A Saturday afternoon in March

This weekend the Duke women's lacrosse team was in town to play a game against UVA. We have a good friend who is an athletic trainer for Duke, and she gave our family free passes to attend the game on a very beautiful Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville yesterday.  

I was pretty unsure how it would all go down with me and the three kids trying to sit through the game, especially since it happened to be right in the middle of our regular nap time. While we were in the car, I tried to think ahead and prepare the kids (and myself) for what it would be like. I just remember praying a lot. 

The first thing we saw as we entered the stadium was the UVA mascot. It was so funny seeing the kids' reactions!

I was so pleasantly surprised by how great Mac and Corrie were. They were so much fun, and they actually seemed to like watching the game! Mac decided to cheer for the Cavaliers (he wanted to be on the team with the "swords"), and Corrie cheered for Duke with me.

The other thing that helped them sit nicely in the stands was the fact that I brought an entire bag of Sun Chips, a bag of Trader Joe's cheese puffs, water bottles, fruit, and yogurt smoothies. They pretty much just ate for 1 and 1/2 hours straight. 

And then there was Davey. 

There was no interest in watching the game for him, and not much interest in eating a bowl of cheese puffs either....only throwing them everywhere. After chasing him around the stands for a while, I had to banish him to stroller for pretty much the entire afternoon. Poor little guy.

Although I prefer Duke's soccer and lacrosse stadium by far, I had to admit that the Cavaliers have a beautiful stadium of their own and even a view of the mountains in the distance.

At halftime, Mac and Corrie were so funny when the music came on. They were both dancing in their own little ways. They had such an innocence and a total lack of awareness of what anyone around them thought. Mac seemed to be performing his own routine in his head. He was so serious about it! Such a great little guy.

The other thing we did at halftime was go to the concession stand to buy some M&M's. By that point we were getting low on food, and I knew Davey would sit for a long time - possibly even the whole 2nd half - if I slowly fed him a steady stream of M&M's. 

That sounds so terrible. Here's something even worse: as we were standing in line, Mac and Corrie found balloons in the trash can. They were playing with them and wearing them as hats. And you know what, I totally let them...I can't believe I am admitting that I even encouraged it. I reached in and pulled out a balloon for Davey. At first I didn't realize it was a trash can. Honestly, I thought it was just maybe some kind of balloon bin. But then I realized people were staring at us and I saw that it was actually trash that I was giving my kids to play with. 

There really wasn't anything else in the trash can, and it seemed really clean, so I let them keep the balloons. Also, I knew that Davey would break all of them before the game was over, so I wouldn't have to deal with taking them home in the car. 

After sword fighting with them in line, Mac and Corrie let Davey hold the balloons in the stands for the rest of the game. Of course, he did not just "hold" them. Below is a glimpse of of classic Davey. He popped all of the balloons. 

All in all, it was a pretty great day. Duke lost, but Mac was happy, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how fun it all was. The drive home was only about 10 minutes, but Davey was out before we even left the parking lot. 

We all felt pretty much the same as Davey when we got home, and we spent the remainder of the afternoon resting inside with the fresh spring air being carried by the breeze through our open windows and screen doors.

Later, we went outside and talked with neighbors and colored with sidewalk chalk until the sun went down.

I know I have painted a very rosy picture with this story, but there were of course parts of the day that were not fun and even very hard. But I believe in my heart that the Lord's good hand was upon it all, and I am very thankful for that.

"When through the woods and forest glades I wander,

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;

How great Thou art, How great Thou art!"

"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." 

- Colossians 1:17