Tommy's Soccer Season Fall of 2017

Andrew decided to coach Tommy's soccer team for the fall season this year.  We put him on a team with a couple of his friends.  We also had a bunch of the same kids from the last soccer team and the baseball team.  However, we had a few, what we shall call, special cases on our team.  I thought Andrew was going to lose his mind about 676 different times throughout the season, but just when it came to 3 kids.

 However, the rest of the team were great kids and really decent players.  Tommy had an AWESOME time playing with his friends.  He actually looked forward to all the games and practices for the most part.

 He loves playing defense.  That is his favorite.

 He also didn't mind playing offense and goalie too.  He's a big fan of soccer and I love that he's really getting into it!

 Some candid photos from the ride home after the game. Haha! Poor Grandma got stuck in the 3rd row with a horsey and a Charlotte. :)

 Tommy had to play along too. :)

 After the last game, the sponsors, who were one of the players grandparents, threw a big end of season party with a giant bounce house.  Do you see the size of that thing??

 It's massive!! The kids LOVED it.

And terrifying! 

They may not have been the most well-behaved team but they certainly were the cutest! ;-) It was a fun season with lots of "hugs" and drop kicking the ball for no reason.  Goooo Pirates!

Soccer Spring 17

Tommy's best friend Bode has been on the same soccer team for awhile now and we got the chance to join it too. 

This was a great team to be on.  They had two moms as coaches and they have it down pat.  They taught the kids offense and defense. 

 Look at how they #momsohard. :) Carrying her own young child while high fiving Tommy after a good shot.  So impressive!

 Tommy learned a lot this year too.  I think most of it is maturity and just understanding the game a little better.  Plus having a best friend on the team is a great influence!

During a practice, they were playing Sharks and Minnows.  Look at how Tommy is strategizing with his shark teammates.  :-) They did awesome, of course.

 He LOVES being on defense.  I think he would request it every time if he could.  :)

 They celebrated their last game before our second to last game was officially rescheduled.  He got his medal that said "Teal Tigers" on the back.  So cute.

He got a pic with his bestie. :)

They also got a team picture too.  Well it's most of the team anyway.

 But then their game was rescheduled for a Tuesday night.  So this was officially their last game.  I had to include this picture because it looks like there's a UFO in the sky.  Creepy!

 The sun setting made for some interesting pictures.  I liked this one.  Tommy chasing after a thrown in ball.

Another thing we liked about this team is that it's all kids he will be going to school with in the fall.  This kiddo is going into first grade just like Tommy! It's nice to go into a brand new school knowing so many families now.  Helps me relax... just a tiny bit. :)

 The final huddle.  What a great season.  Tommy learned what the word "aggressive" means.  He learned offense and defense.  He made friends and had a great time.  All in all, it was an awesome season.  Go Teal Tigers!

Edited to Add: I had to include these two pictures...

 I forgot this picture taken by another parent.  It's so cute.

I also had to include the team picture.  How cute is our little hipster?

Another Busy Weekend... Last Soccer Game and B-day Parties!

 We had another busy weekend.  Imagine that! First it was Tommy's last soccer game on a cold COLD morning.

 The kids really did pretty well.  We actually purposefully scored a goal!! Tommy did great when he was goalie.

 He kicked it really well several times to start off.

I didn't get one of the good ones on video.  But this is a classic example of one of our soccer games.  The goalie kicks it off and one of our teammates tries to kick it into the wrong goal.  Haha! At the very beginning of the video, you can hear a set of sports parents yelling at their little girl.  They got a little mean.  It was ridiculous.  It was our first experience of bad sports parents screaming at their kids the entire game.  Since she's 5, she immediately shut down and stopped wanting to play and she was one of our best players.  It was pretty sad.  So parents, please don't yell at your kids.  This is supposed to be fun. 

He blocked all but one goal.  He really did great.  He loves that position.

Charlotte had a great time because the siblings of Tommy's other teammates were giving her candy.  Ha! Sugar rush!

She also found a pair of party favor sunglasses in my car.  They look great on her. They've only been stepped on a few times.

After the game, we handed out treat bags with tiny little trophies, bouncy soccer balls, soccer tattoos, and candy.  The kids loved them. It was definitely a learning season but at least they had a little fun too.

 Right after the party, we ate lunch quickly and headed over to Buccaneer Bay for the first birthday party of the day.  His buddy Noah was in his class last year.  They split the kids into two classes and Noah is in the other preschool class.  But he still wanted Tommy at his party.  How nice! I told Noah's mom that Tommy had a soccer game that morning and that we would be late.  I didn't realize we would be almost 2 hours late.  Whoops. 

But luckily, we still had an hour of party time left! Tommy has never been here before and we live a mile away.  He was a little apprehensive of everything at first.  He tried the little slide first.  Whee!

Then he tried the bigger slide.  He did not realize what he would be getting into.  Water on his head??? NOOOOO!!! Haha! He recovered quicker than I thought he would. 

There was so much stuff to do!

What Tommy and Noah spent the most time doing was trying to climb up the slide.  Luckily, there was hardly anyone there so they could take over the park.  They had so much fun together.  It was so cute. 

Side story: So Noah's mom is young and she was wearing a bikini in the pool.  She, Tommy, and Noah were playing around and Tommy grabbed her bikini top string in the back and untied it. Nothing showed but she had to get out of the pool to fix it.  I was mortified.  I gave him a stern 'talking to' and then went over to her to apologize.  She said, "Well maybe this wasn't the best choice of swimsuit for a kid's pool party."  Haha! She was right about that.

 After we got back from Noah's party, we headed down to Westfield for Max and Reese's Donut birthday party.  How fun is that? They had a donut truck frying up fresh donuts right there at their house.  The sad part is that we missed the donut truck.  Waaahhh waahhh.  We were also an hour and 45 minutes to their party.  Bummer.  But we still had donuts! Yum! Charlotte was a big fan!

 The kids also had fun playing. 

 They played in the bounce house, on the swingset, on the playing field.  They had a great time!

 We stayed pretty late at their house.  I felt bad that we were so late and then we stayed late.  We are the worst guests ever! But we haven't seen the Goldmans in a long time.  We really wanted quality time with them!

 Ashley was so kind to put up with us.  She even  offered to make our kids dinner and put up with our high maintenance requests to search through her cabinets to find something for Tommy to eat.  Almond butter and jelly for the win!

Almond butter sandwich smile!

We took off and headed home after that extremely busy day.  We couldn't do anything else the rest of the weekend because we were so exhausted.  What a fun weekend!

The Newest Stage of Our Lives: Busy Weekends

For awhile, we were busy every weekend with wedding showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and weddings.  The next phase was babies, people having them, showering them, etc.  The next phase we have just recently achieved is the birthday party phase.  We've been attending the birthday parties of our friends kids but now we are constantly being invited to parties of Tommy's friends.

So the newest phase in our lives is birthday parties/sporting events.  I think we'll be in this stage for awhile.  

So what did we do this weekend? Kid stuff.  LOTS of kid stuff.

First event: Tommy's soccer game!

 We thought it was going to be 40 degrees.  We were extremely wrong.  It was 65 by the end of the game.  Tommy had on 3 fleece layers, gloves and a hood (I think we were over-prepared for even 40 degrees).  I had to force him to take them off because he thought he wouldn't be able to play well after he took them off.  He was a ball of sweat.  His hair was WET.  It was disgusting.

He definitely looked like the unibomber with his hood and purple Hawaiian sunglasses.  Poor kid.  He felt much better when we took off his layers.

One quick note, there was a bloody nose during the game. It was nasty.  Blood everyone.  Poor little girl on our team bashed her face into a girl's head on the other team.  Ye-ouch. She didn't freak out until she saw blood all over her hands.  Then when they finally stopped the blood, her mom told her she needed to sit out for the rest of the game.  She almost threw a fit because she wanted to get back in the game.  Tough little lady!

 I think Charlotte looks a little bored. Don't worry, Charlotte.  He only has one game left. :)

Charlotte is in this picture.  She is wearing her baby's blanket on her head in grandpa's lap.  No idea why.  Maybe it was too stinkin' hot! We overdressed her too.   Whoops.

 Then we raced home to eat and change and head out to a birthday party!

 This birthday party had a petting zoo!!

 It was also a Minecraft theme.

 Birthday boy Owen and Tommy enjoyed playing with toys before he opened his actual presents.

 Then Tommy and Logan enjoyed teasing the girls in the playhouse.

 Then the kids would go and check out the animals again.  There were ducks, goats, a prairie dog, a pony, a donkey, rabbits, and a turtle.  It was pretty cool!

 But the swingset probably saw more action.

 Then it was time to open presents.  Tommy got Owen a Minecraft type sword.  I think he liked it.  But then he said it wasn't Minecraft so maybe he didn't.  Ha! Good thing there's such a thing as gift receipts! :)

I loved the candy bar set up.  Each of the Minecraft thingies (I know nothing about Minecraft) had a candy in the cup that represented it.  Cute! Gummy fish for the fish, rolos for gold, pretzels for sticks, it was very pinteresting!

On Sunday, we decided to head to Fair Oaks Farms for their new annual celebration "Cowtober".  They had trick or treating so we dressed up the kids and took them to the farm.

 Charlotte decided she wanted to wear her Aurora dress with her Elsa shirt under it.

 Tommy will not budge on wearing anything other than his Captain America costume.  Doesn't he look giant in this picture????

 Charlotte changed her mind before we got to the dairy and went with Elsa.  She can't 'let it go' either.  Groan. :)

 There were many Captain Americas and Elsas but these two were definitely the cutest.

 Especially those pink wellies she picked out to go with her dress.

 Cowtober was super fun! They had a bounce house and the kids could have stayed all day in that bounce house.  It was a monster with inflatable teeth inside.  Fun!

 After Charlotte fell out of the bounce house (don't worry, she was fine), we convinced them to leave to go on a wagon ride.

The wagon ride was fun! They took us through the new apple orchard and raspberries/blackberries expansion. 
 

 They also took us by the new chicken coop expansion.  Chickens freak me out!!!! They are little scary dinosaurs and I am not a fan.  We pulled up and as soon as the tractor was off you could hear the chickens singing this eerie tune.  It was soooo creepy!  If someone made a horror movie about chickens, I would never sleep again.

They're trying to get me! Piling their bodies up against the gate! AAAHHH!! They're like zombies.  Ok ok, they're not that bad.  They are incredibly fascinating.  Crazy chickens. 

Charlotte's highlight of the weekend was riding a pony.  She had DECIDED.  She was going to ride a pony and she stood there, nearly tapping her foot until Mom made it happen.  Doesn't she look elegant with the sun shining in her hair and her dress and cape in the wind.  :-)

I took a quick video of the pony ride.  Right after he asked if she could sing the song from Frozen (when the video cuts off), she pushed the button on her dress.  Why would she sing it when her dress can do it for her?? HA!

We went on the tour of the dairy.  This part is also fascinating. We saw a couple cows refuse to get off the carousel when they were supposed to.  They were definitely enjoying the ride. 

The kids went on their own cow carousel when we got back from the tour.

Then we watched the 3-D movie.  Charlotte was terrified.  It was actually 4-D I guess? They had water squirting and vibrating chairs.  She was NOT pleased.

We got a family picture for Cowtober.  The kids had a really great time going to the dairy for the first time.  I can't believe this is the first time!

 After the dairy, we went to the real farm.  Grandpa was cutting beans! A lot of this field had drowned out so he wouldn't let me take pictures of the yield monitor. 

 Charlotte was terrified of the combine at first.  But she quickly came around and realized she loved it!

Grandpa even saved two of his Oreos for the kids in case we had time to ride with him! They were so excited.  Charlotte also enjoyed pointing at Grandpa's hand and saying EWWWWWWW like 10 times because his hands were dirty from working on the combine.  Ok we get it Charlotte.  :)

We got a family picture selfie in the combine and it is now one of my all-time favorites.  I can't believe the kids are actually smiling for a picture! Awesome!

We didn't get home until 9 that night and the kids didn't nap that day. Yikes!  It was a SUPER busy weekend.  But it was totally worth it.  We had so much fun!

First extremely busy weekend of many! Here we go into this new stage of life. ;)