Weekend of Sports

Pre race jitters

 Elias had his 3rd Cross Country meet on Friday.  We've decided that CC is so much nicer to watch than football.  The races last less than 20 minutes and when your child is done racing you can take him home.  Caleb noticed that in general the parents of runners are much thinner than the parents of football players.  Guess we don't fit that requirement but Elias is still thin.  His time at the second meet was better than this one so we won't talk about that (other than to say that his coach had him run 6.5 miles the day before...ummm that's not how you prepare the day before a 2 mile race...hello).

 This was at the beginning of the race when he still had steam.

 Almost done... now he looks winded.

Silas had his first soccer game on Saturday. His team only had one 20 minute practice the Wednesday before so they were not very prepared.  The ages for his team are 3 to 5 so he's the oldest on the team.  Sadly, this is his first time ever in an organized sport. I know GASP!  Last year was a rough year for me which put most extracurricular activities on hold.  Well it didn't matter that it was his first season cuz he rocked it.  The kids all get equal time on the field so when he was out the other team scored like crazy on us.  When he was in he scored like crazy on them.  There are a lot of cry babies on his team which drove him crazy.  Parents were literally shoving crying little kids out to the field so they could stand in one spot and not move.  When Silas came out and was watching the other kids have their turn he said to me. "Why are my teammates just standing there? They're not even trying to get the ball." Even a 5 year old noticed.

 Pregame picture.

Silas throwing the ball in from the sidelines.

Sweaty boy at halftime. It was 90 degrees at 10am.

Pep talk...love the little girl in pink shorts.

Coach's wife spraying the kids down to cool off.

September

Elias got braces...I took a photo with my phone and magically deleted it somehow.  He only has bracket on the uppers for now.  They will be adding the lower ones later. He chose alternating blue colors to show school spirit...GO EAGLES! Elias was originally going to play football this fall but joined the Cross Country team instead.  He's never been a runner so this was a shock for all of us.  He's stuck with it though and showing great improvement.  He ran a 7m30s mile the other day for his personal best.  Caleb had me buy a stop watch so he can challenge to a mile race on Sat. morning.  We'll see how that goes.  Elias tried out for Off Season Basketball and made the team as well.  This was a REAL shock to us but we couldn't be any prouder of him.  He seems to have adjusted really well to Junior High.

Isaac started and quit a YMCA soccer league last week. We signed him up for the 8/9 yr old team.  His first practice was last Wednesday where he was the only older boy and had little teeny girls as young as 5 on his team.  Ummm that's not safe and for sure not ok.  As we walked on the field he got a look of his team.  Sharing the field was a tackle football team with boys about his age.  Yeah, pretty sure playing pansy soccer with the fru fru girls while watching an intense football practice wasn't going to work out.  It's too late to join the football team but he wanted off that soccer team whether or not he had any other sport for a replacement.  I don't blame him.  He's doing awesome in school again this year and has amazing teachers.

Silas began Kindergarten and we all had our fingers crossed that it would work out.  The first 2 days he wasn't buying into the structure and rules but by day 3 he decided he loved it.  He's done really well adjusting to his new life and complains every Saturday when there's no school.  I got a voicemail on Friday from his teacher letting us know how great he's been YAY! Then I got a note yesterday that he "spanked" another boy who'd been naughty to him. He's just a living example that for every action there is an equal or greater reaction.  Maybe Jake won't dump Silas' chips out next time.

Jude's 1st day of preschool.

Blowing out his candles.

Feeling pretty awesome with his weedwacker toy.

Ready for his surgery.

Jude turned 3 and was pretty excited about his Birthday.  I had planned on making his dessert for our Sunday celebration of his Birthday.  At about 8:30 Saturday he told me he needed a race car cake....ut oh...He was expecting a character cake of some kind.  Oops.  Caleb and I put Elias in charge and ran to Kroger and bought a sweet dragon cake that met his needs. While he were singing to him we had to keep lighting his candles.  Guess he didn't know that you're supposed to wait til the end of the song.  Yesterday was finally his inguinal hernia repair surgery.  Luckily we got bumped to the 1st case of the day so we didn't have to keep him fasting for long.  They gave him some medicine that made him tired and amnesic so he wouldn't remember being wheeled away from me.  He was like a wasted, drunk 3 year old. He was hilarious. The best thing he did was hold his hands right in front of his face and turn them back and forth and asked me with very slurred speech, "Mom, why are there no toys in my hands?".  They went in to repair his hernia and explore the opposite side to be sure it looked healthy... Sure enough they found a second hernia as well.  So grateful we waited for a Pediatric Surgeon!  The one we were seeing in Idaho wasn't going to check the opposite side.  He's recovering very well.  He's refusing all pain meds today and is happy and getting around.

Taking Jude on a "choo choo ride". Good thing he won't remember what they were really taking him for.

Snuggling Dad in the recovery room.  He was SO agitated waking up from the anesthesia.  He was angry, screaming and thrashing around for 20 minutes.

I just got back from my weekend in NYC with my bestie Kris and had an amazing time.  We were so proud of ourselves for being in charge of all our own travel without an agency and getting around like pros.  Kris wrote a great post with all her sweet pictures so I'll put the link to her post here for you to check out our trip. http://herewecomevietnam.blogspot.com/2010/09/260-breaking-it-down.html