Sebastian turns 11!

It was 11/11, and our boy turned 11. Amazing. We had a delightful day, starting with waffles, bacon, eggs, and berries for breakfast.

We continued on to presents - a Barca jersey, a new soccer ball, the Guinness book of world records, a remote control Ferrari car.

And then there was the scavenger hunt, of course! Steve made Sebastian's pretty challenging this year and he needed some clues and help to find them all. But his grand prize was a new bike!!! 

The important things taken care of, we headed over to the field to drive the new remote control car around the track and test out the new soccer ball. We got distracted by all the leaves blowing down over the field and started playing our family game to catch them midair as they fell. It was so fun - we laughed and dove and groaned and celebrated and chased leaves all over. Jasper was very interested in what we were doing and ate a few leaves before figuratively rolling his eyes and ignoring us.

And then we had to take Steve to the airport, because he had work in Sacramento that afternoon. (He caught a noon flight south and a dinnertime flight back home.) After we dropped him off, we headed to REI to pick out this awesome Diamondback bike. Sebastian was thrilled with it.

safety patrol

Sebastian has safety patrol (crossing guard) duty this week, holding a flag with other 5th-graders to help kids safely cross the main streets onto school grounds. It's bittersweet to see him out there - so big, so responsible! - and also to realize yet again that this is his last year at FPE. He's growing up, he's going to be leaving the neighborhood next year on the school bus, and getting home so late every day. Sigh. We're not quite ready. But he is confident out there, and knows what he's doing, and I'm proud that he volunteered for the position.

procrastibaking

It's election day, and I'm baking and cooking and otherwise distracting myself from my anxiety about the midterms. Liesl took a fabulous photo of me and my chocolate banana bread with her sweet new Instamax camera. We've been talking a lot about framing the shot, about thinking before clicking, about filling the whole frame with faces instead of the background, and she's totally getting it!

tourney soccer

Both kids are playing in end-of-season soccer tournaments for their teams - three guaranteed games, and the opportunity to play in single-elimination brackets and a championship match. Sebastian had a game on Saturday and another on Sunday; Liesl had two on Saturday afternoon. Both kids played AMAZING on Saturday. The games were really fun to watch, and we were so proud of their effort, grit, and teamwork -- it's been wonderful to see them grow and learn this season.

Sebastian has become one of his team's strongest defenders; he usually plays left back, which means he's responsible for guarding the other team's right forward. He is strong and confident back there; at the beginning of the season, he was most focused on not letting anyone get behind him, which was important, but meant that sometimes he chose not to go after the ball because he was being cautious. He's learned to trust his speed and defensive capabilities a little more and has been stepping up to the ball and being more aggressive. It's fun to see. When he does get the opportunity to play at midfield or forward, that's really fun too, because he gets to run a little more and use his speed.

In Saturday's game, they were outplayed by the other team - our team had a hard time completing passes, didn't get any really good shots on goal, and probably only had possession a third of the time - but the boys held on and managed to get a 0-0 tie at the end. The game went to penalty kicks; Sebastian was chosen to go second in his team's line-up, and he scored. Phew! Our goalie ended up saving one of their team's shots, meaning that we won at the end on penalties.

Liesl is playing in a tournament with the Blunicorns - six of the most interested and enthusiastic girls from her team signed up to play. It's still 4 v 4 and the tiny goals, but this weekend they were so fierce. They fought for possession, they had a lot of determination, they passed the ball and tried to spread out and even employed some of their skills (pullbacks!). It was so fun to watch; Liesl was outstanding in both games, dribbling around the other team, passing to her teammates, scoring a goal, sprinting back on defense. They won the first game 4-1 and tied the second 0-0.

Liesl played in her final LYS game on Sunday - that was apparently not as fun to watch, as her team was sluggish and uncoordinated and lost 3-0. Sebastian's Sunday game was also not so fun - he didn't play very well and got benched, and his team went down 8-1. Oh well! At least we had Saturday to feel good about. They will each play one more game next Saturday, and then depending on the outcome of that game, they will go on or be eliminated.

riding lesson

Liesl had her birthday horseback riding lesson at Anamchara Stables (about 20 minutes west of our home) on Sunday morning. Her teacher was Elizabeth, who was kind and self-assured and kept up a steady flow of helpful advice. She started by having Liesl groom her horse, Missy, cleaning her hooves and brushing her coat, and then they got the saddle blanket and pad and saddle onto Missy, and then they put on the bridle and bit. Liesl led Missy into the indoor arena and over to the mounting block, and hopped on. She learned to walk Missy around in big circles, where to look and how to hold her hands, how to let Missy know when to start and stop, to guide her to go right and left through cones. She finished by doing a little bit of trotting in a circle. It was amazing and sweet and so fun to watch - Steve and I were a little jealous. Liesl was thrilled -she loved it - and can't wait to go back for more, and so we fear we have unleashed a monster. (Riding lessons for Christmas, hint hint?? anyone??)

 

 
Liesl's riding lesson from B. Avery on Vimeo.