A Sunny Day of Soccer

After freezing our way through a rainy spring soccer season, today was 80 degrees and sunny, and both AJ and Micky had games. The glow on Dad's face is not just pride, it's quite a bad sunburn.

AJ's team, the Firestorm, has made a surprise run in the U10 rec-league tournament, and their win today earned them a spot in the championship game on Sunday.

Mickey's select team played the other select team from our county. Mickey scored 4 of the game's first 5 goals in a 7-2 win. The win locked up a division championship for his team, which is now 9-0-0 in league play.

The referees and parents from all teams bragged on both of the boys today. They are quite the little soccer stars.

A Day at the Aquarium

Today was primary day here in Kentucky, and the kids had the day off school. So after casting our ballots, we took the kids to the Newport Aquarium. (Special thanks to Uncle Ron and Aunt Ok who sent some money for us to do something fun!)

Overlooking the Ohio River with Cincinnati in the background brought out a chant the kids learned at school: "Boo Ohio State! Boo Ohio State!"

Checking out the shark tank

Mickey and an octopus

Just the right number of frogs in the Frog Bog

Taking a break in the jellyfish room

Measuring up to a hammerhead shark

Mickey just touched a shark!

Essie goes in to pet a shark

Chloe and Essie waiting for a shark to pass close enough to touch

See how the Kinnell kids compare to a shark's weight

Chloe makes some penguin friends

Chloe and AJ watching the penguins swim

Chloe

Essie & Chloe

Mickey

Watching a shark swim by

AJ, Essie, and Chloe

AJ

I think Chloe & Essie have seen about enough fish for one day.

One last shark before heading home

Sometimes you just gotta dance

Outside fun

These pics are a few weeks old, but since this week is looking to be a busy one, I thought I'd better post them today. While I was working in the garden, the kids found other outside fun. The girls know they are only allowed to play in the sand box on bath nights and due to one of the wettest Aprils in history, the sand was really more of a mud pit. Probably what drew AJ into the play.

Mickey played some basketball with his dad and then decided to spend some quality with his best canine friend. That was until Caesar got a little rough.

Soccer Soccer Soccer

Mickey had an exciting weekend of soccer, with 1-goal wins on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. Mickey scored or assisted on all of the goals. His U11 select team is still undefeated as they head for a tournament in Owensboro next week. Mickey is #12:

Mickey has developed a nice chemistry with one of his teammates, and one of the things they have worked on a great deal is Mickey making a corner kick for his teammate to head into the goal. Hard work paid off, as the play worked twice in Sunday's game. Here is the game-winner:

AJ: Master Builder

Matt's mom and dad got AJ this very cool build-it-yourself coin bank for his birthday. Tonight AJ painted it his favorite color - yellow - and put it together with just a little help from Dad. He did a great job!

AJ's 9th Birthday

Today (Tuesday) is AJ"s 9th birthday. What fun to watch your child have his first birthday party ever! A lot of people tell me they don't want to adopt an older child because they don't want to miss out on all those "firsts" in their child's life. We had to celebrate AJ's birthday last night due to a full soccer schedule this week and all I kept thinking the whole time he was bouncing around the house is this is WAY more fun than watching a 1 year old smear cake in his hair and be overwhelmed by all the attention. Our poor boy couldn't even eat a whole piece of pizza due to his excitement. You know he must have been excited because he easily polishes 4 or 5 pieced normally. He just kept saying, "I''m so happy. I can't eat!"

Matt & I surprised even ourselves with our amazing (if I do say so myself) collaboration on AJ"s cake. AJ told me he wanted a yellow cake (b/c this is his new favorite color) with UK blue frosting and batman.

Meemaw & Grandpa, Aunt Kelly & Jeremy watched on Skype while we tried to keep AJ to sit still long enough to open presents.

A skateboard from Aunt Buffy! I need to stock up on band-aids.

Mickey gave AJ his favorite thing ever...money!

Matt & I gave AJ a new bike. This was definitely needed since the poor kids old hand-me-down bike has no breaks. AJ has worn out at least 4 pairs of shoes in the last 8 month, using his feet as breaks.

Sorry these videos are so dark, but I couldn't resist posting. The audio is too cute to not share.