Soccer

Jeter wanted to try playing soccer this spring, so we signed him up.  We thought it would be a good fit, cuz he would get to run a ton, but still get to play with a ball.  He was super excited!  Well, I took him to his first practice and he wouldn't play.  He stood by my side the entire practice, like a little scared puppy.  Then when they had a game, he wouldn't play.  He wouldn't even go on the field.   We threatened him with not playing with his friends, not watching tv or playing wii, and we bribed him with bey blades, and ice cream. Nothing work. He didn't care about any of it.  He said he didn't want people watching him.  

Sweet. 

Had was embarassed and Jete wanted to go sit in the car, so we all left after like the first quarter.  He basically acted the same the next week.  Then all the sudden he decided he was gonna play, and he made two goals in his first game that he played in.  He loved it.  He never acted afraid of people watching him the rest of the season. 

Going to his games at 1:00 in the afternoon when it's 90 degrees outside and sitting there watching him was hot enough.  I can't imagine running around in it full speed like Jete was.  His face would always be bright red after his games.  Random people would say to us, "Get that boy some water!" or "Man, he must have played hard."

He did play hard. 

 He always kept score in his head, even though they don't keep score at this age.  He would run past us on the sidelines and keep us informed what the score was every time someone made a goal.  He loved making goals.  He went through a little stretch where he was more concerned with blocking goals than making goals.  Every time the other team got the ball, he would sprint down to the other end of the field so he could block them.  Then after the game he would come and say "Mom, did you see me? I blocked 3 goals!"  Here he is sprinting down so he can block a goal.

Jerzi was there for all of Jete's games.  She only threw a few tantrums during the whole season, which is pretty good for her. This particular day happened to be one of them.  I knew it was gonna be bad from the start because she had already thrown a fit before we got to the game because she wanted to wear one of Jete's sweatshirts.  I finally gave in.  And of course, she threw a fit at the game, probably because she was so hot.  She started yelling, screaming, and hitting me, so I hurried and grabbed her and hauled her off away from everybody, or so I thought.  I was not happy with her at all.  I finally got her to quit screaming at least, and I'm trying to refrain myself from spanking her, when all the sudden this old guy walks up and says, "Holy cow, she is the prettiest little girl.  She's just beautiful.  How precious!"

Precious? 

Those were not anywhere close to my thoughts at that moment, but it made me stop and think.

She is precious, and even though I can't hardly take her sometimes, she is still precious, and I need to remember that. 

Here's Jete's soccer team, minus 4 players.

From left to right: Christian, Natalie, Jete, Coach Andy, Kelly, Christian, Reese, and Obi

Not pictured: Leland, Christian, Gabby, and someone else I can't remember

Their practices were pretty entertaing also.  Their coach had them stretch out, do high knees, butt kicks, and wind sprints at the first of every practice.  They are 4 years old mind you.  And yet, they never scrimmaged once. But they still liked their practices, so that's all that matters... I guess.  At their end of the season party at Chuck E Cheese, his coach gave him the award of being the Best All Around Player.  Jete's favorite part of the whole season was when he scored 3 goals in his last game. 

We love watching him play sports!

It's Racing Day, It's Racing Day!

It's not doily lacing day.  

Today's the day we race!

(From one of our favorite Backyardigan episodes of all time. You better go look it up.) 

We had our stake family fun run last month.  You could run either a 5k or 1 mile.  I was planning on doing the 5k to take me back to the good ol' high school and college days, but Had wasn't able to come cuz he had to work.  Which meant I had to bring both kids.  So that meant the 5k for me was a no-go.  We told Jeter about the race, and he got super excited and wanted to race the 1 mile.  We told him it was a really long race, with big people too, not just kids.  He said, "Oh, so you mean I'm gonna beat big people too?" 

Thats our kid! 

So early Saturday morning, I had to pull both kids out of bed, throw some clothes on them, and dash off to the stake center, without breakfast or anything.  Jerz was all happy and excited.  Jete on the other hand, wouldn't talk, and tried to sleep on the way to the church.  He didn't want to wake up and it was still chilly in the morning, so he was cold, and tired.  We got there and all he could do was yawn.

This pic is taken right before the race started.  We were getting in line to start.  I asked Jete if he was ready to race, and all I got was this look.  HAHA  He still hadn't talked yet.

I'm ashamed to say, he is a little mini replica of me.  I hate talking in the morning too.

The gun fired, and we all took off.  Jete got a good little start.  There were only about 10 people in front of him 100 meters into it.

Once we got started, Jerzi girl also wanted to run, so I got her out of the stroller and let her run too.  I thought Jete would slow down with us, but instead, he didn't say a word and just took off ahead of us, by himself.   

This picture was taken shortly after Jerzi got out of the stroller.  After awhile, he got so far ahead of us that we couldn't see him anymore.  Look how little he is, doing so good! 

I finally made Jerzi get back in the stroller cuz I didn't want to miss Jete getting to the finish line.   I literally had to sprint almost the rest of the race to catch him.  We caught him just in time, on the last final stretch before the finish.  He even finished with a sprint! 

Oh man, I am so proud of my little munchkin!  He is only 4 years old and he just ran 1 mile, without stopping once!

(I'm super mad at myself for not timing him.  They didn't give out times, places, or medals.  So all I know is that there were only about ten people that beat him, give or take a few, and that his time was somewhere between 8-10 minutes.)

Our post-race breakfast.... 

Chocolate Pop Tarts!

This is what they wanted right after the race.  Mmm Mmmm.

Jeter told me after the race, "Mom, you can wake me up any day if I get to run in a race like that." 

I can't even tell you how proud of him I was that day, and how old he seemed.  Watching him that day, you would have guessed he's ran in a million races, and that he's been coached.  He is a natural at one of the sports I love so much. Here's to hoping I get to watch him race a lot more!

They had a fire truck, carnival games, face painting, balloon animals, and bounce houses set up there after the races.  It was a such a fun family day!  We were sad that Had couldn't be there with us.

Picnic Excursions

I don't know what it is about a picnic, but it makes it a little more exciting to eat your food if you're having a picnic.  At least that's what I think.  When I was little, I think we had a picnic for lunch with the neighbor kids about 3/4 of the summer.  So naturally, I still want to have them as an adult.  :) 

Luckily, my family loves them too!

We love to picnic with friends!

And having a picnic in a fort is awesome!

 (That is, if you're little... not so much if you're bigger and have to scrunch down.)

We like to get on our bikes and go find new picnic spots too.

This time we ended up at some baseball fields.

So after lunch we got to play a little imaginary baseball,

 one of my all time favorite games as a kid.

Now we're gonna have to start getting a little more creative, cuz picnic weather is just about gone.  It's getting way too hot for me to handle being outside for longer than 3 minutes.