Happy Number 7

THE FUN AND SOMETIMES NOT SO FUN STORIES ABOUT RAISING 5 KIDS UNDER 6!

The “Oh so fun” and “Not so fun” weekend & Coaching.

Coaching Fun with kids Movies Parenting multiples Weekend Fun

This past weekend consisted in various fun things (mostly Saturday) and a few “not so fun but need to get done” things (mostly Sunday).

Fun things: End of soccer season with Nico, went to the movies to watch “The Book of Life”, spent time with family.

Not so fun: Had to change the oil in one of the cars, grocery shopping and going through 6/10 containers full of clothes as we get ready for our Neighborhood Yard/Garage sale this coming weekend.

 

If I had to rank our weekend activities, I would rank Soccer as #1 and going to the movies as #2. Coaching Nico and the 3-4 year old kids was an amazing and rewarding experience that I highly recommend to all parents if they haven’t had the chance to do so. Going into the season I was not planning on coaching but on Day 1 after I voluntarily helped passing the uniforms to the kids, I was asked if I could coach and referee the 3-4 years old game. Thinking this was a one-time deal, I agreed to do it.. The following weekend, I arrived to the fields thinking there would be another coach ready to take on the task but nope, I was asked once again…. Same thing happened on weekend 3… By the 4th weekend, I finally approached the managing staff and made it “official” 🙂 I told them that I could certainly continue to coach the kids on the weekends but it needed to be known among parents and I needed a shirt that made me the “official coach” so parents and kids knew who their coach was and did not appear to be a random dude every weekend…

The more weekends I coached the more I got to know the kids, their strengths, weaknesses, what motivated them, etc and developed a fun coach/player relationship and made it fun for everyone. By the end of the season, it was very rewarding being approached by parents thanking me for coaching their kids and saying things like “the kids love you”. That meant a lot to me and gave me one more reason to continue coaching the kiddos in the upcoming season.   The main reason? The amazing time I had with Nico and seeing his proud face knowing that his dad was his “Coach”. Feb. 2015 season, here we come!

The 2nd most fun thing we did over the weekend was watching The Book of Life. I will not go into detail as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but I HIGHLY recommend it. The colors in the movie are amazing and the soundtrack is great too!! We took all 3 kids (we always do) and they loved it! Santi sometimes is not as interested in the movies and walks around but this time he was very intrigued by the animation and the music and sat through the entire movie! (well, he switched seats a couple of times and ate almost a full bag of popcorn too! :)). So go check it out if you have a chance – the message in the movie is great and worth every penny.

The least fun thing we did over the weekend was start preparing for our yard sale… Given that we will have 2 more boys and we’ve decided we are “Closed for Business” after they arrive, we are now ready to sell/donate all of Nati’s clothes, shoes and toys.. We have a total of 10 bins full of clothes and not to mention all the toys and stuff we’ve been putting aside as we re-arrange the kids’ bedrooms. We only had the patience to go through 6/10 containers and will be tackling the other 4 this week one at a time…. Needless to say, going through her baby stuff brought back a lot of memories of her being a baby (our first) and realizing how much she has grown (and how fast!! :(). Who would’ve thought that preparing to receive 2 new babies could be nostalgic to see the other “babies” grow so quickly? Mixed emotions for sure.

One thing is certain. It has been a pain in the butt getting ready for the yard sale and we’ll be ecstatic once it is over with! 🙂

P.S – Today is 11.11.2014. Thank you to all the men and women that have served our Country to preserve our freedom. We respect you and appreciate you. God Bless America.

 

 

Our Weekend

Fun with kids Weekend Fun

We really cherish weekends — with how hectic weekdays are, we really try to maximize our time together on our weekend by trying to do fun stuff that involves all of us.  Yeah, of course errands and other pre-scheduled events “get in the way” but we always try to spend as much time together as possible.

For the past couple of weekends, on Saturday mornings, I’ve been coaching Nico’s soccer team (3 & 4 years old). It did not start as something I signed up for but more as something that fell on my lap (they needed a coach on the first day and I happened to be there. :)). At first I did not know if it was something I was going to like or be good at but it grew on me and Nico loved it!  Enjoying time with Nico and coaching the other little ones was a blast and now it is something I look forward to and hope to continue to coach him and Santi and all my kids if I have a chance.   This is the Soccer Club we signed up for. 

After soccer, we went to Indian Rocks to do some product pick ups and had lunch at P.Js Oyster Bar and Seafood — the food was good and the kids loved it.  Unfortunately it was too windy to sit outside, otherwise we would’ve loved listening to the Live Music (there were like 3 people outside… felt bad for the musician).

On our way back, we had to stop at our local library to check out some books for a project for Nati. We got lucky because the library was one of the early voting places so we went ahead and voted! Nati chose to do her project on White Tigers (chosen mostly because she just got a stuffed animal at Busch Gardens). She created a habitat and next to it described their classification and 3 interesting facts about them. It was her first project ever and she did a great job at it! 🙂

Sunday started off really lazy… we continue to declutter the house and setting up the new rooms for the kids — everyone is moving around (more on a future blog).  After a semi-lazy morning, we finally got out of the house and went to Home Depot to get new paint for their rooms — I did not realize paint could be THAT expensive… we ended paying $70+ on 2 gallons of paint!  I am definitely in the wrong business!!   I guess the painting option is cheaper than a new house or full remodeling of our current one but darn!!!

After my shocking experience at Home Depot, we head out to Chipotle for lunch (Becca’s favorite) and then to Sports Authority to get some shin guards for Nati — she started playing soccer at school and the other day her legs were all bruised up! 🙁 So I decided it was time for some protection… hehe… I wish I would’ve thought about it earlier…

After a productive weekend, we ended up relaxing on our couch catching up on some TV and enjoying Brownie Moose Tracks ice cream thanks to Nico’s suggestion — one of my few cheats over the weekend– I am really trying to be good.