Tuesday Talk | Youth Sports

Today I am linking up with Ashley & Erika for their monthly Talk series.

I'm talking about Youth Sports today.

This is a subject that can be extremely touchy.

If you are new around here X has been involved in soccer, football, baseball, basketball, etc. since he was 3 years old.

Each year things get more competitive.

There are so many sides to youth sports these days.

I would love to get your take on it.

At what age/level does it go from the kids having fun to being competitive?

When does it go from everyone gets equal playing time to based on skill level?

Should they get participation trophies? At what age does that stop?

At what age/level are "cuts" implemented?

Like I said above, this is a touchy subject for most people.

I think your opinion can even change based on where your child may land.

I'm not looking for a fight or to offend anyone here.

It has just been a hot topic around these parts recently, and I would love to hear how it is handled in over parts of the country/world.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

XOXO ~ Vanessa

The Friday Faves #21

Friday is here!

I am kicking off the weekend a little early by helping out at X's school this morning for Western Games (field day).

That's automatically a favorite in my book!

Now on with the rest of my favorites from this past week.

This past weekend was soccer tournament time around these parts.

The amount of teams, people, cars, etc. were crazy!

And for some reason summer showed up and left all within one weekend :/

The boys played so well together this Spring and went undefeated in the regular season.

Tournaments were not our friends :(

Friday night we played a team that we just faced and beat the weekend before.

They came into the game ready to take us on.

Despite the final score only being 4-2, if felt like we lost by 20!

Saturday was a new day, and another game.

Unfortunately, we ended in a 3-3 tie :/

My mom, step dad, brother and niece all came down for the game on Saturday, so we enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner with them before they headed back home.

Lily and I headed outside and took a few selfies while we waited for everyone else :)

#cousins

Sunday morning we had our last game.

Love these boys :)

But I am ready for a break from soccer!

#footballgirlatheart

Later that afternoon I did my grocery shopping and came across this bottle of goodness!
#YUM

Just like that the weekend was over and it was time for baseball!
I love getting to help coach this kid!

We won our first two games, but unfortunately came away on the losing side Wednesday night.
The long faces just break my heart, but losing is apart of the game :/

I finally ordered those beauty blenders from Amazon that Courtney Shields raves about and they arrived earlier this week.

They are great!

That whole package is under $9 and available on PRIME!

On the blog this week I shared some of my favorite two piece swimwear options for the ladies!

Head here to check it out :)

And you know I love all things Instagram!
These were too good not to share!

And this...

That is a view of Lake Erie and the sky right near my hometown!

LOVE!!!

And that is it!

I am looking forward to another baseball game tonight and then a long weekend with my guys!

What are your Memorial Day plans?

Do you head to a cookout or host one?

Do you travel?

I would love to hear about it in the comments below :)

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO ~ Vanessa

Linking up with Andrea, Narci & Erika!

The Friday Faves #20

Happy Friday!
This week was a busy one!
Hence why I've been MIA on here.
But I am back today with some Friday Favorites :)

We kicked off our weekend with our last regular season soccer game.
It was an intense game!
Honestly, it was the toughest competition we faced all season.
Thankfully, our boys pulled through with the 4-2 win to go undefeated!

We grabbed lunch at Der Dutchman after with my brother, mom, step dad, dad and step mom.

X loved that they were all there for him!

We enjoyed some homemade pies and desserts before heading home.

#bananacreampie 😍

I saw this sign hanging in the shop area and I think I need to recreate it for our house ASAP!

I don't get to see my mom and brother nearly enough!
I was so happy they were both able to come down and visit for bit :)

Sunday morning X was up by 6:45am to give me all the Mother's Day goodies he made!

He is the sweetest!
Thankfully, we went back to sleep for a little bit after I opened it all :)

Once we awoke for good, we cleaned up and headed south to Columbus for lunch.
One of questions X answered in the gifts he gave was "What does my mom like do?"
He wrote "go places". lol!
Yep! He knows me well!
So that is what we did for Mother's Day :)
We hit up The North Market and grabbed some Hot Chicken Takeover for lunch.
While we waited for our food, they gave me a free banana pudding cup :)

We took some silly pictures too! ;)

Our food arrived and it was really good!!!

We made our way through the market after we ate and grabbed some of the yummiest snacks to bring home with us!
X got a cinnamon toast donut from Destination Donuts,
Mic and I grabbed the best sweet waffles ever from Taste of Belgium,
and some pretzels from Brezel.

We then went to my in-laws to for a quick visit and enjoyed an adult beverage and some super yummy smoked ribs!

Monday night we were scheduled to have our first baseball game of the season, but it was rained out.
So I took advantage and hit up the grocery store since I put it off all weekend.

Tuesday night I enjoyed a little me time getting my locks freshened up! 

Wednesday, X's class presented the book they wrote and published together.
It was so cute!!!
They each took turns reading their page from the book, Our Best Days.

Lots of kids wrote about getting a dog or cat, riding roller coasters and the first day of school was a big hit too.
And then a few of them wrote about Christmas morning.
X was in that category.
He shared how his best day ever was opening up his new PS4 and the games he received with it.
He listed those games.
Which was fine until he listed one of the games that was actually Mic's...Hitman.
HITMAN people!

He doesn't play that game!
I wanted to hide!
Of course some parents chuckled and continued to tease me a bit, while I swear others were making a mental note to never let their child come over our house or play with X ever again! 😟

Despite the embarrassment his mother was feeling at the time ;)
I couldn't help but be proud of him and how well he did writing his page.
At least his "About the Author" was consistent with his page he wrote.
It talked all about how he loves Fortnite, plays it all the time, and want to design video games when he is older.

We also had our first baseball game on Wednesday night!
I was kind of nervous going into it honestly, but overall I think the boys did a great job!
And we won 17-8!
Thanks to my dad for taking a couple pictures for me since I am helping coach :)

We are kicking off a weekend full of soccer tournament games tonight!
Fingers crossed we win our games and the division title on Sunday!
Those boys have played so well together this season :)

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!

XOXO ~ Vanessa

Linking up with Andrea, Narci & Erika!

The Friday Faves #18

This week has just been wonky I feel.

It felt slow, but fast.

Either way, the weekend is here!

Linking up with Andrea, Narci & Erika to share...

I kicked off my weekend on Thursday night with the NFL Draft!
While I wasn't as invested in it this year as previous years, I couldn't help but watch it.
The Cleveland Browns didn't even have a pick in the 1st round, but I still watched it :)
#diehardfootballfan

Friday evening of the draft is always one of my favorite times, because retired players and such announce the picks :)

Overall I think the Browns had a good draft this year.
And my biggest loser was the New York Giants :(
Sorry if you are a Giants fan.

Early Saturday morning we had a soccer game that I thought for sure would be cancelled due to all the rain we have been getting.

It was freezing!!!

I had a blanket around me it was that cold!

Those boys played a great game despite the temps :)

We quickly headed home to warm up and get things ready for me to head north a few hours later.

It was the annual Duck Races!

But first, a quick bathroom #ootn :)

The Duck Races are always a fun time :)

Sunday was a whole lot of nothing.
I came home with a little surprise for X from my dad...

This is his second Cleveland Indians Kid's pack and he absolutely loves it!
I swear his favorite part is the cutout heads on a stick! lol!

Since Fortnite added some of the Avengers items to the game, and a few of the kids at school saw the the new movie....X now wants to see End Game, but hasn't actually watched any of the other Avengers movies.

So we watched the first Avengers movie Sunday afternoon.

It has honestly rained so much over the last couple of weeks I am having a hard time keeping my days straight anymore ;/

One of the only nice days we have had was Wednesday and the high was right around 80!
Unfortunately, we headed to baseball practice and it started raining right when practice started :(
We were soaked!
Since it was May 1st and I decided to join the #PhotoADayInMay2019 challenge from Shay & Erika, I thought this rained soaked picture was perfect for the prompt...You! lol!

You can follow me @xtremelyv or just use the #photoadayinmay2019 

It was clear all day yesterday until right when it was time to start X's soccer game :/

But the rained quickly stopped and the boys were able to get another win despite the muddy mess of a field!

Our boys have played really, really well this season!
Most the time they keep it on the offensive side of the field...which means there is a lot of this going on on the defensive side...

🤣🤣🤣
Thankfully, X moves up to offense for the 2nd half of the game and is able to get in on the action :)

Afterwards the coach treated the kiddos to ice cream!
These boys have so much fun together!
They were singing Happy Birthday and just laughing it up!

I sure hope they all stay friends throughout the years :)

 In other news...

On the blog this week I shared my thoughts on the biggest show on TV right now...

Don't worry, I didn't share any spoilers :)
I grabbed these to try to get Mic motivated to start watching again. lol!

And I shared some accessories that are perfect for Spring/Summer that are super affordable!

And that is it for this rainy and gloomy Friday in Central Ohio!
How is the weather where you are at today?

Thanks as always for stopping by!

XOXO ~ Vanessa