End of Season Soccer Party

It is hard to believe but Lily’s soccer season game to end today.  She was quite disappointed when we let her down with the news, but quickly cheered when we told her that they were having team party tonight.  The party was at Fuddruckers.  We enjoyed the night out at the restaurant since we rarely go out to eat. 

Before the food arrived the Allie, Lily, her teammates, and their siblings were all enjoying playing in the little game room.  I was a mean mommy and let them only play one game, and go on one ice cream truck ride.  It ended up being a dollar well spent.  Lily did ask for more money but in general was happy with her short gaming experience.  It is nice that our kids tend to be okay without spending a lot of money.  They were content in pretending to play the games.

Dinner was enjoyable but WAY too much food.  I started feeling sick about halfway through.  After most people had finished the kids were given a piece of cake that one of the mom’s had made.  It had the coolest soccer ball on it and their team name.

Afterwards the kids were given their trophies.  We had chipped in to help buy these, but the coach had also covered part of the cost.  With the amount we paid I wasn’t expecting something so cool.  Not only was Lily’s name engraved on it, but that ball spins and can be taken off and played with!  Oh and the base was red the same color as their jersey!

Lily said some quick goodbyes to her soccer friends before we grabbed some free balloons and headed home.  We were unsure how soccer would go for Lily, but she seems to have enjoyed it immensely.  On the way home we asked her if she would like to sign up next season to play again and she responded with a hearty, “YES!”  Come Spring it looks like we will be doing the soccer mom/dad thing again!

A New Record

I missed Lily’s soccer game today because I was at a Super Saturday for the four wards in our area.  Wouldn’t you know that today was the day Lily would make a new record for scoring goals?!  Upon arriving home Lily excitedly attacked me with the news that she had scored FOUR goals.  I was quite impressed but became even more so when Russ put in his two cents about the goals.  He explained that these goals didn’t consist of Lily being passed the ball and kicking it in.  No these consisted of her dribbling the ball the whole length of the field and then scoring.  Quite a feat for our soccer player who runs quite slowly.  Well….not slowly just daintily.  I was sad that I had missed this event, but THRILLED for Lily and her new record.

Perseverance

I admire Lily and a lot of traits she has at such a young age, that I am still trying to develop currently in my life.  One of these is perseverance.  Today at soccer we talked to Lily a lot about how she needs to get in the cluster of kids and kick the ball.  She has been kind of flitty and running around not looking everywhere BUT where the ball is.  Towards the end of the 3rd quarter she really started getting into the cluster and we were so excited for her!  She saw this, and in turn she started doing it more because she knew what she was doing was the right thing.

On one of these instances she ran towards the ball just as a boy on the opposing team kicked the ball.  The ball popped up in the air and nailed Lily pretty hard in the nose.  I was out on the field pretty quickly since I knew that Lily doesn't handle pain that well.  By the time I waddled myself out there Coach Perez had picked her up and was checking her out.  She was crying bit said she wanted to continue playing!  Oh what a huge leap for her!  I was so proud to see her continue on playing.

A few minutes passed and Lily was yet again in the middle of the cluster of kids trying to kick the ball.  She kicked the ball at the same time as someone else which caused her to go over the ball head first  She landed on her face and kind of did a headstand.  This one roughed her up a bit more.  Coach insisted that she go sit down and Lily came off the field crying.  We checked her out and she was okay, which was quite a relief.  The way she fell looked like she could have hurt her neck. Lily rested for a short bit and then was asking Coach if she could go back in...which she did!

I'm so impressed that these two experiences didn't so Lily down.  She wanted to have fun and play soccer even if she had a bit of pain.  Seeing Lily's personality and character grow in leaps and bounds this year has really made me proud.  I'm really excited to see peeks of what Lily's future holds for her through these milestones she achieves.

Lily's 1st Soccer Game

Saturday we got up early and made it to Lily's soccer game at 8:03.  The way her division works is that they have a 30 min practice before the game.  The game last about an hour.  We were hoping since her game was early in the morning it would be fairly cool, but boy did the humidity get us!  With the humidity we were fairly hot but occasionally there was a breeze so it was enjoyable.  The mosquitos weren't too bad either, YAHOO!

Lily was practically out the door of the car before Russ stopped at the playing field.  She was excited beyond belief!  By the time we got to the field they were just starting some drills.  Since Lily has never done soccer before it was nice to see her couch work with her.  He was very positive in reinforcing what she did well, and kind when correcting her in what she needed to work on.  Here she is practicing with her team....

Lily and Carson practicing kicking the ball

Lily setting up to kick with Coach Perez in the background

 Waiting for her turn to kick a goal.  This has really taught her patience, and turn taking! YEAH!

 So this would have been an awesome picture if I hadn't cut her off.  But I loved this picture so much because she was doing what Coach had just told her to work on.  Follow through with your leg.  Yes it may be a tad high but at least she followed through!!!

 Small kicks

 And during practice there is always some standing around time, LOL!

I was very proud of Allie through out this whole thing.  She spent "practice" time with daddy kicking goals with her soccer ball.  No worries they were on an empty field so as not to get in the way of the "real" soccer players. 

Forgot that I needed to give the camera some "defogging" time so it is a bit blurry.

This picture is so fun because you can see Lily in the background.  Fog still hadn't cleared off yet....sigh!

Allie was a model child after this and primarily sat in her chair or on Russ's lap for the whole game!  She even cheered Lily on a few times.  The game began with Coach helping the kids do a cheer...

Lily sat out the first bit because they play three on three.  She was a bit discouraged, but again learned some patience.  She was all smiles as she ran in for her turn.  She stayed in for most of the game since she wasn't getting too tired.  It was funny to watch her because she is a bit clueless.  A lot of the time she would stand there and watch the ball.  If came towards her she would try and kick it but she just quite didn't get the fact that she should run after it to try and get it to come to her!  I know in her mind this is just a fun game she is playing with friends, not a competition against the other team.

Despite her being slightly clueless I did see Lily have some great learning moments throughout the game.  The first time she got ran into and fell down she cried.  Coach helped her up and got her to stop crying, but let her sit out for awhile.  While sitting out I explained that it was an accident that happens and we don't need to cry about falling down, we just need to jump up and try to get the ball.  The next time Lily fell, she jumped up, brushed herself off, and ran after the ball!  YAY!  

Another enlightenment I saw towards the end of the game was Lily actually running after the ball.  During another one of her breaks she had been sad because she hadn't scored a goal yet, and reminded her how she kicked it toward the goal so some else could kick it in.  I explained she had "assisted" or helped someone, and that is just as important as getting a goal herself.  I think she took this to heart, because I really saw her jump into the game and go after the ball more.  YAY! 

Now those learning moments were my favorite thing to see at the game.  I love seeing my kids learn and grow.  But Lily would probably tell you her favorite part of the game was scoring a goal!  Yep, my little sweetie scored her very first goal!  She was so excited and beamed with pride.  I wish I had captured it on film, but I didn't want the camera glued to my face the whole time.  I wanted to enjoy Lily's game too!  But I did capture a few more cute pictures of the kids playing.  Enjoy these until next week, when I'm sure I'll plaster the blog with even more soccer photos! Hehehehe!

Trace, Lily and McKenna waiting for the kickoff!

Just a fun picture of Lily!  Look at what the humidity did to her hair!  Love the crazy curl look!