GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

Ok, well, not really.  But, we do have an official AYSO soccer player in the house!  (And an AYSO Official Assistant Coach and Official Team Photographer!)  Hayden is playing his first season of soccer and it's been fun.  He's definitely got a bit of a learning curve since most of the kids in his U7 (Under 7 years old) league have played for 1-2 years.  But, he's having fun and it's great to see so many people we know out on the soccer fields every Saturday.

Here's a glimpse at some of their practices and first two games.  Hayden's team is the "Golden Ninjas"  Would you expect anything else from a group of 6-year-old boys?!

Game 1!

Little brother keeps busy on the games on his scooter!

Game 2!

Ben found a buddy!  A teammate of Hayden also has a 4-year-old little brother!

We've got games for almost 2 more months, so there will be many, many more pictures to come throughout the season!

Ben's First Day of Pre-K

Big brother wasn't the only one to start school recently, Benjamin had his first day of preschool this week!  He's at the same school as last year and he LOVES it!  He also has the same teacher his brother had during his 4-year-old preschool year.

We set up for a few front-porch pictures before we walked down to school.  I was delighted that he picked the shirt Grandma sent him :-)

The First Day of First Grade

Hayden started school on Tuesday this week.  We had an amazing summer and I was a little sad to see it end, but he also had an amazing year of school last year, so I've been excited for this new one to start.  I love getting back into the routine of the school year.  Fresh school supplies, seeing friends every day (both him seeing his friends and me seeing my mom friends!), learning new things. . . he was excited to start, too!

His teacher for this year will be Mrs. Paris and we were excited to see that he already knew about a dozen kids in the class!  In addition to him, there are 4 other kids from his Kindergarten class (including one of his best buddies, Teddie), his first California friend (Jameson), a few other kids he knew and had played with as friends-of-friends, and 2 boys that will be on his soccer team!

Interestingly, there's another boy named Hayden in his class!  In the entire grade level at school, there are only 2, and they both ended up in the same class.  They also are on the same soccer team for the fall!

Hayden & Teddie

First grade really feels like the big leagues!  On the first day of Kindergarten, class was 1 hour and the parents stayed the entire time, getting a chance to meet the teacher and hear how things in the classroom will go.  First day of first grade, the teacher opened the door after the bell rang and welcomed the kids into the classroom.  She invited the parents to help them find their seat, then says "see you at the end of the day!"

Hayden was happy to find that he was seated right between two of his friends, Jameson and Merrick.

I helped Hayden get his school supplies in his desk (and gasped when I saw that he already had a stack of textbooks in his desk!).  I snapped a few pictures, then left my big kid behind for his first day!

I'm so excited for Hayden and how much he's going to learn this year.  It's a big leap from Kindergarten, but I think he's going to do great and I'm so happy to see him grow into this kind, thoughtful, amazing, and smart boy.  So many adventures ahead!