Gleasons Celebrate with Matthew

 We continued Matthew's birthday extravagenza with a Gleason family celebration!

Matthew is a lucky little guy to be surrounded by his great-grandparents, grandparents,

great aunts & uncles, and cousins...

 ... and to have a second birthday cake!

 This time he insisted on using his fork to eat the cake.

 He did pretty well actuallly!

He wants to do anything Kate does.

 Have I mentioned lately that Uncle Chris is totally awesome?

He is.

 And so are Aunt Ingrid and Aunt Karin!

 Nana and Great Pop's choo-choo train was a big hit...

 ... but TJ is always the kids' favorite!

Race Car Party

 We celebrated Matthew's first birthday with a race car-themed party at home!

It's seemed like an appropriate theme because this kid's always on the go!

One of these days I'm going to get better at taking photos at our parties.

Meanwhile, here are some shots from the party!

 Matthew with one of his first friends, Zach!

 Noggle boys helped keep the theme alive

by keeping the race track active!

 Not sure how Matthew felt about everyonen singing to him...

 ... but Kate sure was excited about cake!

We are so thankful that our friends could celebrate with us!

Happy First Birthday, Matthew!

 On September 17th, we celebrated Matthew's first birthday!

Matthew has been such a blessing to us this year -

he is such a sweet-natured little fella.

We love that he is so generous with his hugs, cuddles

and endearing pats on the back.

 Matthew loved receiving this car for his birthday!

He's spent tons of time in it the last few weeks!

 We can already tell that Matthew has a sweet tooth.

He was SUPER excited about his birthday blueberry muffin!

 Don't grow up too fast, sweet boy!

Our Soccer Player

 Kate had her very first soccer "practice" on Saturday.

Kate got to spend a lot of time with my cousin, Erika, this summer while she was home from college.

Kate idolizes Erika and knows that she played soccer for years growing up.

So, starting sometime in June, Kate has asked me approximately 100 times

whether she is "old enough" to play soccer.

So, she was SUPER excited on Saturday...

and the new pink shin guards and new pink soccer ball

definitely added to the excitement! 

 Kate did a great job of following her coach's directions

and learning how to dribble.

 She concentrated really hard on trying to get it right. 

 

 Here she is huddling up with her team. 

Kate reports that soccer was "awesome"

and she can't wait to go back to practice soon!

Our Teenager Thinks We're Uncool

We have a lot to look forward to.

Back to School!

 Kate and Miss Daisy had their first day of 3-year old preschool last Thursday.

This is actually their third year of preschool so they are pro's.

But, they going to a new school this year,

The Falls Church Day School, which is operated by our church.

(We loved her old preschool but the commute to Alexandria was pretty brutal!)

Kate was so excited!

When we arrived in her classroom, one of the little girls was anxious.

Kate told her that "preschool is fun!" and asked her if she wanted to play.

Then they walked hand-in-hand to the play kitchen.

I'm so proud of her!

We celebrated with our 3rd Annual Back-to-School Ice Cream Trip!

(Only 16 more before both kids are off to college.  Sniff!)

 

Matthew loved celebrating, too!

He was actually supposed to go to his first day of preschool today but,

unfortunately, he has a nasty cold and we decided to keep him home.

We had a second celebration when we got home from our ice cream trip:

a dance party with all Kate's stuffed animals!

Perhaps a new tradition has been born...

Weekend Fun

We're having a great weekend! Here are some of the highlights:

We took Matthew for his first haircut. I'm kind of wishing we hadn't done it because I wasn't really prepared for how handsome and grown-up he would look. He's morphing from a baby to a little boy at warp speed! He was so good during the haircut!
We enjoyed having my grandparents over for dinner last night. Dr. Kate loved giving Nana a check-up...

... and both kids loved goofing around with Great Pop!

Another embarrassing "first": Matthew's first McDonald's hamburger.

To make a long story short, Kate and I were out running errands and decided to stop for a very special treat - lunch at McDonald's. We brought a burger home for Tim and Matthew started crying inconsolably until Tim handed it to him. Look how happy he is!

We may have created a monster! Good think he hasn't associated the yummy burger with the Golden Arches yet!

Also, for posterity, here are a couple of pictures from earlier in the month.

The kids have really enjoyed playing in the baby pool together this summer.

International Man of Mystery