“Wasn’t it just yesterday that it was our kids playing soccer?”
That was my question to my sister whose kids are about the same ages as mine, and she texted back, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
What brought up this exchange were some photos I had sent of my almost-five-year-old granddaughter during her soccer game last Monday. This is her second season in soccer, and she’s loving it. So when our son suggested we come to Minnesota sometime to watch one of her games, my husband and I checked our schedules, and were on the next flight out.
We spent the weekend on lots of activities with the kids – reading, coloring, watching episodes of favorite shows like “Blippi,” “Bluey,” and “Baby Shark,” visiting different parks and seeing how much bigger, stronger, and faster the kids have gotten since we last saw them, and taking part in a new tradition we started a few visits ago, which is for the two older kids to bake a dessert with Grandma whenever we go to see them.
On this trip, we made what I called a “Magic Cake” – the magic part being the colorful stripes inside the cake that were made when I poured Jello over the holes that the kids poked in the cake after it came out of the oven. The original recipe, which first appeared back in the ‘70s, was called, logically, “Poke Cake,” and I hadn’t made one in years. But now seemed like a good time to resurrect the recipe. And also to rename it “Magic Cake.”
The highlight of our visit, however, and the main reason for our trip, was to attend the soccer game, and to cheer on our granddaughter and her team. I was so caught up in what was going on on the field – and getting some action shots of our granddaughter running and dribbling and, yes, scoring a goal! – that I didn’t have time to stroll down Memory Lane until later, after the game was over and I had a chance to look at the photos. That’s when the nostalgia hit, and the time melted away between watching my own kids playing soccer and watching my granddaughter playing soccer at the same age.
It was a wonderful visit, and I’m already looking forward to the next one. And to whatever other way I’ll see my own kids all over again in the lives and activities of my grandchildren.
September 25, 2023
©Betty Liedtke, 2023
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