Happy dance! (and a giveaway!)

Wooohoooo! The fall soccer season is officially OVER. Whew. 

Recap of the tournament this weekend: Saturday...Noah's first game at 9:30 am (they won 2-0)...Asher's first game at 10:30 am (fortunately on the adjacent field, so we just scooted) (they tied 1-1)...a brief respite as we simply stayed put and snacked on the stuff we'd packed in the cooler...Noah's second game at 12:30 pm (at the same field Asher had been at...a tough one, indeed, against a team that's historically been aggressive and tough, with poor refereeing on top of all that...we lost 1-2, I believe).

After this, we lugged everything back to the car (a lengthy trek for Micah's short legs plus Nathan and I pulling a cooler and a wagon full of chairs, blankets, soccer gear, water bottles and the like) and headed for home, stopping for some more substantial food on the way. Note, we had pretty nice weather...60s and sunny...definitely better than the snow covered fields of the week before, lol. Of course, this also meant we got more sun than we'd thought about, which added to our fatigue after the fact. (Well, it added fatigue for Nathan and me, the boys apparently have endless energy and came home only to go out in the front yard and play more soccer.) Also, Noah's team, because of the rescheduling of the tournament, had no substitute players, which wore them out. So proud of them all for hanging in there. 

Sunday...Asher's first game at 9:30 am (they tied 1-1 and it was hard fought...gusting winds made it difficult all around)...switched sides of the field for Noah's game at 10:30 am (better officiating but very skilled team...we lost 1-2...dang cold wind in our face the whole time)...again hung out rather than heading out and back (given how long it took us to lug all our stuff from the parking lot and that the nearest stuff is at least 15-20 minutes from the soccer complex and that finding a parking spot in the first place wasn't easy) but were too cold to really eat much.

Insert note here. Folks, Nathan and I were huddling under a blanket while laying on the ground behind the cooler and wagon (acting as make-shift wind block) to try to stay warm. We both had on three layers already. Yes. That cold. (Boys, though, seemed impervious to the cold and kept refusing extra layers that I offered and delighting in the fact that the wind kept trying to blow our blanket away.) Marti, I'm totally blaming Wyoming for the wind, LOL!

Anyhow, Asher's last game was at 12:30 pm (they lost 2-5), during which the sun finally started to come out and the wind started to let up and by the end we were actually happy. :) 

We then headed for home by way of a warm meal and drink to celebrate the end of the season. Hooray!!

So. In thanks for reading all that and listening to my soccer woes and stories all fall and because somehow it's already a week into November and I'm starting to panic about all the holiday projects on my list, lol, I'm offering up a little giveaway. I happen to have an extra Becky Higgins Holiday Card kit (from the Creating Keepsakes Kit of the Month last year). You can read more about it here. (Sorry, I didn't take it all out of the box to photograph in more detail so you'll have to rely on the official spiel.) Post here and tell me what time of day you're most often online. I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday night (let's say midnight MST). Yay!

Join me...

...over on the Good Grief message board today for some fun challenges and prizes!! If you need to register yet, be sure to drop me an email at amanda@goodgriefblog.com and tell me what username you registered so I can activate your account. (Unfortunately, even requiring this, I still get scads of spammers trying to register for the board and post their awfulness.)

See you over there! :)

Catching up...

Hi there. For those who don't know, we've been out of town...went to WA for about a week after Nathan's grandpa passed away on the 27th. We got home late Tuesday (11/3) and are still in the catching up mode. I'll update more as I can but wanted to at least point ya'll over to the Good Grief Blog where I've belatedly posted the latest challenge. :) Check it out!

Goooooooaaaaaallllll!

So, yesterday was the last day of the official fall soccer season. To date (in the five seasons of soccer we've now participated in), neither Noah nor Asher has scored a goal, despite valiant efforts and much wishing. :) (Technically, though, Noah did score once, but it was called back on a questionable "off sides" call so he doesn't really count it.) We figured Micah would score the first "real" goal among them (since U5 is just 3 players per side and all...the other two started later when teams were 6 players per side and the fields are bigger), but it wasn't looking like it as the season came to an end. Micah is just happy to be on the field and loves to run and smile, often nowhere in the vicinity of the actual soccer ball. :)

But. Micah's coaches were determined to get him a goal before the end of the season (as all the other boys had already scored at least one goal). I think they wanted it more than he did, lol. So, in the third quarter (having unsuccessfully encouraged him aplenty during the first half), they positioned him about five feet in front of the goal and specifically instructed the other two boys to simply get the ball to Micah.

It was hilarious! They'd kick the ball up there and Micah (being his literal self and having been told to stay right there) would kick the ball but then would not move from that spot. Numerous times the ball came and didn't make it into the goal. Everyone on the sidelines (even the referees) knew Micah's name by that point and were encouraging him. One coach was standing right behind the goal and the other was directing the ball to him. 

And, finally, the ball made it into the goal:

 And life was good:

They did this twice for Micah before resuming the more normal flow of the game and the kid couldn't possibly be happier. :) It was awesome. 

(Unfortunately, both Noah and Asher lost their games yesterday and still haven't scored. Asher was immediately happy for Micah and didn't really let it bother him. Noah took a little longer to come around, lol. Both Noah and Asher, though, got their trophies and had cupcakes yesterday for the season's end, so that helped. Here's hoping the six games at the tournament next weekend provide opportunities for them both, eh?)

Take that, Mother Nature...

So. If you'll remember, the early snow here pretty much wiped out the beautiful fall colors as most trees went directly from summer to dead leaves on the ground. Determined, though, to get at least some fall leaves pictures, the boys, a friend and I went on a walk yesterday afternoon. We walked around our neighborhood, little rake in hand. This was the end result:

Yup, that was one big pile of leaves. And it was one of only two spots along our entire walk where the leaves weren't all crumpled and dry and ugly. :) So there, Mother Nature. Ha. ;)

Off now to our last soccer games of the season (not counting next weekend's tournament, which will be six more games in two days...fun times)...Happy weekend to you all!