Our 1st Soccer Game!

I am officially a "soccer mom" now! Matthew's very first soccer game was Saturday morning. I'd only been to a couple of the practices, choosing to keep Zach at home instead of chasing him around a field while trying to watch Matthew practice. So we were all very excited for Saturday morning. There was a slight worry it would get rained out, but we were soon told that unless there's lightning, they play in the rain.....uhm, what about us parents? I guess we get wet too!! Fingers are crossed for clear skies on game days!!!

So here they are...the "Choppers".....a local dental clinic offered to sponsor the team and pay for their shirts in exchange for putting their name on the back.....for free shirts, SURE! I was just thankful that there wasn't a big pair of dentures or something on the front...that wouldn't have been so cool! Matthew picked his number, 5.....because he IS five. DUH! :P

They play on "micro" fields, and I'm quite grateful for it, as they practiced a couple times on a regular field and that's just too far for those little legs to run.....the itty bitty size of these fields just cracks me up!

Unfortunately, the Choppers lost their first game....badly....6-0, but most of the kids didn't even seem to notice. I think Matthew assumes this is just like t-ball where they don't really keep score, and that's fine by us!

After Matthew's game was over, we left to head toward Fairfield to visit my dad in the hospital and help out my mom and brothers at our food stand at the Fall Fun Fest. We were selling apple dumplings and homemade chicken and noodles. I know to most people that's real comfort food, but when you're surrounded by it and make hundreds of them......uh......I can be fine with not seeing a noodle or a dumpling for awhile, kwim?

We took a break from entrepreneuring (I think I just made that word up) to take the kids on the rides they had set up. It was Zach's first time being old enough to actually ride on anything, and I wasn't sure how he'd react, but he loved it!

And Alaina decided she wanted to ride a "big kid ride", and chose the octopus. I think this must've been the original octopus, as old as this thing looked......the engineer in me was trying to check the structural integrity of the thing before they got on! Karl said she was "all talk" about how it was no big deal, but once they were up in the air and twirling, she clutched his hand with a death grip and clenched her teeth.......see exhibit A below:

Once she got OFF the ride, she was fine and of course wanted to do it again. According to her, if you can ride "the yeti" (Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom), you can ride ANYTHING.

I already posted the update on my dad, and as far as I know, nothing's changed since then. Once he was moved out of ICU and into a regular room, we took the kids to visit. I never realize how LOUD my kids are until we're in a quiet place like a hospital! But seeing his grandkids perked him up considerably, and Matthew and Alaina drew pictures on the dry erase board on the wall. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the kids have seen my dad in a hospital, so they weren't freaked out by it. Alaina's scared of needles, so she wasn't too thrilled with seeing the IV, but she still gave her PawPaw hugs, as did the boys. My mom hadn't talked to the doctors yet today when I spoke to her last, so I haven't heard anything new. So we look for him to be in the hospital at least through Wednesday, if not longer, given his current condition. So keep him in your prayers please. Thank you all so much!