May has been a whirlwind for me. My anniversary, Mother's Day, lots of soccer, end of 5th grade activities - it's just a lot.
A couple of weeks ago, the middle school hosted a "parent night" orientation. I have to be honest. It felt weird. I didn't like it at all. I know Briana needs to grow and move on, but just walking into that school made me miss the comfort and security of elementary school. I wish I could say that I am not sending her off into a pack of wolves, but I can't do that. The school is literally the "Wolfpack" - Home of the Wolves. Sigh.
Here she is smiling nervously as we entered the school...
Communication is the key to success in middle school. I hope that is true...
We ran into Bri's buddy Sean in the math classroom. They are both taking advanced classes next year, so I hope they get some classes together...
We talked to several of the PE coaches during the orientation, so I think that is the elective Bri is gravitating toward. She is not interested in chorus or band at all. It is so crazy - I would have done everything in my power to not have to dress out for PE at that age. Bri loves physical activity.
Walking out of that school, I felt like I still had a million questions. I felt overwhelmed. I can only imagine how Bri is feeling. She's nervous - I can tell.
We are going to miss Bri's school so much.
The first week in May was teacher appreciation week...
On the Wednesday of that week, we were asked to remember "other" staff and teachers (like music, PE, etc). I made up these little chocolate packs for Bri to hand out (of course, Bri wanted her main teachers to have one too)...
Yearbooks came out that week. I place a "baby/little kid ad" in there. Over the years, I would read all the baby ads placed for the 5th graders. I couldn't believe it was my kid in there now...
I can't believe I won't be sitting in the elementary afternoon car line anymore...
Bri has been looking so cute heading into school each morning...
A week ago, Bri had her field day at school. It was gray and a bit cool that morning, but then it heated up pretty nicely.
Bri and her two buddies...
She got soaked during the water games portion of field day...
Bri is totally "one of the guys"...
Stopping for a quick snack and drink...
Tug of War time...
B's class won their first round but then lost the next two. :(
Here is their win...
Friend selfies...
This week coming up is going to be insane. Tuesday, the kids have their 5th grade cookout and "egg drop." The kids have been working in groups to create protective shields for the eggs that will be dropped that day. They are trying to keep them from breaking...
Monday is the BIG 5th grade field trip. I am attending/chaperoning. Lots of parents are going, so I may only have to keep a lookout for Bri. I'll have to see. It is going to be a LONG day - Tennessee Aquarium, IMAX and a riverboat ride. For someone with anxiety issues, not having any control during this trip is stressing me out a bit. But, I'm going for my girl because she asked me to. And I of course want to spend this time with her...
Thursday night is 5th grade graduation...
Friday is the 5th grade class walk and the end of the year party. So many "lasts."
I hope I survive this upcoming week. I'll know I'll need a lot of handkerchiefs. If I'm feeling this way now, I can't imagine myself at B's high school graduation. Lord help me!!
We were babies when we first started dating - seriously. This is us on our first date in 1991.
Below, this is us getting married 6 years later in 1997...
Here we are 20 years later...
We are a little older, a little wiser, a little more tired - but we still dig each other (most of the time - ha!).
We woke up on our anniversary and we received this amazing "pop up" card and gift from Briana...
We headed off to school, and Doug and I had lunch at a near by restaurant...
This is us...
We are so silly...
The restaurant has a pretty little rock garden out front...
Fried green tomatoes, yum...
That evening, Bri had soccer practice. Who knew Doug and I'd be sitting on a soccer field watching our daughter practice soccer on our 20th anniversary? That's life I guess!
On the Saturday after our anniversary, Doug and I did get a date night finally. Bri took this below photo - she did pretty dang good!
At the restaurant - Fleming's Steakhouse...
We got there at 6, and the restaurant was practically empty (not for long though)...
Happy for a date night...
Delicious calamari...
Sauteed brussel sprouts...
My steak...
Sinful turtle pie...
It was a really nice dinner and evening.
But after 20 years, Doug and I need more than just a dinner to celebrate. We went to Napa for our 15th, and we will be heading this summer to Newport, RI for our 20th.
We desperately need some time to relax and reconnect...
I'm looking so forward to the next 20 years with my best guy.
This is going to be a SUPER LOADED post! It's going to be a long one (and quite detailed)!
I haven't blog about soccer in weeks, and the girls just finished their season. Their team party is this Saturday.
I have so much to fill you in on.
As you can see ~ the girls walked away CHAMPIONS once again!!! Go Golden Eagles!!
Ok, let's see. I left you last when we were taking off a few weeks from soccer due to spring break. For some reason, we weren't scheduled to play the Saturday before Easter. We had a team that kept rescheduling games for one lame reason after another. Because of all that (and some rain outs), a number of our games ended up being lumped into just a couple of weekends - meaning the girls were playing sometimes 2 to 3 times in a weekend to get it all in before the tournament. It was a bit rough.
Our 4th game of the season (the 1st game we played after spring break - 4/22) was against our toughest competitor in the league - the Cheetahs. This was the team we tied our first game...
The girls were definitely ready to play after all that time off...
It was a hard fought game, and the GE won 4-2.
Even though the girls were winning their games, they still needed lots of practice. Coach Javier has a lot of good drills for them to work on...
The next game (Game 5) the girls played was on a Friday evening (4/28). The girls played 3 games that weekend to try to catch up - Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Bri was so excited when her friend Caitlin came to watch her play that Friday...
We always appreciate when friends take time out of their busy schedules to catch a game!
Bri was happy because Caitlin got to see the Golden Eagles win their game (2-0)...
The next game (Game 6) was scheduled for the following Saturday morning (4/29) against the Georgia Knights. Bri was tired but all smiles luckily...
Bri was showing me some of her goal kicks to warm up...
The game was fast-paced and it was quite warm that day. Being a mid-fielder, Bri ran back and forth all over that field.
Here she is giving some direction...
She was completely exhausted after that game (2-0 win). Doug said she worked so hard that she earned the right to be carried off the field...
The girls played their 3rd game of that weekend (Game 7) on that Sunday afternoon (4/30) against Bayern Munich. I was not able to attend this game because I was heading to see Neil Diamond (Doug brought Bri to the field)...
Unfortunately, it was not a good match up. I had noticed that this team had not won a single game the entire season. There is no doubt in my mind that this team was placed in the wrong bracket. Our girls easily beat them 8-0...
The following weekend, the Golden Eagles were scheduled to play two games (one Saturday and one Sunday). The Saturday game (5/6) was a game we were invited to play in.
As you probably know, our girls are a recreational team. There is no doubt the Golden Eagles are good enough for academy, but for varying reasons, the girls are playing rec (for now at least). Since the Golden Eagles are the top rec team at our Y, the girls were asked to play in a friendly game against an academy team for a different league (SSA).
Unfortunately, our team started out with 10 girls this season. Three girls quit the team over the course of the season, leaving only 7 girls - which means we had no subs. We obviously needed more girls to play against this SSA team, so we invited some of the Cheetahs to play with us. It was the first time these girls ever played together...
Our girls did amazing! The SSA team was a bit more technical and experienced, but the Golden Eagles/Cheetahs (they called themselves the "Cheegles" - ha, ha!) played strong and aggressively. We lost 4-3, but it was a close game for sure. Not too shabby...
The only thing about that game though was that Bri got a bit upset during it. She was in the wrong place during a corner kick and the ball ended up bouncing off her shoulder and into the goal. The other team scored. I could tell she was upset for a while after that. She rarely makes a mistake and she took it hard. She took a break on the bench, pulled herself together and kept playing...
Sunday of that weekend (5/7), the Golden Eagles were scheduled to play their last game (Game 8) of the regular season. We were actually supposed to play on Friday evening of that weekend, but it got moved to Sunday because of rain. We all showed up at 12:30PM for a 1PM game. About a half an hour before we all started arriving, the coach for Bayern Munich (the team we beat 8-0 the weekend before) called the Y and said they weren't coming. The team didn't feel it was a fair match up, so they were forfeiting.
We were all stunned. Not only did they quit, they quit at the very last minute. I had brought my good camera to take pics of the very last regular season U10 game, but there was no game to play. Very disappointing.
Bri was all ready to play...
I took some team photos...
We started to just have a practice instead...
But then our assistant coach noticed something. A U12 boys team had an opponent "no show" as well...
Basically, the girls weren't allowed to have a "real" game against these boys. They were in an older bracket and they were, well, boys. But, a friendly scrimmage was ok. The ref took off his official arm band and offered to ref the game for fun.
Girls against boys...
A big disadvantage the girls had were they weren't allowed to do headers (U10 you can't), but the boys were allowed (U12 you can). They also had a bit more experience and were pretty aggressive.
I'll tell you what though. These girls may not have scored while the boys scored a bit, but they didn't make it easy on them at all. Our girls were very aggressive and made those boys work for it. I didn't keep score, but I know it wasn't a total blowout.
You can see the girls didn't let up at all...
Briana was defending against this boy...
She was on him the whole time...
At one point, Briana used some creative footwork to get the ball around him. When a player does some "fancy" footwork to get the ball away from someone, it's called "juking." Well, Bri did it to this kid. His teammate razzed him and said, "Dude, she kept juking you! She juked you like three times!" It was really funny.
My girl and her "throw-ins"...
Still smiling...
At one point toward the end of the game, the ball was kicked into her stomach and it knocked the wind out of her. She started to cry and I yelled to her to "go down" if she needed to leave the field. When a player goes down, the game stops. Coach walked her off the field...
After a few minutes, she got back in the game again and finished it out.
I couldn't have been prouder of our girls. They played hard and I think surprised those boys! I think that was the most fun game I've ever watched the girls play - and they didn't even win!
After the game, Bri wanted some frozen yogurt. One of the boys from the other team came into the froyo place with his dad. His dad walked over to our table and told us that our girls were really good and super tough. No doubt he was very surprised at how strong they were!!!
So even with Bayern Munich forfeiting, the Golden Eagles were the champs of our U10 division!!
At the practice following the scrimmage with the boys, Coach gave the girls "army hats" because they basically fought in a "war." LOL!!! He was so proud of them...
Finally, tournament weekend rolled around. Our first game was supposed to be on a Friday, but it was moved to a Thursday (5/11) - once again because of rain. Again, we were playing the Cheetahs in the tournament...
The girls got out there and played ok. They were a little off that day. Maybe because it was a Thursday evening. I could tell Bri's heart was half in it. And remember, the Golden Eagles went into the tournament with no subs.
Even though it was a rougher game, the Golden Eagles won (I can't remember the score - it may have been 3-2)...
The next game of the tournament was on a Saturday at 4PM (5/13). The team we played, East Germany, was from a different Y. They had been undefeated. They had about 14 girls on their team, so basically they could swap the entire team several times during the game. Our girls got no breaks - they would just run to the side of the field to grab water once in a while. And it was super hot that afternoon.
It was a 1-1 tie game until a penalty was called against East Germany at the very end of the game. Bri and Maddie did their little indirect kick trick and scored the winning goal. Golden Eagles won 2-1...
The girls had their next game against the Owls (a team from another Y again) at 6PM. They needed to rest and refuel. Coach was giving Bri a little pep talk...
Smiling even though it was hot...
These girls are rock stars!!!!
6PM rolled around. No team. AGAIN no team. The Owls had played their 4PM game, lost it, left to go home and didn't tell anyone. They had lost their two tournament games and I guess realized they had no chance of going to the final, so they blew us off. I guess it was good that the girls didn't have to play again that day, but they waited around for over an hour for no reason. It was just insane.
Hot, hungry and tired - we stopped for some BBQ on the way home...
Then it was time for the final game. Sunday at 4PM on Mother's Day (5/14). We were against the Cheetahs again. We had tied them once and beat them twice, but we only had 7 girls (no subs again) and we just didn't know what would happen. The Cheetahs had several subs. It was very hot once again.
The girls squeezed in under an umbrella to try to beat the heat...
The ref had the girls line up before the game...
And wave to the audience...
Then it was game time. The girls played their hearts out...
Here is Bri stopping the ball...
Here are our girls (Josie, assisting and Ella, kicking it in) making a goal...
The Golden Eagles WON!! 3-0!! With no subs!!
They were a little beat up after the game...
Coach squatted down in front of them and told them how proud he was. He just kept saying "You won with 7 girls. You won with just 7 girls." He was amazed. We were all amazed. They are warriors!!!
It was finally time for the medal ceremony...
Happy team...
Amazing girls; wonderful coaches...
A little "dab" celebration...
Posing with Coach and the trophy...
A few of the girls went out for some celebratory frozen yogurt...
Wow - what a season.
So that is the update. If you got this far, thank you for sticking with me! It was a super long post. It was such an amazing season (the last U10 season) and I wanted to record it all.
We are going to lose a few of our girls next season, but we are going to merge with some of the Cheetah players for U12. The Cheetahs have some really strong girls and they were a tough opponent. I am really excited about that.
I'll be talking all about soccer again in the fall. To be continued...
