BRITISH SOCCER CAMP 2008

Another year of British Soccer Camp has just ended. Thank goodness. This year Ja-Ja was a part of the 6-12 year old group. They went for 3 hrs a day for a week. This year he was joined by Seth, Cobe, Adam, Kelly, Taylor & Landon.

They were separated into different teams. You can imagine the separation anxiety that was caused for some of them. Anyway, everyday they would have scrimmages & on the last day they held the Championship game. This year the championship was won by Seth's team. I tell you, you could have sworn that they just played the World Cup because Ja-Ja almost had a heart attack because he lost. He doesn't care much for losing. It ruined the rest of his day. Apparently he believes he should NEVER lose. Maybe we should have warned him earlier in life that there was a chance that he could lose at something. Anyway, tragedy aside, he did have a great time & he even got his picture in the paper.

I do want to mention that Combi participated in his first year of Soccer Camp. The wonderful mom that I am, I didn't take any pictures. Actually all of Ja-Ja's pictures were taken by Kelly. Thanks Kelly.

Anyway, after Combi's first day (their days were only 1 1/2 hours long) he complained that it was too long. I think he was more interested in drinking Gatorade than actually playing. Surprisingly by the end of the week, he started playing pretty aggressively. Go Combi! I didn't know you had it in you!

I HEART NEW YORK!

To celebrate my birthday, I treated myself to a trip to NYC. I took my mother-in-law along for the ride & we visited with my sister Vladimir, who lives there, & my other sister Beavis who came in from Phoenix.

THURSDAY: we arrived @ 10am & I was dead tired from our flight. I still chose to venture out on my own (w/my mother-in-law) & see the sites. I had forgotten how loud trains are. Holy crap! Anyway, we made our way to the Natural History Museum but then thought we should eat 1st. After walking for what seemed like forever the only decent thing we found was Zabar's on Broadway. After all that, we decided we were too tired to go to the museum & headed back to my sister's apartment. That evening, my sister arrived from Phx & we had dinner at the best place ever, Dinosaur Barbecue. Yum!

FRIDAY: I swear it was the crack of dawn when I was back on a bus headed to my sister's school where she teaches 7/8 science. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. This day will get to be a whole separate entry of it's own later on.

That evening, we spent it in Times Square. OK, so I really thought that in movies they just put a bunch of extra people to make it look busy. So wrong! It was insane with people! TV does not do Time Square justice. Crazy! While we were there, we decided to get tickets to see Legally Blond the Musical. So fun!

SATURDAY: Another day where I'm back on a train at the crack of dawn. When you're on vacation shouldn't you be able to sleep in later than you do at home? My sisters & I did a 6:30am temple session. Very cool. Who knew the temple was across the street from Julliard? You think we would've seen it in movies.

Later that day we walked the Brooklyn Bridge. It was beautiful to see. I also went to Canal St to get a Gucci purse & D&G sunglasses (wink, wink).

OK, so this day was also my birthday & my sisters took me out for dinner that night. We ate at the yummy Serendipity restaurant. We had a frozen hot chocolate! It's to die for!

This is also the day where NYC decided to hit 90 degrees. It was the start of my heat misery.

SUNDAY: I took a stand this morning & decided I would NOT wake up early. Fortunately, my sisters felt the same. We decided we would take the ferry to Staten Island so we could see the Statue of Liberty. Wow! It was pretty awesome to see!

Just so you know this was day 2 of death by heat. It reached mid 90's & it was humid as all-get-out. We then headed to the financial district to see Ground Zero. Although all the letters & pictures were gone & they've started construction, you couldn't help but feel sadness for what happened there. We did a LOT of walking this day. We went to SOHO, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, & who knows where else we were. It was all a blur.

MONDAY: NYC has now reached high 90's & we're pretty sure we're going to melt into the street. It's our last day so we make another attempt to go to the Natural History Museum. We get there & decide we would rather walk through Central Park & go to the Met. So we take a leisure walk through Central Park & go from the Upper West side to the Upper East Side. Mind you, we were dying of heat while we took this "leisure" walk. What felt like an hour later, we arrived at the Met just to have it be closed. Lovely...

The flight home was relaxing & cool. Air conditioning, cars, how did I ever live without them? Now don't get me wrong, I had a great time. It was exhausting but it was fun. I couldn't have asked for better people to be there with. I enjoy nothing more than to laugh with my sisters... Thanks for a great time ladies. Vladimir, before I come to visit you in Chicago, you better have AC & a car. My body still hasn't cooled down & I swear I can still hear the roaring of the trains...

Congratulations Combi!

Tonight was your Preschool Graduation. You were just so excited. You kept asking if you were going to be starting Kindergarten tomorrow. Fortunately you have one more year & I even get to be your teacher next year. How cool is that!

We celebrated by taking you to dinner at Sizzler. Totally random but you love shrimp so we thought that would be a perfect place for you. You ate every last bite & even had room for dessert.

We arrived just in time for you to get in line. I know it's only preschool but with 120 students, it feels more like a high school graduation. Plus it's held at Weber High. All of you did a beautiful job singing. It was so much fun to watch your energy when you sang.

You received your diploma & some parting gifts & off we went. Another year over.

I have to say you were pretty bummed that you didn't receive a pail like Ja-Ja did last year. I'll make sure your teacher next year gets you one!

Well my little graduate, I am soooo proud of you. You have grown so much this past year.

You started the year very shy & quiet & now you are becoming this confident young man. Speech class has assisted you immensely with that. At the beginning we were told that you would be in speech for at least 2 years but at your year end evaluation you tested at level & may only have a month of speech left to do. It's amazing!

I can't wait to see how you'll be doing next year!

I love you buddy!