All-Star Carson

With Spring comes sports! Carson's love of football made signing him up again easy, but with him already being 6 we were afraid that if we didn't expose him to t-ball he would miss the fundamentals. So, we decided to do t-ball too! The great thing about the league he is in is that they have practice and games on Saturdays, so we don't have to rush on weeknights to participate. But, having two practices AND two games all on Saturday is going to make for an interesting season!

T-ball starts at 10:15am, with a 30 minute practice, followed by an hour long game. Unlike football, t-ball is a lot slower paced with quite a bit of standing around...which makes for a lot of great photo opportunities! Carson looked so adorable in his uniform and hat that I couldn't help going crazy with the pics!
Did I mention that our neighbor, James is playing on Carson's team too??

Practice:

I have him well trained for posing!

The boredom starting to set in

After practice, they had their first scrimmage. I liked the way they had it set up; the coach would pitch three balls to the players and if they didn't hit it then they would bring out the tee.Carson hit the pitch thrown to him!
Because it was a scrimmage, they didn't get anyone out, so every player got to run home twice! Carson was the last one at bat, so when he hit the ball all the players ran home, making it his first "grand slam!"

When the game was over, the team met up to pick a name. This is always my favorite part because they let the kids choose! The players threw out "Dragon Slayers," "Purple Team," "i-9ers," and Carson's contribution: "The Strikers." With Carson's power of persuasion, his team name was picked. :)
At 2:30pm was football! Out of all the flag football teams out there, Carson's team was the only one who didn't have a coach show up... Four dad's, including Brian, pitched in to help make it work. Because Carson is now 6 he moved up in divisions, taking him from the biggest and fastest, to the smallest and slowest. :( He is out there with 3rd graders!
He held his own though, pulling an opponets flag during their scrimmage.
We quickly learned that this season, Deacon isn't much of a spectator anymore and would prefer to run around the field, having us chase behind him. He and I left early for his speech evaluation, so I didn't get to see much of the scrimmage or witness the team-naming, which turned out to be "The Red-Hot Tornadoes."

By the end of the day, Carson was wore out, but he got plenty of exercise to burn off all that energy he has! (And I got some sun!)

Fall Ball

Carson had another fabulous season of flag football and we were fortunate to have really great coaches again! Grandma and Grandpa were awesome fans by making sure to be at every game to cheer him on!



Here are his stats for 7 games (last season comparison in parenthesis):
Rush Touchdowns- 7 (1)
2 Point Conversions- 1 (2)
Points Scored- 44 (11)
Rush Attempts- 14 (10)
Sacks- 3 (0)
Pulls- 13 (4)

MVP

I always knew Carson was a super-star!!!

Today was the first official game for the Steelers (last weekend was a scrimmage) and Carson's team kicked butt, winning 36-18. We were blown away by how well Big Brother did at practice and his game. He was stealing flags and blocking like no one's business, and even scored one of the touchdowns. His team is really good too, and all of the players are fearless!

At the end of the game they gave their first MVP medal of the season to CARSON!! He could not run off that field fast enough to come show us!! Proud is an understatement, he is still wearing the medal as I type this, and I have a feeling we will have to pry it off of him at bathtime.

Needless to say, we are proud too!! We might need to call some college recruiters to come watch him. (Okay, I'm not that psycho yet, but give me a couple more weeks and I just may be THAT mom...lol)

Flag Football

When Carson was a baby I remember Brian telling me how excited he was that he had a son that could play football, just like he did. Looking at our tiny guy I thought he was out of his mind and I would fight that battle when the time came. Soccer, baseball, or golf sounded so much safer, and I hoped I could convince Carson that they would be so much more fun.

How the years have flown by! Carson is a tough, fast, five year old who has had his heart set on football since the day his cousin Austin started playing. And we live in Texas, the football capital of the universe (ever seen Friday Night Lights?? It REALLY is like that here!), so, what chance did I ever really have?? We have compromised with no-contact, flag football, so I am praying Carson's bones stay intact.... Practice and games are held on Saturdays, which is wonderful because we don't have to rush on the week nights to make it.

I have so much to learn! I know NOTHING about football, plays, or positions, but I at least know what direction the teams should run with the ball. And I know that when Carson grabbed the flag off the kid with the ball, it was a good thing. He did too!!

I think his favorite part of football so far is the mouth piece; he felt so cool! Look how red he got from running around:

Captain Carson

Saturday was Carson's last soccer game of the season, and he ended it with a bang as Captain! (Basically, the kid whose parents bring snacks that game gets the title. Guess who made snacks??)

The weather was perfect and Carson's team did a great job competing against the Frogs. After the game we met a CC's Pizza for his team party, where he received his trophy.

...and team pictures!

He had a great soccer season and now that he is almost five we are thinking more sports are in store for him. When we asked him tonight what else he would like to play he said tennis and football too.

Bobcats

Carson just started his second season of soccer and is a Bobcat! He is doing really well and enjoys going to practice and his games.

This weekend Carson had lots of fans cheering him on! Grandma, Grandpa, Jakob, Meme, Deacon and I were all on the sidelines rooting for him, while Brian was at work.

Last weekend his team played the Frogs (my camera was dead at home), but I was ready to take pictures this weekend while his team took on the Dragons!

Carson still loves playing goalie the most and rocks, not letting any balls get past him!

Soccer!!!

Now that Carson is 4 we figured he was old enough to play sports. (We attempted t-ball at the YMCA last year without much success) Last week was his first practice (Thursday) and game (Saturday). I must say it was a win-win situation: Carson had a blast and the parents were HIGHLY entertained!

Carson and his team warming up

He was really good

We were fortunate to have our neighbor James sign up too and he was even placed on the same team! These two together are a hoot!

Carson's favorite position is goalie, and he did great at blocking all three balls that were kicked at him.

He and James were wore out from all that hard work! lol

At the end of practice the team had to decide a name. The coach (who is fabulous, I might add) let the kiddos pick. One kick said the "Purple Team" (their uniforms are red!), another kid said the "Orange Team." lol He had the kids name animals instead. Carson said "how about the 'Horses'?" Coach Mitchell, liked it and said "why don't we call ourselves the STALLIONS!!" Everyone loved it.

Next, all the kids lined up by height so that the uniforms could be passed out. Our poor son has our short genes and was officially the smallest on the team...

...he was still excited to get his uniform and his number. He is #2!

Our game was Saturday and we met before to decorate our cars for the "car parade." The parade consisted of us driving to the field together and honking our horns the whole way there. Carson was excited nonetheless.

I'm obviously no artist, seeing as the soccer ball looked more like a cross with a circle around it, but I tried

Proud Dad

Pops rode with us!

(Grandma & Grandpa were at the game too)

We arrived with plenty of time to warm up and for the rain to arrive...

Luckily, it wasn't raining bad enough for the game to be canceled, so we all just got a little damp.

The kids looked so cute in their uniforms!

The kids took turns playing all positions.

We were too busy videotaping, so we didn't get a lot of pictures during the game, but it was hilarious! Kids were running in the wrong direction and some were just standing around like there wasn't a game going on or anything.

Carson was focused. I told him before the game that where ever the ball went, he should stay right by it. That ball never left his sight. Even during one of the time outs, Carson didn't know what they were doing, only that there was an open ball. He got ahold of that ball and went straight to score a goal. lol

The whole game Carson kept saying he wanted to be goalie and at the end he finally got his chance! At practice he learned the "goalie stance," and stayed in that position the whole time he was in front of that goal.

Only one ball was shot at him and he missed it. He was so tore up over missing that goal he almost started crying. That is when I mentioned that he would receive a trophy at the end of the season. He perked right back up!

I don't think we were supposed to keep score, but my hyper-competitive dad did...we won 5-4!

Go Stallions!!