Team Danger Week Alone - Could We Survive?

The boys and I have had a week without Safety Mommy (work conference and then a CA visit to see her Brother and our nieces). We missed her, but managed to have a great time. And apparently she "made due" at the conference in her off time at the beach, not to mention practically weeping to me on the phone at how wonderful it was seeing the little girls... so no real boo-hoos for her.

Anyway... two hyper-smart boys all alone with poor old me.... would be make it?

Absolutely... Team Danger always has a great time, is always respectful and well behaved.... They are not a problem for me... not the three of us... we had a fantastic time... playing soccer, eating out, cooking what we wanted, eating ice cream out of the container, staying up late, seeing movies we shouldn't see, having a grand old time.

Starting with Wed & Thurs we had great book nights, good dinners, and even snuck in a movie we're not going to tell mommy about. Friday we went with our Poppa to see our future-highschool Westwood football team get dominated by Stony Point.... that's OK, we didn't move to this specific patch of earth for the school's football teams, but rather for the SCHOOLS themselves.... but it was a lot of fun.. the boys enjoyed the game, and more especially the hot dogs and popcorn.. in Alexander's case, 3 hot dogs... good lord. We left early due to tired danger boys and wrapped up the night. Go Westwood!

Saturday morning my favorite moments in life recently began, other-wise known as my two sons kicking ASS on the soccer field. The reason I became coach... well, the reasons if you know me are obvious.. but there was no reason what-so-ever to expect the coaches' son to be a great soccer player... but sure enough, both Alexander and Ryan are awesome... Ryan is still in the raw-undisciplined but still incredible soccer mode, and just has a great time... I still remember the day he came to practice with his brother and out-dribbled and scored several of that team.. INCLUDING Alexander...

And Alexander is incredible.. clearly he isn't the best soccer player in the world, certainly not.. but damn he's good... he reads the field, out-dribbles most other kids, and takes constant shots on goal... we're playing U7 this year and LOTS of stuff is different.... much larger field, refs, 4 players, and a LOT tougher game... but the whole team, and Alexander specifically, is performing wonderfully. Another player on the team that is just crazy good is Will, the son of the other coach Ethan (there is something to this I tell you). Will actually may even be better than Alexander, at least in some ways.. certainly constant determination and lately I'm pretty sure shots on goal... and that's wonderful to see... a strong team mate... it's sad I never play them together since they are such key players, I need to keep them on the field at different times...

The third player that is just amazing is Brian, a new addition to our long-running team... I remembered him from years ago when we played his team and I told myself back then "I got to get that kid on my team"... 2 years later, we did ;-) Brian may in fact be better than either Alexander or Will... skill-wise they are all about par.. but Brian is specific and calculating.. when he move, he destroys... you can tell he's playing the game in his head very well... the most disappointing thing about these three (not really) is that they are even better defense than offense... so it's so hard to determine where to put them... and the rest of the team is very solid and round out a fantastic 8-man team. Here is Alexander Will and Nic:


And Brian apparently comes as a set of bookends.. his younger brother Drew joined my U5 team with Ryan... and damn if he isn't one of the cutest kids I've eve met.. not to mention an awesome soccer player himself... easily on par with Ryan... he constantly asks me on the field "is it OK if I go score now".. and damned if I say "yes, of course" he doesn't have the ball in the goal 20 seconds later... I think Drew and Ryan will end up being better than Brian and Alexander in the end... a wonderful thing to see ;-)

Here is Drew, Derek and Andreas dominating this poor little girl:


The entire U5 team is incredible... each one of them can usually take any other team we play.. so you can imagine what 3 of them do on the field... and all wonderful kids as well.

And here's Ryan and Michael



Anyway, on Sunday we played again... Ryan's team destroyed the other team, like 700-0... I tried to hold them back.. but all 6 of them are just fire-balls.. and each one of them as adorable as can be and so eager to please.. I wish they knew how much they make me happy.

I wish both my boys knew how very much they make me proud of them... good or not at soccer, or whatever, their attitudes and determination is wonderful, and humbling. I tell them, and I think they understand, but who knows... maybe in 20 something years when they have boys of their own they will finally understand...

Here is Alexander after being wiped out in the game:


On Sunday, we managed to get done a nice poster done for his VIP week this week in school... good photos, nice write ups, nice and neat and well defined margins... only my sister can really appreciated the margins, one of the many (if not in his mind overly important) things my wonderful Dad taught me from early on... I can still hear his frustration as he complained about the lack of margins ;-) But anyway, it turned out great, Alex and Ryan had fun... and it didn't go past midnight like most child-projects ;-)

Here was the result:


Alexander informed me as we left the soccer field... "I finished my Whimpy Kid book #4 Daddy"... so 12 min later we were at the book store.. If I needed to take a second mortgage, I was going to buy this kid any book he wanted... an original Gutenberg Bible might have been had if needed.. instead he settled for a nice A-Z Mystery book (the mystery to me was that he picked.... wait for it... "K"... not A ;-). And three kid-age classics.. Swiss Family Robinson, the Three Musketeers, and Legend of King Arther.. I pushed Swiss Family, but he chose the other two himself. And I'll be damned if he wasn't reading the "K" book 2 minutes into the ride home. He made sure "Is it OK if I bring this book to read at school Daddy"? Broke my heart with joy.. if he'd then asked to bring my iPhone to school I might have let him. But he settled for the book. Again.. I lack the method to tell him how impressed and proud he makes me.

We also got ready for our next Den meeting on Monday.. we have a great den with some really good kids and great parents... it didn't take us long to realize that good kids in a group or team are one thing.. but great entire families is so much better.. most everyone we meet at Spicewood (and thusly those in our den) are wonderful... our next den meeting is a cookout at a local park.. assuming we don't burn it down, we'll have a great time. Alexander helped find some sticks we're using for den meeting partner-selection (although he doesn't know that yet). That and a fun scavenger hunt should round out a nice time.

So Team Danger thrived the last week or so.. but Safety Mommy returning home will be wonderful for all of us.