Never in my life have I been more excited to turn the page in our calendar!
Back in February, Bryon and I were discussing the sports schedule for the Spring. The way soccer works, is you play on a team in the fall, and you have to play in the spring in order to stay on the same team the next fall. Last year, Matthew played soccer and baseball in the spring, and Thomas played just soccer in the spring, and baseball in the summer.
After much discussion, we decided that is wasn't fair that only Matthew played Little League in the spring. Bryon agreed to work a little less during the spring to help with ferrying kids around to their activities. We were going to give this schedule a one year shot, and see what happened.
We knew that March, and especially April would have a brutal schedule. With two soccer and baseball schedules, LTC practice, and piano for the boys, we had 2,3, or 4 things going on every night. Not to mention mounds of homework getting ready for the TAKS test, Thomas's 1st grade musical, Easter, and our church's Ladies Retreat. And then, there was the whole saga of Grandma getting sick and dying. I will try to write that post today or tomorrow...
It has been difficult, but also lots of fun! Soccer was great like always. Thomas and Matthew are both goalies for their teams. Matthew also plays defender, and Thomas is a forward at times. I make no bones about the fact that soccer is my favorite sport for the boys. My wish is that they stick with it, but we shall see what happens. They will ultimately have to make that decision.
Baseball has been great as well, although I think that there is way too much of a time commitment. Both boys practice or play 3-4 times each week, and many of Matthew's games start at 8p.m.
Thomas has loved his first year in baseball! He has surprised us with his ability to smack the ball into the outfield most times at bat. One funny thing to mention is that with Thomas's laid back approach to everything, he isn't the fastest runner, so he has often hit the ball where it stops at the fence, and he gets a single out of it! ;)
Thomas, Bryon, and I have made the executive decision that we are going to put Thomas in golf instead of baseball next year. His ability to smack the ball, and his laid back approach to life just scream GOLF to me! He is so excited to get started! I also feel strongly that Thomas needs his own "thing" that Matthew doesn't do. Although he has never said one word about it, I imagine that it isn't always easy being in big brother's shadow. Golf would be something that he could share with Bryon that is separate and apart from Matthew's interests.
Matthew continues to improve in baseball. He has been playing right field and third base. Matthew almost had an unassisted double play at third on Saturday (he caught a line drive and tagged the runner on third, but the tie went to the runner). Matthew really loves soccer and baseball, so we are probably going to give it another go next year.
Thomas's baseball will wrap up this week, and soccer is winding down as well. We are going to miss the fun games, but are so excited about having our nights at home again. We have had a few nights at home this past month, and we savored every minute of it! This experience has made us not take those seemingly simple nights at home for granted.
Now we only have to get through that simple, peaceful end of the school year stuff, right?
