Three Sport Weekend

This weekend we had what I would consider a "normal" weekend.  Just busy enough to keep us occupied, but still with a little downtime--enough to nod off on Saturday afternoon and have a lazy Sunday evening.  But otherwise we had a bunch of stuff to do!

Saturday morning we had our monthly therapist appointment, which of course meant more discussions about Jacob's allowance and chores and cell phone wishes.  Ugh.  After a quick lunch at home, it was time for Carter's first soccer practice!  It's going to be an outdoor soccer season, but the weather stinks right now so it meant indoor practice, on one of the same fields that Jacob has played lacrosse on all these years!

Carter had a blast.  He looked pretty good out there.  He did a good job dribbling, and while he tended to get tempted every time he passed by the net, he did well.  He also had a tendency to chat up his teammates, but what else is new?

He also had a tendency to stay in goal during the scrimmage, even though they weren't using goalies!  He'll probably need a million reminders to listen to his coach and stay in position, and this will definitely be typical little kid soccer all around, so I'm sure it will be an interesting season.  But he was even more excited about soccer after practice was over, so hopefully this will be right up his alley.

After the rest of the afternoon at home (with the aforementioned catnap), it was time for the last Knighthawks game of the season.  We haven't been to many this year because Jacob is anti-lacrosse and Carter gets bored.  But with all of the changes coming up for the team, I insisted we go.  The team as we know it is moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia for next season.  A new team will be in Rochester in its place, with the same name but new ownership and players, and most likely a different feel.  It's a long weird story.  We're all bummed to see so much young talent go, and no one's very happy that the history (including all five championships) technically go with the franchise.  But obviously you can't change what happened here.  It's still Rochester lacrosse history, and could even still be considered part of "Knighthawks" history since the team name will be the same, but it does create some awkwardness.  The good news is that Craig will come out of this just fine--more on that soon.

But before the game he was honored for the first time with a team award!  He won the 7th Man award, which goes to a non-player who goes above and beyond for the team, as voted by the players.  He had multiple players tell him he should have won it sooner, but at least it finally happened!

It was hard to get a good shot, but I didn't think to get a shot of it on the scoreboard.

But at least I got this one!

It was a great honor for him--and definitely well deserved after nearly 20 years with the team and 18 as the broadcaster.  He's almost always mentioned in the thank yous of Hall of Fame inductees, so he's been long respected by the players.  He's definitely gone above and beyond for a very demanding owner most recently, so this was really nice to see.  We also got to see the team's long-time #1 fan get an award for his service to the team, which made for an all-around great night.  I helped him and his wife get engaged during a halftime promo when I worked there, so my memories there will always be linked to him, too.

The team had a horrible first half, scoring only one goal, but luckily mounted an exciting comeback in the second half that made the arena sound like the old days for a while.  The comeback ultimately fell a couple goals short, but it made for an exciting ending.  But then it was time to say goodbye, which was definitely a little sad.  The players huddled in the center of the field for a minute...

...and then saluted the fans.

Then our best player addressed the audience, which got me a little choked up.  Of course, it lightened the mood when he accidentally dropped an f-bomb (and immediately caught himself) :)

The new era will be an interesting journey with memories all its own, but it was hard to say goodbye to this one.  It's been one heck of a ride.

On Sunday we went to Buffalo for my cousin's little girl's first birthday.  For all of my fun cakes that are passably decent, I have to share this one.  The woman who made this cake (and all of the cakes for that branch of the family) actually made our wedding cake, too, and they are soooo good.  But this one was incredibly adorable to match the Baby Shark theme!

It even says, "Baby Shark Do Do Do" on the side!  It was so amazingly beautiful and completely adorable!

Emmy did a great job all day--but apparently this cake was serious business!

Jacob spent most of the party sulking because there was a gym attached to the place where the party was, and he wanted to go play basketball.  I told him that if the opportunity presented itself to ask any of our family members who were members at this club, I would ask if he could play.  And finally it worked out, and he was thrilled when he was allowed!  Carter wanted to run around like a maniac as well, and he and Craig got in a couple soccer games.  By the time I went in there, all three of them were sweaty messes...but both boys were thrilled!

Of course, sweaty Carter stripped off his shirt when I got in there, and when I tried to take a picture, he ran.  You can see him peeking in this one.

Jacob loved shooting, particularly since our weather has been crap lately, including snow on Saturday.

At the end of the party, Emmy got to watch them play, and I guess she loved it!  Little kids always love watching big kids!

All in all it was a good weekend.  More tiring than expected, but fun overall!  And the best news is that we have Craig back on weekends for a while!  Now if I can just make it through a crazy work week and the weather could improve, we'd be in business!