The Boys

Here are the boys watching soccer together online.

Hurricane Sandy

With the preparations all of my Facebook friends were making and all the talk on the news and weather websites, I started getting nervous about Hurricane Sandy.  Then the storm approached and it never seemed to rain especially hard, just constantly.  Monday night the winds really picked up, but we've lived in Kansas and we grew up in California where Santa Ana winds are big and strong this time of year.  It didn't seem especially unique, just a bad storm, not a hurricane.  Tuesday morning we drove down to Richmond so we could Trick or Treat with the cousins on Wednesday.  I logged into Facebook and saw the pictures some different people from our ward posted of the field where the kids play soccer.  It's a giant lake!  The smallish river at the edge of the field over ran its banks and the soccer fields are sort of a flood basin.  The result:

 There shouldn't be any visible water on these fields.  There's a teeny stream that sometimes has water in part of it at the base of this hill.  Otherwise, the creek/river is at the far far end, behind the trees to the left.  Not visible at all, Buddy only discovered it was there last week because they were practicing at one of those fields and a soccer ball got kicked into the trees and it turns out it went into the river. 

Soccer

 Little Guy's Orange Tigers: Brady, Little Guy, Mason, Samantha, Mariana, Breanna, Marek, Owen, Danny, and Thomas blocking out another player.

Little Guy scored one goal.  He was about to score another goal when  one of the kids on his team came up and kicked it in for him.

Go Tigers!

 One of the moms teaches cake decorating classes at Michael's.  She was the snack mom.

Buddy, middle.  His team has decided they are the Barcelonas.  His team won!  This was their first win.

We filmed a bunch of stuff on the video camera of PS's and Buddy's games... coming soon.

Little Guy drop kicking and heading the ball during Buddy's game.

GOAL!!! x 9

Saturday was a long day of soccer games.  Princess Sparkley's game was first.  She's doing great. 

Then Little Guy's game.  Halfway through Little Guy's game, B and Buddy had to head over to Buddy's field for his game.  That's when Little Guy started scoring goals.  First he scored one goal (only his second or third in a game all season).  Then while I was texting B to let him know, he immediately scored again.  Then again and again and again.  Once he got the hang of getting the ball and breaking away from the other kids, he was on a roll.  He ended up scoring nine goals.  Nine goals!!!!  So many that I just got the camera ready to film and captured a couple.

Go Tigers!

So, the way the soccer games are scheduled for the three kids, I usually miss all or part of one of the big kids' games while I'm at Little Guy's game.  Last Saturday, I saw all of Little Guy's, half of Princess Sparkley's, and all of Buddy's.  I only remembered to film/photograph at Little Guy's game.

Little Guy kicks

Buddy's Black Eye

Friday night B took the big kids down the street to practice running while Mystery Baby and I took a nap.  B noticed Buddy looked like he'd hurt his eye, but Buddy, in true Buddy fashion denied any known injury.  When they got home, I confirmed that he had indeed hurt his eye, it was visually obvious, but Buddy denied it.  Finally, later the next day Buddy said it maybe could have happened when he fell off the futon and landed on his nose. 

In other news, he recently ordered this Barcelona soccer jersey and it arrived in the mail.

Soccer - Game 2

B went to Buddy's game in the AM and we all went later for PS's and LG's games.  Little Guy scored a goal.  He tells a long story about how he kicked the ball through the legs of a red team player who was standing in front of the goal so the ball went in.  He was very excited about it.

 

Mystery Baby watching soccer games.

Soccer

We signed all three kids up for soccer this year.  I failed to get a picture of PS at the first game last Saturday, but here are the boys.  Luckily their practices are all at the same location, but Buddy and Little Guy's are at the exact same time so on the days when B can't be there, Princess Sparkley hangs out at Buddy's practice for him while I'm across the giant field at Little Guy's.  Until the last game of the season, their games overlap a bit but aren't at the same time so we at least get to see some of each kids' game.

 

 

I love the little kid soccer.  Little Guy does great, way more agressive than his older siblings.  And he's good at following rules and instructions and learning new things.  His team is the orange tigers.  He was thrilled that last week his team won, 14 to 1.  One boy on his team scored all 14 goals.

Little Guy is the far left.

 

Little Guy took this picture of me.

Soccer 2011

Soccer has sort of come and gone this year without any fun.  And technically, it isn't even over yet.  We've just had a wet Fall and the field has been muddy so a lot of games and practices have been cancelled.  I spoke to the people in charge in August and requested that Princess Sparkley (9) and Buddy (7) both be put on the 7-8 team since PS just turned 9 a couple of weeks before soccer started, and it would be much easier to have them both on the same team.  They both loved and hated this idea. 

On soccer picture day the kids just showed up to get their pictures taken and then went home.  B had the kids that day while I was at Souper Saturday at church so we took them to a park and kicked the ball around with them and let them play on the playground.

Soccer Trophies

And Soccer is over. It was a lot of fun for the kids, but I am glad to have our Saturdays back. Plus it was starting to get really cold for those early morning games and practices as the sun was setting. Princess Sparkley's team had a party after their last game and they were given their trophies and a certificate the coach had made up for each kid on the team. The coach's awards were all silly things about the kids. He gave PS the "positional player and listens to the coach" award because (especially at the beginning of the soccer season) when he told her her position, she didn't stray from that spot on the field at all. They didn't keep score, but the kids all knew they hadn't won a single game, except for the last practice of the year, they scrimmaged against the parents and beat them 8 to 2. The kids were all happy about that.




Buddy's coach has a daughter on Princess Sparkley's team. So he just handed out trophies really quickly after their game ended, took a few team pictures, and one parent brought little cupcakes for everyone. Then we all ran up the hill to PS's soccer party.

Soccer Picture Day!

Today was soccer picture day. Princess Sparkley's picture time was 8:30. We aren't normally awake and 8:30 in the morning. And if we are, we aren't dressed and ready to go. So it was an early day. And it was COLD! I wore two of everything, including coats. I forgot to wear two pairs of socks though and nearly lost my toes. Brr. PS's game started just after her picture time, around 9.



Team Picture: top to bottom, left to right
Coach Greg, Dana, Princess Sparkley, ?, Hannah #1, ?, Aiden, Asst. Coach Charles
Daniel, Hunter, Paul, McKenzie, Caroline and Gabriel (Hannah #2 was sick)

Buddy's picture time was 9:30 and his game time was 11. Between Princess Sparkley's game and his, we had some down time but not enough to actually do anything, so we just kicked the soccer ball around some more.



Team Picture: top to bottom, left to right
Coach Mike, Megan, Natalie, Buddy, Micah, Brandon #1, ?, Asst. Coach Lewis
Trey, Michael/Timmy, Timmy/Michael, Mariah, Ryan or Brian, Andrew
(Morgan and Brandon #2, not pictured)


Buddy and Princess Sparkley were both the second tallest on their teams (although, if Hannah #2 had been there, she is taller than PS). PS's team is 7-8, she's a young 7. Buddy's team is 5-6, he's a mid 6.

Soccer!

Red Runners!

Buddy is in red, #23 wearing black pants with a white stripe down the side.


Purple Panthers!

Princess Sparkley is #8 in purple with brown pants and two ponytails.
For some reason, the team PS was supposed to play didn't show up so they put yellow vests on half the team and they played each other, but needed more players so Buddy and an older sister of a kid from the team played goalie. Buddy was THRILLED.

Go Purple Panthers! Go Red Runners!

Princess Sparkley got to play goalie today! She told us afterwards the coach told her her position and she said "no." Then she laughed and said, "I didn't say the "no" part out loud." This was a position that terrified her, but she accepted the assignment and was super lucky that her team kept the ball way far away for the five minutes or so that she was guarding the net. PS is #8 in all the pictures.

Buddy's team may have actually won (they don't keep score). And he had at least one assist, maybe two or three. And he finally got his official jersey with a number... 23.

An update on Little Guy's black eye.

The kids did such a great job playing soccer, and it was such a hot day, Daddy treated them to ice cream after their games.

Go Red Runners! And Purple Panthers!

Buddy and Princess Sparkley both had soccer games Saturday (10/2). Princess Sparkley reminded me to bring the camera, but Buddy's game was first. And by the time I packed up all our stuff and moved to a different field for her game, I had forgotten all about taking pictures. So... next week, this will feature the Purple Panthers.

Buddy did great! He got to play both forward and defense and was a lot more confident about where to be. He seemed a little bit timid when it came to kicking the ball away from the other team headed toward him, but he stopped at least one goal attempt.

Princess Sparkley was also much improved in her game. Both kids played against teams that had at least one really good player that would get the ball, kick all the way down the field and outsmart the goalie (or just score, since Buddy's level doesn't have goalies). PS said after the game that she liked being a forward best.

Buddy is the kid in the pictures wearing a red shirt with no number (they didn't order enough) and red shorts.

Soccer Season

Princess Sparkley and Buddy started soccer last week. This is the first year either of them has played soccer. They are on different teams in different age groups through the same church sports league (not our church) that Buddy played t-ball with.

I've forgotten my camera for two practice days and one game day now. So these are all cell phone pictures. And the one with B lined up with our three kids, is just our family playing soccer together for practice one night before the game, not even an official soccer practice.

Princess Sparkley's team is the Purple Panthers. Her coach has been coaching for years and is really great with different practice ideas, and learning the kids' names. Buddy's team is the Red Runners (the kids elected a much longer name like the Red Super Duper Fast Runners, but the coach shortened it). It is Buddy's coach's first year, but he's going pretty well figuring everything out. Buddy's dream position is goalie. Unfortunately, the 5-6 year old league doesn't use goalies yet even though every kid on the team is super paranoid about having an open goal and wants to guard it.

The two really cloudy pictures are from tonight's practice. There were supposed to thunderstorms so Buddy's coach canceled practice, but it hadn't actually rained yet, so Princess Sparkley's coach kept practice. They only got sprinkled on a tiny bit at the very end. And he was nice enough to let Buddy, and a couple other kids from Buddy's team that showed up, practice with his team. Before practice, Buddy was sitting on his soccer ball at the other end of the field watching PS practice. It looked like such a cool picture, but the cell phone camera couldn't handle it.