More Soccer

This week Christian attended soccer camp at the high school each morning and had a wonderful time.  It was great because he could ride his bike to and from the camp and I was free to take Benjamin to marching band camp (across town) which was at the same time.   In the evening he had soccer practice with his team.  The season is over but the coach is so amazing that he has offered to continue to hold practices (for free) all summer.  He does them at the park in his neighborhood which has a wonderful little playground next to it.  Peter has an unlimited attention span for swings and sandboxes which this park has, so he's always happy to come to soccer practice too.

This is the face that Peter makes if you ask him to smile.  Cracks me up every time.

Soccer camp at the high school.  I only watched on the last day and came late enough that pretty much all the action was over.  He said he wishes it were every morning all summer.  I'm so happy he had a good time because he didn't want to do it at first.  He was nervous to be with all those strangers.  Then he told me, "I realized I'm missing out on such great stuff just because of people!  That's dumb.  I want to do it."  I was proud my little introvert pushed himself out of his comfort zone and saw the benefits of it. 

Soccer practice at the park.  They were on the blacktop this day to practice with the ball moving faster. 

Now that school is out, we've been trying to find as many non-screen activities as we can.  Peter and Christian and I went exploring in an unfamiliar section of woods and found a wrecked truck.  The boys thought that was really cool.  How do trucks end up in the middle of the woods??

We also went to the beach.  What a change from last year.  Benjamin didn't want to go and couldn't be persuaded.  Bella didn't want to go, but I forced her.  She complained and asked "When are we going home?" no less than 20 times in the 1.5 hours that we were there.  Christian tried to be happy and optimistic but it's hard when your sister is acting so miserable.  Luckily we had some good moments and I don't regret going, but we're seriously in the teenage phase of parenting and I really don't like it as much as the younger ages.  When they were little they loved going to parks, playing on the beach, splashing in puddles, etc.  Now just getting them to leave their bedroom is a challenge. Nothing ever compares to staying home on a screen.  And certainly hanging out with family is never as good as hanging out with friends.  Thank goodness I still have Peter.

Peter's smile again: