First Day of School

I just had a full-on "OC Soccer Mom" experience. I drove Grace in the new Sequoia to her first day of her second year of pre-school. I walked in with Ella in the stroller and then left. Now I'm at home until I go to work at 11:30am when Bea is done teaching.
This first picture is from "Meet the Teacher Day" yesterday. She has Mrs. Gish.

The next pics are from today outside of her classroom in her pretty new dress.

Zoo Today

I took the day off work today and took Grace to the zoo with my sister and here three adult kids and my brother, his wife, and their three kids. It was a pretty awesome day. We were there from 9am-3:30pm and saw a bunch of amazing things.
This picture below is Grace and her cousin Lindy. They are great friends.

This next one is of the first highlight. We saw a black Jaguar being fed a leg of lamb on a rope. The jaguar had to attack and "kill" the leg of lamb before being allowed to eat it. AMAZING!

Then we saw a white wolf being walked down the path and the zookeepers told us to watch out. I don't have a picture of that though. The next highlight was of the gorillas. I liked this picture. Very dramatic.

This next one is by far my favorite picture of the day. The polar bears were so active and fun. I got a bunch of shots of this one playing with his ball - this was the best.

The last photo highlight was of this rhino eating leaves. Funny lips.

I love the zoo and I love family. Today was a great day. But right now I am seriously pooped.

Excellent Sleep & Other Stuff

I felt guilty for trash-talking Ella too much on the blog. I have had excellent sleep the past couple of nights. Last night was the first time Ella made it 6 hours. She ate at 10:15pm and 4:15am. Not bad. So thank you Ella for the wonderful sleep. She is an awesome baby and we love her a ton.

Last night was Grace's last soccer game as part of The Pink Ladybugs. We had a pizza party at LampPost Pizza afterwards. It was pretty fun. The parents of the team bought me two $25 gift cards to iTunes and Borders. Books and Music - I love them both!! We are not going to do soccer in the Fall. Grace likes going to soccer, dressing up for soccer, playing with the girls, snack, and the tunnel after the game, but I don't think she actually likes playing soccer. So we will have her do it next summer after she is a bit older. She already does swimming and ballet so we have enough activities.

I went to Beach Boogie with our Jr Highers yesterday after speaking at Jr High on Wednesday night and it was fun. I feel like I'm finally starting to get to know some of these kids a little bit. I got sunburned on the sides of my back yesterday at the beach. It hurts pretty bad.

Alright, you probably stopped reading a couple paragraphs ago.

Grace and Eric chatting

This is just a video of Grace and I chatting about silly stuff.

Soccer Game

Grace is playing AYSO Soccer for 4-year-olds and I'm coaching her team. I seriously love it. The kids are so cute and it's fun to watch them go crazy all over the field. Last night we had an intense game with a team of kind of brutish little girls. They were knocking our girls all over the place, but our Pink Ladybugs were tough. We don't keep score or have goalies!! It's just pure fun. Here are some pics from last nights game.
Below is Grace chasing down the ball with her proud coach in the background.

This is Grace going down from the tough girls on the Purple Mermaids.

Coaching your kid is fun. All the girls have a lot to say.

Their favorite part is the tunnel they run through at the end of the game.

First Soccer Practice Today

THE PINK LADYBUGS

We had the first soccer practice for Grace's team. I used a Cinderella doll to teach them proper form with their feet for an instep kick. That's what the pictures are of that Erin K took. It was a fun and wild time. We'll see how they do when we kick the ball off at the game. Hopefully, they will all go in the right direction. They were excited to get their pink uniforms and they named their team the pink ladybugs.

We are going to miss the first game because it's on Tuesday when the baby is coming. I'm disappointed to miss the first game. Hopefully everything is OK.

Video from Bea's Birthday

This video is from Bea's Birthday back on May 30th. It's just the family chatting on the couch about not much of anything. A glimpse of the wacky life of the Wakeling clan.

Worship Confessional #1

This is me on video talking about Jr High Worship yesterday for the last Wednesday Nite of the school year. Grace makes an appearance too!

Fun Night

Tonight I had a couple awesome and unique things happen.

1. I went to the AYSO Soccer Coach meeting and got my roster and the uniforms for my team. Grace and her best friend Cate are on the same team along with four other girls. This is U-5 (four year olds) soccer and should be interesting. I'm looking forward to making these girls run and work until they puke. Win at all costs!! This is what I will look like. Josh put a giant picture of this on my MySpace.

2. THE DUCKS WIN!! I got to watch the third period after the coach meeting. It was so stressful and amazing. One more win and the Ducks win the Stanley Cup. It's hard to believe after being at their very first game back at the Pond all those years (and bad teams) ago. Jiggy saved the day.

Thanks to the OC Register for their amazing photos. Best photographers ever!

This is what happens...

...when you have a daughter and you play girl games. I need to go play some football or something.

Grace the Photographer

If you watched the video of Grace and I talking about gadgets and stuff where she was taking pictures then you will understand this shot. This is one of the pictures she took during the filming.

Grace and Me Chillin'

This video is just Grace and I chatting and having some fun with our gadgets. It's short and sweet - just like my kid. It's worth watching even for you haters of "talk about my kid" posts.

Happy Birthday Grace!!

My little girl is 4 years old today. She is truly amazing. God could not have blessed me more.

Vacation gives me blog blues

I don't understand why, but every time I go on vacation I don't feel like blogging when I get home. We have been pretty tired from the travel and I was at church from 7:30am-3:00pm today.
I will do some BRIEFS:
1.We had a good Kenya meeting today. I'm getting more excited about the trip.
2. Brent preached it today at church.
3. I'm speaking the next three Sundays in Elevation.
4. Tomorrow is Gracie's birthday. I can't believe she is four.
5. We got upgraded to first class again on the way home from Seattle. I like it there.
6. The Anaheim Ducks are awesome. It was fun watching hockey in Canada with people who actually care.
7. My Fantasy Baseball team has 5 players on the Disabled List. This is not what you want.
8. The church consultant comes this weekend. Should be interesting.
9. I still want a tattoo.
10. TV shows I love - Scrubs, 24, Heroes, Lost, CSI, The Soup, Man vs. Wild, Studio 60, How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock, Law & Order SVU, and two horrible ones that I actually like - American Idol and America's Next Top Model. I don't watch The Office yet. I will probably do the DVD thing with it. The first episode annoyed me almost as much as Rosie O'Donnel or Victor so I never watched it. But I need to give it another chance.

Would You Let Your Kid Play With This??

I can't stand these Bratz dolls. It's wrong on so many levels.
1. Spiritual level - It promotes young girls dressing sexually - really young - and promotes bad attitudes toward parents.
2. Values level - It promotes consumerism and valuing all the wrong things.
3. Strong feminine roles level - it makes women be all about sex and their bodies and their looks at the age of 7. That's just sad. At least Barbie had career based outfits and even promoted motherhood.
4. The makes me feel icky level.

This is one of those things that I would boycott if I was a boycotter (which I'm not) and I sort of want to cover them up at the toy store so my kid and other kids won't see. It's seriously just sad that little girls are being influenced by this stuff. I thought they were a joke or a satire when I first saw them, but no, they are real.

My Favorite Present

Merry Christmas Everyone!!