First Day of School!

It was the first day of "school" for both of our kids. Iver is happily starting second grade at his immersion charter school. He happily obliged his parents for "First Day" photos.

Niall (still too young for transitional kindergarten or "TK") switched preschool sites to a "preK" room across town (close to Iver's school), which is where Iver spent a couple of years before he entered elementary school.  Niall didn't seem anxious or nervous about it until today, but a morning meltdown ensued shortly before we had to be out the door. I had to leave for an early c-section and Kelvin coaxed him into a few photos.... he definitely warmed up, but I heard was still very shy at drop-off (big brother had to show him around).

By the end of the day (after seeing some familiar friends and faces), he was all smiles in his "I rocked my first day of PreK" crown! 

We've had kids at the LLC daycare site for nearly seven years, and it's hard to have your kids move on/move up, but also exciting and fun.  Here's to another year!

Mad(ness!) River Youth Soccer

Iver has become quite the futbol aficionado in the last year or so. He loves backyard games and requested to be signed up for the local youth soccer league this season, whose games started this past weekend.  He is on a team with good also-seven-year-old friends Hudson and Earl, coached by their dads, Brian and Miles, and have two afternoon one-hour practices each week with Saturday games (times vary). 

Backyard "rebounder" which we got for Iver to practice with.

The league is quite a big deal, with 1200 kids participating (and this does not include Eureka, which has its own league!). Iver's under-10 team named themselves the "Ice Dragons," and they had their photo before the games started. 

Warm up

They won their first game, 2-0, on a goal kick by Hudson and penalty kick by Earl.

We ran into many local families and kids we knew while walking around Hiller Park.  It was really quite impressive-- this is our real first introduction to local youth sports but this is a BIG program. We're not technically soccer fans, and certainly not soccer players (I'm still learning rules, like offsides), and so are entering the "sport parenting" with caution and trepidation, but Iver seems to be a very good sport and is having a lot of fun being a part of a team, learning athletic skills, and moving his body.  

Niall is not quite soccer-ready (they do have four-year-olds playing!), but he'll kick a ball around.

This being the first "Jamboree" kick-off weekend, there were vendors, and even face painting by Jade, a former teacher at the kids' daycare. 

Predictable paint choice for this Spider-Man lover (I realize his wears this shirt in about 80% of his photos!).

We'll have to provide some sideline entertainment for this little one for all the practices and games, but it should be a fun kickoff season of Saturday fall soccer! 

Summer's Last Hurrah!

The kids start a new school year tomorrow. Here are some of the snapshots from the last days and weekends of our summer! 

Dinner and ice cream with Clara and Ashton in our backyard

Popsicles at home 

Lumberback near the plaza

Plaza hotdogs

homemade campfire (courtesy of the library)

We hit the Humboldt County fair on the last weekend.

(Lacinda, Shannon, Brian)

Watching horse racing!

It was Ladies' Hat Day, with a competition.

(hat with a horse, with a hat, with a lady, with a hat, with a sign. The winner was a food-decorated hat)

Cartoon poodle show

The kids got wrist bands for rides and attractions.

 Iver went off with the bigger kids and we hardly saw him (these pictures were stolen from Christina)!

Niall won a minion target shooting game.

Back to school soon-- bring on fall!

Why We Don't Play With Raw Eggs

 

"But I won't drop it!" says the four-year-old.

Parents saw this coming from a million miles away. Please go back to the legos! 

Incognito?

When you try to be "camouflaged" in your favorite attire, but your ill-fitting pants and orange undies give you away...

 

Bobby FREAKING Fischer!

Iver has had a pretty significant interest in chess in the last year or so. My Dad taught him the game when he was about five and he'd get really into it for a while, then wouldn't play for months, so his playing hasn't been super consistent. However, he's ultra-competitive (hmm! I wonder where he gets it from?! And recall Chess Drama 2021) so he's generally up for any type of game when there's an actual winner including sports, card games, and board games.  While he's a hard worker and pretty talented at several things (and always wants to be "the best”), we're actually working on skills at coping with disappointment and losing gracefully, both on the field and inside. We're also trying to focus on the importance of effort, not outcomes, as psychologists say that this helps kids not be as anxious and to be less perfectionistic/hard on themselves going forward. And I'm actually not sure if this is the *right* thing to do as a parent, but I think it's so important for him to be humbled and learn that there are always going to be people that work harder or are more talented that I actually never let him win at anything we play.  

In this past week, he's had a renewed interest in chess and, this weekend, we played several games per day.  He always likes to play "black," which he says is lucky.  He beat me NINE. TIMES. STRAIGHT.  With me trying my hardest. HE IS SEVEN YEARS OLD.  I may have said, after one of the most recent defeats, "Who are you?! Bobby FREAKING Fischer?!" ("Who's Bobby Freaking Fischer?" he innocently replied.) Sometimes he even gives me some of my (previously captured) pieces back near the end to keep a non-competitive game going, as a sort of handicap (so offensive, right?!)! 

While I am somewhat late to chess (I don't remember my Dad ever teaching me as a child!), I am still amazed at the logic skills of my little boy. Iver even knows some of the *special* moves like castling (which I still have to look up every time. Don't even ask me about en passant) and is so calculating and smart! When he went to camp in Orange County with Kingston earlier this summer, he apparently was dominating at chess playing against counselors there (which makes me feel marginally better). When we played this weekend, there were times I thought I might have a chance to win, but then he trapped me like a master player thinking three moves ahead and taking my most powerful pieces while always protecting his queen (I find it exceptionally difficult to play offense and defense at the same time!). It made me think back to The Queen's Gambit, a wonderful Netflix series I watched during the early pandemic based on the book of the same name.

I actually beat Iver at chess ONCE finally today (NO ONE BEATS THIS MOM TEN TIMES STRAIGHT!) and then he, thinking it was a total fluke (it probably was!), wanted an immediate rematch (which I declined. I like to quit while I'm ahead).  He then talked Kelvin into playing with him, and beat him handily right before bedtime, which left Kelvin out of sorts and incredulous ("See! It's really hard to beat him!" I exclaimed, somewhat vindicated).  

Sigh. I'm amazed and so proud of my boy.  But he seriously needs to find some better competition soon because losing this much is getting old for us (also very competitive parents) very quickly. 

RAAR!

We read a lot of fiction as well as non-fiction in this house and one of our books this week has been on Big Cats. Iver is into a lot of different things these days but art and drawing is still one of his big interests and talents.  These cats, drawn this week, are far better than anything I have ever drawn in my lifetime! 

Jaguar

He wasn't as proud of this tiger and made it a liger with a black mane.

RAAR!