A day of celebrating!

On Saturday, we had The Heffalumps (Cal's soccer team) last game of the season.  I do not know how in the world we lucked out getting on this team, but we are SO thankful we did! Most of the kids on the team are returning from the previous year-- they all requested to be on the team again.  They had a few kids age out, so Cal was able to get on the team-- purely by luck, because I went into this pretty blindly.

The game was typical-- the other team only had three players show up (we had 12), so we split up our team to play them and then play each other.  Cal doesn't really care who is playing-- he just likes to kick the ball and run around.  Okay.  Let's be real.  He just likes to run around and crash into people.  Sigh.  Let's just say if they handed out yellow cards in Rainbow Soccer, Cal would have a collection of them.  But he LOVES being out there.  And he has a blast.  And really, that's what matters...right??

Just to remember this one little tidbit... at half time of the game, there were some older boys playing with a ball next to the field.  Andy waddled on over to them, fingers in mouth (obviously), and kicked their ball.  They all thought it was hilarious, so they kind of stood back to see what he would do.  He dribbled (yes, dribbled) the ball on to the field, down towards the goal, and shot it into the goal.  Not kidding.  The kids were all clapping and hooting for him.  It was hilarious because he was so nonchalant about it, fingers in mouth throughout it all.  Can't wait until he is old enough to play too!

 After the game, the coaches sat all the players down and we took pictures.

Then, while the kids were still sitting, they called each kid up, one at a time, and told them how happy they were to have them on the team, and how great they were at _______ and how much better they got at ______... For each and every kid they did this.  They told Cal that he was so great at not getting discouraged and he would always pop right back up again whenever he fell down.  Y'all, this was AWESOME.  I had tears in my eyes, as cheesy as that sounds.  But the other parents did too! It was SO special to hear someone else talk about how wonderful your kid is and how thankful they are to have them be a part of their team.  The other parents knew what was coming, since they did this last year, so they had their video cameras out and rolling...lesson learned for next year!!! I was snapping away with my iPhone!

Cal was called up first... he didn't really know what to do, so he sat down-- haha

Coach Tina and Coach Margie telling how what a hard worker he was...

 Once both coaches gave their speech, they put a medal around his neck and handed him a trophy.  I was a proud momma, but Mr. CalBoy was a PROUD little kid.  He was just in awe.

getting his medal

"mom! do you see me?"

with his coaches, his trophy and his medal

he couldn't believe he really had a trophy-- he kept staring at it

All of the Heffalumps with their trophies!

We had a little party after all the kids got their trophies then we went to Fire House subs for lunch.  Cal wore his shin guards and his medal in.  The sweet manager immediately asked him about his medal and Cal said, "AND I got a trophy too!!!" Pretty fantastic!

yup, we are in the bathroom... both kids put their hats on and it was cracking me up so I took their picture.  Hey, when the moment strikes....

 When we got home, Cal did not want to put his trophy down.  He zipped around the house holding it... we made him leave it downstairs for nap time because he poked himself in the eye with the little guy's foot. 

After Cal decided not to nap, he came downstairs to watch some football with me.  TCU was playing WVU.  Eddie was golfing so we had some bonding time...

Andy woke up for the second half and we cheered on the Frogs as hard as we could.... and.....

THEY WON! In overtime! It was a GREAT game and a lot of fun to watch.  Thankfully, Eddie got home in the 4th quarter so we could scream like crazy at the end of the game.  This was a big win because that means we are now bowl eligible.  It's a VERY big deal and we were thrilled they got the W!

It was a day of celebrating!