Stay Active Saturday - Organized Sports

For some reason, I've always shied away from organized sports for the kids - probably, because I never played team sports as a kid. Last year, Big Sprout wanted to play either baseball or hockey, but we missed the deadline for baseball registration, so off to the ice rink it was. He enjoyed it, but I could tell he didn't love it . . . so when I suggested he take a break, he was happy to do so. Little Sprout had just started martial arts, so he decided to do that with her for a while.

Lately, he's been asking about baseball again, so we decided to give it a try this year. Today was the opening ceremony, and I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see him run out on the field with his team. The only downer in the day was after the ceremony - after all the speeches about creating an environment to keep kids healthy "body, mind and soul" - they brought each team into the bleachers and gave all the kids (including the 3-year-old T-ball players) a hot dog and soda. Ugh! On the bright side, Noah wasn't the only one of his team who said "no thank you" and chose water instead.

Just as exciting, it was Little Sprout's first day of soccer practice. A few months ago, we were out kicking around the soccer ball and she declared "I'm pretty good at soccer. I think you should sign me up for a team." And so we did. She's been literally counting down the days until her first practice and was SO excited for Grandma to take her today. She came home telling me how much she loved it and that "her team won". Funny girl! I can't wait to go see her play next week.

So even though the lack of planning (I've come to call them "dis"organized sports) has been driving me nuts and it's more of a time commitment than I'd like, organized sports may be growing on me. After all . . . what could be better than watching the kids be outside, active and having fun???