This past Sarturday was a first for our brood of 6.  We entered into the arena of athletic competition.  In August Jason registered the three oldest girls in their age appropriate groups for township soccer.  We tried swim lessons way back when there were just two and one on the way, and to make a long story short…we haven't done them again.  That would be a whole other blog.  We thought that especially now that C is 7, a team sport would be a good thing.  There was no doubt that E would benefit from being involved in something that didn't involve a crown and evening gown, and M, well we thought we would get a kick (no pun intended) out of watching her chase around a soccer ball.  The time seemed right and our intentions were good so we threw down $50 bucks a head and marked September 26th on our calendar as the first game day.

Jason took all the girls out to a local sporting good store to get all their gear.  Great opportunity for some daddy-daughter time. Since I know little about soccer epuiptment I capitalized on the occasion by going out to dinner with some friends and left Jason to the shopping.  They bought their shin guards, cleats and a little soccer ball.  It shouldn't come as a surprise that every piece of epuiptment they purchased had pink somewhere on it!  I think Jason loved every minute of trying on cleats, etc. with the girls.  I think he even gained some pleasure out of the fact that they managed to be all girl in the process.

The big game day finally arrived.  The girls slept in about 10 minutes past their normal weekday wake up time so we were all up and raring to go by 7:30.  As everyone was gathering their gear we realized M was missing a shin guard.  It made a perfect pretend cast so it had been used quite frequently throughout the week.  It was a good thing we got up early, because we searched all morning and never found it.  We ran out the door with 5 minutes to get to the games and one shin guard for M.  The game schedule posed another challenge.  C's game was at 10:15, E's 10:35, and M's 11:00.  Thank goodness for mom and dad Davis who helped us manage so that no one was left without a fan to cheer her on. 

C did very well throughout her game.  Perhaps my proudest moment was when at a kick-off, all the kids were circled around the ball, the ref blew the whistle and no one moved.  C waited and when no one else would take the initiative to do what needed to be done she went for the kick.  That's my girl!  She has grown in leaps in bounds when it comes to confidence. She may even talk to one of  her teammates before the season is over!

E really enjoyed standing by her new friend Mia and was especially interested in the fact that Mia had to tape her earrings.  She would chase the ball as well as anyone else and seemed to do it with a smile.  She had no idea who won the game.  She said no one told her. 

M's little league is the stuff Funniest Home Videos is made of.  The first 20 minutes was filled with chaotic attempts by the coach to try to get them to do this or that.  When they asked for volunteers to play the orange team, M was the first to raise her hand.  There she was, ready for the big kick off and since no one was using the ball at the time she just took a little break and sat on it.  Once the coach got her off the ball they were able to start the game.  During the first little break she made her way over to her daddy and complained, "that boy in the orange shirt won't let me have my ball."  Once she understood that there was only one ball and it wasn't hers she did pretty well.  I think she may just be a little force to be reckoned with.

One soccer Saturday down and five more to go!  The racing to practices and juggling of game times I know is just a glimpse of what the future holds for us in a couple of years.  I'm thinking I may need a personal assistant by then to keep track of everyone or just subscribe to Google Calendar like my husband keeps suggesting.  Anyway you look at it I'm looking forward to watching our girls learn from the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. Because I'm not a very good loser, I hope there are a whole lot more victories than defeats.  Either way this new frontier of athletics is going to grow us all.

View soccer pictures.

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