spring sports

does anyone even blog anymore?  i feel like instagram has taken it's place for alot of the bloggy types.  not because of instagram but because of ...life... i haven't blogged in a while.  like a really really long while.  someone recently said, "you don't really blog any more do you?".
i guess not.  
but not on purpose.  i really like using the blog as a space to remember bits and pieces of moments with my kiddos while they are small.  but, i also guess they aren't as small anymore.  i found this picture the other day and kinda wanted to die.  how can 5 years go by like a blink?  i mean, i remember people saying that when they were little and totally rolling my eyes at grocery store clerks or random ladies in....well, it had to have been the grocery store because really, where else did i go with all these miniature humans underfoot?

i picture them in my head mostly like the picture above, but really they look like the picture below now...and that was easter so they look even older...i can not even take it.

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in the spring, they all three played a sport.  that's right, folks. ALL THREE.  

lena played baseball.

we had heard about miracle league and visited games but didn't know if lena was ready for something like that in past seasons and i always missed the sign up anyway...mom of the year.  

but not this year.  i registered her early and when it came closer to the first game, we got an email from the coach about her being on the cardinals.  that's right, she was a cardinal.  something so unexplicably spectacular and beautiful about lena being on the cardinals.  and the cutest cardinal i've ever seen.  each player is paired with a buddy and there is an announcer and all kinds of kids with all kinds of special needs.  lena's jam is walking and running.  she would scream and get angry when it was her turn to hit the (whiffle) ball (with the help of her coach and buddy), but at the sound of the ball hitting the bat, she would smile and runnnnn to first base...and not stop.  she kept on speed walking and running in pure sweaty bliss all the way to the outfield.

to try to explain the scene unfolding at those baseball fields seems pointless.  no words suffice.  but His kingdom come, right there.  it was so beautiful and fun.  

hazel played basketball.

hazel really likes things with which she is familiar.  so when the basketball flyer come home from school and matt and i said "hey why don't you give basketball a try", she was unsure.  with some enouragement (we made her do it) she said ok.  kindergarten girls basketball...well, it's a riot.  due to some snow days, they had one practice before their first game and the girls were all shocked that in a real game (and by real, i mean 3 on 3 with coaches on the court with them) there are 2 goals and sides to the court.  they just stood there.  while crowd of parents were trying to yell at all of them up and down the court.  as clueless as they all were that first game, how much they improved over the season was remarkable.  hazel could be found dribbling though the house because my rule-follower 6 year old was told by her coach to practice dribbling and so of course she did.  and, in typical hazel fashion, she stuck with it and improved tremendously.  and i was and am so crazy proud of her.  she did it.  she entered into a new situation that she didn't necessarily prefer, she worked hard, learned a lot and ended up loving it.  

and now, be prepared to be amazed at how great i am at technology and organizing photos and videos of my kids.  so, here, all i can find of hazel's first basketball season, is not the actual video from an actual camera..but i can find the video of the video that i texted to my parents.  seriously, i'm a technology trainwreck.  if i actually get this blog posted, give me a cookie. in this video, hazel drives down and scores...the ref in the black shirt is in the way, but again, it's the only stinkin' video i could find. 

anders played soccer.

the first thing to know about anders is he was playing sports in diapers.  he loves it.  he watches with us and whatever the current sporting event that's going on is his "favorite".  so...on the drive to hazel's first basketball practice, he was....absolutely. devastated.  (keep in mind, he was in preschool.  no basketball sign up for the preschoolers.)  he had been watching razorback basketball and could mimic how micheal qualls dunks and he wasn't going to basketball practice, hazel was.  

so through tears in the back seat he says "she doesn't even like basketball!"

but his time came and there are no words for this boys enthusiasm and how he expresses it. about all of life and in this scenario, soccer.  3 on 3, 5 year old soccer and the first game comes.  most little boys excited but sort of timid and scoping it all out.  but, anders, oh anders.  not timid.  not scoping. fired up.  all in.  his hands on knees and ...wait for it...pounding on his chest.  i mean, non-stop, just like he had seen athletes do after they had dunked. 

he had a great little season.  so much fun and like usual with anders, always entertaining.  he's so wild and just so so wonderful.