Five Games

We had five soccer games today. The first game was at 7:30am. Patrick took Anthony early for his warmup while I took the other three and stopped off at Starbuck's for breakfast first. Natalie, Eric and I got our usual drinks and treats, except for Natalie who got the Marble Pound Cake this time.

We got to the field Anthony was playing and parked. The game had already started. For some reason, Natalie remarked, "It's cold out here." It was about 79-80 degrees! I just looked at her amazed and said, "It's supposed to be 106 degrees today, Natalie. It's NICE outside right now!"

Later, during Anthony's game at 3:30pm, the parents were all joking about the temperature. One said that the thermometer in their car said 109 degrees, and another said that theirs read 110 degrees. They all agreed that 110 degrees sounded too hot so they should just say that it was 109 degrees. Patrick texted me that the van thermometer read 108 degrees but then I pointed out that the van reading is usually on the low side. He replied that he didn't want to think about that.

Look at how wilted-looking the boys look here while Natalie is ready with a smile during Alex's first game (our second game of the day). This wasn't always the case, but she did hold up fairly well. Anthony was clearly hot, tired, hungry, and grumpy. Eric did not hold up well at all.

Just walking to the field for the first game wasn't a long walk, but we Eric was already complaining, "Why are we walking so long?" We decided to make the trek to the bathroom at halftime instead of using the port-a-potty. Eric also said he didn't want to use the port-a-potty. We had to walk the length of five full-size soccer fields, quite a long walk for a little guy. We were finally past the last field and closing in on the bathroom when Eric decided to sit in the grass and not walk anymore. I could not get him to get up so I picked him up, threw him over my shoulder, and carried him to the bathroom. He was not happy and wailed for the next few minutes, even after I sat him down on the toilet seat. On the way back he said, "Mama, the sun is following us." I of course insisted that the sun was not following us. He then kept telling me to look at where the sun was every so often saying, "See, the sun if following us."

Anthony's game was first then Alex played on the same field right after. The next two games overlapped in the 11:30am to 1pm time frame, so I ended up shuttling kids back and forth to Chick-Fil-A so the boys would get their chances to cool off in the air conditioning. I don't love Chick-Fil-A enough to visit there twice within a couple of hours, but at least Natalie and Eric (especially) got to play a little.

I didn't get many good pictures, but I liked this one of Anthony jumping up and heading the ball. Unfortunately, both boys' teams lost every game today. After Alex's second game (our fourth game), I took the youngest three home after Chick-Fil-A. It was just too hot and I was worried about the youngest two. I kept them busy with my iPhone and iPad, but those only go so far. Patrick stayed with Anthony for his last game, our fifth and last game today. They were losing so badly (0-7) to Anthony's old team and so many boys were cramping up due to the extreme heat, that Anthony's coach asked the ref to stop the game.

We have one more game tomorrow for Alex's team. Thankfully, we'll be able to leave the little ones home with Anthony.