State Cup

Well at least this time I'm not writing about Lauren's high school soccer, this one is about her club soccer! There's been nothing to report on this spring since they don't play in a league and the one tournament they played in last month Lauren didn't play due to an injury.  So, this was her one and only game of the season and it just so happened to be state cup.  The winner of this game advances to regionals which are played this summer.  Last year Lauren's team won to make them the #1 team in Delaware.  Yesterday they had to play to determine who this years winner would be.  But first, before I tell you the outcome, here's a few pics of her playing.  She played in defense the entire time and did a really good job at it.

She did almost all the goal kicks. 

 Making a wall due to a penalty shot the other team was kicking.  Lauren is the one on the right.

Doing a header.  She did a couple of these yesterday, one of which she stumbled around afterwards because it hit the top of her head. 

 Doing a great job at defense.  She's fast so that's why her coach put her in that position, to be able to outrun the opposing teams forwards.

 Not sure who kicked the ball in this one.  I just liked how they were all bunched together.

 Dribbling the ball up the field with not a soul around her.  I love these kind of picture moments.

The other team scored first and then Lauren's team scored to even it up at 1-1.  The other team scored again and had a penalty shot that they scored on too to make it 3-1.  Lauren's team scored again to make it 3-2 but couldn't pull off another goal in time so unfortunately they are not the state champs this year.  As a consolation prize they are 2nd in the state.  :)   (Not sure either position is much of an accomplishment because only 2 teams compete in the entire state!)

That might have been her last game of club soccer ever since I don't think she's going to try out for the team next year.  She's tired of it and wants to use her time in other ways during her senior year.  We'll see, she could change her mind yet.  Either way would be fine by me.

Introducing... Jordan Ethan

Jordan was born a little after 8:00 pm this past Tuesday, April 24th.  He was 6 lbs 7 1/2 oz. at birth.  Ilene and Jordan came home on Friday but we couldn't get there to see them until Saturday.  As soon as Zach's t-ball was over Zach, Megan and I went up to see them.  Lauren and Kristin couldn't wait and were already there.  Here he is with Megan:

 And a little closer up picture of him.  Doesn't he have the cutest little face?

 Here's Lauren holding him.  You can see his dark hair in this one. 

 Kristin was holding him when I first got there and apparently she had been holding him for awhile. 

 One more picture, I just liked how the light was coming in from the window. 

He was passed around to everyone (except Zach) and he was being so good.  Of course all babies get tired of that and eventually he started crying so Ilene took him.  Can't wait to see him again and it'll be fun watching him grow up.

T-ball

When we left to go to Zach's game it was 42 degrees out so it was a very cold day for t-ball.  I put an old under armor shirt of Lauren's on him to try to keep a little warmer.  I think it worked except that his hands were freezing.

When the coaches tell Zach to get ready for a ball (they want him to bend his knees) he bends them like this:

It doesn't look too bad in this picture but sometimes it looks like he's doing a split!

For the first time ever instead of using the tee the coach pitched to them.  There are 3 innings and for the first inning everyone used the tee.  It wasn't until the second inning that they began pitching to the kids.  They would pitch 4 or 5 times and if the kid didn't hit it then he/she would go back to using the tee.  Here's Zach's first attempt:

He actually hit it! 

Here's Zach's attempt in the 3rd inning:

I think the bat might have been too heavy for him.  It looked like he was struggling to hold it right.  Once he used the tee he hit it with no problem.  I guess they'll keep pitching this way until the end of the season now.  It was neat to watch but it took a lot of time and I was beginning to think that it was the never ending t-ball game!  Good thing they only play 3 innings.

Field Trip to Winterthur

Zach's kindergarten class went to Winterthur Museum today and I took off from work to help chaperone.  I've gone on plenty of field trips before but this one was interesting because for the first time ever I had 5 boys in my group.  Boys are much different than girls!  None of them wanted to look where our guide wanted them to look so I had to constantly redirect them.  That was a very long 1 1/2 hour tour!  Plus boys (at least the ones in my group) didn't really care how food used to be prepared or what beds used to be made of.  Now they did like the children's room where they were allowed to touch things.  First they went to the pretend store where when Zach couldn't pay for the plate he wanted he had to sweep the floor:

Then they learned how to make butter and even how to mold butter into pretty shapes.  They even used sugar snips to make the sugar smaller.

The last thing they did in the children's room was to have a tea party and I would have loved to have gotten a picture of the 5 boys sitting at the table having "tea" but our guide rushed us through that one.  They ended the tour by listening to a story where each child got to participate by bringing whatever object was in front of them up front when it was mentioned.  Zach's was a "buzz saw," a toy that boys used to play with.  When the story was finished we went back to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the class and then went to the cafe to eat our lunches.  I've got to say that I enjoy the field trips so much more when the kids are a little older.  Right now it's nothing but work!  Even so I'm glad I got to go and spend the morning with my Zach (and 4 other little boys!)  

Soccer Game #7 and T-ball Game #3

Soccer Game #7

Lauren finally had a challenging game on Friday so it was a good game to watch.   She played almost the entire game except for a couple of minutes at the beginning of the second half.  She asked to stay out after halftime so she could catch her breath for a little longer.  Other than that she played mostly forward with a little bit of center mid when the coach shifted players around.   

A player from the other team was hurt so the game stopped for about 2 minutes until she came off (she was fine.)  Lauren took that time to chat to some of the girls near her.  When they were little all the girls would take a knee when someone got hurt, those days are gone!

After the game Lauren said she played terrible but I think she did pretty good.  She didn't score or get any assists though, that would have been nice.

She just did a header in this picture.  She said she got a little dizzy afterwards.  Oh no!

At the half they were winning 2-0 and then scored another 2 goals in the second half to make the final 4-0.  They have a lot more challenging games coming up.  They got all their easy games out of the way early.

Mets team picture
After Lauren's game I went with Zach and Paul to watch them get their team picture taken.  I only did that so I could snap a picture of them.  It came out okay.  I'm sure the one I paid for will be better.

T-ball Game #3
There's not much improvement in Zach's fielding.  He doesn't pay attention to the ball and usually plays in the dirt.  He says it's boring out there!

He does like to fight other kids to the ball though.  The other kid got this and Zach was trying to take it away from him. 

He also pulled his hat down so he couldn't see anything!

For as unattentive as he is in the field he does do a good job when he's at bat.  Except for in this picture, he swung and missed.

He hit it on his next attempt and ran to first base. 

Kristin and Lauren came to watch their brother play.  Lauren had already left before I took this.  Since Kristin has rarely been on my blog lately I thought I'd include it.

And that's the end of the sports for now.  We're not even halfway through the season yet so there will be lots more pictures to come!

T-ball game #2

Zach's team played the Braves tonight.  Here's a few pics from the game.

Paul was helping Zach with his glove, not sure what was wrong with it.

I wish he was as interested in the game as he was the dirt!

He was just too cute standing there, I had to take his picture!



Zach batted last tonight which is an automatic home run.  Since there's 3 innings he got 3 home runs tonight.  Way to go Zach!  Here's the first of his home runs and it's very comical since he passes one of his own players. 

Soccer Game #6

Lauren had her first night game tonight and what an exciting game it was!  Lauren has her old position back, forward, so I couldn't wait to see her score a goal.  She didn't disappoint either and scored the second goal of the night.  I had my camera ready and captured the moment.  Ready for it?  Here you go!

Awesome isn't it! (In case you don't get the sarcasm, I'm just kidding.) The girl behind the blue #5 girl is Lauren and the ball does end up in the net.  It's a crappy picture though.

She had a couple of assists too with one of them being caught on camera.  At least you can see her in this picture (she's the one in white in case you don't know).  She crossed the ball in front of the net and one of her teammates kicked it in.

That's about it for pictures since Lauren's team scored 9 goals within minutes of starting so then they just played keep away the rest of the game.  I said this was an exciting game at the beginning of this post, once again, just kidding.  This was absolutely the most BORING game I've ever watched.  I'm glad she scored though!

Little League Opening Day and 1st Game

The teams paraded onto the field in the morning as part of their opening day ceremony.   Zach's part of the "Mets" t-ball team, here they are waiting before the parade.  Zach's in the middle row on the left.

Waiting in the outfield for their team to be announced:

Zach's #10, the only one not facing forward.  That's Paul to the left of him.

Later that day Zach had his first game, it was against the Giants.  Here he is at his first time up to bat:

And after he ran to first base:

It looks like Zach is getting ready to catch the ball but he's not.  It had already rolled past him!

He's wearing a helmet because he was in the pitcher's position.  I can't say he was the pitcher because the kids hit off a tee.

This was either his second or third time up to bat.  (There's only 3 innings.)  I love the look on his face!

Another picture of him attempting to catch the ball.

It looked like he was really into it right?  Well he was but he also had moments like this one where he would just lay on the grass (and this was while the game was going on!):

Or this where he would draw and play in the dirt.

I thought the game was over but they ended up playing a 4th inning because there was time left.  So here's my little man right before it's his turn to bat.

Now only 15 more games to go!

Zach's 1st Scrimmage Game

His team looked so cute dressed up in their uniforms!  I'll start this with pictures and end this with some video I took.  Here's my little man warming up before the game.

This was as he was running from 3rd base to home.

The second time his team took the field he played 1st base (he was left outfield the first time.)  Paul helped him put his helmet on.

My cute little first baseman checking to see if his mommy was watching him!

His first time up to bat.  Paul was putting the ball on the tee for them.

This is him running from 1st to 2nd base after his teammate hit the ball. 

Of course I had to get a little bit of him playing 1st base. 

 It was cute to watch and I'm excited to see his upcoming games.  Opening day is this Saturday!

Longwood Gardens and Lunch with Paul

Kristin had an orthodontist appointment today at 10:00 so afterwards we stopped by Longwood Gardens.  My pass is going to expire soon so I might as well get some more use out of it.  It was a little chilly and windy so we headed straight to the conservatory so we would be inside.  The children's garden is always the first stop. 

We went through the rest of the conservatory and took lots of pictures of pretty flowers (and kids!)

Next stop was the outside children's garden. 

We saw pretty flowers that were in a patchwork design that we checked out.

We then saw the Chimes Tower and the waterfall.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend there since we were going to Paul's work to have lunch with him.  We haven't done that in a long time.

That was what we did on our first day of spring break.  Exciting wasn't it?