Spring Soccer

Rudy went back to soccer this Spring, instead of playing baseball. It was hard for him at first because it is a travel team and all the other players have been playing together for a few years. One of his most recent games, he had a lot of playing time and even got his foot on the ball quite a bit. In many of the pictures you can see the back of him; he's number 13.

Warming up

Greeting the referee and other team

Soccer

Rudy decided he wanted to play soccer this fall. He hasn't played since Kindergarten, so we signed him up for the rec league instead of the travel league. There are a lot less kids in the rec league so to have enough kids for two teams, they combined grades 1-4, so Rudy stands about a foot above everyone else.

This was the first game they used the large goals and the first game with an actual dedicated goalie, which Rudy played for the first half of the game. He had a great game- his team won 2-1 and he scored both goals.

The problem with being a goalie is there is a lot of down time.

More Catching Up

The last day of soccer. The kids got medals and small gift bags. In the gift bags was silly string. Thank goodness they were able to enjoy it at the field. If it had come home, it definitely would have disappeared before Rudy knew what it was!

Part of the last day activities was a parent-child soccer game. Paul played while I took pictures!

Rudy has joined the choir at church. It fits because he loves to sing and has an amazing memory. He loves the choir director and musician and looks forward to staying after mass every week for choir. The first Sunday of every month is Children's Sunday and the kids' choir sings then.

One morning the sky was just beautiful so I ran outside to snap a few pictures. This is actually less vibrant than it had been only seconds earlier.

Soccer and Visitors

We spent the weekend with 2 extra kids in our house. Chris and Patti had a wedding to go to, so Charlie and Lucy stayed with us. (Max went to Bill & Renee's house.) Saturday morning Rudy had his first soccer practice/ game.
Here he and Lucy kick the balls around before the practice started.









Rudy hanging out with friends from his class.

Rudy doing practice drills. They had to kick the ball from one cone to another.

After they finished doing drills they played part of a game. (I use the term loosely since this is a group of kindergartners and playing a game consisted of everyone running for the ball.) Here he waits for it to start.

He's ready to go.

He sure looks good.

Holding back a little.

And right in the middle of things.

later in the afternoon, in an effort to keep the peace and get the kids outside for a while while Charlie slept, Lucy and Rudy helped me put out the Halloween decorations. They both had very strong opinions about how things should be set up. Lucy had a random placement for everything spread all over the yard. Rudy wanted things more lined up (he definitely gets that from Paul!).

Our Lucy Goosey.

And the boy riding the stick like a broomstick.

I said, "Can I take a picture of the two of you together?"

Rudy, "Let's fight."

Lucy immediately joined in, so this is the picture I got.

Charlie exploring the kitchen.

We went out to dinner with Grandpa. Charlie probably ate almost as much as Rudy and Lucy. "More" is something we heard over and over again this weekend.

Then we walked across the shopping center to a new build your own frozen yogurt place. We will definitely come back here!

The ride back to meet everyone on Sunday had it's ups and downs, leading to Rudy and Lucy being separated. Rudy used the time to bond with Charlie instead.