Birthday Pie and Soccer Fun

Our Saturday was super fun.  Bobby's respite worker, Cynthia, came over in the late morning so Bob and I got out of the house for a few hours and went out for a nice lunch to celebrate Bob's birthday.  I didn't have much planned because I am planning to have a group birthday party in a couple of weeks for the many September birthdays that are in our family.

When I asked him what type of cake that he would like to have for his birthday, he opted for a blackberry cobbler.  I opted to purchase vs. bake.  I know, I always bake birthday cakes, but while we were out I saw the razleberry pie and decided to save some time.  I think that I'll pin this super easy mom tip to Pinterest!!  If you have followed this blog for a while, you already know that one of Bobby's favorite things to do is blow out birthday candles.  So Mommy has to go a little candle crazy.

He just gets so ridiculously excited over a dessert in flames!!  WAIT....WAIT....WAIT.....

Mommy wants to turn it around and get Bobby and Daddy standing together.....too late, he just can't help himself!

 I got the pie turned around and Daddy got beside Bobby, but the candles were half out.

Daddy to the rescue to try to let Mommy get her picture.  Poor man has been with me long enough to know, "when Mom isn't happy...."

Mom, I promise that I'll let you get the picture this time.....

Sorry Mom, but these candles are just so magical that I have to blow them out NOW!!!!!!

However, after this time, the crowd (Mommy, Daddy, Grandma Carolyn, Mimi and Aunt Dianna) erupted in cheer.  Bobby blew out all of the candles but one with just one blow!!!  Extra special because learning to blow/suck was such a hard skill for Bobby to acquire and a skill in which he was extremely delayed.  So we tried 3 more times to see if he could get them all out in one blow, but with the amount of smoke lingering in the air and the amount of wax on top of the pie, we had to give in the towel.

 Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!!

After the pizza (fries for Bobby), popcorn, pie and ice cream were eaten, Bobby started with, "ride in car.....ride in car.....ride in car!!"  So we all obliged and got into two cars because Zoi wanted to go too. Our destination, the Miracle Field so that we could practice kicking a soccer ball with Bobby. One major problem, Bobby has thrown every ball that we own down the hill, they are all in the woods and Daddy finds them everywhere when he mows the grass and in the fall and winter when the grass is all dormant.  The only ball that we could find was a red, nubby sensory ball.  It will have to do.

What a beautiful evening.  Perfect for soccer!!  First, lets get the goals out...

Bobby has to take a minute and run back and forth in front of the net to check it out...

This worked out so much better than the actual soccer practice that Bobby had earlier this week.  We demonstrated kicking a ball into the net for him, and there were 4 adults assisting him in kicking the ball into the net for himself.

When he successfully kicked the ball into the net the crowd went wild and Bobby loved it!  He cheered for himself too...

Kicking on his own...

Random pictures of the soccer fun....

We all had such a great time.  I only had the camera out for a couple of minutes total and I have to tell you a little secret...Bob was playing goalie for me while I tried to kick the ball past him and I was kicking his butt!!!  I had some horrible kicks, but whizzed a few right by the birthday boy!!  Yay me!

This is what Bobby needs right now in learning soccer. He got a lot out of our family practice.  The way that his soccer team is set up he has 2 practices and then 4 games.  All of the games are against the same team but he isn't going to be learn during these games.  Bobby needs a lot of repetition.  So autism moms, here's what I'm thinking.....lets get the kids together once a week and take them out on the field and have our own soccer practice.  Our kids are all the same age, so we won't be in the way of the big kids who already know these basic skills.  Sibling can come too and it would be family fun. Our kids already know each other and can take turns over and over on just basic skills....kicking to each other, kicking into the net, etc.  If anyone else is interested, I'll call Stepping Stones and see when is a good time for us to use the field.

Soccer Star

I was excited when I got the last flier from Stepping Stones, which is a local agency that provides recreational activities for people with disabilities.  For the first time I saw soccer listed as one of the activities.  This seemed like a much better fit for Bobby than baseball since there is more running around.  So I signed him up for his first organized sporting activity.  Our life is such that there is no way of asking, "Hey Bobby, would you like to try playing soccer, baseball....?"  I just have to decide for him and take him along for the ride.

Bobby has never seen a soccer game.  We don't have a soccer ball at home.  If he has ever had any introduction to soccer, it would have had to occurred at school.  So our expectation of how soccer practice was going to go was extremely low.

Hey Bobby, rule number one of all soccer stars....you have to wear shoes!!!

When he got to the Miracle Field, which is a hard surface baseball field that is wheelchair and walker accessible, he went right into the field and started running around.  Yay, hurdle one is completed!  This same time last year Bobby would have probably refused to go in with this many people.  However, he immediately took his shoes off.  Oh Bobby!!!  He wasn't too interested in the group stretching and getting to know each other activities.  We had to keep bringing him back to the group.

When it was time to practice kicking the ball back and forth with a partner, Bobby did a little better when he was further away from the group.  He stayed in the dugout and kicked the ball to Daddy, just like when we are at home and Bobby stands in the garage and kicks a ball to Daddy standing in the driveway.

He did go out onto the field and kick the ball around with Jenny, a Stepping Stones staffer, for a couple of minutes.

He also spent time really watching the other players and trying to figure out what the heck this was all about!!

He then went to the dugout and sat down.  He was finished for the day.

We stayed for about 25 minutes of the hour long soccer practice.  Funny thing about this soccer team.  It is made up of "kids" ages 8-18.  Some of the older boys were so excited to be there and announced that they were "really good" at soccer.  Will Bobby be announcing the same thing when he is 18? Only time will tell.  For now, we will work on staying a little longer at each practice.