Sam, Soccer & 100!

At Daniel and Sam's school, they are both given the chance to play and learn about soccer.  For Daniel, he had a huge learning curve last year playing soccer for the first time.  This year, it has been fun to see him grow mentally and physically and watch him play.  For Sam, it has been very interesting watching him maneuver around soccer.  He had two practices before the actual game.  He did everything his coaches told him to do during the first practices.  He ran when they said run, he kicked when they said kick, and he dribbled around cones when it was time to dribble.  So I was a little surprised when the morning of his first game, I asked him if he was ready for his soccer game.  And he replied, "Mommy, how do you play soccer?"  None of his coaches had taught him how to play.  So I told him the basics and he seemed to feel alright about this.  That afternoon, watching him play for the first time, I made sure he knew which goal to kick towards.  And he caught on quickly.  In fact, he almost made a goal that first day.  It was great watching him learn something new.  And he had a lot of fun.

defense

half time

the jersey was a bit of a distraction

On a lighter note, this is my 100th post!  Yeah! 

Pints to Pasta 2013

On Sunday, Sept. 8, I ran in my 5th race of the year.  It's called Pints to Pasta, and it's a 10K.  It has a route that I really like.  It's basically all downhill.  It starts in NE Portland, runs across the Broadway Bridge, through town, along the waterfront and ends up at the Spaghetti Factory along the river.  It was a great day for a race, sunny and warm.  I was trying to beat my time from 2 years ago (I wasn't able to run it last year), and I was pleased that I took about 4 minutes off my time from before.  Here are my commemorative pics.

at the start

with my boys

all done!

with Jeff

Simon and Me

Now that school has started, and both Daniel and Sam are in school, the days at home are filled with just Simon and I.  This is a bit of an adjustment for me.  I really enjoy my time alone with Simon at home or out and about (although I do miss the older boys, too.)  The house is much quieter now that it's just Simon.  He usually goes into his room and plays by himself.  In some ways, this is nice because it does allow me time to get things done that I need to get done.  But it's also fun to run errands in town or go places with just Simon.  After being with 3 kids all day, I find it's much easier to do things with just 1 child.  (Funny how perspective teaches me this because back in the day when I had just Daniel, I thought that was hard.)  I know soon enough Simon will be joining his brothers at school, and I will be all alone.  But for the time being, I will just enjoy and relish each moment as it comes.