30 Days of Gratitude: Days 4 and 5

Yesterday I was grateful to have good residents on call with me. It was very busy--so busy that I didn't have time to send anyone out for lunch. I was also grateful that I had prearranged for the night float team to bring in some dinner, and even then we didn't eat until about 9-11pm, and we couldn't eat together. It's funny that everyone associates Olive Garden with me. One of the SRNAs came in this morning and asked if I had been on call. When I said "yes", she replied that she had seen the remnants of Olive Garden in the resident area and wondered if I had been on call. I was especially grateful that I got to lie down and sleep for a couple of hours. I'm definitely not able to handle lack of sleep like I used to.

Today I'm grateful that I was able to be here when Eric got home from school. He always gives me a big hug when he gets off the bus. With more days off at work lately, I've been enjoying this special perk--it never gets old.

Eric had a smiley face sticker on his hand when he got off the bus. Patrick asked him what he did to get the sticker. He said that he got it because he wrote his name in the right place on his paper. It's been so long since the other kids were in kindergarten that I'd forgotten these little milestones. :)

I went with Patrick to pick up Natalie and Alex. Sometimes it seems like a chore to pick up the kids, but I have to remember what a privilege it is. There are a lot of other parents out there who don't get off work in time to do that. I got to see Natalie coming out of her Strings class. She usually would have hugged me, but her hands were full with that cello of hers. Her first words to me, more or less, were "Can we eat at Panera Bread?" I laughed at her focus, but I did end up taking her there for dinner before swimming. I really miss my family when I'm gone.

So, despite such a rough day yesterday, that rough day enabled me to be home today and tomorrow to enjoy these events that will go away all too soon.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 3

Today was Alex's last game, sort of. I'm working tomorrow, so I'll miss his actual last game. We've talked to him about this for a month or so. He wants to quit club soccer at the end of this fall season. He doesn't seem to enjoy it and he wants his Saturdays free to do other things. It's frustrating for him partly because most of the boys on his team don't follow what the coach says. Alex does a lot of the goal kicks and ideally he should kick to the outside of the field, for example. Well, all the boys he kicks to tend to cluster in the middle of the field--behind the other teams' players. This is only one of the reasons why they haven't won any games. It's been a few seasons of not winning games and it's frustrating for the parents too. Alex isn't entirely without fault in this. In today's game, for example, while the other team racked up point after point, he was not running, he was walking. He wasn't scrambling for the ball, similar to his teammates. The other team scrambled to the ball and won 8-0.

So, today I'm thankful that he's had the opportunity to play club soccer. I'm thankful that he wanted to play club soccer. Hopefully it will help him when he plays high school soccer next year. Of course, after all of the discussion about quitting, today he expressed doubts. He wondered if staying in club soccer would help him do better in high school soccer. We'll have to do some further discussion on this.

This picture shows one of the boys on the other team leaning into Alex while Alex is trying to move the ball down the field. Alex had told me about this earlier today, before I'd realized that I had taken this picture and an additional three pictures of this exchange. Alex stepped back a little so that the boy leaning into him lost his balance and fell forward. I found it interesting that in the pictures, I can see Alex with a big smile on his face as the boy falls forward. I want to see him enjoying soccer again.

30 Days of Gratitude

I wanted to do this last year, but I didn't get on the ball. Every day for this month, I'm going to state my gratitude for at least one thing, probably with accompanying pictures. I have an app for that! ;) I may not post here every day, but I'll try to record the previous days' gratitudes when I do. It'll be easy to find things to be thankful for. The hard part will be to narrow them down and to take pictures.

Yesterday, I was thankful for a loving husband who went to Target the day after Halloween to get bags of Halloween Kit Kats for 30% off. They're like regular Kit Kats except with white chocolate (colored orange) on the outside inside of milk chocolate, and they only sell them for Halloween. Natalie tried them recently and has professed her love for them as well, so unfortunately, I'll have to split them with her. That's okay, Patrick was able to get seven bags yesterday, which was all they had left. He went to a different Target today to get a gift card for a birthday party that Natalie is going to tomorrow, and he found seven more. He's definitely a keeper!

Today, I'm grateful for Eric's exuberance. He always makes me smile! This was at the hair salon while his brothers were getting their hair cut. He took a regular bench and made it into a jungle gym of sorts. He was having such a great time that it was fun to watch him.

As I posted on Wednesday, he wore a Nemo costume for Halloween. I've mentioned previously that we sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" every night when he's in bed. That has turned into "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Dinosaur" for the past few months. Tonight, as with one or two nights previously, that turned into "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Nemo". While we were singing, we would take the stuffed Nemo he sleeps with every night and hold it up in the air like Nemo was swimming, to go with the words to the song--"Up above the world so high. Like a Nemo in the sky." He had the biggest smile on his face as he was giggling while singing. Such a sweet boy.

I don't want anyone to think my life is perfect, though. Alex's plans to go to a movie with some friends fell through, so Patrick and I were both available to take Natalie to her swim practice. We usually stay the whole hour and a half practice, but tonight we decided to grab a quick dinner at a nearby Pei Wei. When we got back, about 45 minutes later, we were surprised to see that she was still running around in her regular clothes, and not swimming in the pool. She had forgotten to wear her swimsuit!! We were so embarrassed. The one time we leave and she doesn't have a swimsuit and can't swim. Ugh! Patrick has previously told her to keep an extra swimsuit in her swim bag, but of course she didn't do that. What a waste. She only got to swim twice this week between my working late, Halloween, and her forgetting her swimsuit, and she has another swim meet next weekend.

Enough of the complaining, though, I should be thankful that she got to swim two days this week, right? I should be thankful that Patrick didn't kill her for wasting a Friday night? I'm definitely thankful that she can swim every day next week!

Halloween 2012

Today is the big day! Alex invited several of his friends over for a little party tonight. Patrick ordered eight pizzas, thinking that with so many teenagers, that would be about enough. Natalie and Eric didn't finish eating until almost 6pm, but as soon as they finished, they got into their costumes and we went outside.

Every Halloween since 2002, our cul-de-sac has had a little party. We gather around a few tables set up in the street at the entrance of our cul-de-sac. At least one table for potluck food for us, and one table for all of our candy bowls. That way we could socialize with our neighbors instead of waiting for trick-or-treaters in our separate houses.

Unfortunately, the main organizer for the annual Halloween party moved away a couple of years ago. The one who took over for her moved away this year. Luckily, one other person took it upon themselves to at least set up a table for the candy. That left me able to go trick-or-treating with Natalie and Eric, and left Patrick able to stay in the house to watch over the ten 13-year-olds. That same person/family also set up a simple "haunted house" that you can see in the background. They've been doing that for the last couple of years or so. The kids usually love walking through it.

Natalie's friend Margot was dropped off by her mom so she could trick-or-treat with us. Her costume was "Little Dead Riding Hood". Apparently her mom was altering her costume at the last minute and brought her over when she was done with it. I loved her matching basket. Apparently it was the basket that usually held their dogs' toys, but it was the perfect "Little Red Riding Hood" basket.

In previous years, we have trick-or-treated with packs of other kids, so it was a little weird this year to only have Natalie, Margot, and Eric. Most of the kids in our cul-de-sac have either moved away or grown up too much to want to trick-or-treat or at least to trick-or-treat with the little kids. Of course we probably started out earlier than a lot of other kids, and that's why there weren't that many that were out yet.

Anthony had tried to get a couple of friends to come by, but it all fell through. Patrick thinks he's still a little down from his breakup over the weekend. He seemed in good spirits as he led his little brother around from house to house. Eric was thrilled to be with Anthony.

We have long blocks in our neighborhood. It took us about an hour to cover two or three blocks. I brought a pillowcase bag that Eric and Natalie emptied their bags into once before we headed back to the house. I was surprised (but happy) that Natalie and Margot wanted to stop and go home at the same time as Eric. They all wanted more time to eat the candy rather than just collecting it. Once we got home, they separated their loot on the floor and traded a few pieces. The teenagers were out and about at that time.

We took Margot home a little after 8pm, then one of Natalie's other friends, Maya, came by with a group after we got home. She went out trick-or-treating with them for another half hour or so.

Luckily, the teenagers let me snap at least this one picture of them. Later Alex was wearing one of the girls' wings, but he wouldn't let me take a picture, of course. The girls actually came in costume, one of them was supposedly not allowed to come (per her mother) unless she came in costume. They had just come back from roaming around the neighborhood and they were having snacks. Some of them had eaten before coming over, so we had lots of leftover pizza. Patrick took two of them to the cul-de-sac party outside.

By the way, that lantern that Eric is carrying in the first photo above is supposed to be a glow lantern, but I guess I've had it for a while and it didn't glow very much when I activated them. For some reason he still insisted on bringing it along. He has a glow necklace on also. It was just starting to get dark when we got home, so we didn't really need flashlights or other glowing objects after all.

As I see the big boys getting bigger, I get a little sad that they don't participate in these events like they used to. Because of that I have learned to savor every moment with the little ones. Eric has a wonder about him. For example, we've never had trick-or-treaters come to our house since we used to just sit outside at the party. Since the table broke up early out there, we got a few trick-or-treaters at our house. Eric got a kick out of that, and he was saying that we've "never had trick-or-treaters at our house before." Although that's true, he's only been alive for five of the ten Halloweens we've lived here. He was also laughing at the thought of being the one to give out candy at the door because people would "expect a big person" and instead be greeted by him. By that time though, it was time to put him in bed, so he didn't actually get to give out candy to trick-or-treaters. Maybe next year.

Weekend "Lasts"

I didn't get a chance to post this weekend. On Saturday, I went to Anthony's last cross country meet ever. It was the District Cross Country Meet. It was windy and in the 40s, so I bundled up. Anthony wore shorts when I dropped him off at school for the meet, but he was wearing a shirt under his uniform when he ran--he must have actually felt cold, for once.

I was hoping that he would get his best time. Just last week he had his best time ever, 19 minutes for a 5K. I know he was hoping he would get his best time too. This photo is when he was just crossing the finish line. He finished next to last. His watch showed 21:14. :( He didn't want to talk afterwards, but I hung out close to him. Poor thing started dry heaving in the trash can after talking with his coach. :(( I couldn't do too much except for handing him some more water when he finished the water that he had, and giving him tissues to wipe his face after he finished hanging over the trash can. I'm sure it didn't help that his girlfriend broke up with him right before the meet. He said it didn't matter, but who knows. No matter what, Patrick and I are still proud of him, for sure.

His cross country team had an end of season party after the meet. After school soccer practices will start after Thanksgiving.

Anthony ran at about 9am. Eric's game was at 10am across town, and they had already started by the time I got there. It was really cute that Eric waved at me and said "Hi Mama" when he saw me, even though the ball was in play and coming toward him at that time.

He actually scored a goal during that game. I was caught off guard when he kicked the ball pretty hard and it sort of glanced a player on the other team and ended up in the goal, so I didn't get a picture. He was more aggressive during this game. This photo is the result. He was moving the ball toward the goal, but a player from the other team kicked it back at him and the ball ended up bouncing up and hit Eric on the face. I wasn't allowed to rush onto the field even though I really wanted to. By this time, Patrick had left to take Alex to his game that was scheduled for 11:30am across town. Eric started crying and ran off to one of the other coaches. The other coach hugged him and talked to him, and Eric came back into the game wiping away his tears. They won the game anyway with a score of 5-1. Alex's team lost 2-5.

Eric had his last game of his first season on Sunday--they lost 3-5. After the game, we had a cookout with hotdogs and other picnic fair. One of the parents played music from their car stereo, and it was hilarious when "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO came on and all of the five-year-olds started dancing.

Patrick is going to sign Eric up for basketball next. Hopefully we'll get a little break before they start practicing.

Next weekend, Alex will play his last soccer games of the Fall season. He plans on quitting club soccer after that, but he plans on joining soccer in high school next year. We'll see what the next few months brings--probably lots more sports for all of the kids.

Halloween Preview

We have a good friend that loves Halloween. She decorates for Halloween like some people decorate for Christmas. This year she did a Mayan theme, as in the end of the world in December 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends. Everyone in her family dresses up in the same theme--her and her husband, her two children (one of which is Natalie's good friend Maya), and her parents.

Patrick and I were never ones to dress up for Halloween, at least not since we've been adults. We feel like we need to put some effort into dressing up for this party since everyone else dresses up. There were some really great homemade costumes there tonight and in the past. We are boring and we usually buy our costumes. I'll have to share a picture of Patrick and me at a later date.

We got the kids' costumes last Friday. Natalie has been begging to go and finally we went last Friday since she wasn't going to swim practice anyway. We took Eric and Natalie to one of the nearby Party City stores. I bought Eric a Lightning McQueen costume from the Disney Store last year when they were having a big sale. Of course, he didn't want that this year. He wanted to be a dinosaur. The only problem is that they don't have dinosaur costumes for boys his age, only toddler costumes. I had also looked online. They had one or two "dinosaur" costumes, but they looked more like dragons or alligators--not authentic enough for my OCD little boy.

When we got to Party City, he almost immediately settled on the Nemo costume. I had him try it on at the store and he loved it. Natalie was another matter. It took her a good half hour or more to decide on even which costumes to try on, then we had to line up at the fitting room several times (there were a ton of people there last Friday night) to try all of them on. Finally she decided on this "Sparkling Spiderella" costume, which is basically a black velvet gown with a spider web-like stand-up collar. She had actually wanted the costume that I ended up getting for me ("Gothic Temptress"), but it's an adult costume and therefore way too big for her. She didn't want to wear the collar because she thought it would make her neck itch. She was definitely limited with any costume that had netting. The velvet was at least soft for her skin. It doesn't photograph well (see picture), but I think she looks gorgeous with her hair down and parted on the side. She wanted to accessorize with a wooden knife (my "dainty" little girl). Originally she wanted to paint the knife red, but Patrick didn't want anything that would chip off.

I had a full day at work today, and then I had to wait for Anthony to get out of his after school meeting before heading home after 5pm. We rushed getting ready and got to the party at 6:30pm. I realized as we were going out the door that Natalie, Patrick, and I were all wearing black. Eric was our "bright spot" with his orange costume.

At the party, they had a craft table with masks the kids could color and mount on popsicle sticks. Eric didn't actually color his; he put a bunch of dinosaur stickers on the mask just because he could. They also had a scavenger hunt for the kids and lots of Halloween-themed food, drinks, and decor.

The kids ate real food before digging into the goodies. I indulged Eric and let him have two cupcakes. Look at that cute little Nemo. Can you blame me for not being able to say "no"? :)

First Swim Meet

Natalie has been in swim meets before, at neighborhood pools and at big natatoriums, but this is her first swim meet swimming for the big swim club in town, nicknamed "Quad A", or Alamo Area Aquatics Association. One of these days, this will be "old hat". We didn't know what to expect at this one. I had to do the driving instead of Patrick (because he had to go to Alex's and Eric's soccer games), so we left super early, 6:30am. Warmup wasn't until 7:30, but we got there by 7am. I wanted to be sure and get there in plenty of time.

On Saturday, Natalie's previous coach, Coach Kris, was there already. That worked out great. Natalie got to sit next to her during the Saturday session, so when Coach Kris was giving her team members constructive comments, Natalie was right there listening and learning. Her present coach, Coach Tanya, got there at around 9am, when the meet started. She gave Natalie her own constructive comments. We were there until about 11am on Saturday and Natalie only had one race that day, the 50 yard Freestyle. She got about the same time as she did last time.

The picture above is of Eric on Sunday, the second session. He and Patrick met us at the swim meet at around 9am. Patrick wanted to be there for Natalie today, and no one else was home to watch Eric so he came too. Alex was at a birthday party/sleepover, and Anthony was in Austin for a Model U.N. Meeting. They stopped at Starbucks to have breakfast then joined us. As you can see, Eric was very excited when they got there. I'm not sure why--probably the sugar. ;)

Natalie of course loved that her Papa was there today and he was happy to be there. There wasn't any space left to set up folding chairs by the time they got there, so he "shared" Natalie's chair. The folding chairs are much more comfortable than the bleachers.

She had two races today, the 50 yard Butterfly followed closely by the 100 Yard Freestyle. She decided not to warm up with everyone else at 7:30 today, but she still wanted to be there early to eat (she still got to warm up in the water at around 9am on both days also). I had made one of her favorites, red velvet waffles, on Friday, just so we would have them to take along this weekend. I also brought lots of strawberries for my strawberry-loving girl. Her races were also later today--almost 11am, so she had plenty of time to eat. We actually let her have a glazed donut, a luxury for her on race day.

After the races today, Patrick went home and then picked up Alex from his sleepover. I took the little ones to Panera Bread, one of Natalie's current favorite places, and her choice for lunch. We were also going to take the whole family out to El Mirasol for dinner, since we were finally all together, but by then Natalie's allergies were causing her so much trouble that she didn't want to go out. Poor baby. She said that she does better with allergies when she swims because she breathes through her mouth when she swims.

This is a picture I took today of Natalie's 50 yard Butterfly race. She came from behind to finish first in her heat. She had the fourth best time (out of twelve 9-10 year old girls). We're proud of her anyway, but especially since she did so much better than her previous times in the 50 yard Butterfly and 100 yard Freestyle plus she swam those within a half hour of each other (or maybe even less). She knocked off over four seconds and three seconds, respectively!

Natalie's results for the two-day meet are as follows with her previous times in parentheses:

Girls 9-10 50 Yard Freestyle (35.22)--35.66
Girls 9-10 50 yard Butterfly (42.24)--37.96
Girls 9-10 100 Yard Freestyle (1:21.91)--1:18.22

Her next meet is in November, for events for which she has no "official" time yet.

As for the boys' soccer games, Eric's team won on Saturday, 2-1 against a team from the private school the kids used to go to. Alex's team tied on Saturday, 0-0, and won on Sunday, 1-0. They've lost all of the other games, so it was really nice to finally tie one and of course win one.

Mighty Maverick Stampede

Patrick and I volunteered at Natalie and Eric's school today. They were having their big fundraiser for the year, called the "Mighty Maverick Stampede". All the kids ran laps for 30 minutes and they could get pledges for each lap or most commonly, people gave a set amount of money. The PTA also sold advertising to put on the backs of T-shirts that every child received for free.

Patrick volunteered from 9am for the rest of the day and he was stationed in the "Fun Zone" where the kids got to play in a bouncy house and in a huge inflatable slide. I volunteered to help set-up at 7:30am and through the morning. I was assigned to the "finish line". We gave out popsicle sticks to the kids as they ran past so they could keep track of how many laps they had run. After they finished running, the kids received bracelets or necklaces (their choice) with a bead for each lap they ran. That part was the most work-intensive part of this station, because we had to put different amount of beads on a string and then tie the string around their necks or wrists.

Eric and the Kindergarten class went out there at about 10:30am. He was wearing a red bandana around his neck, which we presumed meant that he was one of the class leaders for the day. His friend Vivian, who is also on his soccer team as well as in his class, was also wearing a red bandana. I liked the bandana because I could more easily identify him in a sea of kids who were all wearing the same shirt. As you can see in the picture, he ran five laps, and therefore received five beads on his necklace. (By the way, five laps around their track is apparently equal to one mile). Interestingly, when we got off the bus he told me that everyone in his class was wearing the same shirt and the same bracelets/necklaces. He was excited about that.

I only volunteered in the morning because it was much cooler in the morning plus I could get some things ready for Natalie's swim meet tomorrow--more on that tomorrow. I even took the kiddos to Starbucks for breakfast in the morning then I drove them to school since I was going there to set-up anyway. We met one of the teachers at Starbucks and she told me how much she enjoyed Natalie. That is always nice to hear.

Since the Fifth Grade was running in the afternoon, I wasn't able to be there when Natalie was there. She was able to greet me during recess, however, when she came to give me a hug. She ran seven laps, but Patrick timed the run and said that they didn't give the Fifth Grade the full 30 minutes. It was closer to 20 minutes.

When their bus arrived at our bus stop, the kids were all singing "We Will Rock You". They all had a very exciting day. Natalie and Eric were all chatty and wanting to tell me all about their day. They usually don't want me to take pictures, but they were very willing today.

Dinosaur Obsession

I was making a sandwich for Eric last week. For some reason, he said that it "would be nice" if we could make the sandwich into a dinosaur shape. I had already seen a sandwich cutter on Amazon that cuts sandwiches into two dinosaurs. When I mentioned that I had seen something like he was talking about, his face lit up. Of course, I had to get it. It arrived late last week, but Eric didn't have any sandwiches until yesterday, when I was away at work. Patrick cut his peanut butter sandwich into two dinosaurs. Doesn't Eric look excited and happy?

I also got Eric some dinosaur masks in the same shipment. What I didn't mention was that the masks weren't that realistic. A couple of them didn't look like any identifiable animal, let alone a dinosaur. What can I say? They were cheap.

Eric is just a little bit particular, in fact, we often say that he's a little "OCD" (obsessive-compulsive disorder). I got the feeling that the dinosaur masks weren't a complete hit with him because he couldn't identify some of them as dinosaurs. The triceratops one is by far his favorite because he can actually identify it as looking like a triceratops. I could throw the other ones away and he wouldn't notice. He would notice the missing triceratops mask. Now when he is going to let out some dinosaur roars, he puts on the mask.

Alex bought a couple of extra Jenga block sets recently, so they could use them to build things instead of playing the game Jenga. Eric put them together this morning into a "dinosaur" and wanted everyone to see his creation. It was difficult to photograph with my phone because I couldn't get the whole creation into the frame without getting on something to stand on, so I asked Anthony to take the picture for me.

The head of the dinosaur is up where Eric's head is situated. In case you can't recognize this dinosaur, it's because it's a "made up dinosaur". He likes to make up dinosaurs with fantastic features, like the "Bigasaurus" which is apparently "the biggest dinosaur" ever at "100 feet tall". What an imagination! What a builder! I remember when Alex used to build things like that.

Today for lunch, all of the kids decided they wanted grilled cheese sandwiches. Eric had requested one, cut into dinosaurs, of course, and the other kids decided they wanted grilled cheese sandwiches too, as long as I was already making one for Eric. Interestingly, when the big boys saw me cutting Natalie's sandwich with the dinosaur sandwich cutter, they wanted their grilled cheese sandwiches cut into dinosaurs too. I had actually cut Alex's sandwich into triangles already, and he was fine with that, but he sounded a little disappointed. Anthony ended up with four dinosaurs since he had two grilled cheese sandwiches. I guess Eric isn't the only one who likes dinosaur sandwiches. :)

Too Cute

I bought one of these gadgets that has a fake goldfish in a bowl filled with water. A battery-operated motor moves the goldfish around, making it look almost real and lifelike. There are lights that illuminate the scenery. Well, I put it together yesterday, and Eric really enjoyed turning it on to make the goldfish move and to make the lights change colors.

I had also bought these dinosaur masks. That one was met with mixed reviews. He seems to really like the triceratops one and he was using it along with his usual dinosaur roar as he played around the house. You put the two together and you have a five-year-old roaring like a dinosaur at a goldfish in a bowl. Isn't that just too cute?

Midget Soccer

Anthony was the one who coined the phrase "midget soccer" in regards to Eric's soccer practices and games. On one hand, it sounds mean, but on the other hand, Anthony IS quite a bit taller than the kids on Eric's soccer team. Anthony started out helping Patrick coach during the practices, but recently, he has been working on his college applications and his homework. Hopefully he'll be able to send in some applications by next week.

I took this first photo this past weekend. Eric was goofing around as usual. I was surprised, however, that he seemed more animated as a whole. He wasn't just picking up trash or weeds from the soccer field. He was actually running after the ball. I could actually cheer "Go, Eric" as he was running after the ball. He has more aggressive members on his team, and his main goal seemed to be to kick the ball out of bounds. This worked fine when he was on defense, but not so well when his team was trying to score and he kicked that ball out of bounds. During Saturday's game, he even scored...for the other team. Patrick said that was the strongest, hardest kick he had given, but unfortunately it was for the other team. Oh well.

The wonderful thing about "midget soccer" is that no matter who is ahead, all the kids, at least on Eric's team, seem to be happy. They seem to all enjoy just being out there, running around, and kicking the ball. It was really cold on Sunday, when I took this picture, so Eric was wearing long sleeves under his uniform. The long sleeves gave him something to play with. The other kids were all running out there almost oblivious to the cold wind blowing on them, except when they were sitting on the bench. They won both games this weekend.

I have to share one funny story from this past weekend about what happened during Alex's soccer game. Alex had a soccer game at 9am on Sunday. Eric had his game at 1pm. Since Anthony was out of town on the field trip, we couldn't leave Eric home with Natalie, although we let Natalie stay home by herself. All I could get him to wear over his clothes was a windbreaker, with the temperatures in the 40s with a strong, cold wind. I told him that I was going to bring a big blanket with us to Alex's game "just in case" Eric needed something warmer. He replied, "It's okay. I'm wearing a jacket and it's zipped up." He thought he would be protected from the cold because his flimsy jacket was zipped up?!!

When we got to the soccer field, I tried to convince Eric to stay in the car and watch the game from the car. He didn't want to. He wanted to sit under the trees on the park benches like we usually do. Well, the park benches were all sectioned off because of the pumpkin patch they are planning to put in this week, so I brought out two folding chairs, my camera bag, the big blanket, and my purse. After lugging that out there and setting up the chairs, Eric starts looking at me unfolding the blanket so I could wrap it around myself, and he says, "Mama, can I share the blanket with you?" I reply, "Of course, Eric!" After a little while under the blanket and still being cold, he said, "Okay, we can sit in the car." Great, then I got to lug everything back to the car where we watched the rest of the game. At least we were warm the rest of the game. Unfortunately, Alex's team lost pretty badly and they were scoreless.

I love this picture of Patrick getting down to the kids' level. They all seem to be paying attention, too. Coaching five and six-year olds has been a challenge, but I know Patrick is up to it and enjoys it. I think they enjoy him, too.

Homecoming 2012

Patrick and I asked Anthony several times a couple of weeks ago if he needed to get Ali, his date for Homecoming, a corsage. He had a clueless look on his face each time we asked, and he said, "I don't know." Sigh. Fast forward to this past Thursday, when I picked up Anthony from school to go get his hair cut, he asked me if he could get flowers for his date, Ali, for Homecoming. That was TWO days before today--two days before he needed the flowers. Bigger sigh. That meant we had to get flowers that night.

We tried one florist near where he got his hair cut, but she only did weddings and special events. She even offered up, although I'm still not sure why, that her good friend who does Homecoming corsages, was just hospitalized with a stroke and she had just returned from visiting her at the hospital. She even called her friend at the hospital. Luckily, we were able to order flowers from our local grocery store, HEB.

He still needs his Mama after all, because he wanted me to go ask about a corsage. The lady behind the florist counter at HEB asked him what color his date was wearing--cream. She asked him what color accents or jewelry she was wearing--blank look. He said that Ali had barely wanted to let him look at a picture of the dress. (How cute.) The lady knew what she was doing and talked about using cream-colored roses and an "iridescent" ribbon that would match whatever Ali was wearing. Anthony and Patrick picked them up on their way home after his SAT Subject Tests this morning.

I actually forgot to take a picture of it this afternoon, but it was beautiful, with small cream-colored roses to match her dress. I thought it was cute that when he presented the corsage, she looked a little alarmed and said, "Was I supposed to get you something too?" How cute was that?

Anthony indulges me more than his siblings. He lets me take whatever pictures I want, for the most part. He expected that I would want pictures of him with his date all dressed up. I took the picture of him first, while we were waiting. Since he doesn't drive yet, but his date does, she was picking him up. The only problem was that, first of all, she was running late, as we ladies know sometimes happens when we get ready for a big event. In fact, she called him while I was taking pictures of him to tell him she was running late. That was at 6:35pm. Second, she got lost. She called again around 7-7:15pm to tell him where she was so he could tell her how to get to his house.

So, it was getting dark already by the time she drove up. I did the best that I could with the dim lighting, but I was hoping for better light. Patrick warned her immediately about me and my camera. She replied, "My mom is the same way." I liked her right away. :) She also indulged me with posing while I adjusted my camera settings. Anthony had already called Maggiano's, where they were going for dinner (I was proud of him that he actually made reservations on his own!), to tell them that they were running late. Patrick and I gave him lots of cash, so hopefully he won't come up short.

Tomorrow they're both going on a field trip to visit Texas Tech University. The bus leaves at 7:30am, so they won't want to stay up too late tonight. At least they can sleep on the bus. That also means that we won't be able to do anything special for him on his birthday, which is on Monday, because the bus doesn't get back until about 10pm on Monday night. I'm having a little trouble getting used to the fact that I won't be able to spend his birthday with him next year and ESPECIALLY NEXT YEAR. Biggest sigh of all. At least for tonight I know that he is having fun and that his birthday will be extra fun since he will be spending time with Ali. Don't they look cute?

Enjoying Alex and Eric

This was a photo I took today of Alex and Eric walking back home from the school bus. Natalie is running on ahead of them. Alex had come home early with Patrick. He was inside his room when Patrick and I left the house to go to the bus stop on the corner. I yelled for him to come greet Eric at the bus stop because I knew Eric would get a kick out of seeing him there. Patrick told me that Alex had been outside all day and that he wouldn't want to come out. I told him that Alex would come out for Eric. I was right. When Eric saw him, he said, "How did you get here so fast?" Eric hadn't expected Alex to get out of school early and be home already. I love how well they get along.

For most of today, Alex's class was at a rocket launch. They had built rockets and today was the day that they launched them to see how high they went and for how long. They'll make adjustments to their rockets based on the results they obtained today. His teacher had requested volunteers--that's why Patrick was there. The other classes had their launches the same day, so that's all they had planned. When Alex's class was done, Patrick went ahead and took him straight home, after picking up a late lunch at Subway, that is.

Alex also had a haircut today. It's already been 7 weeks since he got his haircut and even HE admitted that it was getting long. It's been a combination of his and the family's activities that kept him from getting his hair cut sooner. He made me promise to not get it cut as short as the time before when he went with Patrick instead of me. Patrick had told the girl "two inches" and I guess she took him literally. Alex was not pleased. What made it worse was that when they got home, Natalie said (without thinking, of course), "You got your hair cut short." That did not help. I made him promise to get at least one inch cut off. He agreed. I also made the next two appointments for him--four weeks from now and another one four weeks after that. If he doesn't want it cut much each time, I'll have to make sure he gets it cut more often.

Everything is a negotiation with Alex. I'm glad he's smart kid, but sometimes I want to say, "Because I told you too" and not give any other reason. Once I give him a good reason, however, he tends to back down. I could go into more detail, but that would be a long topic.

For now I'm just enjoying that Eric and Alex are enjoying each other.

Weekend Recap

We started out with a busy weekend planned, but we got lots of rain on Friday night and all day on Saturday. Anthony's cross-country meet (at 8am) was cancelled, and so were Eric's and Alex's soccer games (at 9am and 1pm, respectively). We didn't have to take Natalie early to her friend's birthday party/sleepover. Patrick and I were able to have plenty of time to get to the wedding we were invited to.

Because of the more open schedule, I was able to take Anthony shopping for a new dress shirt on Saturday. He wanted a black dress shirt that was more fitted, and then a creme-colored tie or something like that to match his date's dress. This was all in preparation for Homecoming which is next Saturday. We spent a good hour and a half trying on various shirts. The selection was a little more limited with black shirts that with white. It didn't help that his neck is only 14 1/2 inches around. Several of the shirts had arms that were too baggy for his liking. Finally, we found two that he was happy with. One was $69.50 and the other was on sale for $45. I asked him if he liked the $69.50 one enough to warrant the price difference. Luckily, he said no and we got the $45 one. I asked him remember this reasoning when it comes to choosing colleges. ;)

After shopping with Anthony, we picked up Alex from a birthday party/sleepover that was located near the mall. I have to say that it was weird dropping him off at a girl's house for a birthday party/sleepover, but he went last year and we saw no reason he couldn't go this year. After all, there were 20+ other kids there. He had a lot of fun and he even got about four hours of sleep. We are glad when he gets out there and socializes instead of playing video games at home all of the time.

Since Patrick and I were at the wedding, we couldn't take Anthony to a party he was invited to on Saturday evening. Instead, he was picked up by one of his friends, the girl who he is taking to Homecoming. The party on Saturday was a big shindig for another friend's 18th birthday party. Patrick picked him up after we got home from the wedding.

On Sunday, Alex's soccer game at 4:15pm was also cancelled, but Eric's soccer game at 1pm was still on. Figuring out when we were going to church wasn't straightforward. We ended up going to the 11am mass and Patrick and Eric had to leave after Communion.

I picked up Natalie from her sleepover just before going to church. She claimed to have gotten about 9 hours of sleep, but she ended up taking a nap after lunch to rest up for her swim tryout at 4pm. I may have mentioned this briefly already, but she's been swimming at our gym for a while (2 1/2 years, maybe?). She's had really good coaches there and she's gotten a lot of attention (meaning small groups) but she has always been lacking good competition. In August, she went to her first really big swim meet, and she did really well. The best part of it was she got "official times".

There's been some recent coach turnover at our gym, and the experienced coach (Coach Kris) is now at a local swim club. Our gym now has a very inexperienced coach and they haven't been able to tell us when they'll get another one. Partly because of Coach Kris, and because of those "official times" in August, Natalie was able to get one of the spots on their team. It'll be a little cheaper, although the location is farther. They have practices on Mondays through Fridays for 1 1/2 hours instead of the one hour she's been practicing. The best part is that two of her friends from our gym swim team are also going to be there, and so will be her previous coach. She's pretty excited all around. She went to the "tryout" today, but that was more of a formality. We'll be going to a lot more swim meets in the future. She starts tomorrow.

For those of you needing an "Eric fix", here's a picture I took tonight. I had asked him to show me his muscles, which he did with his right arm, but he made this weird shape with his left hand. When I asked him about it, he acted upset and said that it was something he had made up. I'm still not sure what that had to do with making muscles, but he loves making up his own stuff.

Speaking of making up stuff, Eric and I have recently modified the words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Basically, every time you're supposed to say "star", we say "dinosaur" instead. He gets all giggly every time we sing it, which is every night at bedtime. For a long time now, he's had me sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him whenever I put him to bed. He likes that song so much that we sing it twice each time.

Tomorrow will be the first time in the four years or so that Patrick will not be picking up Natalie from her school for piano lessons. Eric will have to take the bus without her. He did fine last Wednesday for Natalie's first cello lesson. Lots of growing and changing around here!

Got Cello?

Patrick went with Natalie to rent her cello this past Tuesday. He went to a store called Antonio Strad that specializes in stringed instruments. They also apply a good part of the rental price there on the purchase of an instrument, which is wonderful considering the expense of a good stringed instrument. We were able to rent Natalie's cello (3/4 size) for $41 plus the protection plan. In this picture, she's very excited about getting it, and she still seems excited about it today. Several kids in her class are also taking Strings, including her good friend Margo, who also lives in our neighborhood. Can you say potential "carpool"?

Natalie had her first cello lesson on Wednesday. She didn't have too much to say about it, but that was probably because I was only able to talk to her for a few minutes on the way home from her friend Margo's house. Margo's mom had picked them up from Strings, so all we had to do was pick her up at their house. Natalie only mentioned that they were still learning how to read music, but they did get to pluck the strings of their instruments to play two notes. The rest of the ride home she was talking non-stop about how she and Margo had thought of another project to do together.

The rest of the story is long, so feel free to skip this paragraph if you're not interested. After Natalie's first lesson, her friend Margo's mom picked them up because Patrick had to pick up Alex around the same time. Margo had a dance class after Strings, so they took Natalie with them to that and then to their house. Meanwhile, I was working late and I didn't pick up Anthony until almost 5:30pm. We went by Margo's house to pick up Natalie on the way home, but they were doing homework, so I came by later, around 7:30pm, to take Natalie home. Patrick, meanwhile, had to take Alex to soccer practice, all while dragging Eric along with him. We finally all met at home when I got home from picking up Natalie. I know we'll miss the chaos one day when the kids are grown! At least that's what I keep telling myself! :)

Speaking of "grown", Eric does not look very "grown up" next to these basses. Patrick took this picture to highlight the size difference. Eric got a kick out of how big they were. I'll have to do another post about some of the things he's been saying and doing lately--maybe this weekend. Our weekend schedule might be clearing thanks to the heavy rain we've received this afternoon/evening.

Last Piano Lesson

I've been reminded that my nieces like to read my blog and that I haven't had a new blog post in a while. :)

Today was Natalie's last piano lesson. She's been taking piano lessons for about five years, maybe? We had originally negotiated with her (because she kept asking if she could quit piano) that she would continue taking piano lessons until she got into middle school. My hope at the time was that she would play an instrument in the band in middle school. She's the only child that has shown any interest in any musical instrument. I was in Band and I loved being in Band.

In fifth grade at Natalie's elementary school, they offer an after school program called "Strings" where the kids are offered free lessons to learn a stringed instrument. They must have listened to the different instruments at school, because Natalie came home one day and told us she really wanted to play the cello because she liked the way it sounded.

We didn't have much warning on when this program would start. We basically were told the week before it started, and it started last week. We were still obligated to have two more piano lessons before we could end them. Patrick spoke with the person teaching the Strings class and he said they were going to cover how to read music first, so we knew Natalie wouldn't really be missing much. She obviously knows how to read music already.

So, this opens another chapter in our lives. Natalie will be bused from her school, on Mondays and Wednesdays, to the middle school that we feed into. We'll have to pick her up from there at 4pm. Eric will take the bus home without his sister. Patrick will have to wait for Eric to get home on the bus, then he'll go pick up Natalie and then Alex.

This is the last picture of Natalie with her piano teacher. I've always thought their body language was interesting. Natalie used to hug her previous piano teacher constantly, but her previous piano teacher was a woman with two small daughters. This one is a single man with no children. There was no hugging. Still, Natalie seemed to do well with him as a piano teacher. Hopefully she'll do well with her Strings teacher too. We'll see if she continues with the cello after middle school. She may want to switch to a "regular" band instrument and be in Band like her Mama.

The Sweetest Thing

Anthony is very good with kids, but I love watching him interact with his youngest sibling especially. He is helping Patrick coach Eric's soccer team, an event he has affectionately nicknamed "midget soccer". The other kids are all over him, and Eric loves having him around.

This is a picture of Anthony walking to Eric's soccer game today. At first Eric was just walking behind him, but he caught up and grabbed Anthony's hand. That was so sweet! I love pictures like this from behind.

When they were warming up, Eric would chase Anthony around with the ball and sometimes he would go in between Anthony's legs to kick the ball. That usually ended up with giggles and hugging.

We set up the chairs, waiting for the game before us to finish. Eric plopped himself into one chair, and Anthony sat in the other one. At one point, Anthony decided to sit on Eric's lap, carefully, of course. Patrick then sat on top of Anthony's lap, briefly and carefully also so Eric wouldn't get crushed. Eric loved it and that just got him more and more giggly and excited. I missed that moment because it happened so quickly, plus I had the big zoom lens on my camera and I couldn't back up quickly enough to get all three of them in the frame. I took this picture later when Anthony sat on Eric's lap again. You can't see the huge grin on Eric's face, but clearly, Eric loved it--again.

As for the game, Eric was totally distracted during this one. Most of the time he spent dancing around or playing with his huge shorts. His team lost again. We lost count, but they scored three of the goals for the other team and didn't score any goals for themselves. We like to think that they still had fun.

Eric had a little too much fun on the bench. Patrick turned around from watching the game and saw that all of his players on the bench were wet. He asked who started it and all of them pointed at Eric. They had been playing with the water that was meant for drinking.

Eric wasn't around when the other kids used to play in recreational league sports games where the parents give the kids snacks after all of the games. Parents take turns buying tokens to give the kids and the kids trade them in for snacks at the concession stand. This time Eric got a red slushy and a ring pop. He finished the slushy there at the field but then had the ring pop in the car on the way home. He sucked on the red and blue ring pop and then opened his mouth and asked me if his tongue was red and blue--over and over again. His tongue was already red from the slushy.

This last picture was from the last part of the game. After the prayer, Eric looked for Anthony. Anthony picked him up and they gave each other a big hug. Isn't that the sweetest thing?

Tonight, Anthony went to a school football game. When Eric was about to go to bed, he was walking around downstairs and I asked him what he was doing. He said that he was looking for Anthony so he could say "good night" to him. I told him that Anthony was at a football game with friends. Eric looked at me like that wasn't a good enough reason, so I asked him if he wanted me to text Anthony "good night". He grinned and said he wanted me to. We waited for a bit after I sent the text to get a reply. Eric said, "But I can't read." I laughed and told him that I would read him Anthony's text back. Of course Anthony texted back to say "good night" back. Eric was satisfied with that. Now THAT was the sweetest thing.

What About Alex?

We are in the middle of our school and extracurricular activity chaos. This is how our next couple of months are shaping up, including school pick up times:

Mondays
6:10am Leave the house for Anthony's Cross-Country practice at 6:30pm
7:04pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus picks them up
7:30am Leave the house with Alex's school carpool*
3:25pm Alex's school day ends
4:10pm--Variable--Alex's bus gets to the local middle school
4:05pm Anthony's school day ends
3pm Pick up Eric and Natalie from school for Natalie's 3:30-4:15pm piano lesson
5pm Leave home for Eric's 5:45-6:15pm swimming/Natalie's 6-7pm swim team practice
5:30pm Leave home for Alex's 6-7:30pm club soccer practice

Tuesday
6:10am Leave the house for Anthony's Cross-Country practice at 6:30pm
7:04pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus picks them up
7:30am Leave the house with Alex's school carpool*
3:20pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus drops them off
3:25pm Alex's school day ends
4:10pm--Variable--Alex's bus gets to the local middle school
4:05pm Anthony's school day ends
5:30pm Leave home for Natalie's 6-7pm swim team practice
6-7pm Eric's soccer practice

Wednesday
6:10am Leave the house for Anthony's Cross-Country practicez at 6:30pm
7:04pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus picks them up
7:30am Leave the house with Alex's school carpool*
3:20pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus drops them off
3:25pm Alex's school day ends
4:10pm--Variable--Alex's bus gets to the local middle school
4:05pm Anthony's school day ends
5:30pm Leave home for Natalie's 6-7pm swim team practice
5:30pm Leave home for Alex's 6-7:30pm club soccer practice

Thursday
6:10am Leave the house for Anthony's Cross-Country practice at 6:30pm
7:04pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus picks them up
7:30am Leave the house with Alex's school carpool*
3:20pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus drops them off
3:25pm Alex's school day ends
4:10pm--Variable--Alex's bus gets to the local middle school
4:05pm Anthony's school day ends
5:30pm Leave home for Natalie's 6-7pm swim team practice

Friday
6:10am Leave the house for Anthony's Cross-Country practice at 6:30pm
7:04pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus picks them up
7:30am Leave the house with Alex's school carpool*
3:20pm Natalie's and Eric's school bus drops them off
3:25pm Alex's school day ends
4:10pm--Variable--Alex's bus gets to the local middle school
4:05pm Anthony's school day ends

There are other things like Anthony's after school meetings or other school or social functions. There also may be some additional changes in the coming weeks. Natalie now says she is interested in the "Strings" group. She says she wants to play the cello because she likes the way it sounds. She seems very excited about it, and because of that, we would like to be able to do this for her, but we have to find out more information. A bus would pick her up from her school on Mondays and Wednesdays. They have lessons/practices at the middle school that we feed into (and that Anthony attended for eighth grade). We would have to pick her up from there at 4pm. If she does this, we would have to drop the piano lessons. There is no way she can do both, from the schedule perspective, and from the perspective of having time to practice both instruments.

We have already cancelled Eric's swimming lessons, at least until January or so, then we'll see. He is tired after having school all day. Yesterday (Monday), by the time he came home from Natalie's piano lesson/his swimming lesson/Natalie's swim team practice, it was almost 8pm. He had to go to bed, but he didn't want to. He just wanted some time to play with his dinosaurs. We have to let him be a kid too.

Unless I'm off or on call and don't have to go to work until later, Patrick has to take Anthony to school for his cross-country practice, then come home and make sure the little ones get on the bus a little after 7am, then 2-3 days a week* he has to take Alex and Jeff, his carpool friend to school. The other days, Jeff's parents take them to school. The problem for the next couple of months is that Jeff has football practice after school, so we are solely responsible for picking up Alex. We pick him up either at his school or at the local middle school, whichever way the timing works better. The local middle school is obviously closer, but the pick-up time is very different and can be very variable.

We also have to add one more factor. My work schedule has changed and technically I have to work until 4:30pm every day. I can still pick up Anthony, but I'll be late, and I can't pick up Alex at either his school or at the local middle school. This is particularly troublesome on Mondays, because Patrick is at Natalie's piano lesson. We forgot about this until this past Sunday. We suddenly went over the game plan on Monday and asked, "What about Alex?" Luckily, my job can be a little flexible. I was able to leave work early, in time to pick up Alex from school. We waited around for Anthony to finish with his after school Model UN meeting, then came home. We had to pretty much turn around and leave again for Alex's soccer practice.

We found a temporary solution, but not in time to put it into effect yesterday. Alex has a friend, Marco, who rides the bus with him but does not live in our neighborhood. Marco's mom will pick up Alex on Mondays and take him to their house (a couple of miles from our house). We will return the favor on Thursdays. We don't like having to rely on a third party for our scheduling, but what else can we do?

All of that above is pretty confusing, so I'll change gears and share something else fun. There's been a cold front and the kids have started wearing jackets to school. The temperatures are only in the mid 60's but they insist that they are "cold". I had to take a picture, of course. They were trying to run away from me, hence the blurry picture. Eric was starting to wake up from all of that running around, which was a good thing.

Tonight, because I'm on call and have to be at work by 3pm, Patrick has to wait for the little ones to come home on the bus, then he has to go pick up the big boys at their respective schools, come home and feed everyone, then go back out for Eric's soccer practice. Natalie has to miss swim team practice.

Kindergarten Art

This was Eric's first homework assignment. On Howdy Night, he got a picture of a gingerbread man to color and turn in on the first day of school. Actually, this picture is another worksheet. The first one he got he barely colored at all. He got more colorful when he had to color another one at school. I like the way he got big and bold with writing his name.

They had a gingerbread man unit. During the first week of school, Eric said that they were going to make a gingerbread man in class. The next day, he said that they made one and he ran away out of the oven and they had to go looking for him. I was tickled when he emphatically told me (complete with hand gestures), "I kept finding footprints!" They apparently found the gingerbread man in the closet. Eric said matter-of-factly, "And then we ate him."

This week he showed me this gingerbread puppet and was making him talk. I couldn't get him to stop moving for the picture, but he was very excited about it. I can't even remember what his puppet was saying, but for once he wasn't talking about dinosaurs, his favorite subject to talk about.

His teacher is an experienced one, and seems to know how to really entertain the kids but have them learn at the same time. They must be learning about what letters are at the beginning of words, because he has been going around identifying that "dinosaur begins with d" and other such phrases.

Earlier this past week, he was asking how to spell "mama". With a little help from his big brothers, he was able to spell "mama" then he spelled "papa". Anthony, always the overachiever, then asked him to spell "disestablishmentarianism". I posted this on Facebook (for those of you not on Facebook). Poor Eric! Eric, surprisingly, seemed unfazed. He actually said "d" to start with and Anthony didn't make him say any more. On Facebook, Alejandro, Anthony's good friend and Eric's "other brother" replied that he would have asked Eric to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism". Later, he posted that he would have asked Eric to also spell "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconeosis." What a goof.

Most of Eric's art has involved dinosaur teeth. Eric has made up a bunch of dinosaurs on his own. One such made-up dinosaur is called a "Bigasaurus". He said that this picture is of the teeth of a Bigasaurus and that a "huge ship is stuck" in the teeth. He also said that the ship is bigger than a "Megalodon". That boy is fascinated with dinosaurs. In fact, he is behind me on the other computer playing games on the "Dinosaur Train" website with his sister. His active imagination should serve him well--hopefully. In the meantime, I'm getting lots of artwork of dinosaur teeth.

Eric's First Soccer Game

Today was Eric's first soccer game--ever! He was pretty excited, as you can see, still able to smile even after his Mama kept asking him to stand in different places so she could get a good picture of him in his uniform. His Uncle John would be happy to see that Eric's uniform is mainly maroon in color, the color of Uncle John's alma mater. For some reason, when I was changing him into his uniform, he took off his other clothes and then asked if he could leave his underwear on. Yes, silly boy.

Before talking about the game, I'm going to talk about our morning. I took Anthony to school at 6:30 for his cross country meet this morning. I had been torn whether or not to go to Anthony's meet or to go to Eric's game. Anthony, the sweet boy that he is, told me that he had lots of cross country meets, there was only one "first game", so of course I went to Eric's game.

I brought home Benny's Tacos for Alex and Starbucks for Patrick. When I got home I took the little ones to Starbucks--Eric's choice. We came home from breakfast and got him dressed for soccer. His uniform was a bit big. In fact, all the uniforms were big for all the kids.

The game started at 9am. We had an inexperienced referee. Instead of 10 minute quarters, which is the standard at this age, the first quarter ended up being about 20 minutes. The kids who were playing that first quarter were exhausted and asking for water. There were also a few tears from different children during the game, from colliding with each other, or from getting hit with the ball.

Eric did okay during the game. He was totally not paying attention, so he didn't get to play in the first quarter. He did a lot of standing around staring off into space. He got distracted during the opening prayer and started picking up something off the grass. In this picture, he is playing with his huge shorts while he is playing on defense with another boy. He started crying at one point because he had bonked heads with one of his teammates. Natalie was there to help calm him down.

He did play like he was supposed to for part of the game. He ran after the ball and moved it down the field. There were two players on his team that were particularly aggressive, both were girls. One of them basically mowed him down at one point, in order to get to the ball. Patrick had to remind them that they were all on the same team. Eric himself shoved a few kids because they were shoving him.

Eric also got his first taste of the post-game snacks. Each kid got two tokens to spend at the concession stand on whatever they wanted. Eric chose a ring pop and a bag of Doritos. Natalie and Patrick shared some of their snow cones with him too. He dropped his ring pop on the ground, so he didn't really get any of that--not a big disappointment for me and he didn't seem that disappointed either. He really enjoyed that bag of Doritos.

Eric has a total of 12 games scheduled, most on Saturday and a few on Sunday. I hope he still enjoys playing throughout the season.