soccer game

this morning was rainy.  very rainy and pretty cool too.  matt was playing in a golf tournament (assuming the course stayed open) so it was up to me to get madelyn to soccer.  normally this isn't a huge deal - i take them all places by myself almost daily.  but today is was raining.  it didn't occur to me until we were almost there that we would have to walk in the rain and sit in the rain.  how was i going to push a stroller, carry two lawn chairs, two open umbrellas and hold maddux' hand?!  (the walk from the parking lot to the field is not that short.)  mercifully, madelyn's field was moved inside (there were a lot of games still going on outside) and as an extra bonus, God gave us a parking spot as close to the door as you can get in the overflowing parking lot!

the kids had some behavior (read: tired) problems getting ready and into the car but they were all great once we got there.  madelyn even seemed in fairly good spirits about playing today.

madelyn had a pretty good start to the game but fell down and asked to go out, crying.  and then she kept crying because she wasn't scoring the goals for her team (there is one crazy good kid on her team that always seemed to be in when she was) but her coach thought that she was hurt again and kept sending her out.  about the third time she complained to me that she didn't want to stop playing and i explained that if she wasn't crying so much she would play more. 

she turned things around and had a great second half.  she and the crazy good kid kicked the ball at the same time for a goal, she got up and kept playing without crying when she would fall and she had an awesome steal at the end of the fourth quarter. (madelyn said that the goal didn't count because she didn't get to kick it by herself. i told her that she just had to be faster.)  i might have cheered a little too loudly about the steal.  the girl she stole it from is about maddux' size and i can only think to describer her as a "tasmanian devil"!  that girl is crazy fast and aggressive!  she is throwing elbows and can run faster than anyone out there.  she scored every goal for her team.  and her parents were yelling things like, "let's go up by three" in a game where there isn't an official score being kept.  at the end of the game i realized that they were friends with our team's coach and probably just trying to rub it in, but still.  this is kindergarten and supposed to be fun.  plus, the number of goals seemed to be pretty even (it is difficult to keep track when you are caring for three other children while trying to watch the game).

mason was so excited that manning was holding his hand.

i was so proud of madelyn's change in attitude for the second half of the game.  i think soccer is really helping to teach her about hard work with a good attitude.  it has also been useful in learning to lose gracefully (especially when she considers it possible to lose to her own teammates).  love.