Alex Lents, Soccer Super Star!

Alex started soccer class a few weeks ago and is loving it. He's in a leauge called Lil' Kickers that teaches soccer skills but doesn't play full out games. He is doing really well and says that he really likes it. He even goes out in the back yard and practices, which is pretty cute. Here are some pictures from his last class (he's the one in a red shirt so he's easy to spot!):

Apple Pickin' Fun

To celebrate Alex's successful eye surgery (he's doing wonderfully, by the way!) we headed to Stuckey Farm apple orchard for some apple-picking fun.
Nick and Andrew on the tractor ride out to the orchard--doesn't Andrew look particularly huge in this picture??!!
Andrew wasn't really feeling very well when we went but he did manage to pick some apples, although most of them were rotten ones from the ground!
Andrew actually learned to say the word "apple" really clearly while we were there--this is him saying it!

Here is some video of our little apple-pickers!

First Day of School and The Circus

Alex on his first day of Preschool--he goes three days a week this year! Big time! :)

We also got free tickets to the circus last weekend from my awesome friend Allison! Thanks for the tickets, Al! We decided that three rings of action was probably a bit much for Andrew so we left him with Nana and took Alex for some one on one time with us. I didn't know how he would take it but he really had a good time and seemed to "get" everything that was going on.

The opening act...
The elephants were a highlight!
Three rings of trained horses and zebras...how do you train a zebra anyway???

The guy with the tigers was a hoot--he was Russian (I think) and you could barely understand him but I have to give him credit for being in that ring with 8 tigers by himself. The tigers were actually growling and snarling the whole time which I don't know if they were honestly angry but I believed it!

This cool hat came with the $12 cotton candy--yes, thats right I said TWELVE DOLLARS OF AIR AND SUGAR! But its the circus and you have to have cotton candy, right? They seem to know this and are taking advantage of the parents...circus folk. I suppose they have to pay for the snarling tigers somehow.

Alex actually took this hat with him to show and tell on Tuesday. He was very excited to tell his class about going to the circus. I was excited to still get some use out of my TWELVE DOLLAR HAT...I'm so cheap... :)

Spelunking!

This weekend we went to visit Granny and Gramps down on the farm and decided to take a morning trip to Marengo Cave in southern IN. It was a really fun adventure, although a bit messier than we expected. We had thought that we'd just put Andrew in the backpack carrier but when we got there they informed us that backpacks weren't allowed to protect the cave environment.

So Andrew was just going to have to hoof it with the rest of us. We also figured that since there are lights and a paved walkway through the cave, we wouldn't get dirty but we didn't count on Andrew! He decided about halfway through that he was going to throw a LOUD tantrum and plop himself down into a muddy puddle. From that point forward the cave mud spread to me and then Nick as we took turns carrying him the rest of the way. By the time we were finished it looked like we had gone caving au natural style!

Despite the mud, it was a really beautiful cave and Alex really got a kick out of when they turned off all the lights and you can't see a thing. Good times were had by all all the Lentses!