Soccer!!!

We've been wanting to get the kids into soccer for ages. Then, at the beginning of January, Elena brought home a flier from school about a soccer league at the Rec Center. $30 for the season? You bet, baby! Both Elena and Joseph are on teams, and Jonathan is coaching Elena's. They've both had a couple practices and today was the first Game Day.

Joseph was so super excited to go play. He loves kicking the ball, and loooves kicking at the goal. He came running to tell me when he managed to get it in.




He pouted when play took the ball to the other end of the field, though. Hunched shoulders, great heaving sighs...


but he was off again as soon as it came back.


By the time Elena's game started, 2 hours later, it'd started to drizzle.


No matter, Coach and the kids were off and running.


And then the rain picked up and Joseph decided he needed an umbrella from the car. Then, with the game still going on and all the new mud I couldn't let James get down, so I got to hold him. And that means no more pictures because James grabs everything and there's no real reason to go breaking perfectly good cameras.

Anyway, good games, kids!

Morning After

My new phone has a camera, but I don't get the chance to get the pictures off of it very often. Here's a few shots of the day after the snow, at the park and enjoying the sunshine.

The drinking fountain had a tiny forest of ice stalagmites underneath it. I've never seen anything like that before.


The kids had a great time on the slides and hiding in the eggs.






Hmm... I somehow missed getting a shot of Joseph. Next time, I guess.

Snow Day

There was something about the fresh snow that made me want to work on my photography skills.


It's easy to see ordinary things in a new way when dusted with a fresh layer of snow.


The whole world is ready for a new start.


Even if we've done it before, everything around us is a new discovery.


And then, if we're really ready to enjoy the wonders before us, we ditch the camera, flop down on the ground, and make snow angels in the parking lot...


or grab a laundry hamper lid and go sledding on the hill by the laundry room.








Most of it is already gone, melted by the sun's return. It was a fun morning, worth getting woken up some time before 6am so the superintendent can tell us to sleep in. Only just, though.

Happily

Once upon a time, I had five pairs of glasses. "Five?" you say. Yes, five. I'm not counting the sunglasses, even though they're prescription, too. You see, I knew I had children and that personal belongings would suddenly get up and walk off, settling down in a whole new part of the house, usually in odd nooks and corners that are only visible to persons under 3' tall. I needed to be able to find some sort of glasses, even if they weren't the ones I'd just taken off. I also knew that accidents happen. For example, one of those five pairs of glasses vanished at the side of a rural highway as I stared at my flat tire mere hours before Joseph chipped his tooth. (Yeah, not one of my better days.) That's why I had five pairs, though.

Then came Sweet Little James, the Destroyer of Frames. He's utterly annihilated all but one pair in the last three months, and that one pair is five years old. I'd known I ought to get my prescription updated sometime soon, but now I needed new glasses.

I just got back, and I'm pretty darn happy. Everything looks healthy, my prescription is essentially the same (as the most most recent pair, not what I've been forced to wear for the last month), and I found some cool frames. I got a pale green pair at the optomitrist--they'll be done in a week or so--then wandered off to one of the Done In An Hour places for a 2-for-$ deal. The only pair of pairs I really liked--a simple black wire frame, and a black plastic with bright lime inside and earpiece sparklies--were a little pricier than I would have liked, but I'd budgeted high, anyway, so it was all good. And they're cute.

I won't be leaving them lying around, either.