Soccer Tourney #1

Sydney started on a travel soccer team in January... the normal season is from July to July, but she tried out mid-year and made the team.  It's been a really great experience so far.  The travel team is definitely quite a few steps up from rec.  The coaches are paid, there are 3 practices a week, plus Saturday and Sunday games on the weekend.  It's a whole lotta money (😳) and they have all these uniforms they have to wear- specific ones for specific practices, and of course games.  If it rains, they have something called "rain insurance" to where you have to practice somewhere indoors (I guess since we pay and the coaches are paid, it makes things more complicated and you can't just cancel practice.  Which, really and truly, I am FINE with cancelling practice if the weather is bad ;) They play several tournaments a year, and they had their first one this past weekend.

It worked out great that my niece, Kerrigan, had a volleyball tournament at the same place that weekend, so the whole fam was there!  We got to see Kerrigan play a couple of matches, and vice versa.

Sydney is on the U11 team (all kids are born in 2008) so there are 4th and 5th graders on this team.  There's an elite and a premier team (elite is stronger and plays other "elite" teams from other programs; premier is the "B" team and plays other teams at that level).  Sydney and the other 5 girls that made it mid year were automatically put on the premier team and are supposed to play on that team until July.  Usually, they kind of rotate girls between premier and elite, based on ability and what is needed.  Sydney's premier team played in an "elite" tourney this past weekend.  We knew that it probably wouldn't go well for them, seeing as they're the "B" team, plus the fact that they'd only had 3 weeks of practices together as a team... and that was pretty much the case. :( They lost all 4 games they played- two on Saturday and two on Sunday.  I will say, though, that the Sunday games, they looked much stronger- I think it's just going to take time for them to get to know each other, know their positions, etc.

Izzy came to watch!  This was after a rough loss for Sydney on Saturday.

A stop for dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way home.  Sydney cried the whole way home with me in the car.  I think exhaustion and frustration set in.  Here, Grandmom is comforting her!

We got the Cracker Barrel people to surprise Madeline with a cake for her bday. :). Nothing like embarrassing my 16 year-old niece.

Saturday, the weather held out, but Sunday-ugh.  It was miserable.  Their last game late in the afternoon- after they had already lost 3 games and we knew this would be the 4th loss- and it was pouring down, and cold... I just felt so bad for them.  They played well, considering.  They only scored 3 goals all weekend, and two were scored by a girl who normally plays on the elite team, and one was scored by... Sydney!  And one of the other goals that was made, Sydney had an assist.  We were so excited!

Madeline and Taylor 

The cousins, cheering Sydney on.

Post game #1 on Sunday.  This was the game Sydney scored in!

Grabbing lunch with some of her teammates after game #1 on Sunday

There is an arcade/climbing wall/fro yo/family fun place right by this huge sports venue.  It's genius, since most teams have hour gaps between games! 

Taylor got 1000!  Oh the excitement! ;)

Sydney got the 250!

On a side note... holy cow.  Some of these girls we played were just incredible.  Their passes were right on- their footwork was amazing.  We found out later that one team (cough cough, that beat us 12-0) is ranked 4th in the state.  It'll be a good experience for Sydney and her team to play this tough competition.  Hopefully they'll be able to hang better in the future!

We were supposed to have soccer tourney #2 this weekend, but they had to cancel it because the fields are flooded.  It'll be nice to have a relaxing weekend before their regular season starts next weekend.

Nashville

We've had this whole week off of school for February break.  Stephen had to go to California Monday-Wednesday, so I decided to take the kiddos up to Nashville!

Sydney had a soccer tournament in Cartersville both Saturday and Sunday, and her last game was at 4:30 on Sunday.  Instead of heading back home that night, I took the kiddos and we stayed in a hotel up 75 more, towards Nashville.  It was pretty uneventful- it had rained most of the day and we were soaked (esp. poor Sydney), so we grabbed some dinner, showered, and totally enjoyed a night watching movies being warm under the covers!

Monday morning, we woke up and headed to Nashville.  We went to visit my brother and his family first.  It was a nice, easy trek- only about 3 hours from where we stayed.  We got there, the cousins played... and about 10 minutes in, Parker fell and hit his head on a toy bin/shelf thing, and had this HUGE knot on his head.  OMG.  He was like a unicorn!! Of course, I'm always paranoid about head injuries, so he laid on me with an ice pack for awhile.  After about 30 minutes, he was back to his normal self, thank goodness. ;) We ran out, went to a fun arcade/skating rink/go carts kind of place, and then hung out the rest of the night!

Their future album cover?

Grabbing dinner at Firehouse Subs

These two boys have to stick together... there are too many girls!

Taylor and Ava

Tuesday, we all did a little work from home while the kids slept in and played.  That afternoon, we ate lunch at this good ol' country cooking type place, ran to a few shops, and then the kids and I packed up to head out to see my friend Sara!

My brother lives north of Nashville while Sara lives south of the city.  It was raining and nearing traffic time, so we headed down mid-afternoon to beat the bad weather and bad traffic.  We got down there before they were off of work, so we stopped at a McDonalds so the kids could play (and I could work) and we piddled around Target.  Finally, we headed to see their beautiful house (they've only been living in Nashville for a few months... it sure beats Utah!).  Sara and Daniel's kids are 3 and 1, so our kids had fun running around with them.  Sara and I pretended we were college kids, like we were back in the day, and stayed up until 1:30 (CMT) talking.  It was great to catch up and surprisingly, it wasn't too difficult to wake up the next morning.  (the next night, however... zzzzz)

Parker lost another front tooth at their house!

Parker and Eli running up the stairs

Going to bed, in hopes the tooth fairy will know where to find him...

The kids and I headed back to Georgia early the next morning.  The weather was pretty rough- it poured for the first hour of our trip home- but we made it home, safe and sound.  It was fun to get away for a few days!

Summing up January...

I've realized that my pictures don't represent half of what we do.  Doh.

Here is a summary of our post-Christmas-break January:

-basketball games
-PTA/school volunteering
-Sydney made the Academy soccer team
-↑...so... lots of soccer practices
-basketball practices
-Girl Scout cookie sales
-Stephen being gone every week, anywhere from 2-4 days
-Sydney doing softball after school
-birthday parties
-Girl Scout activity
-squeezing in time with friends (a hike with Ashley, lunch with a neighbor friend)
-squeezing in time with family (fam coming down to see S & T's basketball games, out to dinner with my sis and fam, lunch with my mom and niece Madeline)
-staying warm
-MattyB concert
-church
-attempted snow day. We were off, but there was no snow!


Basketball: The girls picked up with basketball games the first weekend they got back from school.  They sometimes have games Friday night and Saturday night.  They play against other schools in the county, so sometimes the games are close, and sometimes they can be almost 30 minutes away (didn't realize how big our county was!). They have grown SO much over the season!

Getting ready to take team pics.

The girls participated in a basketball camp on MLK day.  

We went to watch Sydney's friend, Lili, play.  She plays on their school's other 4th grade team.

Taylor has been rocking it out.  This game (above), she scored 8 points of her team's 32 total.  The next day, her team faced a tougher team and lost 8-6, but Taylor scored all 6!

Parker @ school:

Parker got to take home "Spike", and we have to document our adventures with him.

Parker and Spike at Taylor's basketball game. (you can see Taylor about to do the jump ball)

Hanging with friends:

Taylor's friend, Maura's birthday party

Me and Taylor's friend, Emelia

Hanging with the Chase's

Chili dinner with friends

High school basketball game

We went to cheer on our neighbor, Charlie, who plays on an ice hockey team

Chilling at the house:

Movie night

Oohhh, they look so comfy!

Who's that??

She even dabs in her sleep

Taylor laying out clothes for her doll ;)

Parker got a package!

Snow Day Eve sleepover

Taylor's school project- James Oglethorpe