Ben, Jack, Drew and I went to the planetarium tonight with Cub Scouts. I always like the planetarium and the planetarium lady did an excellent job presenting to the kids. The boys all seemed to be very interested and enjoyed the presentation.
When we got home, Ben and Jack took out their binoculars and using the sky map that they received from the planetarium, they went out to find the stars.
Charlie never likes to be left out so, he gathered the equipment that he deemed necessary for star gazing...his Cars sun glasses and owl hat. Then he set out to join his brothers.
Ben and Jack seemed to do pretty well using what they learned. According to them, they saw the big dipper, the north star, Jupiter, and several other less known constellations that they were able to find on their sky map. It was 35 degrees and super windy so, I took their word for it. Charlie took notes about what they found.
"The planat" (the planet)
"great "
"Drewpader" (this one cracked me up...he meant Jupiter, but it was hilarious when he was running around the house all excited about Drew-Pa-Der. Drew thought it was pretty funny too.)
Then he continued with the big & little dippers and Dal(?)...
And, finally, in seemingly unrelated news...Tonight, Charlie declared himself "too old for Thomas the Train". This is a huge deal because Charlie has been OBSESSED with Thomas & Friends since he's been two. It has been, by far, his favorite thing in the world. It's true that over the last 6 months, he has not played with his trains as often and he hasn't watched the video in quite a while, but tonight was the first time that he has actually said that he is too old for Thomas.
Awwwww...no more "Mom, now we play trains?" over and over and over again.
While "playing trains" has not always been my favorite thing to do, I'll admit that I'm a little sad that the train stage is officially over. Wow, just like everyone says, it really does go fast.
I did find it quite amusing that on the same night that Charlie made such a big important proclamation, a few minutes later, he was wearing Cars sunglasses at night and an owl hat to go in the backyard to look at the stars.
That's right Charlie...you are such a cool big boy! Love it!
Drew: "Mom, for Christmas, I am going to ask Santa for a Rubik's Cube and a utoobmembaship"
Spencer also just finished his first season of "coaching" soccer. He actually just volunteered to HELP the real coach this season. Basically, he volunteered to wrangle kids. But, the coach's schedule ended up filling up so, Spencer was "promoted" to head-coach for most of the games. Coaching kindergarten soccer does not look easy, but he did great. Most of the kids kicked the right way...most of the time. And, I think that he was happy that none of the kids needed help from "Coach Spencer" in getting their pony tails through their hat holes, like when he coached kindergarten t-ball a few years ago.
Charlie...where is the ball???
Once again, Charlie....WHERE IS THE BALL?!?! 
It's also hard to be an all-star soccer player with only one shoe.
Charlie's turn in the goal.
And, had his first "kid birthday party".
Do you think Charlie liked the helmet that he got from his Grandmom Adelaide for his birthday?!?!
Party Time!
Fireworks at the Indians Game...
Vacation Time...
His first day went very well. The only minor problem was that it started storming about 10 minutes after school started and stormed all. day. long. Charlie feels the same way about thunder that he feels about fireworks (see above). Yep, the kid will ride upside-down roller coasters, but is afraid of thunder and fireworks. Regardless, I'm fairly certain that he walked around his first day of kindergarten with his hands over his ears, but his teacher never called and according to Charlie, there were no tears. I'll call that a successful day. And, a nice way to end a great summer.