Soccer: the highs and lows.

As much as I sometimes grumble about my life being dominated 
by soccer from August to November,
I really do love watching my guys play.


Especially when they're having a good game:
making nice plays,

having fun,

 defending the goal,

 even scoring a goal.

Those are fun games.

And then there are those games that raise my blood pressure.
Give me gray hair.
Make me pace the sideline.


Riley's games.


As the boys get older,
the games get more intense
and fast-paced.
The kids are more competitive.
{And we won't even talk about the competitive parents.}


Riley's games are super fun to watch.But when he plays goalie,
I die a little.


He handles the pressure well,
but there are those times when it all comes down to the goalie.


Sometimes you make the save
{and Riley made a lot of saves yesterday}
but sometimes you let one slip through.

And when that happens...

...this happens.


And my heart can barely take it.

Friday and Saturday

Friday was the end of a loooong week.
A long, busy week.


And sometime Friday afternoon I decided I really needed cookies.

(Actually I have given up on cookies.  I'm all about bars now.  So much easier.)


So Avery helped me bake.
I wouldn't give her a single taste of the cookie dough,
because of the whole egg-salmonella-recall-thing,
so she wasn't too happy with me.

She went to bed for the night about 15 minutes after this picture.
At 5pm.


And this morning was the opening day of soccer.
We were up e-a-r-l-y for the parade.
Really.  Whose idea was it for us to have to be there at 7:45am?
On a Saturday?
Torture.

We all needed a Starbucks run beforehand.

Every team lines up...

...and then marches down our town's main street...

...and then is introduced at a baseball stadium down the road.

It's small town fun at its best.

And thus begins three months of five days a week of soccer.

Thank goodness next Wednesday is the beginning of 
Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte season.
I'm going to need it.

Back to the field

This week has worn me out.
It was the first week of soccer practice,
which means the first week of the schedule we'll have until November.

Soccer four nights a week again.
Plus piano and drums and tennis,
and ballet starting soon.

If you need to find me,
I'm probably in my car.
Or on the soccer field.
Or in the laundry room washing soccer socks and shin guards.

Friday is my new favorite day:
no soccer
no tennis
no music lessons.

To celebrate, I think I'll stay in my stretchy pants until dinner.

Tennis love

I used to be a tennis player.
Back in the day.
The first date Gary and I went on in 1992 was to play tennis.
{I won}

We decided to put the boys in lessons this summer.
We bought rackets this weekend
and they began lessons today.


They *loved* it.
I mean l-o-v-e-d.


When the lesson was over they begged to keep playing.
Riley actually said,
"I don't want to play video games anymore...I just want to play tennis."
I had to turn around and make sure I was bringing the right child home.

Avery was sad she wasn't playing.


Until she realized that she could retrieve the wayward tennis balls
and toss them back to the instructor.


Never-ending entertainment.

I am beyond excited that they love tennis.
Maybe I need to encourage a brother partnership like the Williams sisters?

Oh, and you know how it always rains right after you wash your car?
This is what always happens the day before we have a check-up
with the pediatrician.


Just about every time we have an appointment with the doctor
someone has a major injury on their face.
This time Colin had a run-in with a wooden fence.
{You can see who won.}

I'm pretty sure our pediatrician is keeping a file on me.

Payoff.

It's no secret that soccer kicked my bee-hind just a bit this season.
Practice 4x a week since August, plus two games on Saturdays...it took over our life just a little.
{I should have bought this t-shirt.}

But it all came to an end on Saturday.
The boys had their last games and the end-of-year parties.

Gary took Riley to his team party, and I went to Colin's.
Seeing him get his trophy made all of the soccer craziness worth it.


It has his name on it and he is so proud.
It went everywhere with him yesterday, and he now has it displayed proudly on his bookshelf.

I love watching my guys play soccer, but am going to enjoy having Saturdays free.
You know, until basketball starts....