First Soccer Practice

Okay, I totally see why most people don't have 3 year old teams. That is way too young of an age to expect them to practice, follow instructions and deal well with chaos.



All these photos are in reverse order and I don't have the patience to move them around--it's not so simple on blogger. This is us leaving practice. Joey was all smiles because he begged to go the whole time and I had to bribe him with oreos to get him to finish practice. He's ready to cash in on my promise.

He didn't get to practice with the net, and that's the only thing he really wanted to do. So as we were leaving the field, he played in there a few minutes.

Getting tangled in the net. He literally got his head stuck in the holes at least twice.

Throwing the ball into the net. He'd had enough kicking for one day.

At the end of practice they had a group huddle. The only time Joey smiled the whole time was playing with that flag.

This is getting close to the end of practice, and you can see his attention span has run out. He liked to put the ball in the cones that marked his team, the Crimson Eagles' playing field.

...and put the cone on his face...

...and sit in the cone...

I did get a few shots of him actually kicking and running and cooperating, but that took a lot of coaxing from me, Earl and all 3 coaches.

This is my favorite shot. Earl cheering him on, and his tongue hanging out like he's concentrating so hard!

They kept kicking the soccer balls out into the field and having the kids run to get them and dribble them back. But Joey would run out, find his ball and sit on it. He'd wait till all his teammates were done and back at the other end of the field, before he'd get up and kick his ball back.

Some of the team preparing for a mad rush across the field.

This is what Joey looked like for the first 30 min of practice.

Earl showed up as soon as he got off from work. The field was chaos. Many, many teams practicing at once. So I thought he could find me faster by seeing the person taking pictures of him. He didnt...

Starting practice.

Chit chatting with another kid who really didn't want to cooperate either. At least Joey wasn't the only one. LOL
If we didn't already pay the fee, I'd not make him go back. He didn't want to go anyway. Although he's been excited about it for weeks. And when we got there, he just didn't want to do what everyone else was doing. I don't expect him to be the family soccer star. Well, there's always football, right?

This is the other night, in a pair of new pajamas. It's not really cold enough for long sleeve/long pants, but he was chilly that night.

Also, went to do a pregnancy test at the doctor's office today and they estimated the due date as May 20th. I got a referral to another doctor because my office doesn't deal with pregnancies, so I should be making my first appointment this week.

The Good News

Well, everyone knows already, but I can't get enough of saying it: We're going to have another baby! We are beyond thrilled and can't wait. I think my due date will be around May 19th, but the doctor can tell me for sure. Joey says he's happy that there is a baby in my belly, too.
He wants a little sister.

Joey had his first day of preschool on Wednesday. He loved it.

This is before preschool.

We got only a brief visit with family while we were in Asheville.

This is the deck my dad just built, with help from my Uncle Johnny. It's not finished yet, but looks great!

And Congrats to my dear friends Charity and Jason Webb who had their sweet little boy a couple weeks ago. I'm so glad I got to meet him. He's adorable. And Big Brother Eric is a big help!

Joey has his first soccer practice on Monday, depending on the weather, and his first game on Saturday. Earl is gone this weekend to NJ for a motorcycle rally, so we miss him and hope he's having fun.

Clearing Out

We went to Asheville this weekend to help clear out Earl's parents place since they're staying in Georgia permanently now. It was a busy, crowded, fun weekend.

Ray came to help too.

The kids playing on the dangerous ramp. Yes, one did fall. Yes, it was my clumsy son. Yes, he's fine.

Hunter and Joey.

Loading up the Roberts' A Model.

Chris--not helping.

The boys trying to load it up.

The little ones tackling Ben.

This is what Louise did the whole weekend: sit down and rest, didn't move a muscle to help.

;)

Kangaroo Jac's

Here in Chesapeake we have a Kangaroo Jac's, which is like Monkey Joe's in Wilmington, except half the size, and less than half as clean. ;)
Joey played only about 45 minutes before he was ready to go, which is odd, since he usually can't be torn away from bounce houses. But he had fun.

He also had preschool orientation tonight. He loved it. He got to play with the toys in the classroom and did not want to leave. He met some of his classmates and his teacher and he seemed to enjoy everyone. There are 10 kids in his class, including himself. He starts preschool on the 9th, and will go Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. His preschool is in our Church, so he's familiar with the building.

One of the cutest things he does right now that I keep forgetting to mention in blogs is the way he remembers past days. Instead of using "yesterday" or "the other day" or something like that, he says, "the last day." He uses that to mean yesterday, or the other night, or last week, or even last year. LOL He'll say, "Mom, do you remember that last day, when me and you and ....." It's funny.

Busch Gardens

We went to Busch Gardens on Sunday and had so much fun. There really isn't any way to fit in everything you want to do in one day there. And we were very limited to what we could do since Joey can only ride a very, very, small amount of rides. And we still didn't have enough time in the day. Busch Gardens is only about a 45 minute drive for us, and once a year, military can get a free pass, so we did that.

Joey's first stop when we got there. He did not want to leave this water fun. He would have stayed there all day if he could.

Joey wouldn't go to Elmo alone. He did give him "five" with Daddy holding him.

The gang. Earl, Joey, Stephen pushing the stroller, Katrina holding baby Ashlynn, and Walker.

Joey riding with his friend Walker, who was so nice and rode a lot of little kid rides with Joey so he didn't have to do it by himself.

Me and Joey are on the far right side of this picture, in front of the worm's head.

Waiting in line...

We were very lucky. It wasn't crowded at all. There were hardly any lines for anything, even the crazy roller coasters.

On Prince Elmo's Spire ride, Joey kept telling everybody "Hold your hands up!" like he was on a roller coaster or something.

Watching the Sesame Street show.

Joey saw this tree and immediately ran into that little door, then all of a sudden he came running out like he saw a ghost or something. It was hilarious. We went to go see what scared him and turns out, it talks to you when you're in there. Ha ha.

Walker, Joey and Earl.

Joey and Earl got to pet the Clydesdale horses.

This is us eating lunch. Our friends, the Spivey's, showed us around. They have season passes and go all the time, so they knew exactly where to lead us for Joey rides.

Joey loved all the rides he got to go on. There were many he couldn't do that he wanted to, because he's too little, but he kept saying, "I'll go on that ride. I'm not afraid."

In the Land of the Dragons, there was a ton of stuff for the kids to play on, like tree houses and water stuff.

He rode this hot air balloon ride twice.

He loved anything that had water in it.