One week down, five to go...

For soccer, that is. Phew - I'm exhausted!

Today has been one where timing was of the essence. It was possible to get everywhere on time as long as we stuck to the schedule. I've got a slight respite right now while Becca is napping, Abby is at a birthday party and Hannah is downstairs watching Dora here with me in my room watching Handy Manny for quiet time. We've got to go get Abby in about a half hour though - but then the rest of the day is ours! Unscheduled! Free time!

Hannah's soccer started at 10am. Thankfully we all got up early enough in order to get everyone fed, dressed, hair done and a picnic lunch made. Oh yes, and we wrapped the birthday present for the party Abby's at and she made a card for her friend. And both girls worked on cards for my mom - whose birthday was over a week ago. Oops.

Isn't this one of the cutest faces in uniform you've ever seen? I may be a bit biased though. :)

It was so exciting for me to watch Hannah finally be able to play soccer. She's been wanting to ever since she was 2 years old and had to watch Abby play week after week. She was very excited to play today and she did (mostly) an awesome job.

First they played a game of 'Monster', where the coach was the 'monster' who tried to kick the ball away from them. Hannah loved this game.



Then they started playing their 'game', which was 3 on 3 with no goalies (keep in mind these are 4-year-olds so they start them out with just the basics). Partway into it, I saw Hannah out on the field in tears. When she came over at the quarter break, I found out why she was upset.

One of the other girls had kicked the ball into the goal instead of her. And she didn't get a turn to kick the ball during that part of the game.

Well, she has the technical skills down great, but I guess we've got to work on the sportsmanship and such - she's still somewhat immature in a few ways. So this will be good for her, to learn how to play as a team. She did play the rest of the game, and her coaches did 'let' her score some goals, even if some of them were in the other team's goal. Hey, it's all good, right? :)



I spent most of the time during Hannah's soccer this morning doing the following:

• Trying to keep Abby from yelling "Go Hannah, Go Hannah, Go Hannah!!!" at the top of her lungs the entire time.
• Trying to keep Abby from jumping all over the side of the field and trying to tickle me and Becca with a feather she'd found on the ground.
• Trying to keep 3 water bottles away from Becca, with varied amount of success. I gave her one for a while but she emptied most of it over herself and in the cupholder of the stroller.
• Trying to keep Becca from kicking Abby's soccer ball onto the field and joining in the fun.

When Hannah's game was done, we grabbed her snack and headed to the van. Then to the school where Abby's game was at.

We walked part-way down to the soccer fields and then stopped in some shade to eat lunch. The big girls even had about 10 minutes to swing on the playground before we had to head to the field for Abby's game.

Abby looks very snazzy in her yellow uniform this year. She wasn't interested in posing unless she could be silly:


She sat out the first quarter of the game and then played goalie:



She actually saved two goals but then let two through. Which isn't actually all that bad for her and better than she did at goalie last year. I was really proud of her.

The third quarter she played defense. Which is a problem because last year at her first game, all of the girls immediately took off after the ball the minute the game started. The coach made such a big deal about the defense staying back by the goal and not running after the ball that Abby will literally not move when she is playing defense. We've talked and talked to her about how she can run after the ball to protect the goal and kick the ball away from it, but she still stays put. I guess they'll have to work on that with her. :)

The last quarter she played midfield and she did great! She went after the ball so much better than she ever did last year and she kicked it several times. And she even got to throw the ball in once too. Way to go, Abby!



Becca did better at this game, although she did try to kick Hannah's soccer ball out on to the field several times to join in. Hannah played on the playground with a couple of other girls her age for most of the time.

After Abby's game (they lost 4-0), I packed everyone up and drove across town to the birthday party and we dropped Abby off, just about a half hour late. And came home.

Becca's still sleeping, but I'll need to wake her up soon so we can go get Abby. I had to write this quickly but it's been nice to sit here and catch up on things!