Sam got some new shoes last week for his first week of soccer.  Mom got them on super clearance at Dick’s a few weeks ago.  Below is a photo of what they looked like before practice.  Since it had been raining quite a bit last week they definitely didn’t look like that when he came home.

Mom took Sam to this las year and it’s back in town.  This time around they have a Wooly Mammoth, but considering Sam is now 12 years old and it’s about $40 for both of them to go we decided to just relive the memories from the first trip.  Not to mention that Sam would probably be the biggest kid at the event.  🙂

http://www.discoverthedinosaurs.com/Events/greenvillenc.html

Sam may have another entry for next year’s spring art contest.  He captured this Carolina Anole sunbathing on Mom’s Ford Explorer yesterday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_anole

The TCS Tigers are now undefeated on the year at 4-0.  Today’s game was close up until the last about 5 minutes when we scored 2 goals to finish the game at 5-2.  Alex didn’t have any goals in the last game but he did have 2 shots on goal.  In today’s game he had another 2 shots on goal (no scores) and one assist on a beautiful cross pass to Cole who scored off the pass.  Alex had a couple of other beautiful passes but we just couldn’t quite convert.  Alex also received a huge compliment from the coach (who normally doesn’t hand out compliments) about his aggressive and physical play and how he has been keeping them in the games.  We are definitely very proud of his accomplishments thus far this season… and we still have a lot more soccer to go!

  On the way home Mom stopped for the time-honored tradition of photographing the ever growing boys on the mountain.   She took 20 photos and this was the best… unfortunately in all of the others at least one of them looked like Angry Cat.  🙂

Mom, Alex and Sam all drove up to Virginia on Saturday to see Lillian, Beth and Margie.  They stopped in Waynesboro to pick up Nana too. They all spent some time at Sunnyside visiting with Lillian and then went back to Beth and Margie’s house to socialize for a while and have a very nice dinner.  Sam took advantage of the pool and Alex got a great slow motion video of him jumping off the diving board.  It was great to see everyone including the gang in Waynesboro and a short Skype visit with Emma and Seby!

After a little retouching on Sam’s, this is probably the best year we have ever had.  As handsome as the boys are, they just don’t do well with school photos.  

🙂

No goals for Alex today but the Tigers pulled off another victory and are now 2-0.  Alex played little lackluster in the first half, but played much better the second half.  Alex had a couple of opportunities close to the goal but just couldn’t get a good clean shot.  Next game will be next Tuesday as they have Friday off due to Labor day weekend.

  So Alex has been playing soccer since he was probably 4 or 5 years old.  Up until last year he almost exclusively played defender but at the beginning of the year he was moved up to Midfielder.  He did OK for his first year, but he was still pretty timid and only took a few errant shots on goal.  Over the summer he worked on his footwork, passing and dribbling skills.  Today at the first game of the school year he had 4 shots on goal, 3 assists and 2 Goals!  Of course the game was a bit of a blowout for his team, but it’s a great first start for building his confidence for the rest of the season.  We are all very proud of what he has accomplished.  Now if we can work on the grades and the 3 point shot for basketball season we will be in great shape!   🙂

Yes, Alex turned 16 on Friday, but between work, soccer practice and a soccer game we didn’t get a chance to celebrate until today.  Kelly, Joe and Reid all came over to have a nice cookout with us.  Alex didn’t get many packages because we had already celebrated with Nana and Gung Gung a couple of weeks ago and he had already worn most of the rest of his gifts.  🙂