Pictures from Soccer, Part 2

And here are some pictures from Ethan's game. As Jen mentioned earlier, it was a hard fought battle. They lost by one goal, but they did awesome. One of the other team's goals likely shouldn't have counted either (offsides foul), but that is just the way it goes. The missed calls usually even out in the end anyway.

This is Coach Jame's son Blake. He is smiling in 99.9% of my pictures of him. I thought this was funny, because he is definitely not smiling.

This is Coach Jame's other son TJ taking a free kick. James just had his third little girl (that's right, five kids) on Wednesday, but he managed to show up for practice on Thursday and the game on Saturday. They even brought the baby to the game!

Here Ethan and the tiny wunderkind from the other team go up for a header. This kid was all over the place and had crazy ball control for a person his age.

Ally marking her man.

It's our custom to give the kids from both teams "five" after the game. I included this photo because it has Ethan in it (with his goal keeper penny halfway on).

But this is my favorite pick from this group of shots.

Pictures from Soccer, Part 1

Here's Will and Noah's coach pumping up the team before the game. Okay, he really doesn't know a thing about soccer, but at least he volunteered. I am helping him and may even offer to take over since he really doesn't want to do it.

Will showing off his offensive moves.

And some defensive moves as well.

Noah started in goal and was bored out of his mind because of the non-action at his end of the field. He even almost let in a goal because he was staring off into space due to all of the inactivity.

Since we were going to be at the fields for hours, we also brought some fun activities to do between games. Jen's Aunt Mary bought these for the boys while she was in China on vacation. They worked awesome, except for tangling up every now and then. There was a pretty constant wind which helped and hurt at the same time.





This is Arthur, AKA Bubba. He is a friend from Ethan's school. His dad plays soccer with me on Sundays as well. Just thought this was a funny picture of him.

Emma started in goal as well. Mike called her to get her attention and I think she thought that she was in trouble or something. Oops. I just wanted her to look toward the camera.


Here's Paige with her new earrings. Don't think she was thrilled that I was taking her picture, but she was a good sport and put up with it.

Soccer, Soccer, and More Soccer

Today we spent a solid 5 hours at the fields. It was 91 out, but felt great. It was partly cloudy and super windy so it didn't even feel hot out. The kids didn't even get exhausted from the heat at all. Will and Noah were the first to play and they won 3-1. Will scored 2 goals. Then we watched Emma's team play. They won 1-0, with Emma scoring the only goal of the game! Then we moved over a couple fields to watch Ethan's game. They played the toughest team on the league today and they did awesome! Although they did not win, they held their own at 3-2. With the stats of the other team, that was an impressive loss! They have a mercy rule half time or 8-0 at any point in the game. They have beaten another team 16-0 at the half!!! So to have only a 1 point spread was quite an accomplishment for Ethan's team. They are officially the 1st place losers to that team!

Noah seems to be feeling better. He tested negative for strep at his last visit. He goes back next month to be tested when he is healthy to see if he is a carrier of strep. After researching, I found that the Z-Pack tends to be resistant to strep, so it could have been that he never got rid of it in the first place.

We have only one more week of school until spring break. It is long overdue! After spring break, we only have 8 more weeks of school so it is really winding down. Or, I suppose, winding up when you consider all of the special events and behavior problems the end of the year brings.

The boys are very excited about the Kids' Choice Awards tonight. We have an orange and green theme going on for our party. (Yes, we find ANY excuse to celebrate!) We are having orange and green cake, orange and green rice crispy treats, orange and green punch, cookies, tacos, etc. Bring on the fun!

Long Winter is Over!

This has been a very long winter for Noah. He has been sick since before Christmas with perhaps one or two healthy weeks here or there. He was diagnosed with strep on March 2nd after being sick for nearly a week. He was put on a Z-pack and completed the five days of medicine. He seemed to be a bit better for a week and then started complaining that his throat hurt and once again looked completely drained. The pollen here is awful so most of us have itchy, sore throats and he did not have a fever anymore so it was hard to tell what could be causing it. I took him back to the doctor on Friday, and sure enough the strep was either back or never went away. He is now on Omnicef. It is doing a number on his stomach and I think he may be feeling worse from the medicine than he did from the strep! Not to mention, it smells so awful I can't imagine swallowing it myself. He has done a good job and drinks it down without putting up a fight. Luckily, he only has to take it once a day! He goes back to the doctor on Friday to be sure that this medicine is working. The doctor was fairly confident that it would, but if not, he will have to have his tonsils taken out. This morning he told me that he may rather have his tonsils taken out than take that yucky medicine for 7 more days.

We have been trying to take it easy this weekend for Noah's sake. It wasn't hard for me to do since I'm not feeling well either. Friday was Melissa's birthday so we celebrated with her. After taking a nap, a true sign of our age (although I am younger), we woke up at midnight so Melissa could go buy her copy of Twilight. Yesterday we spent the day relaxing at home and did the same today. Hopefully all of the rest will help Noah. He is worried about going to school tomorrow because of his upset stomach and his throat is still hurting a bit. He has been eating and drinking all along. He has a high tolerance for pain, much like his dad, so it is hard to figure out just how bad he is feeling. The big giveaway is his lack of energy. He is usually the energetic, loud, and wild one. Lately, he has been a complete couch potato. Hopefully he will be better this week. Although still funny, his spunk is missing.

Ethan's team won their soccer game again this week. I stayed home with Noah, but it sure sounded like an exciting game. They won in the last 40 seconds of the game after the other team tied it up in the last minute. Will and Noah have their first soccer game this coming Saturday. Thankfully, Ethan's game is at home so we won't have to travel all over Central Florida that day going to soccer games. We can just pitch a tent at our own fields!

Another Beach Day!

It was another day for the beach! It was even more crowded than last week though. Why do college kids have to crowd the beach when the weather is perfect??? Ugh... Although it looks like all fun and no work around here, I'm getting ready to buckle down and do some serious school work in a bit!

Ethan made a sea turtle in the sand.
Here the kids try to cool off without actually getting into the frigid water. You can tell we are not tourists. We were the only ones not swimming.

It is time to tell everyone. Will is addicted to jump roping. We try to hide them, but he finds one no matter where we go. He has self taught himself some cool tricks during his hours and hours of jump rope time.

St. Patrick's Day Party

Since St. Patrick's Day is on a weeknight, we had to celebrate early this year. We headed to Orlando this morning for Ethan's soccer game. They had another win! After spending a couple hours in Orlando after the game we headed home to pArTy!

Here the boys reenact St. Patrick throwing all the snakes in the ocean.

The kids made some St. Patrick's Day crafts. They are showing them off to me as I write this and they are so stinkin' cute!

And dinner, which included green apples, grapes, cucumbers, green waffles, green eggs, broccoli, ham (mixed St. Patrick's Day with Dr. Seuss Day), green party punch, and peas. The green dessert is still to come!

Yummy!

Warmer Days

This weekend's weather was perfect! We stayed outside nearly the entire time. Ethan had a soccer game on Saturday morning. His team won 8-0. It was a much needed win as they lost their first game of the season. After his soccer game, we had lunch at Mi Mexico and then hung out on the beach for a bit. We came home, picked up the dogs, and headed over to the Eagney's. Chris and Ethan helped Mike and Melissa do some yard work and I brought my laptop over and got some work done for school.

Today we went to the beach for a couple hours. It was actually fairly crowded. There are a lot of tourists here right now. The beach was huge though so we had gobs of space. It is nothing like Ocean City crowded! After the beach I went for a nice, long bike ride. Chris got the boys ready for his soccer game and they headed out when I got home. They brought their Ripstick, skateboard, and Power Wing with them. With all the outdoor time they had this weekend, they fell asleep right at 8:00 even though it should have felt more like 7:00.

Will, Noah, and Paige brave the cold water to test out the waves.
Will decided to feed the seagulls which he knows makes me crazy! I do NOT like birds flying around my head. He got a big kick out of it.

Emma and Noah chat and share a snack.

Ethan stuck with Chris most of time and kicked the ball around.

Noah

Well, I was home again with Noah today. He has had an on again, off again fever since last Monday. This weekend he just kept complaining about how tired he was. Yesterday he said his throat hurt a little so I called this morning for an appointment. His strep test came back positive so at least we know why he hasn't been feeling well! Poor guy.