So…Colleen’s not playing soccer this season, Christopher always hangs back and plays defense (even when he’s a striker), Megan hasn’t come anywhere close to scoring…and I WANT ICE CREAM!!! We only go out for ice cream when someone scores…things were looking bleak. A few games ago we were up something like 10 – 0, so in the 4th quarter I told Megan that any time her team got the ball that she should run straight to the goal and wait for someone to pass to her. So she started doing that – except she would run and turnaround and stand right on the goal line (like she was a goal keeper). The game is winding down and a boy on her team has the ball so she runs to the goal line. All the parents are yelling for him to pass it…but of course he tries to shoot. She ends up blocking it from going in the net (oops) and then she tries to turnaround so she can kick it in…but instead she falls…and as she falls down her knee bumps the ball and it rolls in super slow motion across the goal line. Our sideline goes crazy and she came running over and was excited that she scored with her knee 🙂 Her first goal – sweet – ice cream for all of us!
The next day Christopher is playing in a game. He is completely not interested in the game and not paying attention. In the 3rd quarter he is goalie. I go down to that end of the field because I know he’s not going to be paying attention…and the rest of his team is playing really well so I don’t want him to let an easy goal get by him. Outside of the penalty box there is a hand ball so Christopher’s team makes a wall and a kid on the other team gets ready to kick it. I notice that Christopher is watching a lady walk her dog near the side of the field so I yell at him to get ready. He glances at the ball and then immediately starts watching the dog again. So I yell at him again to pay attention to the ball. Again, he glances at the ball but then starts watching the dog. The kid kicks the ball, it is a really good kick, it goes over our wall of players and is heading straight towards the goal…Christopher is looking sideways with his hands at his side…the ball hits him right in the stomach and bounces away – he saved the goal! It was crazy, funny, crazy, sad all at once. His team is excited but then he doubles over and starts crying because it both surprised him and I’m sure it hurt. But his team was really good about it – they all started giving him high 5’s and he was ok in a minute or so. Afterwards I had him tell me what he learned – here it is…”if you don’t pay attention you might just get hurt” 🙂
This past weekend was Megan’s last game. She only scored one goal all season and odds weren’t good that she would score again. At some point in the game she is center striker and it’s her job to do the kick off. She runs at the ball and kicks it harder than she’s ever kicked it. It goes past the other team’s strikers and then rolls through the defenders who go after it…and then…to everyone’s surprise…it goes in the net…yah, ice cream for the Thompson’s again!!! She couldn’t wait to tell me that this was her first goal with her foot (not her knee).
This past Saturday was…swim lessons, fun run, kung fu, fire fighter open house, and soccer…wheeeee! The fire fighter open house took up most of the day for me while Beth drove all over town with the kids.
There’s a dog rotating through Megan’s classroom that you get to bring home and then are supposed to take pictures with it (kind of like Flat Stanley but not quite as flat). Here’s Megan with that dog at the fire fighter open house…this is my favorite part of the open house each year – torching the cars. My favorite part of this picture is how the helium balloon is somehow strong enough to raise Megan’s arm up 🙂
Last week the kids got to go to school dressed like their favorite character in a book. Christopher went as Harry Potter of course. Colleen went as Annabeth from the Percy Jackson books, and Megan went as whatever leftover costume we had in the house. She was supposed to be Peter Pan but people thought she was an elf of some sort and she didn’t bother to correct them. I still can’t believe that Beth bought a Yankees hat for Colleen’s costume (boooooooo).
I finally spent my birthday check and went to see the new Twins stadium (thanks!). It was a beautiful, sunny day. I went with one of Christopher’s friends (JT) and his dad. The Twins were down to their last out and were losing by a run or two. 2 outs, full count…and they pulled it off and won – what a great way to end it! Between Christopher and JT they sampled just about everything in the ballpark – wow, so much better than the dumpy inflatable toilet that they used to play in. Our seats were 16 rows up on the 3rd base line…here we are touring the stadium.
It’s that time of the year when I rake up all of the leaves and dump them in a big pile at the bottom of our hill so the kids can run down the hill at full speed and dive into the pile. I liked this picture…Colleen and Megan were picking cherry tomatoes from the garden and decided to sit in the leaf pile and were 100% focused on eating their entire day’s harvest 🙂
Ok…it’s getting late and the Vikings are driving me nuts…gotta finish this up. Hope the surgery goes great tomorrow Mom!!!