Officially a "Soccer Mom"

Today, one of my lifelong dreams was realized, I officially became a "soccer mom."  Okay, I jest, it hasn't been a lifelong dream.  Quite the opposite in fact. 

Back in college, I inherited my parents Subaru Legacy Station Wagon.  My college friends use to joke that they were gonna put a 'Soccer mom' sticker on it since it evoked that image.  Clearly, I wasn't thrilled about this joke.  I was 21 and moving into the city, I wanted a "sexier" car or at the very least, something smaller like a Honda Civic. 

The irony was that the car ended up serving me well in my first job as a foster care caseworker as I was driving lots all over the city and often had a car full of kids.  The other bonus was that nobody wanted to steal it.  Go figure!  My roommate had a smaller car (a Toyota Camry) and it was stolen twice.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Stolen twice.  My station wagon wasn't stolen even once!!!  So, in hindsight, I'm thankful for that car, even if my 21-year-old self was unenthusiastic about receiving it (so a delayed thanks mom & dad).

Anyway.  I promised myself that we wouldn't have a minivan immediately upon having kids, but then we found out we were pregnant with twins and most of our plans of easing into the parenthood scene were gone.  When I was 7 months pregnant with the boys, we traded in Jon's two-door Dodge Avenger for a minivan.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the 2 vehicles parked next to each other at the dealership.  It was a traumatic day for Jon.  We left the dealership with a Grand Caravan.  We opted for the larger minivan since we needed lots of trunk space for a double stroller and 2 pack n plays when we traveled.  And in the last 6 years, we've done a pretty good job of filling up those vacant seats.

So, while we have had the 'soccer mom' vehicles for years and years.  Today was the first day that they were officially put to use for that purpose.

The twins have taken some sports classes, but today was their first league game.  They were very excited.  And, in a twist of irony (and continual frustration for the coach), they aren't the only set of twin boys on the team.  I feel a bit sorry for the coach having to learn all these kids names and then having 2 sets of twin brothers.  At least they wrote first names on their jerseys instead of last names to help him out.  I did hear Andrew complain once to me that he had been called James during the game (sorry buddy, you're going to have a lifetime of getting confused for each other). 

Their team is called the Maroon Monsters.  Here are a few shots from today's game.

James ready to go

Andrew strikes a pose

Andrew pumped to be goalie

James going after the ball

Best Buds.  I couldn't resist this shot of them from behind with their jerseys.

Andrew kicking the ball back into play

Andrew playing offense.  It looks like he is losing his shorts.  Why do they insist on ordering them so big?  All the kids were having the same problem, everyone except James.  Later I realized that James had worn different shorts as he didn't see the shorts that were part of the uniform that I put out for him.  This is classic James. At least he didn't risk losing his shorts like Andrew. 

James

The little brothers were there too.  They spent most of the game sharing goldfish and playing in the park.  They weren't too interested in watching the game.