sports – Page 60

Warmin up

August 11, 2015

First, happy birthday to Granddaddy Brown today! We hope it’s a GREAT day full of all good things!!! We love you!

Second, Soccer season is about to begin so gotta start warming up and getting ready for the games! Unfortunately, when it’s about 100 degrees at 4:00 in the afternoon, it doesn’t take long to “warm up” at all! Still, we all walked down to the field on Sunday to get a few kicks in…

soccer practice

Maxwell gets to have “Coach Dad” for another year and he did great getting back into it. He also kept complaining that if he didn’t get any water he was “going to die”. It was hot.

soccer

Spencer is actually a good little player too. Unfortunately, he’s going to have to wait another year to play. Maxwell’s games this year will be from 2:00 to 3:15 and Spencer’s games would be from 4:00 to 5:00. There’s just no way we can spend 3 hours every Sunday on the field. So, baby brother will have to hold off but that’s ok.

spencer

Samantha enjoyed it all from the hot stroller. Fun times. She better get used to it though! There’s going to be lots of weekends at the ball field in her future!

stroller

After they were all done with soccer, we headed over to the playground to sweat it out a bit more.

playground

spencer

samantha

The sweaty sweaty sweaty days of summer are still here!

Swim Lessons

June 3, 2015

The Sunday that we got back from New Orleans, the boys had their first of 5 swim lessons. We’ve been taking a break from our other swim lessons for the past few months and decided to take advantage of an opportunity to do 1 week of lessons at our friend’s house with a great instructor. There were 10 kids in the class and each kid takes a 3-4 minute turn in the pool over and over. It’s a quick in and out but good focus on the skills they need.

Unfortunately, the sprinkles came when we got to our first lesson!

swim lessons

It eventually stopped and everyone was able to start taking a turn in the pool. My boys were SO excited to get in on their first turn and loved it!

swim lessons

However, by that time their second turn came around, Spencer had NO interest in getting back in! Not sure what happened but I had to drag him in kicking and screaming and it continued like that for the rest of the lesson. He’s always LOVED getting in the pool and I was so afraid I was ruining his love of the pool! But, we stuck it out and came back the next day. By their second turn on the second day, there were smiles all around! I think they just had to get used to Mrs. Laura…well, that and the fact that I started to talk to them about what animal they wanted to be in the pool! They both couldn’t wait to get in and swim like tiger sharks! ha!

swim lessons

The only downside? Having to sit outside in the not so hot weather in between turns! brrrr!

swim lessons

Don’t they look like they’re having fun?! ha!

swim lessons

By Tuesday, the boys continued to progress and were screaming when they had to get OUT of the pool! We also figured out a better way to lay out in the sun and keep warm between turns!

swim lessons

By the 3rd day, everyone was loving swim lesson and starting to show some good progress in the pool!

swim lessons

Laura was teaching Maxwell how to swim and take a breath without stopping swimming. By the end of the week, he was just about able to swim the entire length of the pool while sticking his head up to take a breath while swimming. He needs to work on keeping his breath short and kicking his legs while he sticks his head up so his body doesn’t sink down. For Spencer, she was working on getting him to keep his head down and looking at the bottom of the pool so his kicks will be out of the water and more productive. We’re just trying to keep him from running standing up underwater basically.

We skipped the lesson on Thursday. It was really chilly outside and the boys (and me!) were all exhausted from a week of summer school and daily swimming. Everyone needed a long nap more than another swim lesson. The last lesson was on Friday morning and I couldn’t convince Maxwell to go but I did get Spencer up there and he did great!

swim lessons

He even got a special treat when the lesson was over! He was a happy little tiger shark!

donut

It was a good week of lessons and they are becoming better swimmers all the time! I’m going to post a few videos of the week below if you’re interested…

Final Soccer Game

November 12, 2014

Well…3 weeks later I’m finally recapping Maxwell’s final soccer game! Better late than never! The game was on the same day we did Spencer’s birthday party and he was pretty worn out so GJ and Daddo stayed home with him but we did get to have 2 other great cheerleaders with us that day – Lulu and Granddad!

final soccer game

This was also picture day and it was as disorganized as always. Like last year, we skipped individual pictures and attempted to get a team photo. I snapped a pic of the boys while we were waiting…

final soccer game

and that was pretty much how all of the team pictures went too! I didn’t bother ordering one of the “official” photos and just took some with my own camera. These were the best of them all…

soccer

soccer game

All framers! ha! Why they had them trying to stare directly into the sun and smile I don’t understand.

I also took a few of my own individual pictures of Maxwell…

soccer

Cutie.

Once we got through pictures, it was time for the game but our opposing team was still waiting for their pictures so we played some red light/green light instead!

soccer

After a while, we were still waiting on the red team so Coach Robert decided to go on and hand out trophies…

trophies

Awesome!

By the time the games usually end at 4:30, the red team was just making their way over to the field. Even though some of the blue team members had to leave, we still played a little game with those that were left.

soccer

Maxwell scored a few goals and had fun. That’s what counts!

He was also happy because he saw his best bud, Lila, on the field that day.

maxwell and lila

After a short game, everyone shook hands, had a snack and were on their way!

soccer final

It was a good end to a great season. I’m so proud of my little soccer player for hustling every game and playing so hard! Go Maxwell Go!

soccer

Soccer super star!

Soccer game 4!

October 28, 2014

Ok, finally getting around to soccer game 4. Considering soccer game 5 was over a week ago, I’m a little behind! That’s ok though…it was a nice, cool afternoon and good day at the soccer field!

soccer game 4

Unfortunately, our team hasn’t been the most committed this year and we only had 4 players at the game that day. But, it worked fine to play a game of 3 on 3.

soccer game 4

Maxwell hit the ground running as he’s been doing all season…

soccer

soccer 4

He even got in there a time or two and played some good defense!

defense

I enjoyed this game a lot because I had a helper to wrangle Spencey!

soccer

Spencer was loving it!

soccer

Not sure I can say the same for a beat up, drooled on GJ! 🙂

spencer

I’m pretty sure she’d tell you she loved it though.

gj spencey

After a Coach Robert pep talk at halftime…

soccer

The team was geared up to take the game in the second half! ha!

soccer

Some serious soccer players here…

soccer

But, they had fun and that’s all that counts…

soccer

Well, that and scoring 5 goals! 🙂

soccer 4

Way to go Maxwell! High fives all around!

soccer

Go blue!

Soccer game 3

October 9, 2014

The exciting season continues with soccer game 3!

I got smart this time (well, it was Robert’s idea) and took some toys for Spencer to play with. It was actually pretty successful and kept him entertained at least some of the time…

soccer

While we hung out on the sidelines, Maxwell and Coach Robert were getting warmed up and running drills!

soccer

Pretty soon though, despite the toys, Spencer REALLY wanted to be on the field with the big kids!

soccer

Maxwell tried to get him off…

soccer

But he just grabbed his snack cup and went back out!

soccer

Please note how serious Maxwell is taking practice in that picture. The Blue Team is hard core! Eventually Spencer got off the field and the team got a little pep talk before the game…

pep talk