Three Kids and a Dog: Soccer in FL and State Cheer Competitions

Last week, I had to make sure that I called in to school for two out of three of my kids. On Wednesday night, Austen and I left for Florida. He was playing three of his league games at the ESPN Sports Complex in Orlando. Meanwhile, Hailey's rec cheer team qualified for the state meet so she needed to perform on Thursday morning and Saturday morning at a local college about 25 minutes away.

Austen's games had been planned first so I was already going to those when Hailey's team qualified for state (the only ones in their rec cheer program to do so out of all 7 teams). But that meant not being there to make sure that Hailey's hair was in a high pony tail for competition so I had to leave one of the coaches in charge of her hair. Tom just learned how to do a basic pony so there was no way I was going to get him to master a high pony with slick backed hair!

Anyway, I prepared everything including getting Hailey to shower right before I left and setting her hair as best I could for the next morning to make things easier for everyone.

We arrived in FL late due to a delay but were up early the next morning to drive Austen to his 10am game. They played a Tampa team and won 3-0. Austen scores on a great header. After the game it was brunch with the team and then off to Universal's Islands of Adventure with a few parents and kids where we rode all the roller coasters (Hulk, Velocicoaster, Hogwarts) and did all the 3D rides too. Of course Disney is simply amazing so these all were too. We were only at the park about 4.5 hours but we didn't really have to wait for any rides since it wasn't that crowded. We ended the evening at Taverna Opa, a Greek restaurant with belly dancers (Austen and Jimmy had fun dancing with them!). We also had a nice introduction to Greek food by one of Austen's teammates' parent.

At home, Hailey performed her first routine for 25% of their score. They were solid but apparently it wasn't their best performance. Hoping for a better round on Saturday.

On Thursday, I had organized a World Cup brunch viewing for the boys and our parents at a close by restaurant since our game wasn't til 4pm. The boys had a blast watching the games together and the parents really enjoyed it too. Success! The game was a battle right out of the gate and it took our boys a little bit to match the intensity of the other team. At the beginning of the second half, a quick and strong Boston team scored on us only to be answered by Austen with a quick touch and shot off a great cross from one of his teammates. Final score 1-1. That evening, we had made reservations at an Italian place by our hotel so we had more team together time which these boys needed and really did enjoy (especially since 7 of the 18 rostered for this weekend were completely new to the team).

Saturday brought an early final cheerleading competition. The girls did great and performed better than on Thursday but still did not place in the top 3 (although they should be very proud that they even qualified).

Austen's game on Saturday was another battle against another Boston team. The score went back and forth. It was exciting and exhausting. Austen contributed another stellar goal as well as an assist before the final 4-4 score.

After that it was back to the airport for our flight home and to see the girls and Tom to catch up on our separate weekends of competitions!