Weekend Warriors

This weekend was packed FULL of excitement for our family.  I’m starting to notice a pleasant trend in that regard, actually.  Of course, we had round two of Gracie’s ballet lessons.  This time, her best fwend, Sara (who Gracie has started to call, “My wittle Sara” for some unknown reason…), was there with her.  They were like two little pink peas in a pod.

Here they are marching, best fwends do, of course:

Please watch Gracie’s little arms. I die.

After her lesson, we boogied on over to the soccer fields where Bean had his second soccer game. And he was AWESOME. He has this really great coach who is doing his very best to find what each kid feels the most comfortable doing. Bean is a little more timid when the action picks up, so his coach runs right along beside him when Bean is playing forward.

He also let’s Bean take any throw in or penalty kick so that Bean gets a lot of chances with the ball without having to be really in the middle of the action.

And, you know, because the coach puts him in positions where Bean is the most comfortable, I see Bean pushing himself even more than he might normally. This weekend he was out there in the middle of the herd! God bless soccer coaches!

(P.S. Are little kid warm ups not the cutest thing ever???????)

After the soccer game (another victory for Bean’s team, even though we aren’t supposed to be keeping score…bad mommy…), we headed to Gainesville to celebrate a very special birthday!

Chris’s Granddaddy is really the only granddaddy that I’ve ever known myself. He has always been the sweetest, kindest man I’ve ever met. Always with a smile on his face. Quick to laugh. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an unkind word come out of that man’s mouth. He turned 80 this weekend, and we met the family in Gainesville to cheer on the Gators for Granddaddy’s birthday.

Now, if you know anything about me or my family or college football in the South or the eternal balance of the cosmos, then you know that the University of Florida Gators and the Florida State Seminoles are HUGE rivals. I happen to be a Seminole, but my sister went to the University of Florida and I married into one of the most vivacious Gator fan families out there. I am always outnumbered on game day, but I do my best to hold my own in my FSU garnet and gold.

But this weekend, in honor of sweet Granddaddy Brown, I wore (gulp) orange and blue…

Oh, I’ll never live it down. FSU friends from far and wide have already been leaving me terrorizing voicemails about what a traitor I am. But I’d do it again for Granddaddy.

Maybe.

We had a really great time at the game, and the kids especially had a blast. They hung in there until the third quarter, and then we had to head to our hotel before the epic long-day-meltdowns began. Surprisingly, though, there were no meltdowns. It was a really fun night celebrating one of my favorite people.

The next morning, we had a goodbye breakfast with Grandma and Granddaddy, and then we drove to my mom’s house to celebrate HER birthday. It was a celebratin’ kind of weekend!

We went out to lunch with my mom and Grandma, and had a really nice afternoon enjoying everyone. My mom is pretty special every day on a regular basis, but on her birthday, we think she is EXTRA special!

(She got a new purse. Can you tell?)

We made it home that afternoon just in time to get some laundry done before the week started. The kids played in their rooms together and Chris and I matched socks while watching MY fantasy football team dominate and HIS flounder (better luck next week, Pookey…).

I love weekends like this one. They fill my heart up with happiness and fortify me into the beginning of the week. Which I desperate needed. School this year has not been fantastic for me, and so these times with family are refreshing and rejuvenating. They pretty much are what keeps me from beating my students over the head with text books.

I’m just keeping it real, kids…