Trying Out Some New Things

A couple of months ago I saw an ad for a free soccer class for tots. Usually soccer classes seem to be for kids at least over 3 years old, so I was excited to find one for younger kids. I didn't really care about the soccer per se, but I was curious how he would respond to directions, listen to instructions,  interact with the other kids, etc.

He actually did pretty well with not using his hands and only kicking the ball, and with some help he did pretty good sitting on his circle when the coach called him over, but I don't think he once actually listened to the coach haha. Justin or I had to repeat every direction haha. Also, he discovered some bubbles they had sitting in the corner and that was it. Forever after that whenever there was a slight lull he'd make a break for it and Justin would have to bring him back.

I was really impressed with this place. The 'coach' was amazing with the kids and they played all sorts of fun listening games and other fun things. Too bad it's a tad far for us, but I don't know, we might go back because I think it'd be really good for Nolan.

Being brought back from his latest escape towards the bubbles.

Branson was a super good boy as usual

...well except for maybe all the spitting up ☺

They gave all the kids a cute little wristband. Here's Nolan showing it off.

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A couple of months ago Nolan and I got up on a Saturday morning and headed to Home Depot for one of their kids workshops. This is the first one we've done and it was so fun! Nolan is still a little young for it, but he absolutely loved it and was SO proud of his creation!

This time they were making a travel Tic Tac Toe game.

He loved hammering!

He picked all the colors for painting.

Lately he's been a little stinker about taking pictures and always runs away or hides his face when I pull out the camera, but he was so proud of what he made that when I asked him to take a picture with it he totally posed! Adorable!

  

Good job Nolan!!

It was so fun to spend the morning with Nolan. As we were walking out to the car I asked him, "wasn't that fun to hammer and paint and do stickers and things?!" He said, "Ya!!" And then with so much sincerity added, "thanks for doing that with me." Awww. I completely melted. Then just to extend our little 'date' we decided to get some donuts, yummm!

Happy Birthday Daddy! A Day at TopGolf

For Justin's birthday I wanted to take him to TopGolf. We've been wanting to try it out and what better occasion than a birthday?!

Gp Bailey, Gm Bailey, Nolan, Justin, Branson

Paul and cute Branson

TopGolf is kind of like a mix between a driving range and bowling alley. Each person has a player card that you swipe which inputs your name into the system. The names appear on a screen like bowling and when it's your turn you put your club over a sensor and a ball comes out. The picture below shows how the range is situated. There are basically 4 large colored circular nets, 2 smaller yellow ones, and 4 small red ones. Each circle has sections with netting to catch balls and each ball is chipped and synced to your card so the system can assign points to the correct player. There are probably 12 different types of games you can choose from. We played one game where you basically just see who can accumulate the most points by getting as many balls into the circles (and as close to the flag as possible). The other game gave you 5 chances to get as many balls in the red circles as possible, then you had 5 chances to get into the yellow, etc.

Justin (L), Doug (R)

Nolan wanted to get in on the action too! I gave him a few of my turns, but Paul was still recovering from his shoulder surgery and didn't want to swing too much so he gave Nolan lots of turns ♥

And guess what? I won all 3 games! 

I'll admit it was very nerve-wracking having Nolan with us because to him it looked like a wide open space for him to run around, yet we had to confine him to a small area to keep him from getting hit with a club on someones back swing. So understandably it was hard for him to understand where he could and couldn't go. He did much better after a few walks and after we gave him a job to do. Nolan became the official ball-getter and he LOVED it!

After each swing he'd wait until the person said he could come get a ball, then he'd put the club over the sensor, watch for the ball to come out, put it on the tee for them, then run back to mommy, daddy, or whoever was in charge of him and wait for his next turn. It worked pretty well keeping him occupied and out of harms way. The only concern after that was getting him to only get ONE ball each turn ☺ 

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Since Justin's birthday was on a Tuesday we did some celebrating over the weekend as well. Dinner at OSF and Sunday dinner and grandma and grandpa Bailey's.

Special Sunday breakfast 

After church at Gm and Gp Bailey's house

Shopping for daddy's birthday presents ☺ Nolan loved the little car. He kept saying, "Next stop, MAUI!!" 

The Best Seats in the House! USMNT vs Venezuela

Yesterday Justin mentioned that someone from work (a client? maybe?) might have an extra ticket to the US Men's National Team game against Venezuela. But, Justin told him he could only go if he had two tickets (thanks my love ♥). Well, the guy came through! 

We still debated about whether we should go or not since it was so close to game time and we didn't have a sitter yet. We felt bad asking someone so late, but decided to try Paul anyway and he agreed! What an awesome cousin!

He came over and, based on the picture below, I think the boys had a good time. Nolan loved having someone to 'wrestle' with. Thanks PTM!

So...we showed up to the stadium, looked at our tickets, and started heading toward our seats. We could tell they were on the west side which was nice because it wasn't in the sun for the beginning of the game. We got to our aisle and started walking down towards the field to our seats. And we kept going...and going...and going. Our seats were in these super fancy seats in the SECOND ROW!! In fact, one of the security guards came up and checked our tickets and, when they determined they were correct, gave us wristbands to clearly indicate that we were allowed to be there.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, we were right next to the tunnel where the players come out from the locker room! 

Coach Bruce Arena

We were pretty jazzed to say the least! (but of course tried to play it cool like it's something we do all the time haha). Oh, and our wristbands also gave us access to go down to the field and into the tunnel to a banquet room with food and drinks. Now that's a way to watch a soccer game! 

Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey walking to the locker room at half-time.

 Going in the tunnel. The guy in the background walking with his son is who gave us the tickets. We also found out that he is Taysom Hill's cousin!

 Another view of how close we were to the field!

 

Post-game

We tried to get Zeke to reach down and get a high five, but he was too shy ☺

It was definitely a night to remember. I don't know that we'll ever get that good of seats again haha!! Thanks for the tickets Dusty!