Sunny, dry, and warm

Here in my part of the midwest the weather has been more like my native California. We haven't had real rain for at least a month, maybe two, and we have dry, gorgeous blue skies right now day after day. All the lawns are brown and we've been watering our flower beds almost every day to keep things alive.

So, since it's Labor Day weekend, I plan an event for BB and family to visit a soccer tournament at a local park. BB can't get enough of soccer and in two weeks will be joining a club league for the first time. But five year olds have strange sensitivities. The scene was admittedly pretty crazy at the park, with high school teams from all over the region there to play. (Not something I would have visited before BB, but the kid is into sports-what can you do?) Turns out that BB found the whole thing alienating. For one thing, he was worried about the way I talked my way into parking without paying. It's a public park, so in reality you don't need to pay. But if you were attending the tournament, you were expected to pay. I figured, we weren't really going to watch a full game, so why pay? The parking attendants bought it. But BB is worried these days when we park in a yellow zone, so he got it into his head that we weren't supposed to be there. He simply wouldn't watch or even look at a single game. This is like soccer heaven, something like 10 simultaneous games going on at once, and he wouldn't look at one. He made a point by using the park, and he played in the kids' playground the whole time we were there. He made his point. LB started to cry. We headed home. BB and I went later to Starbucks on our own for coffee and a chocolate milk.