Spring Sports

Continuing with all things Spring, the kids both played sports during April and May (and into June in Phoenix's case). As usual, Lutece played soccer.

She was on the same team as last fall and enjoyed herself. Stayc acted as Assistant Coach and also enjoyed it. He had a hard time giving up control in the fall, but I think by the spring he was accustomed to it and relieved to not be the one in charge.

Lutece is now in the 6th through 8th grade range, so she was one of the smallest girls on the field (if not the smallest), but her entire team was fairly young, evenly divided between 6th and 7th graders, so she fit in nicely. It was a fun season.

"Fine, I will fake smile for you. Just take the picture!"

Phoenix, on the other hand, begged me to play baseball in the spring. I conceded with some reservations (he IS my child, after all, so I know very well his history with organized sports). As I feared, when it came time to go to practices, he whined and fussed and didn't want to go, and, yes, I forced him to follow through.

"Did you take the picture? Have you taken the picture? I can't hold this smile for much longer."

Fortunately, things got much better. He got to know the boys on his team, he had a great coach, and he improved considerably as the season wore on.

"Ok, now you're just making me angry. Take the picture, will you!!!

The whining ceased and we all had fun going to the games. A note about his coach: He was a college senior at UKY who volunteered because the league didn't have enough coaches. He played Eastern Little League during his youth, and his father had been the President of the league for many years. His parents both came to all the games and rooted for the boys by name. He was a fantastic coach and had a lot of very involved dads as assistant coaches. We couldn't have asked for a better team this year.

Phoenix got to choose his own number. Don't even ask me. I have no idea.

All in all, a good year of spring sports for the DuBravacs.

Snow Days

We had our first good snow on a Saturday in January, followed by many, many snow days . . . not always on Saturdays. All in all, we ended up with just a week's worth of snow days to make up at the end of the school year. Not too bad.

That first big snowy Saturday, we all walked to the local hardware store and bought two new (cheap) sleds with which to enjoy a season worth of snow.

Pig on a hill.

Then we drove over to the big hill at Shriner's Children's Hospital (just a mile away in the other direction) and got down to business sledding.

The kids had a blast. Thank goodness I invested in snow gear the year before. Those snow pants and snow boots sure make a difference! (And by difference, I mean the difference between 1/2 hour of fun in the snow and 3 hours of fun in the snow.)

A few weeks later when the huge blizzard came though in February that canceled school for an ENTIRE week, the kids got many more hours of snowy fun in.

Snow angels, more sledding, and of course . . .

Snow forts!

"There's no bad weather, only bad clothing." That's my new motto.

Ice Skating at Triangle Park

The day Grandma Terry was to leave (sniffle), we all packed into the car, drove her the 15 minutes to the Lexington Airport, and then drove back into downtown Lexington to go ice skating in Triangle Park.

This was our first time at the rink, and we were impressed by what a nice setting it was. The rink is small and very imperfect, but the location is great amidst the historic shopping and high rise buildings that characterize Lexington's downtown.  

Not to mention that even though it was a chilly 30 degress, the sun was out, which made for a lovely afternoon.

Thanks to ice skating lessons last winter (and some natural talent), both of the kids are pretty good at ice skating . . . at least enough to play a rousing game of tag on the ice without knocking over any other patrons.

Lucky Lutece has her very own ice skates since we found a nearly brand new pair at a garage sale last summer. At least they'll fit her this year. Hmm, we may have to go ice skating a time or two more before this winter ends.

 

All said, it was a fun family activity. At the end of our time on the rink, just as the kids were starting to complain about cold toes, Grandma texted me from the airport to tell me that her flight had been cancelled (mechanical problems with the plane). So we drove the 10 minutes back to the airport, picked her up, and took her back home with us.

It worked out perfectly . . . well, except for the 2 hours Grandma Terry had to sit at the airport. Her new flight left the next day at noon, and we got to have her around for another day!

Bowled Over

Per tradition, we went bowling on Christmas Eve morning . . . the last activity in our Christmas activity advent calendar (if you don't count eating Christmas cookies afterward, which is de rigueur).

It was fun, as usual. One notable change: The kids try to roll the ball with more force now, rather than just push it.

Our scores are never as high as we would like though. Perhaps we should go more than once a year if we want to improve.

In fact, Lutece mentioned that she would like a "bowling" party for her next birthday. I'm ALL over that idea! Fun and easy for me!

 

On a completely side note, the kids are wearing their typical "uniforms" in this picture. They have definite preferences this year:

Lutece: skinny jeans (Gap, size 8 :), long-sleeved t-shirt, cardigan sweater

Phoenix: fleece sweatpants, long-sleeved t-shirt (no design or pattern!), sweatshirt or fleece pullover

Who am I to argue?  But I do look for sales.

Fall Soccer

Soccer season ended in October, and it had its challenges this year. As usual, Stayc volunteered to be a coach and was given a team of 12 sixth thru eighth-grade girls to coach.

This was a bit tricky in and of itself, since Lutece is invariably the smallest girl in any group of girls her age. Put her with a bunch of eighth-graders and she looks like a shrimp (see photo above). Not only that, but you've got to be really fast to outrun girls who are two feet taller than you.

Lutece really enjoys soccer though, and you have to go through the rough years when you're the youngest and weakest to grow and develop as a player.

The hardest part of the season came when Stayc realized after three practices with the girls, that his 12-person team had been reduced to a 6-person team (some of the girls just never showed up, some dropped out, and some had conflicts). It was really frustrating. When Stayc expressed his concerns to the league, they responded that they would just pull girls from other teams to play with them so they wouldn't have to forfeit . . . every single week. Ummm . . . lame.

To make a long, sad story short, Stayc finally convinced the league to disband the team and split them up into the other remaining five teams in her age group (which had also lost players). It was a fairly smooth transition, but Stayc felt guilty about it the entire season. It was the first time in four years that he hasn't coached Lutece's team. I think he took it harder than anyone, since the girls and their parents all seemed fine.

All in all it was a fairly enjoyable season. Lutece had fun and improved. Sometimes, that's all you can ask for.

Body Boarding

One of the smartest purchases we made for our week's vacation at the beach were the body boards. I knew Phoenix would love being out in the waves with a board, and so I set about finding one that was decent quality but not too expensive. What I found online were body boards that were either crappy and somewhat expensive ($20-$30) or decent and rather expensive ($40-$60). Neither was a great option.

Then Stayc found a better option. While he and Lutece were out garage-sale-ing (Lutece's request), Stayc came across two body boards selling for $7 a piece. Of course they were of the crappy variety, but at least they were cheap. He called me and I told him if he could get them for $5 a piece, he should buy them. Done deal.
 

Two crappy body boards for $10 for one week at the beach were just what we needed.

 The kids and Stayc used them every single day of the vacation (except Sunday :).

The kids were ready to go out to the beach at 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. every morning.

It was Lutece's and Stayc's second time out each day, since she was up before sunrise every morning and she and Stayc took walks on the beach to see the sun rise.

Stayc was ready to go in by 10:00 a.m., so I stayed out with the kids for the extra hour or two until we headed inside for lunch, the World Cup, and resting, in that order.

When the kids tired of body boarding, there were plenty of other things to do . . .

Like play in the sand.

I, myself, plowed through four large books in seven days and garnered a nice tan. Ahhhh, the beach!

The Season Ends

You didn't even know it had begun, right? Crazy. 

I like this picture of Lutece listening to her coach.

Spring soccer was an eventful season nonetheless. Stayc coached Lutece's team again, with many of the same girls from the fall. They had a good season.

They won some tough games; they lost some they shouldn't have. They were an erratic bunch of girls . . . but good kids :). Lutece just keeps getting better and better, and it's fun to watch her play.*

Sadly, Lutece was sick with the flu (the REAL flu) the same weekend as double header day. She insisted Stayc play her, but she was really sick. Not a good soccer day for her.

It also happened to be picture day. You can't tell from this picture, but she's normally one of the sillier, happier girls on the team. Oh, the flu.

Phoenix also played soccer this season . . . his first time in 3-4 years. Stayc acted as one of the assistant coaches, but missed nearly half of Phoenix's games since Lutece's games were often scheduled at the same time (twice across town on different fields).**

 It was, shall we say, an *interesting* season for Phoenix. There was a little of this . . .

But much more of this. He was a good sport about it, and didn't whine or fuss about practices and games. Still, when the season was over, he very clearly told me that he was NOT playing soccer again. "I won't see any of them again [the other players on his team], because I'm playing baseball next fall." I hear ya kid.

* Phoenix took all the pictures of Lutece's games. I'd hand him the camera and let him go for it. There were not a ton of action shots :).

** Which, of course, means that I missed nearly half of Lutece's games.

Odds and Ends

It's been a LONG time since I've done an Odds and Ends post! Lately, however, I've found that my posts have been sparse because a) I don't take many pictures, and b) I don't have much to say about the little things that are happening in our lives . . . not enough to fill an entire post at least. Perfect for an Odds and Ends post, don't ya think.

1. At the kids' request, I enrolled them in ice-skating lessons this winter. It's been a nice diversion for them on icy Saturday mornings. Wait . . . I lie. Actually, last Saturday, their fourth week, was the first time they didn't complain at the end of the hour of cold or foot pain or fatigue. We're on a roller coaster that only goes up.

2. We bought a new piano! Well, new to us. It's actually 10 years old, but it hasn't been played in the last 5-6 years, so new-ish? It is a lovely Baldwin 248 upright (that we didn't really love the look of . . . we preferred black . . . but it is growing on us). We found it on Craigslist for a good price, and when I asked if they were flexible on the price, they gave an adamant "no." So we went to look at it, Stayc played it, I researched it, and we mulled it over for a week or so. When we finally did call back, we offered an even lower price, and hey, they accepted. We think it was a good purchase. However, we will all be much happier when it has been properly tuned (February 20 can not come soon enough!).

Hello new piano. You are so much prettier than our ugly old piano. When you are tuned, you will sound much better too. (The picture doesn't reflect the wood finish well. It's actually less orange and much richer and smoother.)

3. Lutece won first prize in her division in the school's science fair. Wahoo! She goes on to compete in the District science fair this Saturday (no doubt there will be an entire post on this).

4. We had another snow day yesterday. The four inches of snow wasn't so bad. I think it was the inch of pure ice underneath that worried the city. When I found out that there would be no school on Monday, my first reaction was "Dang! The snow boots I ordered for the kids last week haven't arrived yet!" At least the snow pants had come.