"Socter"

This spring (April & May) we decided to sign Ava up for soccer in a nearby town, smaller than the one we live in. A few of our friends and family have kids who play there too. Ava was very excited to play soccer and go to "socter" practice. :)

During the first part of the first game, they put Ava in as goalie. Mine and Chris' heartrates shot way up. It's a lot of pressure to have your kid in the goal. Not mention your kid who is brand-new at soccer, not real competitive or aggressive (we'll give her time for that), etc. She really didn't know what to do and that didn't seem to bother her. Instead she stood there. The first ball that tried to enter the goal was blocked because it bounced off of her stationary legs. The second, slowly crawled past her still stationary legs. :)

That's okay - isn't she sweet?!

Which way are we kicking?

Daddy loves his Ava.
Aunt Gina loves her 'Lise.

We won! We had to tell Ava that her team won because she really wasn't worried about the score - which actually is fine! We know she was brand-new at soccer and that eventually (if she's interested in soccer), she'll catch on. The important thing was that she had fun, learned to listen to another adult, cooperate as a team, and get some fresh air and exercise.
That said, there were days when she refused to practice or play and just didn't want to go to "socter practice". Some days we still went and coersed her into played - other days - we let it slide.

immediately after her game, Ava ran and gave Elise an unprompted hug. Ahh!

We couldn't believe how busy having one kid in soccer was! Our coach decided that we needed to have practice twice a week with a game on Saturday. Soccer Saturdays were made fun because of all of the people we knew there. Two of Ava's cousins also played soccer so on any given game day we'd have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it!

On the last game day after all of the other people had cleared out, we had a family pick-up game of soccer. It was a BLAST!

GOOD JOB WITH SOCCER, AVA!