Another bummer about the end of summer is that the days are getting a lot shorter. A few nights ago the kids wanted to go fishing so after dinner we headed down to the pond. After only a few minutes down there I caught a bass which we put on a stringer. Then Andrew caught one, but it was too small to keep. I caught another, too small to keep, and before Andrew or I could catch anymore Shane said it was time to head back to the house. It was getting dark out and we had to drive through the pasture with the baby calves so he wanted to be able to have some daylight to make sure we didn't hit one lying in the grass.
We celebrated the kids birthdays with family and friends. We had a total of 24 out this year. The kids chose chicken tetrazini (Brooklyn's choice) and skillet chicken (Andrew's choice) along with corn, french bread, a fruit platter and cake. This year Brooklyn wanted a princess cake and picked the crown cake. Andrew picked Wall E, which turned out pretty well. I took Friday off to work on party stuff. I got the cakes baked in the morning and was able to start decorating them at 11am. I had a couple volleyball games that night so by 4pm I had to call it quits. The turned out ok, but maybe could've turned out better if I had more time to work on them.
Then Saturday morning, the day of the party, Andrew had his first soccer game. He is playing through Upward at our church and has mostly non-church members on his team. Shane is the assistant coach. Brooklyn and I cheered Andrew on from the sidelines. It is pretty funny to watch kids that young play any sport. Andrew surprised me and instead of being in the middle of the crowd trying to kick the ball, he was on the "outside" waiting for a teammate to pass it to him. There are only 4 games left in the season so we'll see how things progress.
Now that birthday parties are over, we are on to the next thing which is Auburn Fair. The boys are going to ride their tractors in the parade (4 generations of Koci's) and the rest of us are going to ride on the trecker (or the trailor pulled by the trecker) in front of them. Eric has already got permission to run to our float to ride on after he gets done walking with the band (how funny). This is kind of a special year for a couple reasons; 1. Jeff has been gone during the weekend of fair for the past few years due to a hunting trip in Maryland (to which he declined the offer this year in order to do the parade), and 2. it's the 100th year of the Auburn parade. Andrew is so excited to ride his tractor in the parade and wear his bibs. He bought some new boots to wear as well with some of his Birthday money so he would be ready for the parade!
