Family Night

We have a family night every week, consisting of our family doing something together that is out of the ordinary, everyday things we normally do. Yesterday was an exceptionally beautiful day here in Nearly, Canada - one that just had to be spent outside. Ezra is into sports these days. Soccer, baseball, basketball, football, Frisbee... really, anything involving constant movement and being outside is his "favorite" sport. He has been asking for weeks now to go to the soccer fields to play soccer (rather than kicking the ball against the chalk net drawn on the garage), so for this family night, we packed up the soccer balls, a picnic, and headed out to the soccer fields.

Ezra is pretty good at dribbling the ball. He ran up and down the field, from goal to goal, about 10 times. No one was allowed to shoot the ball at the net other than Ezra. He even told me, "mommy, girls don't shoot the ball, only boys do that. Girls can dribble the ball."
Vince taught him some basic fundamentals of soccer. Ezra learned about being a team player, passing the ball, and that picking up the ball is bad unless he's the goalie. At times, he'd forget in the middle of the field that he was not supposed to pick up the ball, so he'd say, "oh, I was being the goalie." Oh, okay then, picking up the ball at the 50 yard line is fine if you're the goalie.
Obed was not so interested in playing soccer. He was more interested in his juice cup. Just this week, Obed learned that juice cups actually contain liquid and are not just for throwing on the floor, banging on his tray and pushing around. Ever since he's learned his new sippy skills, he's all about sipping. Little did I know sippy cups could offer so much entertainment.

Asher was not all that interested in soccer either - but really, how could someone be interested in soccer when there are bleachers? Asher spent most of his time going up and down the bleachers. When he was watching Ezra and Vince play soccer, he was (by his terms) "the clapping guy" - you know, the guy who claps for the players. But apparently you needed a special bracelet or ticket in order to climb the bleachers because any time I'd try to join him, he'd ask, "do you have your ticket? Are you wearing your blue bracelet?"

Then Obed thought the bleachers looked like they could be fun. They must have looked really fun because he was willing to brave crawling in the grass to get there... juice cup in hand, of course.
Then we had a picnic... Obed mostly just drank his juice (shocking) and ate a few honey bunnies and blueberries when Vince could slip one in his mouth between sips of juice.Ezra and Asher ate PB&J's, blueberries, goldfish, and as a special treat,they got a few gummy bears. This is Asher's smile face... you know, the face he makes when I say, "okay boys, smile." Technically, his eyes aren't actually closed, they're just smiling too.