Big Boy Football

Last spring, after Kevin turned 6, the one thing he really wanted to do was play on a football team (soccer). He started in the youngest age group "trapturfjes'' - which, the closest translation I can come up with is something like the 'small grass kickers', that only meets on Saturday mornings for a combination of training and mini games.

The time was decent - 10 to 10.45 - and it was a good intro for him on playing with a team as opposed to just kicking the ball around with dad in nice weather.....
After the summer break, Kev was old enough to move to the next level, where they train once in the week and then on the weekends, play in teams of 4 on 4 and play 3 sets of 12 minute games against one team. They play in the ''champions league'' and adopt the shirts of the teams they mimic. Kev is part of FC Porto (Portugal) and his number this season is 6.

He´s having a blast, and consistently scores during the games (his team is ranked 2nd right now in the league of 8 teams). It´s wonderful to watch him have fun and have a budding talent develop!

For now, I only have a few pics (I know....how is this possible?!) because I find myself cheering rather than taking pics....and I have yet to master cheering, anticipating the right moment to shoot before a goal and hold everything steady....I´m working on it! :-)

Summer of ´11 - Extended Edition

This summer has really flown by! - and I´m using summer in the sense of the normal season plus our stretch October..... Technically, Summer vacation for the kids is already way shorter (6 weeks compared to 3 months stateside) but this summer (from end June to end September) has gone down in the history books for bad weather - like the third worst/wettest summer ever - that´s quite an accomplishment for a country known for it´s rain!

There was no possibility this year for a vacation in the sun (decided lack of both time and money), but towards the end of the school vacation in August, mom finally got a break and decided to book a long weekend and take Kev somewhere new.














Decision criteria:
1) Mom couldn't handle another(!)amusement park
2) Kev loves to travel by train, bus...anything other than the usual car
3) a city that had enough to hold mom's attention and still be interesting for little man

I was leaning towards London at first....right up until the time of the riots. Then it didn't seem like such a good idea. Also, London is always expensive. Even the roach motels go for 5 star prices in other cities. In eastern Europe, there were some good possibilities, but the travel time was sooo long, and the getaway budget didn't stretch to cover flights. We were down to car or train (or slow boat) when I saw an offer for 3 nights in Berlin for the price of 2.

In my years here in The Netherlands, I've been to quite a few cities in Germany, but not yet to Berlin. I was in Junior High when the Wall came down, and I remember the news footage from that time quite vividly. I'd also heard from almost anyone who had ever been how beautiful it was. While the historical significance of the city might be lost on Kev this time around, there is a beautiful zoo and many other sights that I knew he would appreciate after our trip to Paris earlier this year - 6 is NOT too young for culture!

So in the last lazy days of August, before football (soccer) and swimming lessons and school started back up, we headed off to have an adventure........

We went to the famous zoo, toured around the city for 2 days in an open top, hop on hop off bus with 15 stops around the city, ate in the 200 plus meter high tower and watched the sun go down, took our first border crossing 7 plus hour train trip (complete with iPad movies and lots of hands of Uno!), visited the the areas where the wall used to be and the remnants preserved today.....and had a great time!