Blood, Sweat and No Tears?

Emily had her first soccer game of the season yesterday. She is on the Fire this year and has a lot of girls on her team that she knows from school and that live in the neighborhood.

This year they start playing 6-on-6 on a 40x60 field instead of 4-on-4 format that they have been playing on a 25x45 field. So, quite a big jump for the girls. And they are now playing positions and having to keep track of a lot more. It is fun to watch, but a bit confusing for the girls for their first game. But the girls did great! I lost track of the score, but it was a whole lot to zero by the end of the game.

At one point in the game, Emily got the ball at mid-field and dribbled it down all by herself and shot and scored a goal!! It was so exciting! I had the camera in my hand, but was so excited watching it all unfold that I forgot to take pictures. She did great!

Towards the end of the game, Emily got hit in the mouth with a ball. Holding her mouth with her hand she came out of the game and the coach motioned for us to come over. Brian ran over to the players side and immediately brought her over to us, so I knew something wasn't good. When she got to us, I could see that her mouth was bleeding but Emily was uncharacteristically calm. A friend gave us tissues and we started to clean her up to figure out the source of the blood. I got her a bit cleaned up and realized that her wiggly tooth was just laying in the socket, no longer attached, and was the culprit. I dabbed at it a couple of times and told Emily to hold the tissues there and she said she didn't need them and then informed us that she wanted to go back into the game.

What? Who is this child and where did my drama child go? Never mind. I am quite proud of this one. As it turned out, the game was basically over by the time she got back to the sidelines and I don't know that she saw anymore playing time but I was just proud of her for handling it so maturely and wanting to get back in there!

My little girl is growing up!

Last Softball Game

Emily has her last softball game on Saturday. Thanks to all those that came to see her play. She enjoyed the season and says that she wants to play again next year. That says success to me! I'm not worried about all the other stuff ... as long as she is having fun that is good enough for me.

For some reason she decided to wear her big white glamour glasses for part of the game. She cracks me up. This is my favorite picture of her. It is just so "her": hat backwards, glamour glasses, shirt untucked, yawning, not in ready position ...

Here are some more pictures of the last game: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121013&id=657663199&l=4487bea956

Game, Set, Match!

As many of you know, Tony has made the tennis team for his high school. We are so thrilled for him. He has taken lessons and stuck with it since last year and his hard work has paid off.

We are waiting now to hear what he will be playing: varsity, jr. varsity or expedition. Those try-outs have been going on for the past week. He is hoping to hear tonight. He should also know if he will be playing singles or doubles.

We are on pins and needles and he is hoping to hear tonight. We will keep you posted.

Simon says, "Trot"

Tonight was Emily's first horseback riding lesson. She won a gift certificate for 2 lessons at an event at Vinnie's daycare last October and we finally signed her up for lessons which started tonight.

We showed up and they don't let the kids get afraid of the horse. They gave her the lead and told her to stay there while they went to get the saddle with instructions "just pull back if she starts walking away". Emily didn't even hesitate and stood there like she had complete control over this huge beast. Then Emily lead the horse through the stable areas and into the arena all by herself. The instructor put her up on the horse, adjusted the stirrups and then walked away and told Emily to walk to the back along the wall. The instructor went back and closed the door. I was a nervous wreck watching from the viewing area, but my girl did awesome! I mean really, really awesome. I wish you could have seen her. She grinned from ear to ear the entire lesson. She was just beaming! She had a great time.

She walked around the arena. Then the teacher lead the horse to trotting and let Emily take off while Emily went around and around the ring all by herself. And the the teacher set out 4 cones in the middle of the ring and told Emily to lead her horse through them ... that was the only instruction. And Emily did it! She didn't even hesitate.

I just loved seeing her take to something so quickly! She has tried so many different things and has had fun at them, but she has never taken to something like this. No nervousness. No floundering. Just Emily and the horse. I really enjoyed watching her.

More pictures found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94862&id=657663199&l=89653

Final Basketball Update

Tony's team played in the finals on Saturday. They went in ranked #2 and they played against #1.

Tony's team played well and can hold their head up high for taking 2nd place in the tourament.

Kristen's Team Won

Kristen's basketball team won today!! So they are advancing in the tourament. They play again next Sunday at 1pm.

Basketball

Today was Emily's last day of basketball. She did well today! It has been a bit tough on her as there are 3 2nd graders and 2 1st graders. The 2nd graders are all friends and ... well, they are better ball players, so those two factors led to the first graders not seeing the ball a lot which was quite frustrating to Emily. I can't blame her, but it was a good lesson for her. She still says she enjoyed basketball and she loves to dribble the ball around the house. We are shopping for a basketball hoop for the driveway now so that she can get in some more practice before next season.

Tony & Kristen have both wanted to get more practice in also and haven't been able to recently. We didn't realize how much the kids used it at the other house.

Tony & Kristen both are in the middle of tournaments now. Tony had his first tournament game today and they won!!! His team plays next Saturday, but Tony won't be in town as he is traveling with the Robotics team. If they win next Saturday, he plays again on March 7th.

Kristen's first tournament game is tomorrow at 1pm. We'll keep you posted.

D.S.P.N.

Donato Sports Programming Network - D.S.P.N.



Today was Emily's last soccer game for the fall season. She scored a goal and got a medal for participating. She had a GREAT 4th quarter to end it all. When they blew the whistle to end the game, I wanted them to keep going. It was fun to see her so engaged.

Tony's last soccer game is tomorrow. He is enjoying soccer this year and is even talking about finding an indoor league to play in.

Both Tony and Kristen are taking tennis lessons. Kristen had her first ever lesson last week. She immediately retracted her "tennis isn't a real sport" comment that she had made to Tony earlier. I guess she figured out it wasn't as easy as it looked and it took a bit more ability. She said she was tired after lessons and I overheard her complaining to her Dad about her arm hurting her. Emily is going to start up tennis lessons again during the next session which will be right after Thanksgiving.

Also after Thanksgiving Tony and Kristen will start basketball. They are playing with the same league as previous years. We won't have schedules until right before the season (as they wait to form teams until the school teams are formed). We will distribute schedules as soon as we receive them and their first game will be December 6th.

We also got word that for the first time ever they will start a basketball league for 1st and 2nd graders in January '09. I asked Emily if she was interested and, surprisingly (at least to me), she got really excited about playing. So, we might have basketball games for Emily too.

So, if anyone is bored out there, just give us a call and you can help shuttle these three kids to basketball, tennis, and indoor soccer.

Run Away

Tony's last cross country match was last Saturday. He was excited as he broke his P.R. (personal record, for the unhip LOL). He crossed the finish line at 21:26.

Keep in mind that his first match he ran the same distance in almost 24 minutes. So he really, really worked hard and improved his time.

And the good news is that he enjoyed it and wants to keep up the running. He is asking Brian to keep hound him about getting out there and running, so I'll open it up to the lot of you to do the same.

Sports Update

Emily is enjoying soccer this season. She still runs hot & cold with her attention during the games, but she is having fun so I am trying to relax a bit about when she starts wandering around the field.

The Saturday before last she had a great game and scored 3 goals!! I hope to get the pictures uploaded soon. Her next game is this Saturday at noon.

Tony's soccer team won yesterday. He is having fun playing this year and has commented that all of his cross country running is helping his soccer playing. He has energy to spare and when other kids are coming off winded, he is still ready to go!

His cross country is going well and he is enjoying it. He does better when it isn't so hot out as seen by his times on Saturday. He said that the heat took it out of him, plus there were a lot of hills. He only has a handful of matches left. This Saturday it appears that he is traveling out Andrea's way for a meet. He is at the Community Center in her town.

It sounds like Kristen is going to give tennis lessons a go and see if she likes it! I am glad that she is trying something and going to get active again!

Tony's Soccer Schedule

I have emailed out Tony's soccer schedule. If you have not received it and want a copy, please email me.