Season's End

Saturday

We were up bright and early for rugby for the last time today. Even though the Mt Maunganui Gold Under 6's played their final game a few weeks ago, the season didn't actually finish until today when all the junior clubs in the area gathered for their annual awards ceremony. Fortunately for their attention spans, Ro's team got their awards first. All the boys got a certificate and a participation trophy (the ball on it looked suspiciously like an American football). Two boys from every team got special honors, Most Improved and Player of the Year, and there were also door prizes to be won. The trophy was enough for Ro, and he was pleased as punch at his first trophy ever, waving it around like no one else got one but him. He didn't have the patience to watch all the following teams trot up to the stage to get their awards, so while Sherry went across the street to New World, Mark took Ro and his friend Henry outside to kick the rugby ball around.

Ro's team getting their recognition

Ro heads back to his seat with hardware in hand

The boys wanted to run Mark ragged, playing three person rugby on a full-size field. Mark nipped that in the bud pretty quick, and came up with the idea of everyone trying to kick the ball over the goalposts, thinking it would take the boys forever to do it. Henry may be small, but he makes up for it in raw Kiwi talent, and probably got the ball over 25% of the time. Ro got the ball over on his third attempt, and was ecstatic (so was Mark), but hit the point of diminishing returns after that.

Ro boots one towards the crossbar as Henry looks on

After a week of absolutely beautiful spring weather, the day turned rainy, so after lunch we took Ro to The Rock House to burn off some energy. Unlike weekday afternoons after school, there weren't many teens and tweens there, but there were plenty of little kids. Other parents were no doubt stuck for rainy day ideas like us. Ro spent a lot of time in the bouldering room today, mostly because he likes falling on the inflatable floor. The gym started getting crowded after a while, so we headed home for dinner (pork chops), and a quiet evening watching the All Blacks take on the Wallabies in the last Tri-Nations Test of the season. New Zealand throttled the Aussies 33-6 in Wellington, leaving the Wallabies with the ignominy of claiming this year's dreaded "wooden spoon."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_spoon_(award)

His nickname with the staff is "the little monkey"

Finally reached the swinging hold, now what?

Sherry went a little overboard at the toy library this week