Weekend recap

Now that Eleanor’s old enough for the parent/child soccer class and Luke can be on his own, we signed back up for Lil’ Kickers! This weekend was their first lesson and they loved it. It was Eleanor’s first organized class other than church activities and she did a terrific job listening and kicking her ball. Luke did great too, he’s recently developed a more competitive bent which motivated him to work hard at the running and kicking games.

Lil’ Kickers is a nationwide program, and we think that their coaches and class structure are super-fun for kids. At Luke and especially Eleanor’s ages they aren’t doing much in the way of real soccer, but they’re getting kids excited about sports activities, building coordination, and developing listening and team skills.

After soccer we met a friend at a BMX course nearby. What an awesome place!

We were awed by the expertly formed dirt berms set up in courses of varying difficulty, from youth to pro level. It didn’t take Luke long to catch on to the idea and soon he was bouncing over the hills with big determination!

Eleanor charted her own course amidst the berms and amazed us by going up and over them on her own too. She’s getting more and more comfortable with downhill acceleration on her balance bike. Unfortunately we didn’t get a photo of her in action, but here she is ready for snack time.

We saw a pro doing jaw-dropping mid-air rotations but didn’t catch that on camera. Here’s a more modest jump by an intermediate guy – the best we could catch mid-kid-wrangling.

Such a fun place to ride and to spectate. And photograph… it will be fun to try to get better pics next time. I’m also hoping to get the kids some safety gear like their cool friend, D. D has been going to the course for over a year now I think, and we’re looking forward to meeting him there for playdates this summer.

In other news, I found a new lamp for Luke’s room! After writing his room up for the blog last week, I came across this lamp in our home’s accent color (yellow) on deep discount in Target’s clearance section.

Erik says it looks like a caramel kiss which has believability, but I think it suits the space so much better than the old one. What do you think?

Hopefully I’ll share pics of the princess room soon. In the meantime, here’s an outtake from its photo session… the chaos principle at work!