Let there be sand

So the treefort has been done for about a month and we didn't get around to leveling the sandbox and filling it.  Our neighbors asked a couple of times if we wanted to use their pickup to get sand somewhere so we finally took them up on the offer on Saturday.  Unfortunately it was pouring but Patrick went and retrieved 1,500 pounds of soft white sand, drove it home, and filled the sandbox one miserable wheelbarrow full at a time.

With rain all Saturday and soccer practice all Sunday, the kids didn't get a chance to use the sandbox for the first time until today.  They were such good sharers for about five minutes and then the usual infighting started.

And then the moment we've all been waiting for (at least all summer).  The kids got to slide down into the sandbox.  All three got a couple of cycles in but here's Stella and Will giving it a shot and here's Maggie.  Ahh, to be young again.

Back to soccer practice

We switched the girls from their "premiere" league soccer team to Takoma Park soccer for the Fall season.  It's what Will has participated in for a couple of years and we felt it offered the kids as good of training as the crazy expensive other league.  So now we have busy Sunday afternoons with overlapping soccer practices on the same field, and a WHOLE lot of Takoma Park soccer shirts in the house...

No pictures of Maggie and Stella because Patti had her hands full.  No, literally full - of Stella and Maggie's hands...  Maybe next week.

Will had a blast!  He ran into his best friend Quinley on the way to practice, and then he found out that three of his other nursery school classmates are on his team.  For a kid that always worries about not knowing people, it instantly put him at ease.

Here is Will's first ever corner kick!

And later, he even scored a goal!  Scrimmages for Kindergarteners are still kind of a scrum but he got to the far post and tapped in the ball when it squibbed in front of him and the goal.  Then he sprinted all the way down field to high-five Daddy and Mommy.

He was so excited!  The whole (short) drive home he kept saying that it was the best soccer practice ever,

Stella and Maggie go to the 3's class!

The girls just returned to school last week, and just for a few hours a day.  But that's still a few hours per day for Patti to have time to herself for the first time in five years.  Whew!

There were two 2's classes last year so the school mixed up the kids into two different 3's classes this year.  Luckily the girls weren't separated, but many of their little friends are in the other class.  But they get to play together during recess and see each other in the hall before school.  That made the first day harder, though, and neither girl wanted to go into their class.  We had to push them in, both crying and screaming for us, and walk away quickly.  So three out of three had a rough first day.

Maggie and Stella both asked to wear dresses, have barrettes, and wear necklaces so they'd look "pretty Daddy."

Once they got to school, though, they were pretty comfortable until they saw their friends going into the other class....

Both girls did some drawing and coloring to calm down, which they did pretty quickly.  And both girls promised to walk right in the next class, which only one of them did (you can guess which one).  From the third class on, they've both marched right in and had great days.