It all starts again

Yes, it is that time of year when we spend our evenings at the soccer field, and yes I blog about it a lot but it is a part of our life and it kind of defines the kids, so I enjoy doing it. I am also proud of them for wanting to play and watching them get better with each year, I just wish my pictures would reflect that.

Clark helping out one of the other teams, since they were short a player.  He doesn't mind playing i think he would play for all the teams if he could.

Now for his own team.  He and Ryan play on the same team.  Clark was not thrilled with the idea at first, but I think it is growing on him.  Yes, Ryan is probably the youngest player since we bumped him up to the next age group and he has a very late birthday, but I have already seen a lot of improvement on his end.  He has done a great job defending the goal.  I haven't been able to see the end of a game yet,, and they didn't go this last Saturday due to a temple trip, but I don't think he has let a goal by (except for the one that he knocked in, I hear), but we won't dwell on that it happens and that is okay.  We were joking that day both the boys made a goal one for our team and one for the other.  He still claims it was one of the defenders that made the goal and not him.  I am so proud of both Clark and Ryan and I hope they keep progressing in the sport.

  Emma is also loving soccer.  She has played forward, striker and midfield so far this season and is doing a great job.  Earlier in the week (before this actual game) she had hyper-extended her wrist in PE so she was a little worried about falling and hurting it again, so we kept it bandaged and everything worked out great.

I think I mentioned before that even Andrew is playing this time.  He is on a team consisting of mostly older four year olds up to six year olds, and yes he is only three.  I wasn't too worried about it too much since he has been kicking and dribbling a soccer ball since he could basically walk.  He is a little more immature in the people area but he is right with the rest in the soccer knowledge.  Since he is only three and on an older team I had to coach and some times that is good and some times it is not so fun.  They have short attention spans and they just want to goof off and play rather than practice.  I do have a few boys that played in the fall and they stick with it just a little longer then the rest, which is a good thing.

Andrew has also scored a goal in a game this year, the only problem was that it was in the wrong net and for the wrong team.  We were so proud that he dribbled to ball from half the field with the crowd and myself yelling at him to turn it around.  He was so excited that he had scored, he came running back to me with the biggest grin and trying to high five me and all I could do was say great job!!  One of the older boys on the team came up to me and told me that Andrew needed to score for us and to not do that again (I can't remember his exact words, but I thought it was great, I told him because he was older and had played before he could help me teach Andrew how to play properly). 

Emma was my photographer while I coached so we have a wonderful self portrait of her, and I couldn't resist putting it in here.

The big SixTeEn

I can't believe I am old enough to have a have a sixteen year old!  This year we let him have a few friends over to celebrate.  They played soccer in the back yard, had hot dogs, watched a movie outside and mostly just hung out.   I was worried all week because we were supposed to have rain Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and we were having the party outside.  I watched to weather all week and the rain chances for Friday were twenty percent chance in the morning.  Friday finally got here and it was cloudy and gray for most of the morning finally by mid afternoon the sun came out and it was beautiful.  I needed the ground to dry out since they were watching a movie outside and some of them were going to sit on the lawn.  We were so blessed, we had no problems except it did get a little chilly and I had to search for some blankets.  I hope he had a great time with his friends.  I can't believe how loud nine fifteen and sixteen year old's can be.

I was looking on the internet for some fun ideas for a sixteen year old's birthday and found out there is nothing for a boys sixteenth birthday, now if it was for a girl ideas everywhere.  So I came up with this, a  popcorn bar, I got the idea here.  I used what I had to come up with it and I think the kids all liked it.  It's not fancy or a lot of time put into it but it worked. 

 

 

Andrew 'ism

We were driving home from dinner and the conversation went like this
Andrew- I just tooted
Me- what do you say
Andrew- excuse me, Emma I just tooted
Emma- awesome
Andrew- No your supposed to say ewe.

Then of course everyone starts laughing.  What manners my children have, just kidding!

Easter Festivities

Yes, I am a little late to blog for Easter since it was almost a month ago.  I got the pictures on here and just haven't had the time to sit and blog, so here we go, I may even have time to get caught up to date.

This year Easter seemed really early with it being on March 31.  But that is okay we were still ready for it.  The kids had been out of school the week before Easter for spring break, and this year we took it easy and really didn't do anything.  We did a lot of lounging around the house.  Tuesday, Emma went with Andrew and myself to story time where they had their annual Easter Egg Hunt.  No, they were out the door and finished before I even got out there to take pictures.  But they had a lot of fun anyway.  

The week started out quite chilly and by the end of the week it was really nice outside.  I decided since we hadn't dyed our Easter eggs yet we would do it outside and have not have the mess inside.  It was great, I got everyone to help and the eggs even dried faster so clean up was a breeze.  Some of the kids were less than happy to be dying eggs (thinking they are too old, I think) but in the end I think all of them enjoyed it.

Even Andrew had to do it himself.  Notice the thumbs up from him and dad?  Dad says he has the Draper tongue, he is always sticking it out especially when he is concentrating.

Easter afternoon  

We went to church with out taking pictures, I had to be there early to practice with the choir and get warmed up for the Easter program, so we had to take pictures after church.  As you notice I could only get two of the kids but that's okay the other two will have other opportunities, especially since soccer has started.