Touchdown!

This morning Morry got up early to do work.

I made the boys waffles for brunch.

Morry, Evan, and Noah went to Evan's practice and football game. 

I went for a short run.

Then, with Chewie I picked up Papa and we went to Evan's football game.  Evan got a touchdown for his team!

This afternoon we were at home.

Evan and Papa went for a bike ride.

Luna's family came over to thank us for taking care of Luna while they were out of town.

Then, for dinner, we invited Papa over and had grilled chicken.

Tonight, we worked more on Noah's science fair project.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Lots of Football and a Party

Hello everyone this, is Morry.

Today was the flag football playoffs.  Noah could have played a maximum two games today and Evan had a maximum three games.  

Noah's games were first.  Noah's team hadn't won a game all year, though the team improved.  Noah also improved greatly.  In the first game, Noah's team finally got over the hump and won their first game.  Noah had a few runs but he did better on defense.  He pulled several flags.  It was nice to see the kids get their first win.

The second game didn't go as well, unfortunately.  Noah still played well though despite the team not playing well.  Noah had a couple big runs and several key flag pulls.  Overall, it was a good season for him.

Rachel and Noah went home and then Evan had an hour practice before his game.

In Evan's game, the officiating was really poor.  It was probably the worst officiating I've seen in flag football.  Officials will always make good and bad calls.  That's inevitable.  As long as they are doing the best they can, then you can accept it.  My problem, though, with youth officiating is when the official doesn't put him or herself into a position to make a call.  I see it in baseball where the umpire doesn't run over to make the call. They'll just make it from across the field.  Simply taking 5 steps towards the play may have resulted in a different call.  Sometimes it's hard to be in the right position, but more often than not, it seems like laziness.   In Evan's game today, the officials just were never in the right position to make a call and it was clearly laziness.  They were trailing the play too far, or they forgot to watch the quarterback.  I think that was frustrating to the boys.  Evan's team lost by 2, but probably should have won by 10 if they had been in the proper position.   Evan had a good game.  He caught a touchdown pass and almost made a great catch on the extra point.  He had some flag pulls as well.  Evan's coach was very happy with him.

We stopped at Smoothie King on the way home.  Evan got a big smoothie.

At dinner time we went to the Hughes house for their after-Halloween party.  The kids played kickball in the backyard.  It was a nice time.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Baseball Night

Hello everyone, this is Noah (as told to Daddy)

I woke up.  I went in the game room.  Then I went downstairs to see Daddy.  I scared him by saying boo.

I ate Lucky Charms for breakfast.  Then Mommy came downstairs.

Noah has exited this blog post.

Evan is now here to tell about his day.

I got up for school.  I ate breakfast.  I had mini-blueberry muffins.  Then the power went out so we walked to school.

At school, I played football.  I did well.  I threw two touchdowns.  I won the game.  Then I ate my snack.  After that, I went home.

I played Star Wars Wii when I got home.  Then I got dressed for the Longhorns baseball camp.  Then we drove to the women's softball field.

I played a baseball game and I got a walk-off triple.

Then I went home and I'm writing the blog right now.

Total Domination

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Rachel got up early to go for a run.  I got up a short time later to get Evan ready for his football game.  I got his uniform and got breakfast ready for him.  Just before Rachel got back from her run, Noah got up.  The plan was for Rachel to get showered and come to the game a bit later but I had to get Evan there early for warm-ups.  Noah wanted to come with Evan and me.

Two boys on the other team were on Evan's tee ball teams the last two years.  One of the boys is playing with Noah this fall.  Before the game, Evan was playing with one of them and he seemed happy to have friends there, even if they were on the other team.  Once they started playing, it was if a light switch turned on for Evan.  He pulled flags on each of the first three plays and then he dropped an interception on the fourth play.  The other team's coach actually just stopped running the ball to Evan's side because Evan was not missing the flag.  On another drive, a boy for the other team broke free on the opposite sideline for what looked like a sure touchdown.  Evan raced all the way across the field and pulled the boy's flag.  The other team's coach actually high-fived Evan.  He never gave up on the play.  By the end of the first half, he had pulled 5 flags and had dropped three potential interceptions.  In the second half, it was Evan's turn to be on offense.  He was supposed to play "wide receiver 1" this week which ends up being a decoy for most plays.  On one play they did hand off to Evan for an end-around and Evan got a first down.  So the coach switched Evan to running back.  They handed off to Evan again for another big run and a first down.  As they got closer to the goal line, they handed off to Evan and he ran to his left.  There was a boy there so Evan turned around and ran to his right.  I guess he was supposed to pass because as he was running to his right, he fired a perfect spiral into the end zone about 10 to 15 yards.  The boy on Evan's team dropped it but no one could believe the throw.  It shocked me because a) I didn't know he was going to throw and b) I didn't realize he could throw a football that far and that good while on the run.  Several parents came up to Evan to talk to him about that.  The coach made a point to come over and high five Evan.  They ended up getting a touchdown on that drive.  On the next drive, they handed off to Evan and he ran all the way to the left sideline and he couldn't turn it up so he turned around losing about 3 yards and all the way to the right sideline and decided he couldn't get up field there so he turned around again, losing another 3 yards and ran all the way to the left sideline again where he turned it up and ran for a touchdown.  It was the first play of the drive so it was at the "20 yard line".  I don't know how long the field is (it's not 100 yards) so I don't know how long he ran but it was essentially the entire field from where they start out their drives.  And if you add on running the width of the field more than twice, he ran a long way.  It was an impressive run.  Again, the coach of the other team came over and gave Evan a high five.  On the two-point conversion, they handed off to Evan who ran and thew a pass into the end zone that hit his teammate in the stomach but the boy couldn't bring it in.  Unfortunately that was the last play of the game and Evan's team lost but he had a great game.  He had so much fun today.

Rachel had to go tutor and so I took the boys home.  We stopped at Smoothie King on the way home.  Then I made lunch for the boys.

After lunch, I played Super Mario Bros. on the Wii with them and then went out and played baseball in the front yard.  I did some work while they played in the backyard and then upstairs.

For dinner, we went to Carino's and then we stopped at HEB on the way home.  It was a late night and Noah was kind of cranky.  They need to get some sleep for baseball tomorrow.

Until next time...

Evan Knows

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

In the late 80s and early 90s, there was that set of Nike commercials with Bo Jackson that said "Bo Knows" as he played all the different sports since Bo excelled in both the MLB and NFL.  Well maybe they should be making commercials with Evan.  He had both a football and baseball game today, back-to-back.

This morning before the crazy day really started, Evan and Noah played downstairs.  Rachel went for an 8-mile run as she prepares for the San Antonio half marathon.

For lunch, I made pasta for us.  I figured Evan needed the carbs and energy.

At about 1:40 we left the house.  Evan's football team had pictures schedule for 2.  His game didn't start until 3pm.  After pictures they practiced some.  Noah and I had a catch.  Rachel came for the start of the game.

Evan started at wide receiver.  On their first possession, they attempted 4 wide receiver screens to Evan but the quarterback hopped the ball to Evan 3 of the times.  However, on one, Evan caught it and turned up field and ran all the way for an apparent touchdown.  The referee, however, said that Evan had stepped out about half way down and brought the ball back.  Evan seemed to handle it well.  They also handed the ball off to him on end-arounds twice.  Both times the other team tackled Evan as they tried to grab the flag.  That's a penalty and an automatic first down.  So Evan was responsible for 3 first downs in the first half.  Unfortunately, Evan's team lost.

We got Evan changed into his baseball uniform in Rachel's car and then Evan, Noah and I drove over to the fields for batting practice before his game.  Rachel went home for a bit.  Evan did well in batting practice.

As the game was about to start, it started to rain hard.  It did this on and off for most of the game.  In the bottom of the first, Evan came up to bat with two kids on.  At this point it was really pouring.  Each kid gets 6 pitches.  If you don't get a hit in 6 pitches, it's a technical strikeout.  Evan fouled the first 5 pitches off.  On the sixth pitch, he turned on it and put it into left field for double scoring the two kids.  Later in the game, Evan was playing third with a kid on first.  The batter rocketed a ball at Evan on the ground.  Evan scooped it so quickly and threw to second, I was slightly worried that there was no one covering second, but there was and the boy running from first was out.  It was such a nice play that the coach of the other team came on the field to high five Evan.  A few batters later there was a short pop up that Evan ran in and dove for.  Unfortunately, the ball hit before him and came up and hit him in the mouth.  He was crying.  He didn't want to come out of the game.  His coach high fived him and Evan crushed his coach's hand.  They knew that Evan was ok.  Evan's team ended up winning in the bottom of the fifth (the last inning).  The kids were really excited.  They've got a good bunch of kids on his team.  Evan likes his teammates.

Rachel had left a bit early to pick up Blue Bamboo for us on the way home.  When we got home, she had gotten food ready for Evan and Noah.  We had dinner and the put the boys to bed.  Amazingly, they had energy.  We didn't leave the baseball field until 7:20, almost 6 hours after we had left the house. Noah was with me the whole time and was amazingly well behaved.

Until next time...