Owen’s first soccer game at the park district!

The wintery weather didn’t make for a very nice day (we were in winter coats, hats, and gloves) but everyone was excited!

Katie kept busy waiting for the game to start.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a bad start as I decided to take a shortcut across a little grassy area to go look at a park map…and I ended up in inches deep swampy muck. I bet you can imagine how wonderful that felt in 35 weather not 15 minutes into our 1.5 hour stay.

Much to our surprise (honestly), Owen scored TWO goals!! Part of it was due to him getting better…but (honestly) part of it was due to the other team not being quite as good. But it was super exciting—and they ended up winning (I think) 4-1!

Owen really needs a haircut but he has so far refused.

Katie’s soccer camp

She thinks she wants to play soccer again but she really has no idea what she’s doing. (She did play one season but never really had any good instruction.) So we enrolled her in a five-week beginning level class at the rec center and we’ll see how it goes.

This is how she played goalie—she had NO idea. She’d just watch the ball roll by into the goal.

Soccer game day!

Today was photo day! I honestly didn’t want to pay the outrageous prices for photos, so I planned to sneak some of Owen and his team and Tom snagged one of Katie’s session (it was at 8am and me and Owen didn’t make it for that). Also, I knew Katie would have half her team missing (due to pics being an hour before the game) and we never really got to know any of the kids (like we did with T-ball and baseball) outside the two kids we already knew.

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Dancing across the field…

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It really wasn’t until after the game when I was looking at all the pics I took that I realized Owen was really handling the ball well. He has improved SO much it’s unbelievable!

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Cold and windy soccer morning

This morning was a horrible morning weather-wise for soccer—it looked gorgeous but the wind was gusting at probably 20-30mph and with temps in the high 40s/low 50s it was cold. I felt so bad for all the kids…but they didn’t really seem to be bothered too much by it. However, I had on a 32° undershirt, a heavy sweatshirt, my winter coat, gloves, and was covered in TWO blankets…and was still freezing. It was even so cold my phone’s battery died so I only got a few pics. 

   
 

He looks like a soccer player!

It was crazy insane hot tonight so practice didn’t last very long. 

Then little sister wanted a picture, too. 🙂

As a sidenote, we still don’t have a coach and it’s quite the cluster. It’s clear no one at the soccer association really has any idea what’s going on and that makes it very frustrating as a parent. This came in an email after practices:

 
My reaction was SERIOUSLY? It is OUR job to find a coach? WHAT?! I posted as much on Facebook, lamenting that this can’t be typical…and unfortunately was quickly told by many that yes, it’s very common—lots of parents with zero soccer knowledge end up coaching soccer. Ay yi yi. So stay tuned…there’s stuff in the works.

Owen’s first ever soccer practice!

I thought I’d take a lot more pictures but it didn’t turn out that way! Katie enjoyed running around playing with Owen and the other kids. We probably should have put her in soccer, too, but honestly, I’m just not that ready to commit to that many hours of sports—their practices are at different times, so I’d (we’d) be at the fields for three hours on Wednesday (her from 5:30-6:45 and him from 7:00-8:15), plus another 1:15 for him Friday, and then two games each Saturday from 9-11:30. Yuck. I know those days are coming…but I am just not sure I’m ready yet.

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First we were on the wrong practice field—they have like 14 teams practicing at once and we didn’t realize there were two teams named Revolution (because the whiteboard didn’t differentiate them!) so we went from a field with great sideline seats to a half field with crappy viewing…and then our coach didn’t show up (and hadn’t emailed ANYONE to let them know) so there was a scramble to get a substitute coach so any real practice started about a half hour late…and I didn’t feel like hovering while he practiced (though, honestly, the first practice would have been the one to do it at). So I sat on the sidelines and this was the craziness.

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Click to see a larger version.

But he loved it, had a great time, and didn’t actually do that bad!