A few weeks ago Molly began practice for her first ever soccer team! She has taken a soccer class or two through the park district, but this is her first real AYSO team with games and I was very excited! I think I was more excited than her though. Unfortunately, the soccer season started the week after Kindergarten started and to be honest, its probably a bit too much (especially when you factor in that she also has a dance class on Thursday nights, but she completely loves that so I figure its okay). But now that we are a few weeks into it (and have experienced the glory of a goal or two), she is getting into it. She still says if she has to give up an activity though, she is keeping dance.

So anyways, the first few weeks of soccer were a little rough and I was able to take a few pictures to forever memorialize this ha ha ha. The format is as follows: Her team meets twice a week on a field next to the three other under 6 girls teams. They practice for 30 minutes and then play games against the other teams for 30 minutes. This annoys me as I had erroneously assumed the games would be on weekends when I would have Matt to help me wrangle Lilly along the sidelines but we are making do. Here are some pictures of her first practice:

Ready for our first soccer practice with our new ball and our new shin guards which Molly immediately said were itchy and asked to stay home because of.

Here is Molly on the left running inexplicably away from her team and their goal.

And here she is gabbing with her coach while her back is to all the action going on behind her.

A great shot of Molly on the far right, bending over to pant while the rest of her team scrimmages. You know - At the OTHER END OF THE FIELD. Which she would know if she did not have her back turned to what was going on again.

Ah yes. A photo to make any parent proud! Molly is getting up after I "politely suggested" that we do NOT sit down at a soccer game in the middle of the field. You may notice her team is nowhere near her again - guess where they were? yep - the other end of the field again.

So, that was a bit ugly. Also – she missed every shot when her coach would set her up 3 feet from the goal and tell her to shoot it in. I do not even know how that is possible. It defies physics, really. The only good thing is she seemed like she could seriously care less and was not embarrassed about it. She kept yelling “MOM! Is it time to go yet? I don’t like soccer!” from the middle of the field and she asked her coach if she could just do laps because she prefers to run than just stand there (totally MATT’S genes!). Things were NOT looking good for a future career in women’s soccer. I began to retabulate my plan to pay for college.

Oh but then! But then Molly found out that at the end of each practice/game, you get a snack and things started looking up!

"oh wait - we get snacks and juice each time we come? Well maybe this is not so bad afterall!"

"Pardon me Molly, but did you say snacks and juice?"

"SHOO! BE GONE! I am NOT sharing my snack with you Lilly!".

Oh – and one more funny story about this night. The girls got together and had to come up with a team name after they were given their jerseys (pink! score!). Molly very loudly and VERY excitedly suddenly yelled out, “OH I have a GREAT IDEA! Why don’t we be the BIG PINK BALLS!”. I almost died and then wanted to really die when all the little girls agreed to it. But then the coach (who was laughing very hard) gently steered them towards the team name they ended up choosing: The Pink Lions.

If you say “go pink lions!” to Lilly she will roar for you It’s quite cute.

So anyways, it has now been 3 full weeks of soccer and I am happy to report that things have really changed for the better! Molly, who seems to finally be grasping some of the actual rules of soccer and paying attention more to the games, looks forward to going now. I have done a little work with her out in the yard trying to teach her to not just let the other team take the ball but to get in there and fight for it a little and she has become quite the aggressor on the soccer field. I may have gone a bit too far though and am finding that she is throwing elbows and pushing more than she should so we are working on that.

Goal kick action shot! Look at all that power!

Then last Friday night Molly scored her first goal. After which she promptly charged down the field and scored 2 more! Then last night she scored 3 more! That seems to have been the catalyst and now she is pretty much addicted and keeps asking when we can go back. I should have known that applause and attention would be what would get this kid hooked. I could not be more thrilled! I LOVE soccer – I played my entire childhood and I just want her to give it a real chance so she can have as much fun as I did with it. Sometimes its hard to watch from the sidelines because I wish I was playing. Though in all honesty I do NOT have the patience her coaches do. I will wait to coach her team until she is a bit older and they listen better. Also – pretty much every little girl from her Kindergarten class plays either on her team or one of the others so she loves going so she can see all her friends (and I am getting to know all their moms better so its a win-win). Its really great getting to know so many kids her age from the neighborhood.

On a side note her coach came to talk to me last night and told me that he sees a lot of improvement with her in general and commented that she is VERY quick for her age. A real runner he told me! I hate to run (soccer was more about accuracy and strategy for me and I always played forward to get out of running too much), so again that runner’s stuff is ALL MATT. I can totally picture them out running together as she gets older – she loves it!

"Oh look! They gave out snacks again! This sport is great!". Oh but we are still not happily sharing with our little sister as you can plainly see from this photo. Poor Lilly lol!