"Hey now, you're an all star!"

The fun never stops when you're a kid, and this summer we got our first taste of being on our kids' schedule.

Ben at soccer camp with his new ball and shoes "just like daddy's".

He thinks the New Balance logo on the shoes is lightning, and that sounds a lot more cool to me too so we're going with it.

As a side note, I'm having a hard time explaining mascots and logos to Ben. He wanted to know why there was a giant clown on top of McDonald's..."Well, that's Ronald McDonald, and this is his restaurant." and what the white hand on this picture of a racecar driver was..."Well, that's the Hambuger Helper hand. Hamburger Helper is a meal, and the company that makes it gives the racecar driver money if he wears the Hand on his suit." I mean, it's hard to even take me seriously when I'm trailing off and losing track of what the original point was to begin with...kinda like what's happening now....

Back to soccer camp! Ben was super pumped and immediately began warming up.

And then decided he needed to do his stretches, followed by a water (juice) break.

Katie Beth was super ticked that she was too little for the field.

Ben and his teammates listening to the coach

Ben's in the middle...and if he looks way too small to be out there, that's because he was! Poor kid was supposed to be in a class with 3/4 yr-olds, but he was the youngest by a least a couple of years. I had to leave for Bible study, which was good because I was a wee-bit emotional. After an hour of playing "kick the ball away from Ben" and some tears (from Ben), we decided soccercamp would just be a one-day deal this year!

(BTW, Challenger Sports International is now my worst-customer-service-ever story, and I hope they are happy they got to keep their $30 of my partial refund to cover their field rental. So there.)

But for the most part, he had a blast and remembers it fondly. We're just happy he's not scarred for life from soccer. Tyler even took the morning off and treated him to ice cream and fun at the playground before dropping him off with me to do some Yoga!

However, I do not have pictures of this, as Ben turns out to definitely not be a yogi. Although, I'm not sure what three-year old boy would enjoy holding a pose for any length of time. Needless to say, I did not get my zen on that morning, but it was a good laugh after the soccer stress.

Another good laugh....

Ben has been in swim lessons since May. Bless his heart, he's trying (I think)...but I don't see any real progress. He loves swimming, don't get me wrong, but take off that bubble, and he'd sink like a rock. Well, the fear of getting his head wet or water up his nose might help him long enough for me to pull him out, I guess.

But he's having fun, and at three, that's what counts, right?!

talking on the phone to Grandma while we drove to their house after his first lesson...he wore those goggle more than halfway to Nashville!

Another fun thing that three-year olds get to do is go to Vacation Bible School! We'd been listening to the CD for a month, and I was so excited for him to get to go sing and dance and play with so many other kids while they learned about Jesus being a kid "just like us".

It did not disappoint. He had a blast! And not just because he got to wear his scarf like a do-rag.

But that was part of it. :)

And just because I can't do a post about one without the other, here's some shots of Miss Katie Beth:

Wild Child in her crown at church

(blurry of course)

Sweet Angel looking so big in her crib

(this was the first time I looked at her in there and thought, "where did my baby go?")

Sleepy Girl after a big morning out - as you can guess by these adventures, we've had some pretty nice afternoon naps around here this summer!