Off the record, I loved it.  I loved hearing the kids all pipe in about how they thought each other had played that day.  I loved seeing the joy on their faces when THEY talked about what they thought they had done well.  Hopefully I will post some pictures soon!

I am not saying we are bad, but to the 11 year old, it is nice to see what the “real world” is like.  Even if the real world involved a camp counselor named Goose and a screened in cabin for a home.   He still had three hot meals a day, plus snacks…I am sure better than he would have been eating at home.  He still had to keep his area clean…though we heard from another counselor that his counselor isn’t exactly “neat” either.   He was with ALL boys, something he doesn’t get at home with two sisters.

So maybe this week was nothing like the real world at all!  But I do hope he had an AWESOME time and  I can’t wait for 12 hours from now when he can tell me ALL about it!!!

This team consists of 5th and 6th graders, so you have “first year players” and you have “second year players.”  In most cases, your 2nd years will be “better” than your 1st years.  The 1st years have to start out somewhere.  They have to learn just as the 2nd year players learned the year before.  However, somewhere in the transition to “2nd year player” some players seem to forget what it was like as a “1st year player.”

When Buddy started soccer this year, he was excited.  He wanted to play goalie, and he wanted to badly enough that he used his own money to buy goalie gloves.   So earlier this week when he wouldn’t even bring his gloves to practice it set off some alarms in my mommy brain.   After doing some investigations, both questioning him and asking the adults in his school that we have close contact with, we discovered he was told by some 2nd year players that he sucks at goalie.  (Can you hear his heart breaking?  Can you hear mine??)  To use my sister-in-laws words…”HOW DARE YOU?!”  How dare you tell someone who is trying, learning, doing their best, and doing it as well as some of your friends, that they suck?  What happened to being a team?  Why are they not trying to bring him up?  Fill him in on what he did wrong, sure, we can all use improvement.  But don’t totally shut the kid down. 

It wasn’t just Buddy that they were bringing down either.  It was a handful of the 1st year players.  Though the whole team has now been talked to, and to my knowledge things are no longer being said to the first year players, Buddy still will not play goalie.  

And the game he played…wow it was a doosey. Within the 1st 30 seconds of the game the other team injured our goalie.  Buddy was the ONLY player then willing to even get in the net that night!  Yes, we lost, but now that we have played that team a 2nd time, we lost again…and this time we lost by even more!  I know great news for Buddy, not for team though.  My point, though we lost the game he played, he was brave enough to get in the net when there was NO other players that would do it!   And yes, we lost, but the 2nd time we played them we lost too.

Nothing is necessarily “magical” really.  I mean, we have special cookie cutters just for the boring peanut butter and jelly sandwich they might eat everyday.  Occasionally we cook our dinner over a bonfire.   We have a canoe for days that would normally just be spent fishing off a dock, they turn into a day spent fishing from a canoe.

We make a lot of things that most people just run out to the store and purchase premade.  (don’t get me wrong…not everything is homemade!!)   We wanted froghouses for the many frogs that live in our backyard.  Squeaky and I went and bought some terracotta pots, and she painted them and we assembled them to be a frog house.  It was fun, entertaining and cost effective too!

You get the idea.

This summer however I am determined to get my fairy garden started.  I love the idea of fairies in the woods and garden.  I have been slowly collecting ideas of little items that fairies may need in order to live in our backyard.  Small table and chairs, a tea set, maybe a bridge…these were the first items to come to mind.

Then the other night, my niece was spending the night.  The kids had had a fun filled day of doing chores and cleaning up messes (this was the 2nd night of a sleepover) so after dinner I thought we needed some fun.  I gave the kids a few rules : Only natural materials, no distrubing animal habitats, a safe area (for kids and fairies) and be creative.

I showed the kids where I wanted my fairy garden to go,  and I explained how if we wanted to attract fairies to my garden the fairies would need to know they had more than one safe spot.  So the kids went about the woods collecting sticks, bark, rocks, wood chips, leaves, moss and even some little trinkets they collected. (I agreed that as long as they were not adding more trinkets to the forest floor, they could use what they found)

They worked together first deciding on a location, then started working together on the perfect fairy house in the woods.  They even made a bed of moss for the baby fairies, found acorn tops for cups and a white feather to show they were peaceful fairies!

After finishing their fairy house in the woods, I surprised them with “Barbies Thumbelina” on DVD.  They got ready for bed, as it was almost 9pm by this time and I put in the movie.  It was the perfect ending for our magical fairy evening.

First off…Bug gets 4th in the cross country race during her field day!  Way to go, Bug!!  This wasn’t just her class, it was all of 3rd grade girls!   And the race wasn’t on a track, it was over the river and through the woods. 

I was very proud of her!  (and still am as I am still writing about it!!)  

She ran the 50m dash in 9.5 seconds…seemed pretty quick to me.  They ran in multiple heats, so I have no idea if she was “the” fastest, but she was pretty darn quick!

I shouldn’t have been so shocked at her doing so well, she is pretty driven to succeed when one of her friends is good at something.  I just didn’t know she had the stamina to run so well! (especially for the cross country race)

Now for my other part of greatness yesterday. 

While I was getting sunburned watching Bug in her Track and Field Day, Buddy was at school sitting in his 5th grade social studies class taking a test.  This very test is the one two weeks ago that when I asked him to study the “why bother, I won’t get an A anyway?!”  statement came out of his mouth. 

A statement that is very unacceptable in our house.   Of course my reaction two weeks ago was “you aren’t studying to get an A.  You are studying so that you can do your very best.”   Honestly, I didn’t care if he failed the test, as long as he studied as hard as he could.  And as long as he truly did what he could to learn the curriculum.

When I got home yesterday I checked Buddy’s grade online (I LOVE his social studies teacher…he puts everything online ASAP!  You can even print off worksheets that didn’t make it home that night) and wouldn’t you know…the boy got an A!!  I hated him seeing how shocked I was at his grade, but I am hoping what he saw was how proud of him I was.

I even put it as my facebook status…which he smiled at.  Apparently if Mom puts it on facebook, she must REALLY be proud!!

It truly was a great day!

Without good sportsmanship brings  “sore losers.”

I was very disappointed earlier this week at the end of my son’s soccer game.  We lost.  Not sure of the score, but we lost.  I wasn’t disappointed in the loss.   Losing and winning are both aspects of the game, both have to happen.  Sometimes we will be on the winning team, other times we will be on the losing end.   

My disappointment was actually after the game and after the two teams did their handshake.  The whole team was called over to the referees.  Apparently one player told our whole team to “spit on your hand before you shake.”    Because a coach heard the request, it was put to a stop before anyone actually spit on their hand.  The entire team almost had a two week suspension from playing! 

Where do kids learn this?  If I was that parent I would be mortified!  I am not saying the parents taught the child this, but where do kids get these ideas?  What happened the “good game” handshake at the end?  I know in our house we talk with the kids at the end of games, usually in the car on the ride home, but sometimes while waiting in the lobby. (as in hockey)  Whether we won the game or lost the game, there is usually some talk about a play the other team made that was outstanding.  

We played a goalie last year that was phenomenal, he looked like a catcher in baseball.  I swear he caught every puck that was “thrown” at him.   He heard us after the game and got a big smile on his face.  It felt good to be eavesdropped on by him.   I hope it made his day and hopefully one day he may return the favor to another player.

As for Buddy’s soccer team I hope this the first and only “sore loser” moment for the team.

I have lived in MN most of my life…yet I had NEVER seen an outdoor hockey game until today!  And what a great MN day it was!  The weather…PERFECT!!  32 degrees…yes, that is PERFECT!!  We were warm, we were happy, and by golly, any warmer and our ice would have melted!!  As it was, towards the end of the game, parts of the ice were “soft” and the boys couldn’t skate on it without falling.

It was great to be so close to the ice. I think that was really my favorite part of being outside.  We were right there, I could reach out and touch them if I had wanted.   When they play inside, sure you can stand at the glass, but that is it…you are at the glass.  Outside there was nothing but a weak board between you and the puck.  Scary sometimes, yes.  But, fun was had by all!    (Us winning may have had something to do with the fun as well, but really it was fun.)

Playing outside isn’t something we do much anymore.  We (at least in suburban MN) all have indoor rinks now.  You will find kids playing outside with a couple friends in backyards and at ponds, but you don’t see real, actual game anymore.  For a lot of these kids, this was the first outdoor game they had ever played.  I know for me it was the first I had ever seen.

Hopefully as our park is developed we can get some boards up on an ice rink and the boys can do it again next year.  Maybe we can start having practices there as well.  Seems like a good plan to me. Not only does it save money on ice time, it adds to the “feeling”  of hockey.

My sister wanted homemade ideas for Christmas presents this year.  My oldest has ALWAYS wanted a marshmallow shooter.   What better idea could there be?

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day…

Notice Brian, Shari also gave scarves, which she made…Brian has turned his into eye protection!

Thank you for the great fun Shari!  They have been great!!

Buddy had his first hockey scrimmage of the year this weekend.  It was AMAZING!  He got the breakaway, he skated ahead of the pack.  As he neared the goal I got quite nervous.  It seemed just a little too perfect.  His control of the puck was precise, his strides were even…there was only one thing left to do…SHOOT!

Any by golly, he DID IT!! It really was an amazing shot.  He shot the puck, it went under the goalies skate, and into the net.  Yes, a very proud moment for me in the stands!

As luck would have it…I had forgotten my camera that morning…we were rushed as it was to get out the door by 6am  for Buddy to be ready to be on the ice by 6:45am.   Can you guess what went on after the game at our house?? (at least for Buddy)