman shirt

Laughing at a funny joke in the card Rafa made him

Alex chose to read a poem to his class to celebrate his birthday
It's called The Kite Flying Iguana and Dave wrote it

Legos are always a hit

Sue always finds the best shirts
On the back is a flow chart of the scientific method

Alex meets Calvin and his friend Hobbes

The First Week of Second Grade

This has been a busy week! Alex started second grade, had his first soccer practice, and went to a Back to School roller skating party. 

Second grade is going great so far. He's liking his class and has both new and old friends with him. Second graders can check out two books at a time from the school library, and his class also has a library where he can check out books. He has been taking full advantage of both.

We are trying his first organzied team sport with AYSO soccer this year. Unfortunately, the kick off celebration was cancelled because of rain, but he had fun at the first practice. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate this weekend, and he'll have his first game.

He had so much fun at the roller skating party. He was one of the last people to leave the floor. It was 80s themed, so I put him in a couple of pastel shirts and popped his collars. I had fun too, but quickly discovered that skating is not for me any more. One time around the rink, one big fall, and I was done. It was so much easier in my memories of roller skating as a kid.

Backyard Campout

In one of Alex's most highly anticiapted events of the summer, friends of ours had us over for a cookout, a movie in the backyard, and a sleepover in a tent (Dave and I skipped that part). It was as fun as expected, although I wonder how much sleep the kids actually got.

Getting things set up pre-sunset.

You have to have s'mores at a cookout!

Movie time!

Headlamp on and ready for the tent

Settling in for the night

Ninja Warrior Weekend

As many of you know, Alex loves the tv show "American Ninja Warrior." (Dave and I do too; we've been watching for several years and got Alex into it last year.) So, we were very excited to learn that there was a Ninja Warrior event fairly close by in Rockford, Michigan. 

Aside from a little too much rain and mud, it was a fanstatic event! Alex got to run a ninja course several times, met and got autographs from 15 athletes from the tv show, and got to watch them compete. It was a great day. Lots of pictures ahead.

His first run of the intermediate kids' course

Conquering the warped wall later in the day

Meeting lots of Ninja Warrior athletes

First up was one of Alex's favorites, Jamie Rahn, a.k.a. Captain NBC

Next, family favorite, Kevin Bull

James "The Beast" McGrath

Another family favorite, Joe "The Weatherman" Moravsky (We also got to meet his wife, and later Alex was bummed that he didn't ask for her autograph too, but we didn't get a chance to see her again.)

"Mr. Consistency" Paul Kasemir

Andrew Lowes took a break from his snack to chat

Alex was really excited to meet Drew Dreschel (He was bummed that The Weatherman didn't have any kid-sized t-shirts, but Drew did, so Alex is now the proud owner of a Real Life Ninja shirt.)

Rookie Daniel Gil didn't sing, but he did add to Alex's autograph collection

We unexpectedly encountered Evan "The Rocket" Dollard, who was super-nice and got Alex to pose with him

Speaking of posing, the next ninja we ran into was Ryan Stratis, who lives up to his reputation and did "The Strat" with Alex

Then we got to meet Michelle Warnky, which we were really looking forward to because we recently learned that Alex's Uncle Mark went to college with her parents. We had a good conversation with Michelle about that, and Alex is very excited that we have a connection to a Ninja Warrior athlete.

We caught up with Dustin Rocho after he was helping someone learn how to do the salmon ladder. It was a quieter area, so we had some time to chat with him and had a very interesting conversation about the show and his training.

Just before we were leaving to take a break from the heat, I noticed that Steven Moul was at the event, so we got his autograph too. If you don't watch Ninja Warrior, all I will say is be sure you have some Kleenex if you watch Steven's story and his run.

I'm not sure how I missed the photo op with Elet Hall, but he added his signature "Send it!" to Alex's shirt. We also got Andrew Karsen's autograph after his evening run, but there's no picture because of the rain and chaos at the time. We missed a few of the athletes at the event, but obviously got most of them!

Alex trying the Devil Steps

Alex and Dave pretending they are going to run the professional course, and then pics of some of the athletes running the course at the end of the day before they had to close it for bad weather.

Drew transitioning to the cargo net

The Beast on the ring slider

Evan Dollard (in blue) providing the sideline commentary while James McGrath tries to scale a wet warped wall

Alex (in blue, on the fence) cheering on Jamie Rahn

Joe Moravsky made it up the wall despite the rain

Michelle Warnky taking on the ring slider in what would turn out to be the last run of the night

We had a blast, and Alex has already decided that he wants to go back next year and volunteer to work at the event.