living room soccer

Despite the fact that playing soccer in the iving room is strongly discouraged, it must be said that it regularly occurs and is good fun.

Patient Jasper, hoping for Seb's uneaten pepperoni pizza slice. Never occurs to him that he could just lift his chin onto the table and eat it.

St Patrick's Day!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with an Irish feast - lamb stew, braised cabbage, Irish soda bread, and a chocolate Guinness cake. Yum.

Seb in SF

While we were in Redmond for basketball, Sebastian flew with his soccer team to San Francisco for a college showcase soccer tournament. We dropped him off at the airport at 9:30 on Friday; they flew as a team and all stayed together in a hotel in San Jose. They toured Stanford that afternoon (Seb: meh). They played two games on Saturday, winning both (2-1 and 1-0) and then two on Sunday (winning 3-1 and losing 3-1). On Monday they toured the University of San Francisco and Golden Gate park, and then flew home.

It was apparently exhausting but fun. Very few photos were shared -- but we're glad he went.

State basketball tournament

Liesl's 6th grade basketball team was invited to the State Championship tournament, held this weekend in Redmond, OR. They finished 3rd in the Portland Interscholastic League and thus earned a spot. We drove out on Friday through a snowstorm in the mountains, arriving safely in time for their 6 pm game.

The competition turned out to be quite fierce, and some of the teams had an enormous size advantage over our team (as well as better shooting skills and game sense). Liesl's team lost their first two games by wide margins. But Liesl played spectacularly well, showing a lot of focus and stamina, fierce defense, and incredible improvement in her ball handling skills. Her coach played her a lot - she got a lot of minutes of playing time - moving around from the 2 position to the 3 and the 1, depending on who else was on the court. 

We went out for pizza on Friday night with Elia at Grace and Hammer pizzeria in a converted church.

 

After the Saturday morning game, the girls got lunch and then spent hours in the Eagle Crest indoor pool. They had chicken fights and color races and they splashed and screamed for hours. It was total mayhem in there. Mieke and I tried to watch, but then fled the premises for a nearby coffee shop.

 

Jasper and I also got in a long trail run on Saturday - 6.5 miles up Cline Butte, which rises above the Eagle Crest development, and out and back along a ridgeline of unmarked BLM lands. It was gorgeous.

The girls played two games on Sunday: a close loss to the top team in the PIL at 9 am, and a win over an arch-rival, Cleveland, at 1 pm. (We had played Cleveland twice before - lost the first game, won the second by one point, and then this time won convincingly 33-12.) It was great to have a win for the final game of the season. Liesl was again fantastic out there - she actually drove to the basket and took a layup a few times, scoring once, getting fouled twice, and just looking so comfortable and awesome.

Diving for a loose ball.

Look at the size of the girl she's defending!!

 

Before the last game, Liesl drew a picture of coaches Naomi and Isabel (recent college grads who were middle and high school basketball teammates and best friends) to give them as a thank you gift.

Back: Coach Naomi; Greta, Liesl, Gwen, Elia, Bailey, Lily, Tess, Ragan, Coach Isabel.

Front: Alli, Campbell, Arianna

snow running

Anja and I are both running half-marathon races this spring; she has a trail race on March 25, and I have a paved trail race on April 16. So our training plan said we had to run 8 miles this week. You would think that the snow-covered trail and 32 degree temperature would be a deterrent, but you would be wrong. We got out there and made it the entire distance, slipping and sliding and getting absolutely soaking wet feet. Next week, 9 miles. We're just hoping for some solid footing.

churro-making party

Seb's Spanish teacher gave them a group assignment to select a recipe featuring a Spanish or Latin American dish, and to cook it together, narrating the process in Spanish, all captured on video, which was to be submitted along with a sample of the food in question. Seb, Peyton, Nathan, and Jack decided to make churros with nutella. They gathered here on Sunday to bake and deep fry; much hilarity ensued. But in the end, they were very happy with their finished product and the video they created.