Thursday, June 03, 2021

Baby Birds, Team Party and a Tournament

Over the past 2 weeks, we’ve been watching the development of a group of little robins whose nest is in a large bush next to our deck.  Since the bush is next to the deck and against the house, we can see the bird nest from our family room window.  We can also see them easily from the deck.  Mark was trimming the bush (which had gotten overgrown) when he noticed the nest.  He stopped trimming when he saw the nest, but it definitely made them a lot more exposed.  Nevertheless, they safely made it from egg to new baby to fledgling, and it was a lot of fun to watch them grow.  The mother and father birds were so busy.  They were constantly flying back and forth to the nest with beakfulls of worms.  We read that robin parents will actually make up to 100 trips to the nest per day!  That’s impressive!
 
There were four babies in the nest, and at first all they did was sit in the nest with their mouths open.  Very quickly though, they started to open their eyes and grow some little feathers and baby bird fuzz.
  
Within less than two weeks of their hatching, they were already fledgling birds and jumping out of the nest.  They were very entertaining to watch, and we’ll miss having them around, but we were happy to see them grown, healthy, and hopefully doing well now as independent birds.
 
Last week we also had the team end of season party for Lyla’s soccer team.  This year has been a great year for the team.  They’ve had a great coach, a really nice group of girls and families, and they’ve also had a lot of fun.  One of the families hosted a party for the girls with an incredible dinner spread, but I just had to take photos of the cookies and the charcuterie board because they were so pretty!  :)  We had dinner, hung out, the girls played a bunch of games, and then they finished things up tie dying team shirts.  It was a great evening, and a nice way to round out the regular season before their last tournament weekend.  
    
Their last tournament weekend was the FC Delco Memorial Day tournament in Pennsylvania.  Rain was forecasted for the weekend, but the tournament organizers said they planned to host the tournament regardless, so Lyla and I drove up to PA on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel with enough time to go out for a pizza dinner then relax back at the hotel.  The girls were scheduled for an 8am game on Saturday morning, but we got notification about an hour before their game that it was going to be canceled due to weather.   The tournament organizers hinted at canceling the tournament, but we were told to wait a couple hours for word on what was happening.  By noon, we got word that the tournament was being canceled, but we were still to play one game (the only game on our schedule that was on a turf field).  
 
The girls were SO disappointed that their tournament was canceled, but they played their one game very well and won their match.   
 
 
It was a little sad to leave the tournament without a real chance to finish things out becuase the team will change so much next year.  Their coach is moving to Florida, and due to a lot of shuffing of players based on try outs, seven of the girls won’t be with this team next year.  That’s the way the club works though.  Coaches change regularly, and teams aren’t guaranteed to stay together, and while there are positives and negatives to both, we have very much enjoyed this group this year, and we hope for another great year with Loudoun ’08 Red next season.
 
 

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