Soccer Seeding Tournament

From 9-12:30 today we were living the soccer life.  Our league had us do a seeding tournament for the U6 level this year... I was completely opposed to the idea at first.  A seeding tournament is used to assess the skill level of the kids who are playing... so that the league has a better clue how to match who plays who for the games.  With U6 not being competitive I just saw no purpose in this tournament... we've been fine without it in years past.

But at the end of the day I put my foot in my mouth... this was a really good day and a great experience for the kids.  Here are the reasons I think the seeding tournament was incredibly helpful:
1. It gave the kids a good idea of what it's like to play an actual game.
2. No matter if you keep score or not, kids get discouraged when their team is not scoring goals... and they get even more discouraged when the other team is clobbering them.  The seeding tournament allows for the league to make sure our kids are matched with other kids of the same skill set.  Today our kids were so unmotivated and down on themselves when we played the team of almost 6 year olds... but when we played the team of kids who were our age, they were on top of their game and had a blast- as did the other team.
3. It gives Damien a good idea of what to practice with these kids over the next couple of weeks.  The first game is always a great lesson for the coaches... you can only learn so much about your kids during practice- the games really show what the kids are picking up on and what they're missing.  So now Damien knows what he needs to focus on these next couple of weeks... he also learned which kids work best with each other.

Anyway, that's probably way more information than you care to learn, but oh well.  Deacon did SUCH a good job today... I was so proud of him.  He was so close to scoring a goal multiple times... which is a huge deal for our little defensive player.  The boy just doesn't think "offensively"- he just goes right to the goal to guard it... which, in U6, isn't exactly "legal."

After naptime we decided to go over to Dawn & Cory's house and let the kids play for a bit... it was a really relaxing evening- especially since no one had to cook dinner (thank you Papa Murphy's).

All-in-all, it was a really good Saturday.

I designed this sign!!!  I'm so happy with how it turned out:

This morning was SO cold.  I was dressed like we were on our way to Tahoe in the wintertime... and Zac wasn't much better.  But hey, he looked pretty darn cute!!!

Notice in all these pictures Deacon has that goofy grin on his face.  It honestly never leaves his face when he's on the field.  Just this HUGE smile... I love that.

Go Kings!

I left my heart in San Francisco

Have I mentioned ever lately how much I love SF?  In case you've forgotten, it's one of my most favorite places in the world... it makes me so happy to be in the city.  So when Tanier asked if I wanted to take the day off to take the boys into the city to go to the Science museum I jumped at the chance.  We did a behinds the scenes tour and had our own little tour guide who taught the kids so much cool stuff.  Deacon loved the Albino Alligator, Claude... but then again, who doesn't?  After a morning at the museum we ventured down to Fisherman's Wharf for some ice cream sundaes at Ghirradeli.

Perfection.

This is the look Deacon was giving as Scott (our tour guide) was showing what Claude and the other animals eat for dinner some nights... frozen rats. 

I'm back!

On Sunday night I left Sacramento to fly down to LA for a few days... every August I have training on campus at UCLA- which I really do enjoy because I get to see some of my colleagues and also enjoy the perks of being kid-free 100% of the time for 72 hours.  

One thing I love about working for UCLA is the incredible diversity... not just with our student body, but also our faculty and staff.  Our Chancellor is very committed to AB540 students (which is something Damien and I are also very passionate about supporting) and very committed to keeping out campus full of culture.  Anyway- these things are good for a variety of reasons... but this trip I got to experience a very selfish reason why this is so amazing.  My co-worker/friend, Patricia, invited me over to her house for dinner last night... Patricia and her family are from El Salvador- they immigrated here when Patricia was 11 years old.  Patricia's mom speaks very little English and when we got to her house she gave me the biggest hug and kept right on cooking dinner... it was BLISS.  She made me homemade pupusa's  and they were AMAZING.  What's even more amazing is that she sent me home with 6 to feed my family tonight when I got home... all 3 of the boys loved them- and only saved me one (which is fine since I ate a ton last night).

The boys were happy to see me... they spent the night crawling on me, whining at me, fighting, complaining... you know, the usual.  But they did enjoy their gifts... for a short while... until Deacon had to ask if that was all I brought him.  Ahh, it's so nice to be back to normal.

(Have I ever mentioned how much I love bedtime?)

Happy Birthday little girl!!!

This past Sunday we went to Ashlyn's Princess Tea Party... it was adorable.  Parties like this have both Damien and I sort of kind of maybe wanting a little girl... almost... ok, not really.  But these little Princess parties are seriously adorable.

Daddy D'oh(I'm late again)-nut Day

Geez... I'm so pathetic at getting these things out.  I don't know how Amanda does it.

It was another school-day rush, but we managed to get our fix!

Look, it's a Homer Simpson Donut!!!!

Berry picking @ Apple Hill

Today we went berry picking at Apple Hill.  I've never been berry picking before, so this was super exciting for all of us.  We had the pleasure of going with Mason, Tanier and Sundi (aka Ms. Tanier & Papa).  We all had SO much fun picking and eating a TON of berries.  They were sooooooo sweet and sooooooo good!!!  It was a perfect day for it all too.  After berry picking we had a picnic (with 'juice box wine') and ran around played for a couple hours... and had a lot of rough house time with Papa and daddy too.

Fun in the tub

These boys had so much fun in the tub... despite a few hiccups (Zac does NOT like getting his face wet... and getting your face wet is bound to happen when you're splashing), Zac's laughing is seriously contagious.  Everything within a few feet of the bathtub was absolutely soaked by the end of bathtime tonight.

How Zac says "Paci"

Tanier and I think it might be him combing the words "paci" (what we say at home) & "binky" (what they say at daycare).  Oh, and Zac's new trend is to put an "e" sound in front of everything he says too... making his word for paci/binky even more confusing sounding... it took us a few days to figure out what this word meant.

How we play soccer

First we look tough... and we position ourselves to look like we know what we're doing.  We call it "our game face."

Next... we all run as a group chasing after the same ball.  Power in numbers, right?

When we play a one on one game, instead of trying to get the ball the traditional way, Deacon turns into major defensive mode.  He runs up to the ball with the other player, but then turns around to run the other way... in order to block their shots.  He instinctively thinks like this.  No matter how much you yell, "KICK THE BALL AND RUN TOWARD YOUR GOAL!"- he just turns around and plays defense.  It works in our favor sometimes.  We actually have 2 kids on the team that do this every.single.time.

We're always supportive of each other... 

(notice the tears... )

We let our friends score a goal... even though he picked the ball up with his hands and placed it in front of the goal to do so

And we always end as a team...

He's trying something new...

And I think he likes it... 

Puppy-sitting

We've been doing a bit of puppy sitting lately and the kids are loving it.  Damien and I also love how much it reminds us that we do NOT want a new puppy anytime soon.  These dogs are beyond adorable but they are beyond rotten too.  But we can live with rotten neighbor puppies... especially since we can send them back after a couple hours.

D3 last week

I can't believe I forgot to post last week! We were running late, so D3 was an in-car event this week.


Deacon loves his sprinkles!

This was gone in 5 minutes.

How D3 started this week. Thanks, Honey.

I'll try not to be so late next time.