More Cousins

While we were in Utah, we got to see my brother's family, too, and hit up a couple of soccer games.

I can always count on this family for my soccer fix. We've only made it to A's games before this trip, but her high school team had a bye on Thursday, so we missed seeing her play. But Saturday we saw K's team, who are really good, especially considering these boys are only 11 years old.

One of the best parts is hanging out with this sweet girl at the games.

Her siblings are so sweet with her--it's really fun to watch.

And then, a little later, we got to go to R's game.

She's really fun to watch!

We also played a lot of other games, too. Introduced them to the fun of Molkky.

The kids played a lot of four square.

There were a few staring contests.

With a distinct advantage for the one who was facing away from the sun, haha.

The kids played Headbanz,

which was pretty hilarious to listen to from the other room.

And found some of the old games over at Rara's house, another night.

Love my family--just wish we lived a little closer (without having to leave CA!)

Quick Road Trip

This kiddo and I got to sneak away for a couple days down south.

First stop, to visit with friends in LA for a few hours!

We got to stop for some playtime with B, and then dinner and ice cream. Always fun to have a little catch-up time.

Then, it was on to Oceanside to meet this cutie. 

And to watch her big sister play soccer. We got to watch 4 games in 2 days and see some really good playing. I forgot how much I love watching this game.

Peanut also had a really good time playing with his cousins--at the fields

and in the pool.

We hadn't gotten to see my brother's family since last summer, and even though the rest of our family was sad to miss out, I'm so glad that at least a couple of us were able to make the trip down.

Particularly to meet this sweet little girl! 

She's already 9 months old and so stinkin' cute! This is when I'm a little sad to not live closer to family--it's had missing out on the kids growing up.

But we just try to take advantage of when we can see them and get to know them.

So much fun all weekend long.

Peanut was in heaven.

After they finally got worn out in the pool, we grabbed some dinner,

and then Peanut and I stopped by the beach to catch the end of the sunset before heading back to the friends' house we were staying at.

Love that I got a little one-on-one time with this kiddo over the weekend.

It was a beautiful night.

Then back for more soccer in the morning. A's team played so well. They ended up in second place for their age group with some really good teams playing. (And while I will never stop loving to watch my kids play their sports, it was really fun to cheer on a team that was winning for a few games ;) We just have such bad luck with coaches. . .)

Then, back to the beach for more play time with the cousins.

The kids had so much fun, and played in the water way more than I expected for an evening beach time. Peanut was probably in heaven with the warmer water than what he's used to at the beach.

I was in heaven with this sunset, and the fact that I was holding a sleeping baby through the whole thing. It's been quite a while since I've gotten to do that.

So glad we got to do this trip. It's been a crazy summer of travels all over the place, but I can't say no to getting to see family and friends.

 

Third Times a Charm?

 

 Peanut had his first soccer practice/scrimmage on Saturday--just one hour with a bunch of 4 year olds, and young coach from England, and some parents to help out. It was a little chaotic, but the coach seems to really love what he's doing and made it fun for the kids. At this age, that's what it's all about, although a lot of the kids were actually surprisingly good at dribbling and shooting. Here I thought we were starting Peanut really young, but it looks like most of these kids have played before.

 

Being a bit of an observer in any new situation, he did a lot of hanging back and watching, but that's how he approaches life, and then he gets into it once he's comfortable. He did say it was fun, so I'm still hopeful that one of my kids will actually like playing soccer.

Busy Saturday

Soccer season is over. It's been a weird season--all the rain has made us miss so many practices and games so it hardly feels like we've played, and yet the season stretched on 3 weeks longer than we'd expected because of all the make-up games.

Because of that, I had a conflict for our last game, so one of the other parents helped out with coaching. Luckily, I was able to sneak away long enough to be there for the last half of the game.

 

Bug has not fallen in love with soccer, but I do think he's had fun (no matter what he might try to say) and he's definitely learned something and had a good final game. He was playing more aggressively and had some good passes and a good quarter in goal.

It's funny to me that he likes to play goalie. He doesn't really like the ball flying at him, which I would think would make the goal a scary place. I know I'm scared of being goalie!

It's been a good learning experience for me, too. I've had fun getting to know the boys and may even coach again some day.

 

And I think we finished in first place. They didn't end up having any sort of tournament because of how long the season has dragged on already, and they haven't updated the standings in the last month, but we finished with a 5-1-1 record, and ended up beating the teams that we had lost and tied when we played them again. I'd like to take credit as their coach, and I do think they've improved, especially with passing, which has led to a few more kids scoring goals. But I did have 1 player who is so good, he'd make any coach look good, so I don't know how much I taught him in the way of skills. The one thing I will take credit for is that in the beginning of the season, he was scoring 3 or 4 goals a game, and these last 3 games, he only scored 1 or 2, but then had a couple assists each game, so I think he's learning to be more of a team player.

 

The first part of my Saturday was spent selling these Scrappy Snowmen at the Corvian Shop 'Till You Drop Event.

 

 

I also had these rustic wood nativities that I've been making for years. This is the first craft fair I've ever participated in, so I was a little nervous and unsure of what I was doing, but I picked two crafts that weren't too expensive or time consuming to make, and picked an event that was a fundraiser, so at least I'd be doing something good for the school.

 

And the kids helped me name and personalize each of the snowmen, which I think made them more appealing. Who doesn't want to take home a snowman named Douglas who cuts down his own Christmas tree each year?

Honestly, I'm not sure I'll do this again. I did sell a few of each, but because of the cut I gave to the school, I didn't quite cover my costs (although I do have a lot of inventory left to give as gifts.) It was fun to try this out and the actual crafting was pretty fun, too, but I like crafting without a deadline.

 

It was mid afternoon by the time I got home and that was pretty much the day for all of us. We've all been sick this last week with a pretty intense cold that either won't go away, or has morphed into a second cold for some (Peanut and Daddy-o were the first to get sick and seem like they might be getting worse again), so no one was up for much of anything. Bean and Bug are both fully immersed in the Harry Potter series right now and read for hours to finish the 4th and 2nd books respectively. Peanut alternated playing with coughing and whining, and Daddy-o and I tried to hold things together long enough to get everyone to bed. Hoping for some quick healing so we'll all be good to go by Monday!

Adventures in Coaching

(Photo credits all go to my awesome team mom, who has made it possible for me to get pictures of my Bug playing while I'm busy coaching.)

 

In back of my mind, starting long before I actually had kids, I've always imagined that I would coach my kids soccer teams someday. I've taught kids of all ages in so many formats over the years that this seemed like a given. And then, neither Bean nor Bug really wanted to play. And life got busy with other things and we really haven't minded not spending every Saturday at the soccer field. I've had plenty of other ways to be involved with my kids and have only occasionally thought about the fact that my kids weren't playing soccer and I wasn't coaching them.

 

But, when Bug decided to play, and I realized that they actually needed coaches and it was my time to step up and do what I always thought I'd do, I found that I was actually pretty nervous and reluctant. What do I actually know about coaching a team sport like this?

Our first game, when I didn't know any of the kids except my own; when I had the challenge of making sure they all got equal playing time, rotated around the field to try different positions (and not knowing the kids, I had no idea of what areas they might be better at than others anyway), and had fun; when I was trying to show the parents, who were probably already frustrated by the delay of the start of the season, that this was going to be worth their time and money; we lost, and pretty solidly. I could see that some of the kids had definite skills, that a lot of them had played soccer before, and that at this age, hardly any of them really get any of the intricacies of the game (or even most of the rules, hahaha). And I'll admit I was pretty scared that I was going to have to be the one to teach them.

 

I googled away, found drills and games to play to work on certain skills and we practiced together, getting to know each other better. I quickly learned that my star player was not only a confident, somewhat aggressive player, but could also be guided to be a kind teammate. I discovered that some of these kids were great ball handlers, some natural defenders, and most of them so excited to play the game. I figured out which ones love to play goalie, who was going to need constant redirection, and that every single one of them would be disappointed when it is their turn to sit out a quarter.

 

With a couple weeks of almost solid rain, we had a slow start to the season, but we've finally had a few games now and I'm feeling like we are a team, and really enjoying the coaching.  I'm having fun working with them and figuring out what skill we should focus on each week and trying to explain to them how this will help them in their next game. Even strategizing how to set up my players each quarter has become more fun now that I know their strengths and can actually make a plan that helps us look like a team out there. 

We went from losing our first game, getting a tie, and now have three wins in a row. This last week, I'd decided that we really needed to work on passing because they were looking less like a team and more like a bunch of kids trying to all be the one who scores the goal (but only two of my players were doing all the scoring). My proud coach moment came in the first minute of the game when three of my players passed the ball back and forth and moved it all the way down the field. It looked like actual soccer out there! And then, later, my shooting star who has scored 75% of our goals, fed a beautiful pass to one of our more timid players right in front of the goal and he was able to tap it right in, which was his first goal, at least of the season, possibly ever. 4 different kids scored our 5 goals Saturday, which is twice as many kids as we've had score in one game before. And because it takes some team work, as well as improved skill, to make this happen, I feel like I've actually been able to teach these kids something about soccer and being a good teammate, and that's what I really wanted.