Random Fun with the Boys

One of my favorite parts of the day is just hanging back and watching this pack of boys as they walk home from school with their friends.

Sam's first soccer season was a smashing success. He's had a lot of chances to practice with his older brothers in the back yard, but since they have always been bigger than him he was convinced that he wasn't very good at soccer. It took a bit of pushing to get him to even go on the field for his first practice. But once he got playing, he realized that dribbling around these kids was way easier than trying to get past Ellis! In the end, he scored in almost every game of the season, and was the Sharks and Minnows champion of his team.

Ellis' main accomplishment this season was perfected some of his goal celebrations. And luckily, he scored quite a few goals so he could put them to good use!

The medal is cool, but Sam's mostly in it for the snacks.

I just like this picture of Sam.

And we can't leave Henry out of the fun! One of the best parts of kids getting older is that they start to become capable of putting together their own snacks. Here is Henry with his chicken nachos on a Sunday afternoon.

Rather than finding a way to get RSL players to sign his hat, Ellis decided it would be cool if he just signed it himself. Nothing could be more Ellis than that!

The Chicago Toy and Game Fair 2015

I think we have a budding board game geek in our family.  His name is Henry.  And, we couldn't be more pleased because we love board games!

So, when Henry learned that there was a Young Inventor Challenge where kids could invent their own games and enter them at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, he was all over that.  (Bonus: it counted for a major Cub Scout requirement as well!)  And when I say, "all over that," I mean it.  I'm not sure I've seen Henry work this hard on anything in his life.  He just loves to create and dream, and he's detail-oriented enough to really think through the process well.

I won't give you all of the details, but the game he came up with is a multi-player strategy game called "Cursed Pyramids."  The basic idea is that during the building phase you build pyramids, using workers and carts and hopefully avoiding sandstorms along the way.  Then, in the next phase of the game you try to take over other player's pyramids while not getting cursed.  It's actually a super fun game, and Henry came up with the whole thing himself.  You may not be able to tell, but I was kind of a proud dad at seeing this all come together (with a lot of help from Jenn, of course!).  Here are some pictures:

Carts and blocks

Constructed pyramid

The board

The quarry.

The actual Toy and Game Fair was super fun.  Henry had to stick to his booth for the morning while the judges and other random people walked through the displays.  With over 100 entrants, there were all sorts of games and toys there.

Henry did a great job of latching on to anyone who was nearby and giving them the blow-by-blow of how Cursed Pyramids works.

He didn't win the competition, but just putting the game together was tons of fun and I think he learned a lot in the process.

Meanwhile, Sam and Ellis wandered the fair with me, trying out game after game after game.  It was a total blast!

Catan Van!

And custom-made Catan tables!

One of the coolest parts of the fair was the Star Wars booth.  There were about 10 different people in full Star Wars costumes like this clone trooper, and they had all sorts of light sabers, Jedi training tools, and even a mind-reading game.  Our Star-Wars-obsessed boys ate it up.

I loved this game of blow-up soccer, where running into the other players full-force is encouraged!  Super fun.

We ended up being at the fair the entire day and we loved it!  Well, except for Archer, because somehow his parents forgot to pack a binkie for him, which was a MAJOR oversight.  We found a store nearby that sold them, but it was the wrong brand and so he just cried and cried until he finally fell asleep.  Poor kid.  That's what happens when you're the youngest!  But the rest of us totally had a blast.  

And Henry?  Well, he's already scheming up his game for next year!

Henry's Army Party

This year, Henry was due for a big birthday party.  I feel bad that Ellis usually gets the big parties, and then Henry's birthday usually gets overshadowed by Thanksgiving.  His birthday fell on Black Friday this year, so we had a friend party the weekend before Thanksgiving.  After much deliberating, he decided to have an army party!

This was the cake we enjoyed planning and making together.

Ben Borrowed some army clothes from a friend in our ward, and he became the best birthday party drill sargent ever.  It was nice because he could keep the boys in line, and it was all part of the act!

I greeted the recruits and gave assigned them to the Red or Black team for the party.

They ate their pizza fast, so they could get on with the more important stuff.

Sergeant Ben filled them in on all the rules, and that from this point on, everything they did in Boot Camp would count toward their ranking.

He led them in some basic "attentions."

The soldiers then had to scope out the enemy from a far distance by counting the enemy soldiers.  Unfortunately, they knocked the soldiers over before I got a picture.  :)

Parachute drop

They had to get the paratroopers to land in the laundry basket to score points.

Grenade toss (with green balloons filled with beans)

Push-up contest

Finn takes a quick pause for a bite of pizza.

This is Frankie, our wounded soldier.  The boys set out to rescue him by completing an obstacle course.

First, they ran across the gym and back.

Then they army crawled.

Then they had to carefully cross the land mine course.

Through the ropes

Grab Frankie, and run him to safety!


Finally, the moment of truth.  Army rankings determined their weapon-selection order.  No tears were shed over this . . . at first.


Once they had chosen their weapons, it was time for the big war - the thing all the boys talked about at school for weeks!

Players with pennys were dart moneys - they had to pick up all the darts for their particular round.

Ben grew out his beard just for this party...

I wouldn't mess with these guys if I were you.

And with that, he's one of the coolest nine-year-olds ever!

Happy Birthday, Henry!

Fall Soccer

This year, Ben once again got to coach Henry's soccer team.  They were the Blue Diamonds, and they had a lot of fun!

Ellis also got to start playing on a soccer team for the first time.  He totally got into it.  

I think Henry enjoys soccer and has some great soccer skills.  He has always had fun playing and is a good defender.  I might be wrong, but I dare to say that Ellis has even more fun.  He is super competitive and just wants to WIN!!!  

 He fights pretty hard and ended up scoring several goals this season on the Black Crushers team, coached by our friend Ben Severson.

And Sam is really enjoying being the soccer brother!  He gets extra snacks from all the games just by flashing this cute smile.   I think he's going to be totally ready whenever we decide we're ready to enroll three children in soccer.  It might be a while.  Our Saturdays were crazy with two!