Running Routes

If the weather is even remotely tolerable, there's a good chance you'll find Drew & Jackson somewhere in the neighborhood tossing around a ball.  This fall it was all about football.  The boys were almost always in the front yard, across the street in the green belt or next door at the swimming pool playing football.

On this particular day, Drew was teaching Jackson a three-step drop and I'll be darned if the little dude didn't have it mastered.  Since this video was taken he's perfected his passing skills and throws a perfect spiral nearly every time, but I still love this video of a typical day in the life of the boys in my house.  And I especially love Jack's little "hut" as he snaps the ball.

Lacrosse

Sports are kind of a big deal around here.  Since he was tiny, Jackson has always preferred sticks, balls, throwing and catching to most any toy we could purchase.  As it turns out, he's pretty darn athletic too (so far anyway).  So when the fall soccer season ended we turned to Edge, a local indoor sports complex that offers a preschool program for most any sport you can think of, as a winter activity for Jack.  We let him choose what he wanted to try next and the winner was...Lacrosse.  

At first I wasn't sure how he even knew about Lacrosse.  It was certainly not a sport that we ever encountered in Kansas.  Then I remembered some elementary aged kids that would have Lacrosse practice after school in the neighborhood park at Mom & Dad's house while we were living in Castle Rock.  Apparently it stuck with him.

I can't help but note the first two sports Jackson chose to play are nearly the only two sports his Dad has absolutely no experience in.  Although, Lacrosse was certainly a choice Drew was excited about.  Unlike soccer.

So off to Lacrosse class he went.  And oh my gosh was it adorable.

The timing of his class fit better with Drew's schedule, so more times than not it was a weekly activity just for the boys.  I absolutely love Drew's story from the first day where one of the other kids was praised for "checking" Jack.  (Or, using your stick to knock the ball out of another player's stick.)  Drew said he could practically see the wheels in Jack's head turning as he came to the realization that not only were you allowed to chase people and knock their ball away with your stick, but you were praised for it!  From that moment on Jack was a fan.

He loved it so much that we signed him up for a second session when the first six weeks were over.  I realize that I'm his mother talking, but the kid really is good.  From our perspective anyway, the concept of team sports just comes pretty naturally to him.  It is so much fun to watch.

We've decided to encourage him to try some other sports next (I think we'll do basketball and football at Edge before the summer baseball season starts) rather than just stick with one at this young of an age.  But I wouldn't be at all surprised if we are back to Lacrosse before too long.

It's Official...I'm a Soccer Mom

First, let it be known that my husband hates soccer.  I'm not sure when or why this hatred developed, but it may very well be his least favorite sport of all time.  I could go on, but suffice it to say, he's not a fan.

Jackson, on the other hand, loves anything and everything that involves balls and sticks - including soccer - and has been playing sports (from golf to basketball to baseball to football) with his Dad since he learned to walk.  This is his mother talking, but the kid is athletic.  He can throw a spiral, hit a golf ball, run faster than most his age and has pretty awesome hand-eye coordination.  But we've never had him participate in any organized sports. We neglected to put him in soccer while living in Lawrence (see above). Tee Ball would have been an option this summer but since we were temporarily in Castle Rock, and somewhat unsure how long we would be there, we didn't pursue that either.  Once we got settled in Fort Collins getting him enrolled in some sort of fall sports was a top priority.

After some research, we decided that the programs the Parks & Rec Department offered were probably not the best fit.  They were mostly basic skills classes which we thought would be a little boring for Jack.  He's still a bit young for any football or basketball leagues and with tee ball season behind us the only real option at Jacks' age, much to his father's chagrin, is soccer.  Enter the Fort Collins Soccer Club.  

I discovered FCSC less than 1 week before the season's first game.  Based on the registration policies (teams are formed by geographic location on a first-come, first-served basis beginning in June and based on date and time of application, etc.) getting a spot less than a week before the season seemed like a long shot to say the least.  I'm pretty sure that's why Drew went along with it and we agreed to give them a call.  Long story short, while Jack's elementary school team was full there was one other team with a spot left (a private Catholic school in town) that happened to be using our neighborhood school as their practice facility.  He was in!

Reluctantly, Drew agreed that it would be great for Jack (although I think he secretly hopes that after playing it for a bit Jack will decide it's not his favorite either) and that very day we hit up the sporting goods store to buy shin guards, socks and a soccer ball.  

When Jackson learned we had found him a team he was absolutely overjoyed.

First Soccer Practice

Warming Up

Dribbling Drills

Flirting?  There's no flirting in soccer!

Go team!

I have to admit, soccer at this age is absolutely adorable.  One little girl declared, about 1.5 minutes into practice, "Coach...I think I'm done with soccer now."  A few minutes later 2 kids disappeared from the field to go pet a dog that was being walked in the park.  It's like herding cats.  And to top it off, Coach Chris let the kids vote on their team name this year.  The winner...Giraffes.

And so it begins.  Our calendar is now booked with soccer practice on Wednesdays and soccer games on Saturdays.  Jackson absolutely loves it.  He practices almost every night (at his own request) and despite knowing absolutely nothing about the game until last week, he's already getting the hang of it.

Drew and I laughed our way through the first game.  I should have kept a tally of how many times a coach or parent yelled "Wrong way!  Go the other way!"  There was a giant stuffed unicorn (or as Drew thought, a giant My Little Pony) in one of the goals to help the kids remember which was theirs.  There were snack breaks at halftime and following the game.  And while we were chuckling at being called Team Giraffes, our opponent was Team Mickey Mouse Club.  So there's that.

Pre-Game Warm Ups

Game Time!

Getting some pointers from Coach Chris.

Who knows if Jack will stick with it or not, but for now it's fun for all of us.  

Here's a video (from my phone - sorry for the poor quality) of the Giraffe's in action.  And yes, that's Drew, Mr. Anti-Soccer himself, you hear cheering in the background!

Father's Day

It's already been three weeks since Father's Day came and went, but it's never too late to give a shout out to the most important men in your life.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I got to spend Father's Day with my father.  Although, I sure never imagined it would be due to the fact I was living in his basement!  Here I am 36-years old and he's still coming to my rescue.

Of course, the other most important father in my world is the father of my son.  And what am amazing father he is.  All you have to do is read Jack's very own words to know what a special bond these guys have.

After all, they're best friends.  And football buddies.  And absolute spitting images of each other.

Nothing makes my heart swell quite like watching the two of them together or hearing their squeals and giggles as they play.

Happy Father's Day (a few weeks late) to two of the good ones very best.

Faux Hawk

He wanted it. 

I think it's totally cool.

 

It lasted about 3 hours and he hasn't let me spike it up since.





Memory Lane

Recently, while in the storage closet pulling out our Halloween decorations, we decided to dig a little deeper in search of some of Drew's childhood toys.  Specifically, the Star Wars toys.

Jackson has become a huge fan.  Somewhere along the way the boys stumbled across the trilogy on TV and he's been hooked ever since.  He owns several Star Wars books, light sabers and an entire Darth Vader costume courtesy of Gram.  Now that we trust him to take care of his toys (you know, instead of biting off the heads or tearing off the legs) the time was right to share Drew's collection.

I wish I had captured the look on Jackson's face when we took the lid off the Rubbermaid container filled to the brim with all things Star Wars.

Within minutes the floor was covered with spaceships, storm troopers and jedi and it was hard to tell which of the boys was having more fun.

I love that you can tell they are both making sound effects in the picture below.  And that they just happen to be wearing matching outfits (surprise, surprise).

I think both boys are pretty stoked.  Jack loves the new (to him) toys and Drew loves that his childhood favorites are now his son's as well.

But that wasn't all.  We stumbled upon a few other treasures as we dug through boxes that day.  Like Drew's Dapper Dan, his first football and baseball uniforms and a collection of chapter books - all of which have found their way to Jack's room.

There were also some wearable items.   A leather belt embossed with DREW has been worn to school more than once this week.  And we got a huge kick out of listening to Jack tell us the time on this Cowboy's watch - which is a wind-up so it actually works all these years later!

Mostly it was either "eighteen" or "not time for bed yet".  Although, at one point, when asked to pick up a mess he replied by glancing at his watch and saying "Sorry guys, I don't have time". 

Little stinker.

We decided not to bother with my childhood boxes.  I doubt my homemade doll carriage, dance team uniform or pom poms would be very impressive to Jack.  Who knows, maybe someday we'll have a little girl to share those things with.  And if not, we've got nieces!  Either way, it was a pretty fun trip down memory lane.

Ketchup Soup

Jack's not the world's greatest eater these days.  If served his favorites, he can eat as much as a grown adult, but when it comes to trying new things he's not such a fan.  And, unfortunately, his favorites aren't exactly the healthiest of options. 

Pizza and pasta top the list (especially Penne Marinara from our favorite local restaurant, Paisano's, which he adorably refers to as Panera Manera) with the usual kid fare a close second.  You know, mac n cheese, corn dogs, peanut butter & jelly, chicken nuggets and the like.  Fortunately, he chooses fairly healthy snacks and likes quite a few fruits, but outside of canned green beans we struggle with vegetables.

He does; however, love ketchup.  A lot.  So we've learned that he can be tricked into eating a few things (like a chicken breast for example) as long as it is smothered in ketchup. 

Which brings us to last night's dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Drew started dinner while Jack & I were on a walk.  When asked what we were having, without skipping a beat, Drew replied, "ketchup soup".  Jack seemed a bit skeptical, but a glimpse in the pan had him convinced.

The result:  he totally ate it.  And even commented how good "ketchup soup" is.

There's no way he would have taken a single bite if we told him it was tomato soup.

Well done, Drew.

Now - how do we convince him to eat broccoli?

Like Father Like Son



Jack's on the left.  Drew's on the right.



These hats were not posed, but stacked just like this in the guest room at my Mom & Dad's house while we visited last week.  It perfectly captures my boys and I couldn't resist snapping a pic on my phone.

Jack's a big fan of his Dad.  In case you couldn't tell by looking at the two of them.

Yeah...that's 7 hats for a 6-day trip.  Although, in fairness, two of them were purchased by Papa during our visit.  Because, as Jack said, "Maybe I should get two Papa."  And so he did.

Rescued from a Shark

Last weekend Lawrence hosted it's 4th Annual Tour of Lawrence bike race.  We thought Jack would enjoy watching the riders, checking out the kids zone and maybe even getting a glimpse of Uncle Austin who was on the fence on whether or not he would participate.  So we filled up our water bottles, covered ourselves in sunscreen and braved the 100+ degree heat.

As it turned out, not many others were as brave as we were.  The crowds were sparse, to say the least.  But it was a neat event and we were glad we went - even though we ended up missing Uncle Austin's race.

Here are the boys watching the women's race as they rounded a corner.

And the starting line for the men's race that followed.

Note to self:  When taking pictures, remember to shoot faces not just backs.  Jeez.

Anyway, as it turned out the most eventful moment of the day had nothing to do with bike racing.  Somewhere inside this giant inflatable shark is my son.

He was very eager to go down the slide, something he has done multiple times at other events.  So we let him try it, despite the fact that this one was quite a bit larger than what he's used to.  It wasn't until we saw a couple of kids hopping out of the mouth of the shark, kids that were behind Jack in line, that we began to wonder if he was having trouble. 

And he was. 

Poor little dude got spooked up there and was crying at the top of the slide.  Luckily, Daddy saved the day...and even got to go down the slide in the process.

Jack recovered quickly and I don't think he'll have any lasting scars from the experience.  Besides, a healthy fear of sharks isn't necessary a bad thing.  One things is for sure, he was awfully glad to see his Dad at the top of that slide.  And Jack told him as much when we finally decided we'd had enough of the heat and loaded up in the truck.

"Thanks for rescuing me, Dad."

Summer Summer Summertime

One of the great benefits of summertime (and an in-ground irrigation system):

Every evening after dinner and dishes we walk around the house watering flowers (Jackson & I each have our own watering can), then fire up the sprinkler system to give our garden a good drink.  I think we took him by surprise a few weeks ago when we gave him the green light to run through the sprinklers on a particularly warm evening.  Since then, there's no stopping him.

But things get really interesting when Dad decides to join!

I even took a few laps with the little guy last night.

Nothing says summertime like running through the sprinklers!

Wordless Wednesday

Weapons

I knew this day would come. 

Jackson has discovered guns. 

Sort of.

I totally get the whole good-guy/bad-guy, super hero, ninja, rough and tumble imaginary play that often accompanies having boys - heck girls too for that matter.  And while Jackson does have a few foam swords in his toy box, when it comes to weapons I draw the line at guns.  I can't say why exactly, it just doesn't feel right.  I figure he'll stumble upon guns, and all sorts of forms of violence for that matter, on his own soon enough - there's no need for us to make that introduction.  He doesn't even have a water gun.  Although, I'll admit that is mostly due to the fact that I know who would end up on the receiving end of that super soaker!

Anyway, last night we were playing with legos.  Jack built something that I thought looked vaguely like a gun, so I dug deeper.

"Hey, what are you building, buddy?"

"A gum."

"A what?"

"A gum."

"Oh.  Well, what do you do with a gum?"

"You shoot bad guys."

He then proceeded to make the "pow pow" noises.  (Side note:  why are boys so much better at making those types of sound effects?  Or is it just me?)

So yeah.  Gum = Gun.  And despite having the word wrong, he totally knows what they're for.

I didn't correct him.  Or give it any special attention at all actually - since that would most certainly just increase his fascination.  And while I still have no intention of purchasing an actual toy gun of any sort, or even encouraging "shoot the bad guy" type play, that cat is officially out of the bag.

I blame school.

Crab Trees

Last week was the week of the crab tree.

Monday
Drew picked Jackson up from school and the two of them were discussing the crab trees and their bright purple/pink color on the drive home.

Tuesday
Jack was eager to point them out to me as we headed to Princeton.  Me being me, I had no idea what a crab tree was.  I admitted as much so Jackson explained that they were the purple trees, "Like that one, right there Mom".  When I asked how he knew that he replied, "Dad told me.  He taught me about crab trees yesterday."  Turns out they are indigenous to the area and are absolutely everywhere (including our neighbor's yard who has three of them).  So now I know.  They're especially noticeable right now as their brightly colored flowers are in bloom.  I found the entire exchange rather adorable and e-mailed the story to Drew when I got to the office.

Wednesday
Drew arrived home and hollered for Jack to come outside - he had a surprise for him.  It was a crab tree.  And Jack could not have been more excited.  "Mom!  Look!  My very own crab tree!"

Thursday
Jack & I followed a tree truck to school.  He asked me what type of truck it was and I explained it was used to chop trees into mulch.  He replied, "But they won't chop up my crab tree, right?" 

Saturday
The boys put on their work boots and got to work.

Jack's very own crab tree is now blooming away in the backyard!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU

Drew & I met at KU.  We got engaged at KU.  We are huge KU fans.  So it should come as no surprise that our son is a huge KU fan as well.  He's been attending KU football games since he was still in my belly, but for some reason has only been to a few KU basketball games.  In fact, the games he has attended have been with Drew alone - never before had all 3 of us attended a game together.  Fortunately, we were able to put an end to that streak in January when Drew got ahold of some GA tickets at work.  They weren't the swanky seats we're used to (thanks entirely to Drew's company, not our own doing!) but a perfect opportunity to take in a game as a family.

Needless to say, Jack loved it.

The noise bothered him a little.  (Allen Fieldhouse is CRAZY loud.  Seriously.  You have to experience it to believe it.)  And the 8:00 pm tip off meant we only made it to halftime.  But it was such a fun night none the less.

A couple of days later a facebook friend posted a link to the latest promotional video created by the KU Athletic Department.  Normally I don't even click on those links, but for some reason I did this time.  Imagine my surprise when I saw my boys walking the halls of Allen Fieldhouse hand-in-hand right around the 15-second mark.  You only see them from the back for a second or two, but I recognized them immediately.

Here's a link to the video.

Go figure.  The little bugger attends 1 game this entire season and ends up on you tube!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

The Snowman

What do you get when the two Elser boys build a snowman?

Part golfer.  Part redneck.

Drew & Jackson proved me wrong this week and showed that you can indeed build a snowman with less than 2" of snow on the ground. 

I think they had fun, as these cheesy grins seems to indicate.

But, let's be honest, it was the snow ball fight that was the most fun!

Saturday

Without fail (and weather permitting), at some point every weekend a game of football erupts in our backyard.  Today I thought to grab my camera and I'm so glad I did.  These pictures capture my boys perfectly.  I can't help but smile every time I see them.  Because at my house, this is what a Saturday looks like.

Are you ready for some football?

A warm up game of catch.



The huddle.

Kick off.

Daddy gives the stiff arm.



Jack makes a cut.



Not an athletic bone in his body, huh.  Oh yeah - and I think he's having fun.  :)