First Game

Esme's been going through a lot of growing pains lately.  I will probably write about it at some point, but the quick and dirty of it is that she's suddenly very nervous and scared of doing things.  On Monday night's soccer practice the coaches told the kids that Wednesday would be their first game.  That immediately made Esme nervous.  She talked about it the next two days.  "What if the other team scores 100 goals and The Butterflies don't score any???", "Mom, I don't know how to play a soccer game!  What if I'm horrible?".  Stuff like that.

I tried my best to reassure her that the other kids were new to soccer and everyone was there to learn how to play a game, but she was still very nervous.  It probably doesn't help that the World Cup is going on and there's a lot of soccer talk in our house. :-/

When she first got there, they warmed up a bit.  She was so nervous she couldn't even listen to the coach and she kept calling me over because she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.  Finally, she got settled in a bit and relaxed.

The game was against The Grasshoppers and it was pretty fun to watch.  At first there were 5 Butterflies to 6 Grasshoppers.  But then one of the Butterflies started crying (it wasn't Esme!) and two of them went to get drinks from their parents.  I'm not sure where the other one was, but at one point it was Esme against 6 Grasshoppers.  And she held her own.

Esme even scored two goals!  She was so excited!  

It's kind of funny to watch the kids play.  They all move like a swarm of bees around the ball.  But at one point the girls figured out that they could block the net.  So they would run down and form a human wall in front of the net.  Esme caught on to that really quick!  We'll have to talk about proper defense at some point! :)

At the end of the game, they all shook hands and then they did the Butterfly cheer.

Go Butterflies!!!

Esme had so much fun that when she got home all she wanted to do was play soccer with her dad.  So they played in the front yard for awhile until it was finally bed time.

I'm hopeful that this has quelled her nerves a bit and she can enjoy the rest of the soccer season nerve free!

Jodie's Birthday

Such a fun day today!

Jodie is lucky enough to have her birthday on the longest day of the year.  This year, Steve decided to rent a pontoon on Lake Minnetonka for the day to celebrate.  It was so fun!

We've had a ton of rain this year.  Because of that, there is a No Wake rule on the lake right now.  It was super nice because normally Lake Minnetonka is pretty crowded, but it was so quiet.  No JetSki's, no speedboats, beautiful!

We had a great time just puttering around the lake.

Laurel and I switched sunglasses and here is the selfie with Jodie and Aaron in the background.

Shortly after this was taken, we got pulled over by the Lake Patrol.  Apparently, you can't walk on the front of the boat while it's moving.  Oops!

We made our way to Maynard's for lunch.

A family or two of geese!

Birthday Girl!

Then we went to the big island to swim.  It was the one crowded place on the lake.  We all had a great time floating around in the water just hanging out.  Esme decided that she wanted to do Chop, Chop, Timbers into the lake.  Basically, jumping in and swimming around the boat, just to crawl back in and do it again.  I bet she jumped in 20 times!

Getting ready to jump in!

At first, I was putting the noodle out for her to grab when she jumped in, but after awhile she just jumped on her own.  She was so comfortable in the water.  Those swimming lessons are paying off for sure.

On the way back, the cupcakes came out.  Esme absolutely doesn't like cake, but she's recently decided that she likes frosting.

That's some bright green frosting!  And each of the cupcakes had a ring on it.  Esme collected quite a few from everyone's cupcake.

And finally at the end, a picture of all the girls together.

Cousins

 Such a great day!  We will all sleep great after a day of sunshine, swimming and fun!

Soccer Star Number 11

We are entering into a new chapter of our lives.  That of the family with scheduled activities.  We have had it pretty easy up until now.  We had swimming weekly, but other than that just a few things here and there.  I sense that things are changing...

Today Esme started soccer for the first time.  She was so excited to go.  And in case you didn't notice, she really loves pink...

Just a girl and her soccer ball

We were supposed to start a couple of days ago, but there was a huge thunderstorm so practice was cancelled.  This spring it just doesn't seem to want to stop raining!

The first thing that happened when we got to practice was that the girls got their uniforms.  There are four teams.  The Butterflies (Esme's team), The Blue Birds, The Grasshoppers and The Ladybugs.  You can guess what three of the four colors of uniforms would be and you would be right.  While we were driving to practice we tried to guess what color the Butterflies might be.  Aaron and I thought yellow.  You will not be surprised to hear that Esme guessed pink.  We were all wrong.  Somehow Burnt Sienna (????) was not a color I would have ever guessed.

Lovin' soccer!

Oh well, she was happy because she knows that orange is my favorite color. :)  It turns out there are two girls that Esme knows on her team.  Elena and Morgan.  How fun is that?!?

Tonight's practice was a lot of dribbling and playing games that encouraged dribbling.  I can only hope it gets more exciting.  Forty five minutes of dribbling is a lot to watch!  But Esme seemed fine with it.  

As a North Dakotan who had never watched a soccer match until I met my husband, I have a lot to learn.  And today I learned two new terms, the first of many I'm sure.  Dancing on the Ball and Nutmeg-ing, both from Aaron.  The coaches called Dancing on the Ball - Toe Tapping.  I don't know if they had a name for nutmeg-ing.  I will definitely try to get a video of Esme demonstrating.

But for now, here are a few more pictures of our little soccer girl!

I think Esme's going to love soccer.  It's definitely in her blood.  I'm excited to see where she goes with it!

Esme's 5th Birthday

For Christmas, Esme wanted a Barbie Remote Control Helicopter.  Santa did his best to get it, but it showed up on our doorstep long after Christmas.  I guess that's what happens when Santa orders things from China...

Anyhew...

Esme never forgot about it and when you asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said the same thing.  A Barbie Remove Control Helicopter.  It was so fun to see her open all of her birthday presents but particularly this one.

Next it was time to take it out to fly.

Sadly, it only really goes up for a bit and then back down.  We have to work on the remote control because it appears to only be for show.  It doesn't drive the thing whatsoever.  Aaron tried to see if he could make it work but it will take a bit of work.  He has some ideas to fix it, so hopefully we can get it flying soon.

One of the other things that Esme really wanted when we were at Disney was a Merida wig.  When she got her makeover and picked Merida, she was really disappointed that she didn't end up with long, red, curly hair.  I was able to find one once we got home and she was thrilled with it!

And finally, this girl loves Legos so we had to get her a Lego set.

I think she was very pleased with her birthday.  For dinner, we invited Nick, Andi and Lydia over and Esme and Lydia had a great time playing.  It was a nice, low key birthday.

Happy 5th Birthday my love!

Tots???

Invitation

Response

And it was off to Serum's from there!