Capturing the Flag--September 2014

I love this picture!  I took it one afternoon from the front parking lot of my school, looking up the hill to where the kids had run.  It would look even better cropped, but this program won't let me do that.  I miss you Live Writer.

Anyway, the theme of September was not cute hill pictures. 

It was FOOTBALL!

Flag football, that is!

The boys played flag football for the first time and had a blast!  

They learned a lot about football that they didn't know before playing and certainly gained new skills, but most of all they had a whole lot of fun!  It didn't matter if they weren't that good or that their team lost every game except one.  They always came off the field all smiles!

Learning to Ride a Bike: November 2012 (minus Thanksgiving)

The most monumental thing about November was the kids all learning to ride their bikes.  Woohoo!

Our good friends Josh and Cris had shown us the trainer bike they had gotten for their kids.  It’s basically a bike with no pedals.  It allows the child to just practice getting balance.  So Jim took one of our kids’ bikes and removed the pedals to make our own trainer bike. (Note: in case you decide to do this to your kid’s bike, in removing the pedals, Jim made it impossible to reattach them, so that bike was permanently pedal-less)

This is not our bike, but you get the idea!

 

Boy, was that kid not happy! But the others were pretty nice about taking turns with it, especially the boys, and it wasn’t long before they were coasting easily down the street, their feet poised inches above the ground, balancing like pros!

So one day Thomas looked at Jim and said, “Take the training wheels off my bike!” So Jim did, and Thomas hopped on, and in almost no time, he was riding his bike!  Zachary said, “Me too!” and in one day we had two kids riding bikes!  On day 2, Jonathan was riding his too! (His was the one Jim removed the pedals from, so we had to buy him a new one)

Reagan was not happy about the boys taking off and gaining this skill without her, so she put some extra effort into the trainer bike, and within a week, she was pedaling off with the boys too!

I took video of all the kids riding their bikes, but I took it with my phone, and now it’s all sideways.  Nobody wants to look at that, so you’ll just have to use your imagination!

In addition to riding a bike, the kids also went to their first UT basketball game!  Super fun and a lot less expensive than football games!



Go Vols!  So glad Josh, Cris, Carter, and Kennedy invited us on this outing!  It was lots of fun, although I think the kids’ favorite part was riding the bus from the parking lot to the stadium!

Another treat this month was getting to sit it on one of Reagan's ballet classes.  Look at her go!

The Goal is Fun, Right?

Or maybe it’s to see which kid’s team can beat the other one!
Like most things in our lives these days, this is a very belated post about playing soccer this past fall. This second season with AYSO brought some changes, mainly in the kids having actual teams and games on Sat. after a weekly practice. 
I loved the kids having their own teams, but practices and games certainly put a strain on our schedules, especially since Reagan’s team did not practice the same day as the boys’ team.  Plus, it meant Jim and I rarely got to watch all the kids play because their teams would play at the same time on different fields.
The other change was coaching!  Due to a change in the scheduled coach’s work schedule, his wife took over Reagan’s team even though she didn’t really know what to do.  Brave woman!  Jim stepped up to help her out as an assistant coach, and together they managed to pull off a pretty decent season!

The best day of all was when Reagan’s team played the boys’ team!  Although it was a real test of Daddy’s loyalties!  Especially when one of “his girls” played particularly well against his boys!

Coach Daddy watching Jonathan

Reagan, Thomas, and Zachary

Zachary, Jonathan, and Thomas vs. Reagan

It was a pretty intense game, cheering for both sides!  I hope the kids never compete against each other for anything really important!  They all did a great job, and we had so much fun!
After all, that’s what it’s all about, right?  Having fun!

Well, that and the fact that Reagan’s team beat the boys.
Not that anyone’s counting!

A Great Day

Soccer in the morning. Painting in the afternoon. (Zachary actually painted! Twice!) S'mores and hot dogs over a campfire in the evening. It was a day for having fun! And a day worth remembering! I hope to have more days like this one!


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GOAL!!!

Well, like all things blog-related, this is late making it, but we have successfully completed our first season of organized sports! This fall the kids played soccer, and they really enjoyed it!

We signed them up with AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization). Their “team” was really just a huge group of boys and girls in our area who were all 4 or 5 years old. Every week we had one practice/game night. When we arrived for practice, the kids were split up boys and girls. They would practice for the first half of the evening and then be split up into teams of four to play a game. The four-person teams were different from one week to the next. The main goal of the season was not to teach the kids all that much about soccer, but rather to have them out on the field having fun.

Here are a few shots (okay, a LOT of shots) of the kiddos having fun:

Jonathan #14

Can you tell how much the uniforms swallowed my kids? Especially Jonathan! The shirts hung down to their knees and the shorts hung almost to their ankles.

Thomas #13

Thomas was always falling down, but he often seemed to be doing it on purpose. I know many of you and not surprised to hear that!

Zachary #16

By the end of the season, the boys had really made some progress. In the final game, all three of them scored at least one goal!

Thomas

Reagan #3

Reagan had a lot of fun, but I think she enjoyed the social aspect of it more than anything. She just liked running around and playing with girls for a change!

Zachary and Thomas

Reagan

Reagan

Water break!

Reagan

Don’t forget Coach Daddy!

Carter played too! (In fact, it was Josh and Cris’ idea in the first place!)

Kennedy wanted to play too, but she’s just not old enough!

Jonathan, Thomas, Zachary, Carter, Reagan

(Notice where Carter and Reagan are sitting!)

At the end of the season, all the kids got a medal for participation. I think that might have been their favorite part!

We had a lot of fun playing soccer this fall. I’m sure it won’t be the last season we play. Thanks to all of you who were able to come out and watch! The kids loved having an audience they actually knew!