It's a wrap on Jalen's first soccer season. To sum it up, I'd say it was a funny, crazy, chaotic mess in the best sense! I'll be honest ... we didn't play much actual soccer this season but we did start to learn about sportsmanship.

The only time I could get all six players to come together with no one chasing butterflies, wrestling, crying, daydreaming, etc. was at the first and last of each game when we would all "bring it in" for a team hand stack and "GO Team!" cheer. Thanks to Callum, James, Jalen, Molly, Chad, and Daniel (aka Mr. no paparazzi please) for a fun season!
GO TEAM!

Grooming the grounds and getting ready for the big "4" birthday party Sunday. Front flower box compliments of Kate ... of course!

Olo

Tiki

Bird got brothers last Thursday and I'm happy to introduce the new additions.  We lucked out getting two great littermates from Pet Helpers. Disregarding the fact that Olo can't find the litterbox yet, things are going swimmingly as Chilero appears to have accepted her new feline companions.

We had great Easter beach weekend.  Jalen is super-stoked to finally get to ride his new surfboard and it's amazing to watch as his love of the ocean grows.

He's a true water baby!

"Look John Henry... no candy!"

Half a plastic egg seems to me like a complete Easter dud but it sure made Jalen happy.  So happy, he was compelled to share his find with  his best friend, John Henry Quattlebaum, during the Second Presbyterian Easter Party. 

The water is really warming up so Gavin (Jalen's second cousin) and Bird took full advantage at the Isle of Palms pier.

The last time these two got together their playtime was cut short with Jalen's "bonzai" rock jump which landed us in the emergency room for stitches.  Today the injuries were much less severe.  A full-speed face-first nose-plant yielded only a bloody nose and some other minor sand burns.

Trying to keep pace with the older kids has some inherent health risks but the beach is a powerful painkiller. Jalen shook it off really fast and was back at it in no time.

Sitting at a stop light on the way home from picking Jalen up at Second Pres., I looked over to a carwash and saw this blonde leaning way over to clean out her vehicle. It took about five seconds before I realized I was checking out my wife.  In my defense she did just get a new car ...

Love you babe! :)

Jalen and I pulled in, snuck up behind her and gave her a "big, big, big" scare. It was her second big scare of the day.

The first and bigger scare came earlier. While we were talking on the phone she had a front tire completely blowout on the J.I. connector. As strong as Kate is she doesn't deal particularly well with car related problems or heights, so we had a double whammy on our hands. I snapped the photo of her while we were waiting for the tow truck. For the sake of this blog, I've creatively cropped it so you can't see what she's saying with her left hand.

The atmosphere around Eastern Surfing Association events has always appeared to be one more of camaraderie than competition. The kids around these events always seem super-stoked and there is a always a  real family-centric vibe on the beach! Jalen is still too young to surf one but in an effort to get "on board" I surfed my first contest ever this weekend, Jalen hoisted the third place trophy over his head at the awards ceremony and we had an overall great day at the beach. ESA here we come!

The next big thing in organic horticulture.

Jalen plays hard.  Just picked him up from school and marveled the incredible coat of grime covering his bruise riddled legs.   And those shoes were white five hours ago.

It's anybody's guess why DSS hasn't paid us a visit yet.

I know Jack Rhodes must be exhausted. From the time we picked Caroline and him up from school today Jalen began maximizing his Jack-time and attention. "Hey Jack, look at my cool trick." "Hey Jack, look at my red powers." "Hey Jack, spin me on dis thing." "Hey Jack," "Hey Jack," "Hey Jack, ..."

You get the idea.

Jalen LOVES Jack. And Jack is incredibly patient and cool with having Jalen full-on up in his grill for hours on end.

THANKS JACK!

This morning was like every other at SPK.   Teachers meet each student at their parents car to escort them to class. Sometimes it's a frenetic scene.  Today, muy tranquilo.

That bright white spec in the lower left third?  ... that's Jalen and Miss Jenna.

What a beautiful place for pre-K, eh?!

Our day at the park started with a scare. We hadn't been there a minute before Jalen darted off behind the big play set with some other kids and was out of sight for maybe 15 seconds.  In that period of time he disappeared.  Turns out he had followed the big kids out of the play area to the other side of the park about 200 meters away. Luckily it only took about two minutes to finally find him but those minutes seemed especially long knowing he isn't yet able to communicate to a stranger how to get in contact with his Mom or Dad.  Thus, tomorrow we will be visiting Holy City Tattoo and marking him with all the appropriate contact info -- all wrapped up in a cool tribal design.

After the scare, we managed to pull it together and have a great family outing. Check out Bird casually conquering the climbing wall.

He's growing up fast!

The recent discovery of funny color foam soap has made recent tubs A LOT more fun and Jalen is one squeaky clean kiddo ...

(though I can't speak to how "funny colored" orange and blue are.)

Kate's long-time friend Morgan brought her whole family from Canada to Folly for a family reunion.  Jalen and Jake, Morgan's nephew, really hit it off.

Zonkered after school and the James Island County Park.  Being a zombie and chased for an hour by a pack of 5 year old zombie hunters can really take it outta ya.

I had the wetsuit gear out to rinse and store 'til it's cold again. Jalen found it drying on the back deck -- he loves his new "race car gear!"

Red Shobel

Diggin' fer pirate treasure under Folly Pier with his shiny red shobel ... "Shovel" ... "Shobel" .... Shovel ..... "vuh, vuh, vuh, Shovel" ... "Shobel."  Working hard on the "b","v" pronunciation distinction.

Hanging with Mom watching Backyardigans before bed.  Bribed with a cup of chocolate milk to sit still for a quick photo.

Jalen loves that spinny-wheel thingy at James Island County park.  His balance is getting pretty good too as he's walking it now.