Time to sit back and relax for a bit

I've had quite the packed weekend. I survived two soccer games, Mass with a poorly behaved four year old (Oh the joys of being the only parent at Mass with the kids!), a kindergarten religious education class and a bunch of other usual weekend activities. It's a wonder at this time that I'm still kicking.

The soccer games went really well. Madeline scored a goal for her team. She played like she was a rock star. The kid was up and down the field doing a smashing job. She had several shots the went just slightly wide of the goal post. I spent the entire game screaming my head off. I think it's safe to say that I'm no longer a reluctant soccer mom. I'm now that obnoxious mom on the sidelines who won't stop screaming. But I'm the good kind of obnoxious mom. I cheer my daughters and their team on, and I also cheer for the girls (or boys, in Ellie's case) that I know on the other teams. Sure, I'll also yell out to my child that the other kid doesn't need the ball or remind her that it's her ball. (Thanks to last season's coach for getting "MY BALL" stuck in my head.) We played Madeline's old team on Saturday and our girls did pretty well. We had to borrow girls from the other team since we were short a few players and had no subs (this level doesn't keep score). We talked with Madeline's old coach and it looks like we may very possibly have her on his travel team this Spring or next Fall. She's going to start practicing with him on Tuesday nights just to get more help with her skills. He's such a great coach and I love that he's willing to take on kids that aren't on his team. I think that's very generous of him. He even invited another one of our team members (who he hasn't coached) to come and practice with him.

Ellie played her first game. She seemed to have fun, but she was hanging back from the action for the most part. She was more concerned with trying to grab a nacho snack in between shifts. Coach had to tell her to put the nachos down and come play a couple times. She's such a funny kid. She played against one of her classmates and the daughter of friends we went to high school with. Such a small world we live in.

My religious ed class went pretty well considering my lesson plans were thwarted by a mistake. I put my copy order in on Thursday for my worksheets and craft project. Somehow, my mobile craft copies weren't the page that was copied for me. Instead I got a "My name is _____" coloring page. Ugh! I spent a good amount of time tying strings to hangers last night. Bryan even took pity on me and helped me out. Since I wasn't given a class list in advance, I had to scramble this morning to get name tags and folder labeled. I got to the school early, but so did all of the parents. I felt incredibly unprepared for this first class despite the fact that I spent many hours preparing for it. Even though things didn't go as I had planned, I think it still went well. I have eight adorable kids in my class. I have two of the chattiest boys I've ever met, a set of incredibly cute twin girls, two very shy children, and two kids who I'm pretty sure think I'm a little goofy (they're right, but I'm the fun kind of goofy). It took about 25 minutes to get these kids to warm up to me. Once I got them going, they were really happy. I'm just hoping I didn't bore them to death. I introduced my pal Flat Father Stanley to them and I have to say I think he's going to be a hit. I had one kid who wanted to bring him home today. Another child informed me that he can't be a priest because he can't pray since he's paper. Ah, the joys of facetious five year old boys. I'm looking forward to next week. I just have to pick a cool foam craft from the plethora of foam sticker crafts I have down in the basement. (I stocked up this Summer.)

I'll be posting pictures of the girls' soccer games tomorrow. I'm too spent to upload pictures tonight.