Super Saturday - Fall Season Soccer Finale

A week ago was the final weekend of soccer games for Keagan, and the association calls it Super Saturday because there are pretty much two back-to-back games. It probably means more to the bigger kids, where score is actually kept and there are winners and losers. (That sounds bad...but you know what I mean...) But for Keagan's age, everyone's a winner! So the roughest part about Super Saturday is having to brave the cold (46 degrees that day) and wind, and toting a one year old around. Luckily Gama and Poppy came to watch Keagan play (he was very surprised!) and kept Finley company too. Finn was the best he's ever been at big brother's soccer games. I brought the wagon this time to carry Finn and all our stuff because Josh had to work all weekend, and this was a great idea. You can bet I will be bringing the wagon from now on to events like this!

Keagan played outstanding in his first game. They played the Pink team. And they played the Pink team (all girls) every game because they were the only other U4 team this season. It was helpful to our boys though, because they could figure out who to take the ball from and which goal to kick towards. At one point during the season I heard Keagan loudly say to his teammates, during a game mind you, that "Boys go to that Goal, and Girls go to that Goal!" It was really helpful. Now, I don't know what will happen next year when his team likely plays another team of all boys. But we will cross that bridge if/when it happens. Here are some great videos of Keagan scoring during the first game. He scored 4 goals! My voice is more irritating than ever in these videos, just know that I know this. I really should just keep my mouth shut...what I am "yelling" to Keagan isn't helpful. At all. And he probably didn't even hear it...but you get to. Or you can mute it and just watch him. Oh, and he's the one with a black hood on his head and white striped pants. Or the one doing the scoring...because why would I post a video of another kid....

 

Good Game. Good Game. Good Game....

Getting his trophy! Keagan doesn't look proud of his trophy in this picture, but you better believe it is proudly displayed on his dresser. He was super proud of it! :)

After the first game, the boys had soccer pictures. I don't know when I will receive the professional pictures, but I snapped a few of my own. Keagan's picture smile is pretty goofy these days, unless you capture him in his own element. So no telling how the professional ones will turn out!! During the team picture, the photographer told the boys to look serious. Keagan put his hands on his hips. Wonder where he got that...

I have to say that this season's soccer experience was fantastic. I couldn't be happier and I can only hope that Coach Brad will do this again, and Keagan can be on his team! He and Mrs. Robin did a great job not only coaching the boys, but loving them and allowing them to be little boys. It was such a great team experience and Keagan thoroughly enjoyed himself. And I couldn't be happier as a soccer mom (yep, I said it. I am a soccer mom. I need a mini van now. Ugh.). You can see it in his face how much he enjoyed himself!

The second game...a bit of a doozy for Keagan. He was worn out, bored, cold, and lacking attention. Combine that with a pretty good fall (check out the video) and an elbow to the eye and he was d.o.n.e.  So he and one of his teammates played on, under, and around the bench under Mrs. Robin's watchful eye. What he played, he played good. But he didn't play much at all the second game.

 

I think Keagan will play again in the Spring time, at least I hope he wants to. He is getting pretty good at it. Well, "good" is relative to age...  But in between games he told me he wanted to play baseball next year. Soooo, we will see what we get into in the spring! 

Discovery Park of America

Over the past year and a half when Josh and I would go through or to Union City, TN, we would see this crazy looking structure being built. And then there was a sign to give the structure a name: Discovery Park of America. We immediately looked it up and found that it would be opening Fall 2013. The date seemed so far off. But then November 1st rolled around and Josh and I didn't have to work so we were looking for things to do with the boys. Suddenly we remembered Discovery Park...and lo and behold, November 1st was the ribbon cutting grand opening! So we loaded the kids up and drove the hour drive, waited in line and bought tickets (well, year memberships!) and then went and played. The line to get tickets took forever...and the boys were antsy. But once we got inside we pretty much had the place to ourselves, oh and media crews! Most people were buying tickets/memberships then leaving. This place is such a gem to our region and is so neat...the boys enjoyed it and it was super cool for adults too! I can't wait to go back and explore some more.

Toddler center! The bathtub in the background behind Keagan is filled with this substance called Living Sand. It is sand and looks like sand, plays like sand, builds like sand...but it isn't messy! It is so strange that I can't describe it...you'd just have to play with it.

 

The water discovery station. Keagan and Finn both really enjoyed this station. They were both soaked by the time it was over.

 

While I found the entire park amazing, I thought it was really cool to step into one part of the museum and see this: a reproduction of the Ark of the Covenant. I have been reading the Bible chronologically since January (we are doing this as a church) and the Old Testament talks a lot about the Ark of the Covenant. The descriptions are very detailed in the Bible but it was so neat to visualize it!

Getting to play "inside" the aquarium!

Outside on the grounds: first stop was a settlement and Keagan learned about making chairs and Finn, well...Finn learned about what gravel tastes like. And kept trying to run away from us!

Tractor museum! Since no one was in there we pretty much let the boys run wild! Wide open spaces...

 

Ringing the school bell!

Back inside the main museum we found some old cars, war memorabilia, and aircraft. The kids went nuts when they realized they could actually play inside the helicopter! Oh me...  And just to give you a visual, we had to take the little one out of the exhibit kicking and screaming (literally). Good thing there weren't a ton of people in there!

No one is too old, or too young, for discovering stuff! :)