wild thing

i really wanted talan to be max from where the wild things are this year for halloween, but i couldn't find any costumes. any i did find were over $70.
i ran out to the store today and ended up finding a max sleeper and fell in love with it. unfortunately they only had it in hayden's size, but i decided to get it for him as he probably makes a better max than talan does anyway.
the pj's were super soft and had a hood on it, which was a little weird but fitting for the max get up. i brought them home and showed hayden and he was really standoffish about the whole thing. it took a lot of convincing to even make him try them on for me.
i eventually did get him to put them on for a few pictures and then we brought them to mom and dad's for him to wear after trick-or-treating when he got ready for bed. he once again had another fit about wearing them so i decided i'd just return them. but at least i got a few pictures of it.

first grade halloween party

hayden only had a half day of school the day before halloween but they had a full day planned. each class had a halloween party planned and the whole school was supposed to walk around the neighborhood for their halloween parade. talan and i had planned on going to watch, and of course take pictures, but unfortunately it was raining all morning so they had to cancel the parade.
hayden still got dressed up and took a baggie of treats in for each of his classmates.
he came home and said he had a great time, despite not being able to walk in the parade.

hayden's second trip to the big house

hayden was able to go to another u of m football game with dave this year and he seemed to really enjoy it once again. he apparently really liked running up and rolling down a big hill...shocker.
it was pretty cold out, but hayden stayed nice and warm in his brand new michigan sweatshirt he had picked out a few days earlier just for the occasion.
hayden had such a great time, he wrote a story about it several weeks later at school. he was able to read it out loud to his class and then it was put into a book for the parents to look at at conferences. his story went like this:

hayden's second day of watching football

i went to a football game with my daddy. we had a good time there. i like watching football with my dad. but not on tv. he says "yes." i say "no. not on tv. no, no no noooooooo." the end.

what could be better than a michigan football game?! running up a hill....
and then rolling down it:

it's that soccer time of year

last fall we signed hayden up for a little soccer league in livonia and he loved it. we ended up missing the spring league but signed him up again this fall.
hayden has a great time and has great control of the ball. he also will run as far as he has to to get the ball and get it in the net! he has scored several times this season, and his team hasn't lost a game (there has been 1 or 2 where there hasn't been any score though).
unfortunately, this saturday is the last soccer game of the season and the pizza party but hayden will have to miss it. dave is taking him to a u of m football game that day instead. he is a bit bummed and a little worried that he won't get his trophy but i was assured that it will be hand delivered to our house some time next week.
hayden seems to really have grown this past year. if someone has taken the ball from him, he'll start to get upset but then he lets it go. ahhh, progress.
he still seems to love it and does really well. we may need to start looking into a more formal kind of league for him.



hayden practicing as goalie:

the orange team. i totally forgot to take his sweatshirt off for the team photo:
i realized after coming home that hayden was covering his soccer ball with grass:
and talan must have been watching him:

team huddle:
hayden ready to stop anything that comes his way:


hayden actually almost got kicked out of this game for sliding too much:

throwing the ball in:

first day of first grade

today was hayden's first day of first grade!!! i thought for sure that i would be sad to see him gone all day, but after a full summer with the boys at each other most days, i was more than happy to see him off for the day!
i actually did get a bit sad when i was packing him his lunch last nite though. last year i never got very sentimental about it, maybe because he'd been going to school since he was 3 and even took the bus to preschool the year before. so kindergarten just didn't seem any different than preschool. but while packing his lunch, i started feeling the way i felt when a new school year was beginning. school has really started for him. he's in the big leagues now.
unfortunately for him, erwin orchards started picking their honey crisp apples today so he wasn't able to go. we actually didn't even tell him we were going to do that just to make sure there wasn't a full day of him at school complaining that he wanted to go pick apples!
so this morning at about 8:15 or so, mom came over so she could take some pictures and see hayden off to school with us. he was in a great mood this morning until dave was messing around with him and he turned his switch. he then became grumpy and difficult until right when the bus was coming when he actually asked for his picture to be taken.
he hopped on the bus, waved goodbye and headed off for a full day of school.
once he was gone, we all headed to mom's house (well, dave headed to work) and then we all went to erwin's to pick some apples. at about 3:45, i drove home to pick up hayden from the bus and then drove him back to mom and dad's so we could all have mom's apple pancake dinner.
when the bus pulled up, the bus driver looked out and said "we're just waking everybody up from their naps!" and hayden slowly stumbled down the steps with a big smile on his face. apparently he was OUT and he had no idea he was at home.
hayden said he had a great day at school, and just as i figured, he didn't really eat anything for lunch except for his batman fruit snacks. he did eat a pretty good dinner though!
so...so far, first grade is treating him pretty well. he was able to stay "in the school zone" (the behavioral light changing system starts in the school zone then gets moved to green, yellow and then red) even though "i did some bad things, but they didn't change my light!" ahhh, that's our hayden.





dave wanted to have his picture taken with hayden which is what sent hayden into his grumpy mood for the next 1/2 hour:
he was thrilled that i was still taking pictures:


the bus is coming! the bus is coming!:

off to his first full day of school:

after getting home from his first day of school. i couldn't take a picture of him getting off the bus because he was so groggy i had to help him down. so this is what i got:

first grade orientation

labor day was pretty late this year so the school year got started later than normal for most kids. but for hayden's school, it is starting even later than most other kids in michigan. most kids went back to school the day after labor day, but hayden still hasn't even started yet!
this afternoon we went to hayden's school for his first grade orientation. we were able to meet his teacher, mrs. taurence, went on a little scavenger hunt in his classroom, learned a bit about what he would be doing this year, colored, took a tour of the building and then made a skunk magnet (as he is in the skunk room this year).
his teacher seems really nice and he is so excited to have his own desk that he is able to put all of his school supplies in. he is in the same school as last year, macgowan, as it is redford union's kindergarten and first grade school.
tomorrow is hayden's first day of school. it starts at 9am and ends at 4pm. so he'll be leaving our house around 8:45am and he won't get home until after 4:30pm!!! he says he is ready for a full day of school and is excited to eat lunch at school. i'm guessing he won't be eating much lunch during the school year as he'll be too busy trying to entertain his classmates!

hayden's desk:

mrs. taurence's first grade classroom:

it's magic, michael

the end of july marked the end of the summer reading program at the redford library. hayden had a great time participating in all of the activities and ended up reading over 13 hours in the month of july! he was able to go in and get 3 different prizes!
on monday, the library had a party for all of the kids that met a goal. you could go in at 2 or 7. i quickly decided taking talan, especially during nap time, would be a horrible decision, so hayden and i headed out for the 7 o'clock party.
the library had brought in a magician, baffling bill, to perform a show for the kids. hayden was sitting front row, center and LOVED it. it was a GREAT show. i don't know that i've ever seen a kids magician like that that was so good. i mean, he was no gob, but he was good!!
hayden, of course, was upset that he wasn't picked to be one of the assistants throughout the show, but he was the only kid that was able to pet the dove.
after the show all of the kids were able to go out and pick a book to take home, pick up their reading certificate and pet the magician's bunny.
it was a great time and we are grateful for all that the library did throughout july. now that reading month is over it's time to turn the tv back on! (that was a joke.....the tv has been on all along.)