Photo Session

I decided to open up my Christmas card business again this November. So, I dusted off the camera and headed out with Charles for a quick practice photo session to get my fingers working on the camera again. (And because I never took an official 4-year-old picture of him and he is so darned cute in those glasses). Charles is generally not a great subject. Pictures are NOT his thing. And he is at the age of the goofy grin. But he was quite cooperative today! I was so proud. I am just having a hard time deciding which one to print and hang on the wall.

Lacrosse

Well thanks to his Aunt (who played Lacrosse for Stanford) and cousins in San Antonio, and with a little nudging from his dad (ok, a lot) Joshua decided to try Lacrosse this fall. To my surprise, the YMCA started a Lacrosse league for kids, and we signed up. He started practicing in September, and the the plan was that the coach was going to sign the team up for some tournaments. He decided that since not only the team but the sport was BRAND new to our YMCA, we would get killed not do well at a tournament. Instead, he found a Lacrosse team in a nearby city that he set up a mini game schedule with. Our first game was this past Sunday, and what fun it was! Our boys (team Force is their name) held their own. We scored one goal, and yes the other team scored 5, but it was still a really competitive game. The team we played has been together for 3 years.

Joshua played defense the first half, and was a midfield man the second half. While playing midfield, you really don't stop running. He was BEAT when it was over. He did really well, though, and almost scored at one point in the game.

Here he is mixing it up at midfield.

It was pretty hot! And Joshua was soaked!

Charles and his little buddy were riveted by all the action!

Cakes everywhere!

The boys had a cake decorating competition at cub scouts last night. There were three themes they could enter: "Halloween", "Scouting" and "Favorite Team". Joshua chose to do a scouting cake, and Thomas chose Halloween. So Joshua and I came up with a cake with the shape of the Webelo symbol on top. Oh, by the way...He won first place in the scouting theme!



Here is the winning cake.









Of course Charles wanted to get in on the fun too!







Thomas wanted to make his cake a witch. I found a "pattern" online, so we cut it out and followed the pattern. He wanted to make her face green, and then we had the idea of putting gummy worms for her hair. It turned out really cool. In fact, we think he should have won for his witch, but he didn't. In fact, he didn't even place. There were a LOT of Halloween cakes and very few scouting and team cakes. So he had a lot of competition.


Here is his cake. Pretty cool, huh





He REALLY liked this project. He took great pride in making it look just right. He meticulously put each oreo on the hat in just the right spot. He couldn't wait to eat it when we got home later that night.

Pumpkins and Glasses

Charles got his glasses today. He is sooooo cute! He has been a total champ with this whole thing. I was a little bit worried about him not wanting them, not wanting to wear them, losing them etc. But he seems totally into it. He was quite amazed when he first put them on. I think everything was so magnified it almost scared him. Plus it made him a little dizzy at first.

We picked them up around noon after Thomas's baseball game, and he has worn them all day. We told him that he can only take them off for baths, bed, swimming, things like that. And if he needs to take them off for any other reason, he must put them right in the case. He picked out a blue case with stars all over it. So later this afternoon, I told him I needed to trim his hair. He asked if he could take his glasses off so that they wouldn't get hairy. I told him that was fine, so he ran over, got his case and put them in. So cute!


Joshua and Thomas think Charles looks cool. Thomas even said that he wished he could have glasses, but quickly changed his mind. He said "no, that is just one more thing to have to be responsible with".



Charles and I went to pick out some pumpkins for the front porch today. He is so excited about fall and Halloween.

He played in the sandbox today like it was no big deal. His glasses didn't even phase him.

Charles at the eye doctor

Well, it looks like Charles got his dad's eyes, poor little guy. After miserably failing the eye screening at his 4 year check-up I finally got around to taking him to the eye doctor. I was pretty sure he needed glasses, and after talking about it for a few weeks, he was actually excited to get glasses. Although he did tell me at one point "I can just use binoculars to see the TV, mommy"

So we went today to see Dr Bowen. After measuring his eyes she already knew he was near-sighted, but then she did a little bit more examining to verify his prescription. It turns out he is around 2100 in each eye ( a little worse in the left actually) which is a prescription of around -2.5 and -3 for anyone who cares.

We are going tomorrow to pick out his glasses. Dr. Bowen said to expect him to make comments about the leaves on the trees because he probably hasn't really noticed them very much up to this point in his life. So sad! :(

Here he is checking out the eye equipment
This is where she told Charles she was looking at the back of his eyes and could see part of his brain. He thought that was pretty cool.
Mr. Serious, just like Joshua was at that age. Charles was the perfect patient for this exam...very cooperative.

School Pictures

The older boys got their school pictures back yesterday. Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of school pictures because they are so bad! The kids don't have their parents with them to help them look good, and you just get what you get. So here they are:

Joshua


Thomas

So as you can see, the pictures are cute, but Thomas's is looking pretty goofy! Here is my dilemma...should I keep the picture of Thomas or have him do "retakes"? I like to put the school pictures in a frame and display them for the rest of the year. Even though I said I liked school pictures because they aren't always perfect, this smile is pretty bad! Let me know what you think by answering my poll at the top of the blog!