Cleats and Bubbles

Okay, this title is a strange combination but today involved a few errands and some playtime with DS#3 who is clearly missing his big brothers and sister on school days. One of those errands was going out to get a second set of cleats for DS#1. With him having training both at school and with his club team I am concerned that having to take the cleats back and forth could result in some, well, memory errors.

Why do I mention this here? Because DS#1 is now at an age where he understands more what his parents do for him and actually appreciates it. Now, he is never overly emotional in one direction or the other, but he clearly appreciated the new cleats, understands their cost, and the effort to get them. This recognition and appreciation shows that he is growing in more ways than just physically. In any case, I really enjoyed it.

Now, the cleats (and a few other things I bought at Soccer Locker) were just one of the errands DS#3 and I ran this morning before heading to the park and then back home to blow bubbles in the back yard. It was a pleasant morning and he loved playing in the park, even without other children around while we were there. Then when I asked him if he wanted to go home and play in the backyard he said "Yeah" with his characteristic full body nod and started walking toward the car. Once home he wanted to blow bubbles so outside we went. He was content blowing bubbles for 15-20 minutes before going on to play with other things.

Meanwhile, I decided that his ability to blow bubbles was cute enough to go inside and grab the camera. I took a lot of pictures-my tactic for trying to get a good one- and I think these turned out very well. I really wanted to get a picture showing his face through one of the large bubbles he was blowing but I couldn't quite get the shot I wanted. This one shows his focus though, and I just love it. I also love how casually he sits in the first picture blowing away.

I was going to post about something else, but whatever it was slipped my mind. Tomorrow my dear wife is on back-up/late call so, to make a long story short, tomorrow afternoon will not be terribly relaxing. If I take more pictures, and have time, I'll try to post again.

Pre-Labor Day Tournament-'09

Well, this has been a very long day and it hasn't gone as well as it could have, but we are 98% through it so there you go. This is a soccer tournament weekend for the two big boys and it has been, well, eventful. I did get some pictures, not many, but I did have other duties to attend to. I tried to get some pictures of DS#2 in his full white uniform (DS#1 and his team don't have theirs in yet) during warm-ups and their first game this morning. The light wasn't good so, well, not a lot of good pictures. I already deleted some and I think my dear wife will probably delete most of the rest. Many show other children so I am trying to choose a few that don't. They did look "great" in their white uniforms but the warm-up time in the wet field at 7:30 AM took a lot of the "white" out of their home uniforms.

Right now DS#2 is on a "Division II" team, which is really the lowest level of competition soccer. At some other clubs he would be "Super II" (and, honestly, could have been at ours due to some departures but I chose to stay with this coach) but here he is on "DII." This makes him pretty much the #1 player on his team and is (hopefully) going to force him to step up and be more of a leader. His team lost their first 2 games today, but actually played well--and played the way their coach wanted them to play. His coach wants them to play a passing game of soccer that is crucial in higher levels (and age groups) and not "kick and chase." At his level of play teams can get goals by simply kicking the ball long, chasing it down, and kicking it at the goal. We don't have a full-time goalie right now so that works against us, but at higher age groups and levels, well, that simply doesn't work. We had ample opportunities to win our second game but simply didn't "put the ball in the back of the net." The first game, well, we didn't score their either, but probably should have lost only 1-0. The score was a bit higher, but the line judge was, well, as the trainer put it, "not well-qualified." This said, in the second half, we didn't capitalize in the second half (although no additional goals were scored and it was clear they desperately wanted to increase the tally.

DS#2 has another game at 7 AM tomorrow morning. This means I'll be getting up, um, earlier than I would like.

DS#1 had all three of his game today and won't make the semi-finals. They won their third game (2-0), but lost the first two (3-1, and 1-0). Last year, even though it was a bad year for the team as a whole, they had an excellent, dedicated keeper (goal-keeper), this year, well, that boy left soccer to focus on baseball. Right now we do not have a dedicated keeper. Now, I missed the first game due to a conflict with DS#2, but I guess it didn't go terribly well. I saw the first half of the second game before running off to DS#2's second game and let's just say we are desperate for a keeper when the coach puts someone in that hasn't played "keeper" since he was 8. Um, yeah, that would be DS#1.

Yes, that picture is a bit off-kilter--maybe my dear wife can fix it-- but I had to deal with this while trying to shoot pictures. DS#1 had no desire to play at keeper yet somehow he ended up "in the box" directing the defense.

The honest truth is that he actually did a good job and was talking more on the field while at GK than I have ever seen before. The goal that won the game happened after someone else subbed in late in the second half and he probably couldn't have stopped it either. Truthfully, he could make a good GK, but goal-keepers have to really "want" the job in order to do a great job and I happen to know that he doesn't. I did warn him that he might get asked to in the future and should be ready to listen to his coach.

The fact that he didn't argue with his coach when assigned to play GK tells me that maybe, just maybe, he would. The fact that he hasn't played goal-keeper since he was about 8 tells you even more.

On a sad note, during the first half of our third game was the fact that one of DS#1's teammates broke his arm (badly). I don't know how badly yet, but let's just say there is no question at all that it was broken. While the game was "dirty" at times, this happened after a simple collision. He fell and landed on the arm at a bad angle. Only some of DS#1's teammates saw how bad it was, but word spread quickly.

That particular game started late and it got dark enough (there are no lights at this field) that the game ended 4 minutes early. The other team collected numerous yellow cards toward the end and, frankly, played poorly in that they did foolish things that used "used up the clock" when they were behind. The ref(s) called it because it was honestly getting dark enough that it was risking further injuries as well as making it difficult on the officials.
Apparently the other team spit on their hands before going to shake hands after the end of the game. DS#1's team was shocked, I think they know what their coach would do if they ever did anything like that, let alone the parents.

Well, back to finishing some laundry and going to bed. DS#2 has one more game tomorrow moring and I suppose it would be nice to sleep a few hours beforehand. Next weekend I should get to sleep late at least one day. Well, maybe.

Small, but FIERCE!

Well, I admitted to some doubts as to whether my dear daughter had the drive and determination to play at the level the coaches thought she should be at Sunday night. Last night showed me that my concerns were, well, a bit mistaken. During practice DD was very focused (for a 7-year old) and clearly showed a lot of determination. When looking at some of the pictures last night I joked with my wife about the fact that those two big brothers seem to have toughened her up.

This is actually just one of several pictures showing some real focus and drive on her part. I think it was about 98-99 degrees at the END of practice, it was probably about 100-101 at the beginning, before the hot breeze "cooled" things off.

The soccer season is certain to get difficult with three kids playing. This weekend both of the older boys play in a tournament (fortunately here in SA). My dear wife is on-call Saturday so my mother and father-in-law are coming to town to help watch the little ones. Between both boys I will be at soccer fields from before 7:00 AM until about 8 PM. Then I'll be back at the fields at 6:30 AM the next morning. If the boys play well, there will be additional games on Sunday. I hope both teams do well, it'll be difficult for me, but it would be a great start to the season. As a team manager I also have a meeting to go to on Sunday evening (about 25 miles from the fields where we'll be playing).

School, which I would argue is much more important than soccer, is starting to get into full swing. DS#1 has had homework from day 1, but not so much he hasn't been able to finish it easily. DD has a bit of homework for the week due Friday that we'll try to finish off tonight and DS#2, well, hmmm, no homework yet. I guess he is simply able to finish things during class. DS#2 is in 5th grade and has different teachers for different subjects as a prelude to middle school. So far he seems very happy about it.

And School Begins ...

Well, today is the first day of school for the three older kids. This means it is the first day of High School (if you discount the Summer PE Camp) for DS#1. When I dropped him off this morning he seemed to have a healthy mix of excitement and apprehension. I know he'll do fine, but it is hard not to recall the small baby I once held in one arm. Now, of course, he is several inches taller than me so holding him in one arm is completely out of the question.

DD and DS#2 got their pictures taken at the bus stop today, many pictures actually. My lovely wife is not the only person around recording memories on the first day of school. I would say there were about 6-7 parents taking pictures, including 2-3 dads. I am sure my dear wife will post some of the pictures tonight.

Yesterday was "The Last Day Before DOOOOOMM!" (see below) and it ended up being a pretty relaxing day. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and then DD and DS#2 had friends over to play. DS#1 and I watched our neighbor play in the Little League World Series (they won again and will definitely make the next round) and the kids played video games etc. The evening was simple sandwiches and left-overs for dinner because I had to run DD off to a soccer clinic held by the soccer club the boys play with.

DD has been wanting to play soccer again for several months now but I have been waiting a bit to see what her level of desire is. Now that I am a manager for DS#2's team I simply don't have time to coach and feel like it would be easiest for us to enroll her at the same club as the boys. Well, the cut-off for soccer is August 1st and the cut-off for school (in Texas) is September 1st. This means DD makes the cut-off for school and is in Second Grade, but for soccer to play with other second-graders she has to "play up."

I decided that I wanted the coaches to see how she played and tell me where she should play, in the U5-U7 "Micros" or as a U8 "Academy" player. The U8 team is more competitive, with more practice time involved, greater dedication, etc. The teams at that age are single-sex though so she'd be playing on a team of just girls. Micros mixes the children more and but has smaller sided games. Practice and game times are shorter for the Micros as well. Basically, the older team is much more serious and I wasn't certain if DD had the mentality or skill level for that yet.

Well, it was 104 degrees on the field last night and DD had a blast, despite getting a bit overheated for a a while. The coaches said she should play on the U8 Academy team and there is a slot on a team that practices at the same time as DS#2's practices (at least for fall). When I talked about how she was quitting dance and gymnastics to play soccer this year one of the coaches laughed and said that both are "fantastic for soccer." Um, sorry DD, not enough days in the week. She seems very excited about playing on a more serious team. I am curious to see if that excitement continues.

Weekend before School Starts

Well, I haven't posted in a bit and with this being the weekend before school starts I thought I would post (even though I don't have any pictures ready-sorry CB).

My lovely wife decided to take Friday and Monday off so that we could do a few things together as a family before the start of school and so she could have the first day of school off. With the stress at work right now, she needs those days anyway. Yesterday, (Friday) we went out for breakfast at IHOP. I was planning to do this as a surprise for my dear wife (who loves IHOP) but the night before she said, you guessed it, "Can we go have breakfast at IHOP tomorrow?" Sigh, so much for that surprise. After that she took the boys to get haircuts before school starts-yes, I need one too, but I will wait until there isn't a long line.

Later that day we went to Double Dave's Pizza and had the buffet. Why? Well, we like Double Dave's but also 20% of the proceeds went to help support the McAllister Park All-Stars baseball team presently in the Little League World Series. The boy that lives across the street is one of the players on that team and I am sure he is having a wonderful time in Pennsylvania right now. We watched their first game in the evening and sure enough, he pitched AND had 3 hits in 4 at-bats as the team won the game 10-1.

Friday evening we went to "Meet the Teachers Night" at the elementary school before coming home and watching the LLWS game. I think the DD and DS#2 are going to have some great teachers. No matter what, they will have Mrs. Amey for Gifted-Talented and she is quite simply the most amazing teacher ever. I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of fantastic teachers as my children have gone through school but Mrs. Amey has something extra that inspires children to go beyond their limits.

Today DS#2 went to a birthday party for his good friend AE. AE and DS#2 have been friends for years as have DD and AE's sister M. This means that DD went to the party too. Why? Well, with DD there M wouldn't be bothering her older brother and the other boys so their parents asked DD to come too. The wonderful thing about good friends is knowing that you can ask them for help. DS#1 had a high school convocation this afternoon and for us to make it we would either a) have to pick the kids up from the party early or b) have the kids stay long and go home with the birthday boy's family. With these friends, well, we just picked the kids up at their house when we were done with the convocation.

DS#1 is, well, ready for high school, sometimes in more ways than I want to think about ;). His convocation was interesting and the director of the DATA program and all of the staff are clearly love the school, and the kids that help make it what it is. DS#3 was there with us and, despite being napless, was incredibly well-behaved.

After coming home (and picking up the others) we grabbed a few things and ran off to another birthday party for one of DD's old friends from her previous school. AV had a huge party with friends and family (they invite entire families) and we got to see lots of friends we haven't seen for a while since our school change. The big boys might not have had as much fun as DD and their parents (although they did enjoy eating), but they did seem to enjoy how surprised everyone was with how much they've grown over the past year.

Now we are home, showered, and relaxing before the true, "Last Day Before School Begins!" Which DS#1 would probably rather dub (in a suitable movie announcer's voice), "The Last Day Before DOOOOOMM!" The truth is, the kids are clearly ready for school to begin again and I think we are all looking forward to it--I know I am!

I can tell ...

I can tell that I am now looking forward to school beginning and getting a bit of a break. Now, I have to admit that I have adjusted to a certain amount of noise and chaos and the house will undoubtedly feel very empty a mere few days after school begins but today was simply not a good day.

It was one of those days where you can't point to one MAJOR thing that went wrong that made it a bad day, it was lots, and lots, and lots of little things that went wrong. When you name them individually they sound so minor, but when you add them up, well, it just wasn't a good day. Strangely, very few of the things that went wrong were actually child-related.

The beginning of the day started with me looking for the team checkbook (I am the team manager for DS#2's soccer team). Let's just say that I found it underneath the coloring book on DS#3's work table in the office. I am not going to say how much cleaning went on before that. I am not even going to TRY to figure out how the team checkbook got out of the folder in my file-drawer onto his table. I am just going to thank my lucky stars that he didn't color it. I FOUND the checkbook at 7 AM. I went back to bed for 30 minutes afterward--trying desperately not to ponder the question, "How did the @#$-!@## checkbook end up under the coloring book?" and more on the question, "Why did I even THINK to look under the coloring book in the first place????" Okay, there weren't many other places to start looking by then, but, still ...

In any case, I was able to deposit money into the team account and write a check for the tournament that is less than 2 weeks away.

The day ended with DS#1 finishing soccer practice early, as in, throwing up on the field with a shoe and a sock off. A blister formed beneath a callous on the ball of his foot, and, well, let's just say that when he got his sock off to see why his foot was hurting, he threw up. Yes, the day actually (sort-of) ended with me taking care of cleaning and wrapping it tonight. I know my lovely wife is a doctor, but injuries to her own children need to be taken care of by her husband, or, at the very least, someone else. DS#1 really wanted to perform well for his new coach so, needless to say, he is horribly embarrassed by the entire incident. Honestly, it was pretty bad so I guess I will have to make him sit around reading books and playing video games for the next day and a half or so. I am sure he will hate that.

In between? Well, hmmm, honestly I think it is better to mention one of the high points (as, let's face it, there were very few...). My dear wife opened the package of Gymboree clothes she ordered recently. She ordered online as she had coupons ready to expire, there was a sale, and some of the items she wanted weren't in the stores yet. Really, she is very thrifty and loves to save money. I often tease her about how I don't really want to know how much she SAVED but rather how much she spent (sometimes more than once in a single paragraph of the blog ...). Really though, she got some very good deals and those deals included some costumes for Halloween (yes, it is a bit early, yes, we do plan ahead, yes, this parenthetical probably could have started a paragraph of its own, why do you ask?).

She asked DD before ordering what she wanted to be for Halloween, well DD said "a Doctor." Now, DS#3 doesn't really make choices like that yet, but an Engineer was an obvious choice based on his love for all things, well, train. My wife asked me about this outfit before ordering, with her discounts, etc. I said yes, "but don't be disappointed if he refuses to wear it." Well, let's just say that refusing to wear it was NOT a concern today. In fact, it sort-of relates to some of the things that happened "in between" but I really want to just enjoy these pictures-and my drink- and avoid that topic. The fact is, DS#3 LOVES the costume and we felt lucky to get him out of the heavy overalls for the 100 degree San Antonio heat.

Yes, my kids are pretty stinkin' cute. Thank God I fooled such a beautiful woman into marrying me.

Yes, I bought a lottery ticket today. I mean, c'mon, the worst that could happen is I win and the government taxes it at 110% --oh, crap ...

Grumble

Well, normally I am reasonably well-organized and can at least get all of the kids to their proper destinations at the proper times. Today, well, not so much. DD missed her piano lesson today because this afternoon I just plain forgot. This morning it was on my mind, but the afternoon struggle with DS#3 to get him down for a nap (which failed) created just enough distraction that I missed it. I was (and still am) very upset with myself about it.

This evening I took the kids to Incredible Pizza, one of those places with the horrid games and "prizes" for the kids. We still had some old cards from last summer (the last time we went) so I chose a time when the pizza buffet was discounted ($5 Monday, even with DS#1 they made money, tells you the quality of the pizza). It was something a bit different to do and the kids enjoyed it. DS#3 enjoyed it, and, with the napless afternoon, is now sleeping the night away. I just hope he makes it until 6:00 AM.

This past weekend we had several things going on. DS#2 had several "Club Friendly" soccer games on Saturday which overlapped with DD's birthday party (you can look at my lovely wife's blog about that). The wonderful part of the weekend was the fact that the nieces and nephew in Houston came here for the weekend. DD LOVES her cousins and the girls play together so wonderfully that it is truly a joy to see. Sure, there are some disagreements here and there, but really, the girls get along so well that it is really amazing. A and E brought their "Monkey Dresses" along so that all 3 girls could wear their dresses together. It was horribly cute.

I was able to get a picture taken with DD and E, but A was getting tired so I guess I'll have to wait until next time.

This week I am starting to put school day bedtimes and wake-up times into effect so that maybe, just maybe, next week won't be too rough.

Tomorrow I have LOTS to do for DS#2's team in preparation for the season as well as the upcoming tournament in a week and a half. These things are all priorities so some of the other things I wanted to do with my lovely wife (she is on-call tonight and off tomorrow) might not happen.

Isn't She Proud!

Today DD had a short "interview" for CCD as we are changing parishes and um, it was one of those things we just had to do. Anyway, she decided that she was going to wear the new dress she received from her Godfather on her birthday (a whopping 2 days ago). She is just thrilled with this dress so her Godfather scores a "WIN!" with this one.

She did change later because she wanted to play and didn't want to risk getting it dirty. I just thought it was terribly funny that she wanted to wear the dress so much that any excuse would do.

In other news, DS#1 had his freshman orientation today. There is a parent meeting tonight, but we won't be able to make it. I was told that the parent meeting wasn't as important as the orientation for DS#1 and that missing it was okay. He has a convocation for the magnet school he'll be attending on August 22nd. I am both excited and terrified for him. I am trying to come to terms with the idea that my little baby boy is going to high school.

Birthday Girl

Well, yesterday was DD's birthday, she is now a whopping 7 years old. As silly as she can be, somehow people still were thinking she was turning 8. In any case, her "party" is on Saturday and last night the boys (actually only DS#2) had soccer practice so we couldn't do the regular family dinner. Toss in a lecture my lovely wife had to give this morning, and, well, DD got spoiled in different ways.

Her loving mother took her to the hair salon to get her hair trimmed, and then, almost on a whim, she took DD to a nail salon to get her nails done too. DD was overjoyed! Today she gets to have lunch at (probably "from") McDonald's and we'll be going out to eat at El Mirasol (yes, one of my favorite SA restaurants). Yesterday we only had sandwiches at the pool and dinner at home.

Lately I have tried to post when I have some pictures to post and this pretty much means that I haven't been posting as often. I think I need to simply post more often and get the pictures up when I can. The boys have started soccer practices already, DS#2 has two "Club Friendly" games this weekend and both boys are playing in a tournament the weekend of August 29th. DS#1 has a new coach that I think will work out very well. His previous coach, and the coach we expected to have, was hired as a high school girl's coach for one of the local high schools. Rules prevent him from coaching a club team with boys or girls 7th grade or higher.

DS#1's new coach is becoming (or just became) a daddy for the first time this week so DS#1's practices were canceled for the week. This doesn't mean he isn't expected to practice though. The team manager just forwarded a practice sheet from the coach for individual practice that he expects all of the players to perform this week. They have to fill out the sheet and bring it back next Tuesday. I am curious to see how this team does this year. DS#1 has a lot of new players and a new coach so the team dynamics are definitely different. There were a few boys last year that tended to goof off and not take practice seriously (as well as get everyone else in trouble) and those boys are no longer with the team. Practices last week were very "serious" in that the boys worked very hard.

Quick Rewind

Okay, as a quick morning post I wanted to mention some things that happened over this past weekend. First, Friday night my lovely wife and I tried out a new restaurant and then decided to go ahead and see a movie (Harry Potter) at the theater next door. This meant that DS#1 was left to babysit, and he did a great job (he usually does). Turned out that DS#2 insisted on helping make pizzas. This means he pulled pizzas out of the freezer down in the garage, cooked them, etc.

I am thrilled with DS#2's independence, but not so thrilled that he didn't close the freezer all of the way. After Saturday evening Mass (and dropping off DS#1 to see Harry Potter in 3d with some of his friends) we decided to just head home and eat something there. The kids wanted some pizza rolls so we opened the freezer to find the melt down. Yes, a freezer in a garage in San Antonio in summer has to work pretty hard, and when it is left a bit open, well, it thaws very well. I was able to save some of the food, but most ended up in the trash.

DS#2, well, I had him help with the clean-up. I am proud of the fact that, despite the disaster, I didn't even raise my voice once. As upset as I was about the lost food, I was able to keep in mind that this was one of those honest mistakes that can happen when someone is trying to do something for themselves. I was actually able to use it as an example of an "accident" versus things like, say, slapping his sister (which happened that morning). I explained the difference in me being mad at him for slapping his sister that morning and being upset about the freezer melt-down but not mad at him or blaming him for it.

This means that Saturday night I spent my time defrosting and cleaning the freezer before running back out to pick up DS#1 from the movie theater. This, in turn, means that Sunday night I insisted on going to El Marisol, one of my favorite restaurants here in SA, for dinner and a few margaritas. My lovely wife took this picture of DS#3 and me making silly faces with each other. He started making silly faces, so I started making them back. Sounds simple, but hey, we had fun!

Bubbles and Museums

Well, DS#3 has gotten on a bubble kick again lately. A couple of days ago I went outside with him and we blew bubbles together, since then he has been out every day to blow bubbles. Yesterday DD and her friend M went out with him to "help" and I shot some pictures. I wanted to try to catch the bubbles as they were blowing them but it was very difficult to focus and a certain little person was in near constant movement. I took some video as well so we'll find out how that turned out another time.

Today I took all of the kids with me to the Witte Museum to visit the "Playing with Time" exhibit. This is an incredibly fun exhibit. From time lapse pictures showing changes in plants and forests over time to high speed cameras allowing people to see popcorn as it pops, etc. DS#1 and DS#2 had quite a bit of fun with some of the high speed and stop-motion hands-on experiments. DD pretty much just played.


DD's favorite bit was being able to see herself on TV with a backdrop of plants growing, clouds forming, and things like that. Basically, she stood against a green backdrop and watched herself in the TV monitor. DS#3 joined her playing there but none of those pictures really turned out well. I was not allowed to use a flash and the lighting was kept very dim to make the strobe lights used in some experiments more effective. This basically means it was very difficult to focus properly and get a good shot even when the kids would hold still.

Tomorrow night soccer practices begin for the boys. We'll have triple digit temperatures again.

Trains and Gardens

Well, Happy August everyone! Not much time left before school starts so the summer is winding down. DS#1 and DS#2 begin soccer practices on Tuesday (the 4th) so I guess the fall schedule is almost upon us.

DS#1 finished up his PE Summer Camp on Thursday so yesterday (Friday) I decided I wanted to do something "different" with all 4 of the kids along. I bounced around several ideas, but in the end I decided to go to Brackenridge Park near downtown SA. If it had been cooler we probably would have visited the Zoo, but we have a membership and try to go a few times a year. I decided we would ride the Zoo Train (which is actually a train ride through the park that passes the Witte Museum (the museum of natural sciences) and through much of the rest of the park.

DS#3 loves trains so I knew he would enjoy the ride. He wore a very serious expression the entire trip. Based on the way he talked later, we know he loved the trip. I took a number of pictures but very few turned out well. Sometimes I get in a strange kick of trying to take some pictures with an idea in mind. Here and in the next picture I was trying to catch the kids from behind. I like the train picture because the three oldest are in a row, by height.

This picture is at the Japanese Tea Garden (which is at Brackenridge Park). The morning started cloudy but by the time we got to the gardens the San Antonio heat was really kicking in. Add in the fact that we finally got rain on Thursday, and the humidity was pretty terrible. The gardens are quite beautiful though, and DD and DS#3 really liked looking at this waterfall as well as the fish in the pond.

Surprisingly, ALL 4 of the children enjoyed themselves. Yes, even DS#2 had some fun running around the gardens. DS#3 pretty much just soaked everything in. It was a short little trip that didn't take up more than a couple of hours, but it was something different from our usual trips to pools, etc. After school starts and it gets cooler, I will have to take DS#3 back and see if I can get some nicer pictures of him on the train.