DC United, Parade, and Cox Farms

I’m playing catch up on the blog.  It’s been a busy fall around here, and I’ll hit some of the highlights.  

DC United ended an era of playing games at RFK a couple weeks ago.  The stadium has been their home since the league started in 1996, but with a new stadium being built for next season, they played their final game in the stadium and invited all the alumni back to help in the celebration.  There was a fun get together on Saturday night downtown, then festivities before and after the game Sunday afternoon.

  

Not wanting to risk his replaced knee, Mark opted not to play in the alumni game that preceded DC United’s game, but he took part of the ceremony at half time and at the end of the game.  It was a fun weekend with lots of stories and time catching up with old friends.  Best of luck to DC United in their new stadium, and thanks for the memories, RFK.

Aslo that weekend, Nina’s cheer team took part in a local high school’s homecoming parade.  They did this last year as well, and the girls always have a good time being a part of the parade.

  

Lyla loves the parade because we walk alongside the truck that Nina’s team is in, and Lyla collects TONS of candy that’s being thrown.  It’s as good as Halloween!

 

The girls had off from school on the Monday following this busy weekend, so I decided to take them to Cox Farms.  It’s been a couple years since we’ve been there, and I was almost wondering if they were aging out of it, but they had a great time!

 

This goat was so funny.  He/she was standing on top of the tractor wheel and bleeting at people as they went down the slide!

Speaking of goats, one of the highlights was the goat villiage.  The girls got feeding cones to feed the goats, and they had the best time with the goats.  They acted a lot like dogs.  They liked being scratched and petted, and one even laid there and let Nina braid his goatee.  Evidently, it was pretty relaxing because he started closing his eyes to fall asleep while she was braiding!

  

  

 

We took a hayride, they swung on ropes, and slid down slides, walked through a corn maze, picked pumpkins and more.  It was a fun fall afternoon!

 

 

 

   

Columbus Day Tournament

Last weekend, Lyla’s team played in their first fall tournament.  It was the WAGS Columbus Day tournament, and it was local, so that was good for us.  The team played a great first game, and Lyla took her turn playing a half in goal for the second half of the game.  There was a bit of action back there, and she did great!  

  

In between games, the team found a shady spot to have a picnic lunch.  It’s such a nice group of girls this year on the team.  :)

By the time the second game rolled around, it was sunny and HOT!  The team won their second game, so we had a place in the semifinal for our group the next morning.

Sunday brought the rain, and the initial forecast made it seem like Sunday was going to be a wash out, but thankfully since we haven’t had rain in a long time, the fields held up well, and it didn’t end up raining that badly in the morning, so they won their semifinal game, then got ready for the final.

 

The team has made it to the finals in a tournament before, but they haven’t won in the past, so they were really wanting to win this match.  They went up 2-1 at halftime, but the other team tied it up in the second half, and in this tournament they went straight to penalty kicks (no additional overtime minutes) after the end of regulation.

It took a few rounds, but the girls were victorious in PKs and were so happy!!  This was right after the winning PK was taken.

They played hard, worked together, and the champs (finally!) were all smiles at the end.  

Each girl gets a week at home with the team trophy.  The first week went to Ella, whose PK decided the final, but we were very proud of Lyla for being selected to take home the trophy the second week.  At her game today, her coach asked her to play a position she almost never plays (left back), but she was awesome!  She had a great little story to tell about it because the evening prior, I decided on a whim to take Nina and Lyla to the family Zumba night at the gym I teach at.  As part of our professional development, they’re asking instructors to do a series of things, one of which is take part in a class that is completely outside your comfort zone.  For me, that’s Zumba.  I never have taken a dance class, and I definitely don’t know any Latin dance moves, so Zumba is about as outside my comfort zone as I could get.  Mark was coaching a game, and we were going to meet him afterwards for dinner, but Lyla really didn’t want to go to the Zumba event.  She isn’t really into dancing and thought she’d feel uncomfortable.  I told her that I was going to feel just as uncomfortable as she was, but we had a good talk about getting out of our “comfort zone” and trying new things.  It only took two songs, and Lyla was in the front row of the Zumba class having a blast.  I was really proud of her.  She ended up having a great time and wants to go back again.  Anyway, she told me after the game today that she equated the experience at Zumba to her coach’s request to play her in an unfamiliar position and told herself to just get out of her comfort zone and see what happened playing defender.  She ended up doing great and was chosen by her coach to take the trophy home that week because of her hard work and good play in an unfamiliar position.  So…for me, the big picture is the life lesson she’ll think about as she sees that trophy this week, and it’s a life lesson that’s good for me too - there can be great things just on the other side of your comfort zone!  

Nina has been a great supporter and spectator, but unfortunately the fur sister hasn’t been allowed at many of the games as of yet, but she gets plenty of TLC when we get home.

  

Catching Up to Fall

We’ve gotten into the swing of our back to school routine pretty well by now.  The girls are enjoying school and their teachers, and while it’s busy during the weekdays, we’ve gotten into a rhythm of getting homework done and to practices in the evenings.  

Lyla has adopted a little tradition of riding her scooter up to the middle school bus stop every afternoon.  She greets Nina at the bus stop and rides her backpack home for her.  Since the first day of school, she’s gone up every afternoon.  Since that is “her thing” Cayenne and I wait for them on the front porch.

On this occassion, I had taken the pictures of Lyla hanging out on the porch waiting for the time to ride up and get Nina, then Nina came home and joined her hanging out on the porch.  I do love these sweet sister moments.  They love each other and get along well for the most part, but there are definitely days of sister irritation as well.  

 

 

One afternoon while waiting for Nina, my other porch companion was this pretty little mantis.  She didn’t seem to mind getting her picture taken either.  :)

  

On the weekends, we continue to have soccer games for Lyla (and Mark has games he coaches).  Lyla has been enjoying herself and her team this season, and so far we’ve had some sunny and warm game days.

  

  

Nina is adjusting well to middle school.  She has had to adjust to 90 minute blocks of classes, A and B days, going electronic for much of the classroom assignments, and budgeting time for homework.  Since a parent coming to lunch in middle school isn’t as welcome as it was in the elementary school, we’ve started a little tradition of going for a little breakfast treat/mocha or hot chocolate at the coffee shop in our neighborhood two Friday mornings a month.  She also earned herself $10 from a boy in her PE class who bet her that she couldn’t beat him in the physical fitness challenges.  She did, but she was shocked that he actually paid up!  :)   

  

Cayenne still manages to put one paw in front of the other every day.  I’m not sure how she manages with such a rough life.  She does miss having the girls home during the day I think, but she’s back to her routine of going in to wake them up in the morning, and walk Lyla to and from her bus stop, and wait for Nina to come home home on the front porch.  She is a sweet pup!