Jasper and the wildflowers

Jasper loves spring - the fresh grass (he's like a goat), the flowers (again, goat-like), the smells and sun. He wriggles in joy amid the daisies.

Okay, to be fair, this was Sebastian and me messing with the dog, piling cherry blossoms on his head and ordering him to sit and stay while we guffawed mercilessly and took photos. Such a good boy.

weekend sports

We had a very busy weekend of sports -- Liesl's team played in the quarterfinal soccer game on Saturday, winning 3-1, which was awesome and amazing. She had a great game and her team was so aggressive and spirited on both offense and defense. The semifinal game was on Sunday, against the strongest team in the state, the Thorns' development team. They lost that game badly (10-0), which was a bummer though not unexpected. We remain so proud of her and of her sweet, fun, goofy, hardworking teammates.

Sebastian's baseball team played in their first tournament of the season, with games Saturday at 8 am and 10:15, and again on Sunday at 8 and 10:15. We had to wake up pretty early to get breakfast and make it to the field for 7:15 warmups, which was not fun, and his team did not experience a great deal of success, which was also not fun. They lost three and won one, but one of their losses was terrible -- 16 runs scored by the other team in their first inning, which ended the game as per mercy rules. Seb pitched a good outing in the third game, throwing 80 pitches over 3 2/3 innings. He only walked one batter, but their opponents were hitting his pitches pretty regularly and so it was 11-5 when he came out. Oh well -- on to the next game and tournament. He plays on Tuesday and Thursday night this week and has another weekend tourney.

Seb's first day of school

After more than a year, Sebastian returned to school on Monday, for 2.5 hours in the afternoon. He'll return again on Tuesday on the same schedule, and otherwise continue with distance learning. It's not ideal, honestly -- such a short amount of time, and only two days a week -- and we're still not sure if there will be instruction in the classrooms or just homework ("asynchronous learning"). I was still excited for him to get on the bus and actually go to school, to meet his teachers and classmates, and be in a different environment for a few hours. He was less excited at the prospect, and the two days this week were not very fun (no friends in his particular class/cohort; sitting at your desk working on your computer). We'll see how it goes and if it gets better.

State Cup soccer tourney

Amazingly, Liesl's soccer team won their division of the State Cup Tournament, which means they not only qualified for the quarter-finals next Saturday, but they get home-field advantage as the top seed in their bracket. (The State Cup is the highest-level end-of-season tournament in Oregon; 16 teams at each age group are invited and play three round-robin games, with the top two in each bracket advancing to the playoff round.) The team lost to Bend FC 3-0, beat Portland City United 5-0, and on Sunday defeated Capital FC 3-2. It was a thrilling game and the girls showed so much heart, athleticism, physicality, and skill -- it was wonderful to watch and cheer them on. The quarter-final is Saturday at 2:15 pm!

Game video can be watched here. (This links to Liesl's highlights, but the full game, or just the goals, can be watched by clicking on playlists.)

Dalles Mountain Ranch hike

I went hiking today in the Columbia Gorge with my friends Amy and Mieke. It was my third time doing this hike in the springtime, and it was as gorgeous as ever. Yellow balsamroot flowers and purple lupine everywhere, along with tiny purple flowers, white blooms, some just-passed reddish paintbrush and more. Mt. Hood loomed large over the Columbia river, snow-covered in the blue sky. It was a pretty perfect day.

There was a lot of this. :)

 

spring updates!

Spring has arrived -- sunshine, longer days, flowering trees -- as well as the return of all sorts of fun activities. Liesl's soccer season continues for a few more weeks and she had her first softball practice on Saturday. We have continued our horseback riding lessons, once a week on Wednesdays. We are slowly getting better and more confident and competent, able to communicate with our horses and convince them to cooperate. This past week we managed to trot 3-4 times around the arena, without stopping, and staying somewhat close to the rail.

Seb is in the thick of spring sports again, which is crazy and busy and wonderful. I missed this so much last year. Last week, he had soccer practice on Monday, track on Tuesday, baseball practice on Wednesday and scrimmage on Thursday, soccer practice on Friday and Saturday. This week there will be more track, with practices Monday and Tuesday, plus baseball games on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, with a soccer practice thrown in on Friday night. (There's too much overlap right now, and he's going to miss the Thursday track meet and a Saturday soccer practice, but we'll keep figuring out the weekly schedule.) He's exhausted. It's fabulous. 

I went running on Friday afternoon in Forest Park, on the Leif Erikson trail, and Seb (on his mountain bike) and Jasper accompanied me. Seb took some photos and even videotaped me running along the trail. It was fun to see my gait and have some video of the trail I love so much.

And then just some random photos from home --

Seb's Podschool

With the return to in-person school, Sebastian's Podschool has come to an end, and he's feeling sad about it. It was a good group of boys, supervised by Kelan's mom Cheryl, and they really bonded over the year. His pod started off with six boys in September (one moved at Christmas back to Australia) and met Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday. They did homework/asynchronous assignments, they played outside at various parks, and they just hung out and talked. Sometimes they had pizza parties and went on field trips to fun outdoor places to break things up. It's been a critical part of keeping Seb on a schedule and getting him out of the house and connected with peers during the year.

Decorating Xmas cookies.

Delivering food hampers for WSMS's holiday food drive.

Minigolf!

Soccer golf!