Weekend Activities

We had an extremely active weekend and I am very glad to be working from home today after it. We started it off by attending a Halloween party at the McKenzies. Amanda worked hard to get our costumes together and I think that they came out pretty good.

Being Barney and Betty Rubble was pretty easy, though in the future I have to remember how static electricity works as my costume kept clinging to my shorts. Nevertheless, the costumes were a hit.

Saturday morning brought frost and soccer. This was our last game, so I mixed up the players and positions a bit more. Noah was on offense and alertly stayed near the goalie while the goalie tried to drop-kick the ball. He picked up the trash and put it in the net! This was very exciting for us as it was a pure hustle play. We came home in the afternoon and had some grilled burgers before I watched the first half of Ohio State's pasting of Penn State.

Sunday we went to church early and then got ready for the Monster Dash 5k. Here are Amanda and her sisters in their Pink Ladies getups.

The race was an unqualified success for all. The ladies ran through the whole thing. I finished with a PR of 23:46, which made me happy. Then we headed over to Lilly's Pizza to eat and drink some carbs. Brenna spent the night last night, so I took Noah out to Buffaloe Lanes to play some arcade games and earn tickets. We finished with a long browse at Target, which is one of his favorite things to do.

All in all, it was a very successful weekend. Today I have a parent-teacher meeting with Noah's teacher. I am looking forward to what she thinks.

Soccer Night

We had a wonderful confluence of events last night. NC State's men's soccer team started the season 6-0 and was ranked 14 in the nation. They were hosting top-ranked Maryland last night. When I found out that admission is $5 for adults and free for anyone 17 or under, I had to take the kids.

State started off strong by scoring at the 4:37 mark, but then Maryland woke up. We got to see penalty kicks on both sides, which was fun. In the end, the local eleven fell 3-2. They put up a valiant effort, but were clearly outmatched by a superior team.

For the most part, we had a great time. I took the kids to Sweet Frog beforehand, which is always popular. We arrived in time to see the players finish their warmups, which Noah enjoyed. The kids made a lot of trips to the drinking fountain during the game, but other than that they seemed interested in what was happening. And, to top it all off, we didn't get a ticket where we parked. I didn't think we would, but I do get a little nervous parking on college campuses.

I would take them to more games, but they are often on school nights. The next thing Lily wants to see is a Cary High football game. I'm still going to push soccer though. That's the sport I want Noah interested in playing.

Swooping

Our local soccer team had a scrimmage last night against a local college. Thanks to the magic of Google Reader I saw in the local paper that tickets were only $5. I figured this was a good chance to give Amanda an evening without Lily, so I took her to it. What's funny is that she wanted watch "Lady & the Tramp" for the umpteenth time and was angry when I told her not to watch it because we were going to do something else. When I told her that we were going to a soccer game she changed her tune and got excited.

We got there a little too early, which is no surprise to anyone who has ever attended a sporting event with me. The game was not on the stadium's main field, but it was on one of the smaller adjoining fields. Both teams were practicing on one field and we got to walk right up to the field to watch. Lily really enjoyed watching them practice. After the teams went back to the locker rooms for their pregame talks Lily and I walked around the pitch. She got it in her head that we should race to the flags. Our first race was maybe 15 yards. Our second race was another short one. Our final race went the whole length of the pitch. Lily actually ran from one end of a regulation soccer field to the other. She can now run faster than I can walk, but trotting behind her was not too hard. She was a little winded when we finished, but it was still impressive. I was glad for a little jog to warm up a little bit as the temperature got into the low 50s as the sun went down.

Carolina scored an early goal, but I don't think Lily really understood what was happening. Her favorite thing was to see the ball get kicked long and high. Precise passing and dribbling didn't excite her so much. At about the 35th minute she was getting bored and thirsty, so we went back up to the bathroom. I suggested we watch the game for just a few minutes more and that was when she saw Swoops.

You may recall from last year that Lily was terrified of the mascot. This year she got excited to see him. In fact, she even gave him a high-five. We hung out long enough for halftime and Lily got an autographed photo of him.

In the end, Lily's three favorite things seemed to be:

• Seeing Swoops


• Watching the ball boy (he was around 10)


• Seeing the ball get kicked really high and far

A splendid time was had by all. And the bonus was that Noah was really sweet for Amanda.

A New Sport

One of my coworkers has season tickets to the Carolina Railhawks. I've considered taking Lily to a game, but they start kind of late and the cheapest seats are $10 each. That's a little bit more than I'd want to spend on something that Lily wouldn't really concentrate on. In fact, that costs more than seeing the Durham Bulls.

However, this coworker got a small set of free tickets for the game tonight which he graciously offered to a select group of people. I took a pair and had fun with Lily at the game. She didn't really watch it and the highlight for her was running up and down the stairs with a group of girls she met. Of course, at about the 80 minute mark I told her that it was time to go and she protested in saying that she wanted to watch more of the game. I told her that we'd stay as long as she kept watching. To her credit she did keep watching.

She didn't get to bed until after 9:30 tonight, but I think it was worth it. We had fun at the game despite having to pay $5 to park, $2.50 for a bottle of water, and $3 for a mediocre cinnamon-sugar pretzel. Evenings like this don't happen all the time and it was fun to have a daddy/daughter night out.

I'm thinking that soccer may be Lily's only chance at a team sport. Hopefully she will be a faster runner than her mommy or daddy and be able to be a speedy forward.