We're on a break

Wednesday night was Kellen's final soccer game of the year.



And thus ended our first foray into the world of competitive soccer, which began almost one year ago.

A year filled with summer camps, tryouts, practices, fall soccer, indoor winter soccer, spring soccer, tournaments, and even our first out-of-state competition. And most painfully, a year of practices every Tuesday and Thursday night, rain or shine. (Oh, the curse blessing of having a team parent with keys to their church's gym --- even a good hard rain doesn't cancel practice!)

Which means last night was our first Thursday night in almost eleven months with No. Soccer. Practice. And I had big plans for our family. I was going to cook dinner, and then take the kids bike riding around the lake. We were going to bond, and relax, and laugh, just like those happy families in those stupid magazines that always make me feel so inferior.

Instead, my after-school PTO meeting ran long, then I had to run to Home Depot to buy yet another gallon of paint, (Caribbean Sunshine Yellow by Behr, thank you God, I can feel my mood lightening every time I walk in the room) because I am apparently genetically incapable of guesstimating how much paint it will take to finish painting my living room. So then it was really too late for me to cook dinner so I stopped on the way home and bought a pizza. And when I got home Kendrie was in a foul mood, and Brayden was in the middle of watching "Look Who's Talking Too" (and the heck with all the cute talking babies, there is actually a lot of cursing in that movie, but of course nothing my kids haven't heard from me already, which is probably why they will grow up to be social delinquents, because cursing talking babies make us laugh ....) and couldn't be bothered with a bike ride.

And Kellen, bless his heart, already had his pajama bottoms on and was playing with his army men on the staircase. Don't ask me why he stages battles on the staircase when he has an entire bedroom to play in, he just does. I think for him, "chill" was the operative word for the evening and after playing soccer approximately 1500 hours the past year ..... he ... didn't .... want ... to ... do ... ANYTHING last night.

Except chase the ice cream truck down the street in his pajama bottoms, with the rest of us running after.

So although my evening didn't go quite as planned, Kellen was happy, I now have enough paint to finish the living room, and I got the world's best fudgesicle.

On second thought, it might have been a perfect evening after all.

PS. At the game Wednesday night, some of the other parents were talking about whether we would start practice for next season next week, or take a small break before tryouts, which take place in June. They all unanimously agreed they would like to continue practicing so the boys don't lose too much of their skill over the summer.

Seriously? Are you kidding me?

We LOVED this team, and consider it a great experience. But we are taking a few weeks off. To play army men and eat fudgesicles.

Kellen will try out again in June, then come July, we will be one of THOSE FAMILIES who tries to juggle simultaneous sports, when he attempts to play his first season of football at the same time as his second year of competitive soccer.

Yeah. Good luck with that.