Sunday Soccer, Then A Barbecue Afternoon

Perfect Passing Position

Sitting On The Bench With Girl Friends

Marlena and Her Coach

Enjoying the Sun

Nick, Turning On The Jets

It's  now 7:50 and I have been up since 6:45, reading the Kansas City newspaper (thin), catching up on the Chiefs and Royals teams, losers like the Browns and Indians.  It looks like a sunny day, highs in the 60's, a great day to be outside, to watch a soccer game at 11:00 in Kansas, to barbecue strip steaks out on Tom's porch, later afternoon, and, of course, play some volleyball with my granddaughter, Marlena, the rising star along with Marisa, in Darien.  All are up and on their Ipads, except Nick, who tends to sleep in, lucky boy.

We watched lots of games yesterday, like many parents across the US, as their children's sporting events take up much of the weekend, unlike the old days, where parents actually had a life to themselves, some what a part from their kids.  In the old days, kids played with kids, usually alone, and parents socialized with others parents, usually without kids.   A mix of the two might be nice.  As I mentioned yesterday, Nick had a soccer game at 7:00 in the morning, forty five minutes away, so Evie and I voted to watch Marlena play volleyball on her Lee's Summit Tiger team, ten minutes drive away at 8:00 and 9:00.  Two games were going on simultaneously, and though Marlena's team lost both games, it was fun to watch, as they play three timed games for a match. The girls are having a good time and learning how to play the right way though some of the coaches do not look like they know much about volleyball.  I sat next to a Mom who played in college and she was going crazy, could hardly watch her daughter play.  Reminded me of myself when  I was watching my children play.  Now I am a grown up and play it cool, sort of.

Granny Having Fun With The Family

We came home, had some lunch, and around 11:30, drove back to Overland Park Kansas for Nick's second game at 1:30, against a team from Milwaukee.  We waited for the game to start by taking Marlena to a nearby playground.  It was a surprisingly chilly afternoon, windy, so that you needed a fleece to stay warm.  Nick's team won 3-0 so all was good.  On the way home, we stopped at Costco, so Evie could get her Costco fix, but I ended up buying more than her.  We came home, and I played volleyball with Marlena, teaching her a few fundamentals about passing, and she is an excellent learner.  When I show her something, she does it easily.  There are coachable players and uncoachable kind; the first are fun, the second are frustrating.

Dinner

For dinner, Tom marinated a salmon filet, then cooked it outside on a cedar plank.  It was unusually good, and along with brussels sprouts, rice, and salad, we had another Saturday night feast.  We watched a terrible movie, about a basketball team in Iowa, who won the State Championship but we had fun making fun of it, predicting what was going to happen.  We all were tired, especially Nick and Tom, so we were in bed by 10:30, a fun day.