Soccer Wrap Up

Today was the last game of the season for the mighty Thunder. They played a great game against a team that had easily beaten them earlier in the season. The game was scoreless until near the end, when the Geo team scored three unanswered points.



Caroline and I took Mikey for the start of the game and Papa brought along Evan during half time. Mikey was on the field ready for the game to start when he noticed everyone was there. He got a laugh from the parents when he yelled "My whole family is here!!"



Evan was in shorts, which was fine at first, but it suddenly got windy and Evan got very snuggly! Right as the game ended, it started to rain. And then it started pouring. Caroline and I were making a tunnel with the other parents and when we finished that I turned back to Papa and Evan to find the little guy holding tight to Caroline's chair and crying his little eyes out because the rain was scaring him! Everyone was heading to the concession stand because it was covered, so I yelled for Caroline to follow number 8 (that would be Mikey) and I scooped up Evan.



At first I tried to get E to let go of the chair, but he was hanging on for dear life, so I was running along laughing at the absurdity of it all. We finanlly made it to the concession stand. Some of the kids, including C, had cut across a field that had a game still going on, but the ball was fortunately out of bounds at the time. When I tried to put Evan down, I found out he was not only clutching the chair, but still holding half a hot dog! No downpour is going to get between that boy and his lunch.



Got to the covered area just in time for the rain to let up. Evan was shivering like crazy, so Papa took him on home while C and I stayed for The Official Post Game Ceremony: kids got medals on ribbons, Coach got a plaque. Then we had pizza. Except for that one kid in the bunch who doesn't like pizza.



I got him a hot dog.



Mikey didn't play much of the game, but was a forward when he was in. He's definitely improved a ton since the beginning of the season. He still looks like he's trying to play the part of a soccer player more than he's really going for the ball. It's tough for a lot of the kids this age to be aggressive. The few kids that are aggressive really control the game.



I enjoyed the soccer season. Lots of 10:30 games, so it wasn't horribly hot and we didn't have to be dressed and out the door at 8:20. I won't miss driving down to the border for the games, though. That road through the industrial park is bumpier than many dirt roads. The bull poking his nose through the fence at the first practice was pretty charming, though.



Now Mikey can get back to Tai Kwon Do 3 days a week and take his yellow belt test in a couple weeks. I still feel bad that I didn't let him take the test in October, but I had this silly idea that he actually had to be able to do all of form 1, like they said. They passed everyone who took the test, even the kids who couldn't make it to step 8 (out of 20) without 3 mistakes. Stupid grade inflation. I've read that TKD is more about making money ($30 per belt test) than the art. Maybe, but I think they just really believe in praising and encouraging the kids. For real accomplishment or just showing up. Not something I like, but overall, the class is really good for him



All the parents know him as the kid who asks questions or interrupts to ask to get water. They all think he's soooo cute. We keep talking about not interrupting and he's getting better. He did 2 full classes on Thursday because he wants make sure he knows all of form 1. Can I just say I love that he want to do it right even though he knows he doesn't have to? Awesome.