Big Match, Big Fit

The World Cup.
The best of the best footballers, representing their nations on the biggest stage of them all.

What better way to start it off in our house than with England and the United States taking on each other in their opening games?

Stace, of course, has been looking forward to this with keen anticipation for months. We redid our living room for it, for heaven's sake!

Stace wore his new official England shirt, and Cora wore a "future England star" shirt. Violet and I sported the Stars and Stripes. My dad, disappointingly, did not come dressed in American clothes, but he did bring Bass ale, so we forgave him.
Wait. Bass is English. Hmmmm...

The end result was a 1-1 draw, a win in effect for the Americans and a frustrating day for the English, who thought they should have handled the U.S. handily. Stace's Nan was the only one of us to correctly predict the final score, so good job, Mary!

Some gems (Stace-isms?) from my poor, anxiety-ridden husband: "Bloody hell, Rooney! You might as well have flippin' Mickey Rooney out there! Rooney's crap."
Then, we heard him shout, "C'mon, Lampard! This is the WORLD CUP, not flippin' Stoke! And I mean Stoke sub Hamdon, not Stoke on Trent!"
And after the game, to the former U.S. player-turned commentator: "Shut up, Alexi, you turd."

Hopefully both teams will advance out of their group and give it a good run.

Later in the day, we thought it would be a nice treat to walk to Starbucks for a drink. We took the long way, through the paseos by way of Meadows Park, where Cora played a bit.

When we reached Granary Square, I wanted to stop into CVS to get an ice cream (free after coupon!) as a treat for Cora and me to share. Cora didn't understand, and started to complain. I said I was getting us a treat, which quieted her for a bit, but then she whined and fussed when Stace asked her to leave the candy section and stand with him while I checked out.

The crying continued outside, and reached the point where we decided Cora didn't deserve any sort of treat - we were going home. THEN the waterworks started, and the hysteria. Whoa, Nellie.

She continued crying the entire walk home. It was pretty impressive, actually.
This came after a week in which she was a really good girl, but I guess we all have our bad days. I was very impressed with Stace's calm demeanor during the entire episode, as was the CVS manager. When Stace took Cora outside, the manager came up to me to thank me and compliment us/Stace on how we handled her; he said that most parents he sees let their kids run around the store and act inappropriately. I was so pleased; you sure don't expect to get compliments when your kid's throwing a major tantrum!

All was better when Stace put Cora to bed; while he read her a story they were laughing and joking together once again.