Happy Birthday, Seven Year Old!

ZERO

 ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

The excitement keeps on growing!

Happy, happy, happy 7th birthday, Owen! We love you!

Sporty, sporty

It's been a busy couple of days for sports activities ... and the fun's not done yet. Owen had his second soccer game on Thursday night, a rescheduled match from a rained-out game this past Saturday.

As it was the first time, the game was lots of fun. New to the mix, though, were howling winds out of the south -- nothing to stop them but the Illinois prairie, which was lying down on the job as usual.

And then there was the score.

Owen's team splits in two for each match, with five players on each pitch. While the other half of Owen's team did well, his side excelled at having fun, which, honestly, is perfect.

They ran into the harsh winds, distracted by a tractor turning over soil to the south, and planes taking off from the airport to the north.

Shoot, even Beckham would have had a hard time concentrating. And the chances are pretty good he's practiced soccer during a Spice Girls concert.

We have another game tomorrow afternoon. It should be fun!

The fun continued tonight with Amy's test for her orange belt.

She did great! She whistled through her routine, zipped through the counterattack routines (I love how her classmate is smiling while he takes a chop to the neck (below), and whacked the board with one swift kick. Very impressive!

Best part, though, is her smile throughout. She really loses herself in the activity and is having a great time with the class.

As I've said before, when I married her this was not an activity I could have ever predicted we'd share together ... But I couldn't be more proud of her, or Owen for setting such a good example that his mom had to take her turn.

Breaking the board.

Check out that smile!

Purple belt!

Congratulations, Owen!

Owen earned his fourth belt in Tae Kwon Do tonight, with a test of his skills, some sparring with his mom (talk about every kid's dream ... or nightmare), and a whackety-crack of his fourth piece of lumber.

Great job!

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Owen's soccer team kicked into gear today. His team was assembled in the last minute, comprising kids who were mostly new to the community or (like Owen) new to organized soccer. Watching their opponents warming up on the next pitch, the parents were all expecting a Bad News Bears outing.

That was before the team scored their first goal.

And then the next.

And the next!

They were on fire!

The final score was 5-3, although I suppose we weren't supposed to be counting. Owen's sweet spot is defense. The games right now are all 5 on 5 with no goalie, but I can imagine him feeling very comfortable when the day comes he can put on some keeper gloves.

Most importantly, today was fun because the boys all had a great time ... as did the rest of us. It was really fun to see them work so well together and feel good about themselves.

Here are a few photos from the match.

FYI, Owen came home and took a shower when the match was over ... and asked for some hair gel for the first time.

Watch out Ronaldo!

Soccer practice

Soccer practice began on Monday night. Owen's first team sport, and, boy, did he have fun! His coach seems super cool, as do the other boys on his team. He enjoyed the drills, running around, and had a great time. We have one more practice tonight and his first game is on Saturday.

He'll be moussing his hair, lighting up the tabloids, and making the Dutch proud in no time!

Hup, Owen, Hup!



Spring Break! (Day 2)

 SHEDD AQUARIUM

Day two of our spring break adventure took us to the Shedd Aquarium. Grandpa took the train in from his house to join us for the day. The kids absolutely loved all the fish, whales, jellies, and sea lions.

And I, as always, found it hilarious that they have fish on the menu at the aquarium restaurant.

The underachievers, perhaps?

After five hours at the aquarium, the kids were ready to get out and move around a bit. We took a cab up to Millennium Plaza and had a great run-around. Amy nestled herself into a Starbucks with our luggage, enjoying the warmth (50 degrees still feels really cold to her born-in-the-desert bones), while Grandpa and I had a great time running around with the kids at the Pritzker Pavilion and the fabulous Egg Sculpture.

And then it was time to go home. We gathered our things, grabbed a quick dinner, and boarded the train back to Normal. It was a fun couple of days!

Spring Break (Day 1)

Is there anything better than beginning your day with a train ride and ending it full of cupcakes? Our first day of spring break was a lot of fun. We got the kids up in the O'Dark Hundreds to catch a 7:30 train to Chicago.

From our previous experiences on Amtrak, the trip there is often as much a highlight of the day as whatever is planned next. The kids love the train trip. We can move around, they can play, and the trip goes quite quickly ... with no stress.

We arrived in Chicago around 10 am. The first stop was the hotel, where we checked our bags so we could travel a bit more lightly through the rest of the day. The hotel was very close to Rick Bayless' fabulous Frontera Grill, so we killed a little time walking around Michigan Avenue waiting for the restaurant to open for lunch. We had gone there over the 4th of July three years ago and loved not only how delicious the food was, but how with it our waitress was in helping with some gluten free options. While this server wasn't quite as well versed with the GF choices, we still all managed to have a great lunch and leave with full bellies.

The next stop was the Adler Planetarium. My good friend Dave had left his job with the BCPA to take a position with the Adler nearly three years ago. Last year he gifted us with a membership pass, which we had not had the chance to use until this week -- two days before it expired.

The trip was fun, though. It was the first trip to the planetarium for all of us. Dave got us into a couple of the Adler's special programs, but the kids had the best time in a kid-friendly area, complete with little rover robots, dress up dolls, and space loader vehicles, which the kids could drive a little ... but ultimately became the scene of a huge dodgeball fight between the kids, as the moon rocks were soft little foam stones, perfect for throwing.

We then retreated to the hotel for a lazy night in. The kids and Amy watched a movie, while I picked up some takeout and made a trip to a nearby Whole Foods for some gluten free cupcakes they sell made by a local bakery. The kids loved them, as the hotel cleaning staff no doubt discovered when they were cleaning our room the next day. There were little chocolate crumbs EVERYWHERE!