kickin' back to spring soccer

way back in the spring, we were living and breathing soccer. we were also selling our house and moving.... so this post just never happened back then. before life gets totally busy and crazy in the next few weeks, i had to make sure this post did not fall through the cracks! so here's a little peek into ethan and caroline's spring 2011 soccer season. (some of caroline's pictures are courtesy of a dad on her team who had a rockin' awesome lens. i was sort of jealous. but then he gave us all a cd of pics at the end of the season, so that helped curb my envy.) and i hope you like orange... 'cause there's LOTS of it.

ethan's team was the hungry howies "slicers", and caroline's team was the "rockettes".


ethan could not wait to get back into the swing of soccer. he was all smiles before his first game...


in the last minute of his first game, ethan scored a goal! yay!


i love how the parents make a tunnel for the kids to run through after the games. the boys always run through twice. :) it looks like ethan's season is off to a great start!


the kids' games were often at the same time, but their fields were right next to each other... so we just parked our chairs in the middle and went back and forth.

here is caroline's cute team getting pumped up for their first game.... "girls rock!" caroline is #2 with the braids.


caroline's favorite part of the game?! the snacks afterwards, of course!


did somebody say snacks?! i think this girly girl had some sort of snack or beverage in her hands at all times.


caroline was a good bit shorter (and younger) than most of the girls on her team.... which meant that most of the game, caroline was simply tagging along behind the group with the ball. (there she is on the right...)


she rarely kicked the ball during the game, but she just kept truckin' along. i expected lots of sideline pitstops, complete with a "mommy, i'm tired.... mommy, i can't get the ball..." but caroline stuck with it and did not complain once about the running or the lack of ball time. now if that would just transfer to cleaning her room. :)

caroline did take her turn at kicking off, throw-ins, and corner kicks. here she is near the end of the season on a corner kick.


i love this one of caroline concentrating during pre-game practice! go get 'em, tiger!


the grandparents all helped keep amelia happy during the games. water bottles usually did the trick....


my favorite part about watching caroline play soccer was this... her braids bounced as she ran by and waved at her fan club. look at that smile- you'd never know she hadn't scored a goal all season!


i wish i had this shot on video because these sweet girls were each in their own little world-- doing anything but preparing for kick-off! :)


amelia can't wait until she can get out on that soccer field like her sister!


it was always fun to have some friends come out and cheer on the kids with us!




ethan worked on playing defense this season, and he really enjoyed the challenge of stopping the other team. he ran hard to get those balls!


at first, i complained to brian that i wanted him on offense so he could score, but brian told me to let the coaches do their job. :) so in time, i grew to enjoy watching ethan thwart those goals...


and caroline, as you can see, was not all too interested in ethan's games! i'm just glad this wasn't during her game!


ethan grew more aggressive this season-- he got in there to get the ball, even if it meant squishing up next to other players. never mind the fact that he is pushing on his teammate in this one. :)


as i was looking through pictures of ethan in action, i noticed a pattern when he kicks the ball. he balls up his right fist and sticks his right arm out... and he has the same "concentration" face is almost every picture. can you see it?! i had never noticed this during his games.



ethan played strong all season, and then right as we moved, ethan became very hesitant to play during the games. he would be perfectly fine and happy and excited right up until kick-off. so daddy would talk to him....


mommy would bribe him.... the coaches were so patient with him... and eventually during the last game, after two games of sitting out almost the entire game, ethan finished well. we never really got to the bottom of why he didn't want to play (and really, it was obvious once he was out there that he did want to play), but the mother's guilt really set in. we'd traumatized him with the move, we were too busy unpacking, etc. etc. we may never know exactly what was going on, but we just did our best to be patient with him. we made it very clear that he did not ever have to play soccer again after this season but that he was to finish his commitment to this team.

speaking of commitment, we were so happy with the kids' coaches.

ethan's coaches were a husband and wife team who were wonderful. there were several inexperienced players on ethan's team that improved so much thanks to the patience and encouragement of mr. and mrs. coach z. :) here is ethan and coach z at the end of the year party at her house.


here are all the slicers!


coach danny sure did work well with caroline's team. he is a varsity football coach, but he knew just how to handle these little girls. he was so encouraging to his team, which also had several inexperienced players.


the rockettes!


caroline was so excited to get her very first trophy! (which amelia broke this week... we love gorilla glue around here.)


so that wraps up our soccer season that wrapped up 3 months ago. fall soccer is starting now, but we are taking a break from the busyness and the heat of soccer for now. we are hoping for them to play again in the spring, but now we live down the street from a ball field... so we may take a stab at t-ball and baseball next season-- much to daddy's chagrin. :) we'll see what the spring holds!

pinkish-purplish

it's soccer time again! and this little girl is now old enough to play... and boy, is she ready! or perhaps i should say.... girl, is she ready! since ethan's first game last year (you know, the one where he didn't want to play), caroline has been dying to play. she eyed the 4- and 5-year-old girls in their pigtails and way-too-big pink or purple jerseys playing on the field right next to the boys, and she announced, "i want to be on the dark pink team!" then the next week, it was the light pink team... and the next week... well, you get the picture. right now, her color of choice is pinkish-purplish, but i've told her a million times that she may be on a team with a regular color. we'll see how that goes.

we are really looking forward to this season... this spring season. ahhhh, surely we will be able to enjoy slightly cooler weather than we had during ethan's games last fall. we may even get a little cold during some early morning games. can't. wait. caroline's first practice was a week ago, so we all went out to say hi to the coach and meet the team.

caroline took her turn introducing herself to her team. (gray shirt is coach's son "helping") :)


love my girl in pigtails... her coach goes from varsity football to u-6 girls. he's great.


amelia was waddling all over the field, and she came across a baseball. she knew exactly what to do with it. monkey see, monkey do.



i love this picture. caroline looks totally focused. what's she thinking about? probably wondering why those girls don't have pink soccer balls. or she could be pondering the words of the great mia hamm..."i am a member of a team, and i rely on the team, i defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion." yeah, we'll go with that.


caroline was not a fan of freeze tag for the first couple of practices...


but ethan and caroline have been playing it in the house today, and she's loved it. after a little coaching from her brother, she played freeze tag at practice tonite with a little less fear on her face!

caroline's soccer cleats were delivered a couple of days after her first practice. she was excited, despite the total lack of pink or purple.


aaaaand we all turned around, and look who got the cleats first! this picture was taken just a minute after the one above. she's fast. and now she can't wait to play soccer. amelia's new favorite phrase is "soccer practice!"



caroline finally got to try on her cleats! (with her shinguards and super thick soccer socks, they fit perfectly!)


so caroline is ready to play! ethan's practices got off to a great start this week, and their games begin next weekend. their first games are at the same time, unfortunately, but the fields are back to back, so we shouldn't miss much at all. we just need to invest in some swivel camping chairs for us and all the grandparents! ha! i'm sad that ethan will miss caroline's first game, but their next games are at different times.... so he will get to cheer on his sister soon enough.

i'll end with a little funny. at the end of caroline's first practice, they huddled up as much as sweet little girls can huddle up.... and i overheard their coach ask what they wanted to yell. (you know..... everybody's hands in.... and yell something motivating and exciting!) "rabbits!" rabbits?! well?! what did you expect? so they ended up yelling "soccer!", but caroline is convinced her team is the rabbits. the funny thing is that the doctor parents that are sponsoring the team? one's an ob. :)

gooooooooo rabbits!

soccer fever!

ethan's first soccer season has been over for about a month now. it's kind of strange to be blogging about it now that the weather has cooled off because the temperatures during soccer season were anything but cool. this "fall" season ended just as the hope of fall weather was around the corner. it was surely a hot 9 weeks! anyway, caroline's birthday is tomorrow, and then begins the holiday craziness... SO i have to squeeze this soccer post in before 2010 flies by. ethan loved, loved, loved his soccer team and everything about his first soccer experience. we were so thankful to have wonderful coaches, great boys, and awesome parents to sweat with every week. i am so glad to be able to say that ethan had a ball because it did not start off that way! this boy could not wait for his first game. it was all he talked about for the few weeks prior to the game. the big day came, and he stood on the field waiting for the game to start. you can see him in the back center of the picture and brian is to the right of him. ethan is tugging on his hair... not a good sign...


brian walks around the field to come sit with us, and uh-oh... before the game starts, ethan comes a runnin' and a cryin'....


brian tried to convince him to stay on the field, but he wouldn't have it. there was nothing we could say to him or offer him... he wasn't moving from this bench. we tried bribing with ice cream, we tried rationalizing ("if you run, there's a breeze!"), we tried guilt ("everyone came to see you play, ethan!") ,we tried everything. but to no avail. so for 40 long hot minutes, we watched ethan do this.


though i'd really hoped ethan would go get 'em on his first game, i was not surprised that my cautious boy needed to sit that first one out to see what it was all about. he'd never even been to a soccer game before, and if he didn't know what he was supposed to do, he was not going to do it! we didn't know how long it would take him to feel comfortable enough to play a game, and this soccer season was only 9 games long. SO. i pulled out the stickers and made a little soccer chart. i was going to watch my boy play soccer. i knew once he got out there he would love it. it wasn't an obedience issue... it was a comfort issue. so for every good practice and for every time ethan went in to play during a game, he earned a soccer ball sticker. when the balls reached the soccer goal on the chart, ethan earned a new set of legos. legos. the magic word. he was ready to work for those stickers. :) that was a pretty long week for him until the next game. and boy oh boy, when saturday came, he was ready! here he is waving at his fans as the game is about to start.


and the team we played that week was a different shade of green (kelly vs. blinding), so it's hard to find ethan in some of these pictures! ethan had a huge smile on his face every second that he was on the field. i was so so glad to see him having fun.


ethan was obviously super focused during the game. here he is showing coach rick a rainbow.


but he got right back in the game, and as the game was ending, ethan scored his very first goal! he was so excited and kind of beside himself. i told ethan later, "see why we wanted you to play last week!?" brian and i weren't the only ones thrilled with ethan's first goal....


we were good on our promise for ice cream after he played.


after licking his lips, ethan had to call nana to tell her the good news about his goal. she hated to miss it. i love ethan's big ole' smile in this one!


as soon as we got home from the game, ethan ran right to his soccer chart to load it up with stickers.


i'm so glad the chart worked. after that second game, ethan was hooked. every week, he counted down the days until his practice, and then after his practice, he was counting down the days till his game. it never ever got old for him.

ethan was captain for one of the games and got to flip the coin. he looks so serious here. and we really should've practiced coin flipping. :)


i got a kick out of watching ethan rubbing his head throughout the games. he does this if he's hot or nervous. i guess it was probably both during these games... this one was a tough one.


my little man workin' hard to get that ball from the other team. getting in there and getting the ball was not a natural thing for him to do. he really had to work at it. his default was to jump up and down and run the other way. he was just so stinkin' excited to be out there. i have so many videos of him looking like tigger. :) but he's doing just what he's supposed to in this one.


ethan had quite the fan club despite the hot, hot weather. that little boy is blessed to have all of his grandparents close by.


caroline loved watching ethan's games. she cannot wait to play soccer. by the second game, she knew every boy's name on ethan's team. and she had so much fun cheering on her brother. and she also loved all the snacks.


these next two are pretty priceless.



seriously, she cannot wait to play soccer! caroline has already decided that she will be on the pink team. telling her that she doesn't get to pick the colors does not seem to matter. she will be on the pink team.


amelia lived for halftime, when she was released from the stroller to roam the field with the other siblings.


i think she's saying, "it's hot. it's really hot."


did i mention it was hot?!


we were so happy that jeff, kristie, and karina also came to a couple of games! some of these pictures were taken by jeff and kristie.


and tammy brought the kids to ethan's last two games, too! i failed to get a picture of tammy and her two youngest kiddos, but here are natalie and joseph with my kids and karina. this was so special for ethan's buddy joseph to come out to his games.


gooooo...


jets!


i love these boys!!


and here is ethan with his biggest fan... his daddy. brian has been teaching ethan how to kick the soccer ball since before ethan could sit up. it was pretty special to see him work with ethan and encourage him through this first season. plus he took him to all the hot soccer practices. so i'm brian's biggest fan.


as the season went on, ethan really got more comfortable and more confident on the field. after that first goal, he went several weeks without scoring a goal... but it didn't seem to bother him at all. then... at the first game where all of the grandparents were there, he ran almost the whole length of the field to score! his fan club went wild! and i actually caught it on camera...






by the end of the season, ethan was doing pretty well! he did not hesitate to move with the ball or to get right in there and get the ball from the other players.




ethan scored a total of 8 goals throughout the season, though they technically don't keep up with goals. :) um, sorry, but we do! my favorite goal was where ethan's buddy took a shot on goal, and the other coach accidentally blocked it. the ball bounced right to ethan, and he kicked it in for a goal. the coach was mortified. you can see her apologizing in the picture below.


look at this little soccer man... when he is 15 and still can't get enough of soccer, i will think back on this picture and remember when it all began.


ethan sure did love his team. this was one cute bunch of boys, even in blinding green jerseys!




after their last game, we had a little team party. the boys had fun goofing around, eating pizza and cupcakes.


ethan and his friend kellan


this picture was pretty much impossible. those boys were DONE!


ethan with his beloved trophy! i am happy to say that a month later, it is still 100% intact.


we were sad to see the season end so quickly because we knew how much ethan was enjoying it... but on the other hand, we were very happy to have our saturdays back for awhile! ethan is already counting down the months until soccer starts again in the spring. most of his teammates will be playing another sport in the spring, but not this boy. he has soccer in his blood through and through. march cannot come soon enough for him!