That's a wrap, spring soccer!

 This weekend both of the boys had their final soccer game of the season and they each had a pizza party.  It was a busy weekend for all of that and the block party!  Evan's game was on Saturday morning out in Hartland at 10:30am.  They had a pretty disappointing loss 1-0.  They had so many shots on goal, but none of them would go in.  

The boys shook it off and got their medals, posing for some pictures in the goal!  

And then it was pizza party time at the covered pavilion at the soccer field!  We lucked out and no one was using it and it connected to bathrooms and a playground.  Jackpot!  I picked up pizzas from Little Caesars during the second half of their game not far down the road, some parents brought drinks, cupcakes, and chips.  I'd say the boys had fun!

Evan also had a baseball game that afternoon, so we came home quickly to drop the dog off and get Evan changed and ready for baseball.  His team played well all game until the last inning where they couldn't score any runs and ended up losing.  It was a HOT one!  But, Evan was two for two at-bat and made some great plays fielding.  He's really playing well!  Now if only his team would too...

The boys had a sleepover at the Miller family's house that night.  They had a bonfire with s'mores, played more soccer in the backyard, and watched a part of Raya and the Last Dragon.  I'd say they had a good time!

On Sunday, Sean had his final game at 4:30pm home.  We grabbed a late lunch out with my parents at Hermann's in Old Downtown and it was delicious!  They have an amazing Traverse City salad.  Sean's team won 6-2 and it was another HOT one!  He played well and had a few shots on goal.  

His coach threw a pizza party at a different park in downtown Plymouth (can you tell how much pizza we've had lately?!).  She gave each of the boys a drawstring Adidas backpack since they're notorious for leaving stuff behind at practices and games.  We gave her a gift from most of the parents on the team since she's done coaching (her son is moving up to DCFC travel team).  The boys had a water balloon fight in the park!  It was so much fun to watch, but we were burned out of our weekend at that point.  It was time to go shortly after.

I'm sad to see the season end!  I truly love watching both boys play soccer.  It was especially hard to see Sean's season end knowing his team will all be going their separate ways in the fall.  It feels like the end of an era, as he's played with some of these boys since he started at 5.  Go Panthers!  And Go Avengers!

Brownell Block Party!

 This past Friday we had our annual block party and we got some fabulous weather for it!  We decided to do it at the beginning of the summer this year instead of the end like we typically do and we moved it to our dead end of the street since there would be less traffic.  It allowed us to be able to set up our bounce house for the kids, some yard games, and an outdoor movie later. 

We opted to keep food simple this year.  One of the lovely ladies on our street took everyone's pizza order by house and went and picked them up at Main Street Pizza.  Others brought individually portioned pasta salad, potato salad, watermelon, and baby carrots.  There were lots of dessert to go around too. 

I had arranged for the Kona Ice truck to come to our house around 8pm before we got the kids settled in for their movie.  We had Dan the Kona Man come last year during COVID as a way to get outside and socialize a bit so it was fun to have him back.  

I put on Finding Dory for the kids to watch on our garage (we had originally tried for Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+, but the WiFi was being wonky).  We have Finding Dory downloaded onto my Amazon Prime account so it was easy to just pull it up and hit play.  I finally sat down at the bonfire in the street and by then it was 10pm and some people were packing up to head home.  I have to say it was much more work hosting it down on our end, but it was fun.

What a way to kick off the summer!

Canton Cup Tournament Memorial Day Weekend

 Sean's soccer team was invited to play in the Canton Cup Tournament.  They take a few rec teams and needed one more rec boys U11 team to fill out a bracket.  All but two of the boys on his team signed up to play and we were able to recruit one more boy that plays for the Plymouth Warriors to help.  Scott and Evan still opted to go up north for the weekend with Luna, while Sean and I stayed home.  He had his first game on Friday night against the Canton Regulators.  It was 45 degrees and super windy, so we had to break out winter jackets, hats, and gloves.  

They beat the Regulators 5-3 in an exciting win!  We had lost to this team during the regular season so it was that much more exciting to win against them in a tournament.  

Saturday morning was game #2 at 9:30am.  We were set to play the hardest team in the bracket, the Canton Road Runners.  We had also lost to this team during the regular season.  Unfortunately, we couldn't stop them and ended up losing 8-3.  

We stuck around after the game to check out the food trucks and the tents to do some shopping.  Shelley and Nevaeh had come to the game and hung out with us.  Sean got a corn dog and I had a chicken taco.  We split a funnel cake - yum!

The boys were back at the field Sunday morning at 9:30am for game #3 against the Canton Rangers.  We haven't played this team yet in the regular season, so we weren't sure what to expect.  We ended up winning in a very exciting last few minutes!  We were down 3-2 and in the last five minutes Aidan scored to tie it up 3-3, then Owen scored the game-winning goal to make it 4-3!  The kids were so excited!  

The boys all got their participation medals after this game and we had to wait the rest of the afternoon to see if we got into the final game (since there was one more match-up in our bracket at 1:30pm that would help determine standings).  

The text came through around 2:45pm that there was a 3-way tie in our bracket and first place was given to the Canton Road Runners and second place the Canton Regulators.  Sean was super bummed so we decided to go for a bike ride around Newburgh Lake since it was a nice afternoon.  Halfway through riding around the lake a text came in that there was a mistake made and that we were in the final game!  Holy smokes...turns out that goal differential was used to determine 1st place (Canton Road Runners) and then head-to-head was determined for 2nd place (and we beat the Regulators at our first game so we got that spot).  We rushed back home, shoved some dinner in our stomachs, and went off to the field for a 5:40pm championship game.

The energy before the game was amazing to watch.  The boys were in a huddle cheering themselves on and giving each other a pep talk.  Win or lose, this was an amazing experience for them and they worked so hard to get to this point.  Unfortunately, they just couldn't beat the Road Runners and lost 8-2.  The ref called every single call against us (pushing, tripping, shoving).  It was incredibly frustrating and he even gave one of our boys a yellow card in the last 30 seconds, which caused him to cry.  

The boys got a 2nd place medal and got to all hold the silver cup their coach earned.  They held their heads high and smiled big for the pictures.  I know it didn't end the way they wanted, but even to be in the tournament AND to get to the final championship game is an honor.  They played hard all weekend!  I'm so proud of these boys and am so sad to see the team go it's separate ways after this season (coach's son is trying out for DCFC so she'll be stepping down).  Go Panthers!