WHAT TIME IS IT?

SOCCER TIME!!

My husband (in the middle) and his assistant coaches with my son Eli's team!


My sister in-law coaching my two youngest kids teams!

FALL SOCCER...CHECK!

This is the last weekend for soccer. All my kids are playing their tournament games this weekend. At least 10 games total. I say at least because my older kids team may make it to the championship and play a 3rd game on Sunday.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my oldest daughter plays on my oldest sons soccer team.

And yes, she's the only girl on the team.

Typically, after 10 years old, the teams are no longer co-ed. But, it's not against the rules if you want to put your daughter on an all boys team (which usually doesn't happen anyway). Or, can you imagine a boy on an all girl team? Heehee.

Actually, this team was originally hers when my husband started coaching it when she was 5 years old! Some of the boys are still on the team from when they were that young.

So, I wasn't surprised when she changed her mind at the last minute, and wanted to be on the team this year. It could be a comfort factor since daddy is the coach, but don't get me wrong, she has to play just as hard as the boys, and do everything they do.

Yes, there are times she slacks, but when she's got her game face on, she's GOT GAME! In fact, out of all the boys, she's the second fastest runner, and the fastest boy is an actual "runner."

She cracks me up because she could be girly, and yet be just "one of the boys."

She's definitely not a push over, and the boys don't dare disrespect her. Not just because she is the coaches daughter, but because that is one of the rules my husband laid out right at the beginning. They are not allowed to tease or discourage each other. He demands they respect one another, and foul language is not allowed. He has a great team, the moral is always up, and they do not play dirty. All he wants from them is to have a good time, and they do. I know my husband is proud of his team, and they are always 1st or 2nd place at the tournaments, in Division 1 (yah, baby)!

This is her soccer picture for the year, and I love it. I think it came out great with her hair blowing in the wind. That's the "girly" side of her.

But, look below to the team photo (she is in the middle row, third from the left). She's easy to spot since she's the only girl. My son, Isaiah is standing up right behind her, and my husband is in her row on the far left, kneeling down.

Look at her expression!!! Such a contrast from her indiviual shot!

That's my gurrrlll!!

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

A couple of Tuesday's ago, my youngest daughter had a soccer game in the evening. Normally they don't play on the weeknights, but there was a glitch in the schedule, and this was the only time they were able to organize a game for them to play.

So while the team was warming up, I noticed that one of the soccer coordinators was setting up the goalies by himself. We've known him for awhile now since my husband has been with this league for eight years, and I yell out, "Ken, do you need any help? Because if you do, Isaiah will help you." Isaiah immediately looked at me with this expression like, "What????"

Ken said, "Yah..sure! Hey, Isaiah, come grab this net and set it up on the other side."

Isaiah was looking at me like, "Great."

He's helped my husband take down nets many times before, but he's never put one up. So he's standing there clueless while Miranda is trying to tell him what to do. She's saying to him, "Figure it out Isaiah. Oh my gosh!!" Of course, that's not helping. He's just getting annoyed.

Finally, Ken is done on his side and then walks over to help out Isaiah.

Done! All finished.

But no, he was not done with him yet.

Ken then asked me, "Alicia, is Gabe going to be here?"

I told him that he'd be there later and that he was on his way. I asked him if he needed another ref. He said he did.

Then he says, "Isaiah, do you want to ref with me?"

Of course, me being a loud mouth, I say, "Yah, Isaiah will do it!"

I'm sure if he could run off the field at that moment, he would. And it's not because he doesn't know the game, it's just that he never reffed a game before. But, this was cake. The team is U6 (under 6 years old). How hard could that be.

Ken hands him a shirt and his own whistle. The kids and I are like, "Yay, Isaiah!!" Embarrassing, right?

Here's Ken giving him a quick pep talk. "You know the game, Isaiah. Just watch the ball when it goes out of bounds, pay attention to whose ball it is...and there are no offsides called."

See..no problem!

Well, apparently it was for Isaiah. He was totally getting self conscious because of Miranda. She was constantly telling him what to do the entire time. All it did was annoy the heck out of him. During the quarter break, he dared her to ref. She was like, "Sure, I'll do it!" Ken said it was fine, so Isaiah handed her the ref shirt.

Here's Ken going over the same thing he did with Isaiah.

There she is on the right side, doing her thing. She was nervous too and realized it wasn't as easy as it looked.

Finally, during the last half of the game, Eli kept asking if he could ref too! Well, turned out he was old enough to ref a U6 game! Miranda happily handed the shirt and whistle over to him.

Waiting on Eli to blow the whistle so the game could start!


You did great! You all did!!

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

How are kids able to have endless amounts of energy, regardless of the climate conditions they are in?

Well, at least my kids do.

I feel like such a complainer when I watch my kids play soccer.

It's not that I don't enjoy watching them play.

I just don't care for the scorching sun blazing down on ME.

That sounds so selfish considering they are the ones running around in the heat, chasing after a ball.

However, I don't ever hear one complaint come out of their mouths. They don't even show signs of wanting to quit. They are like the energizer bunny.

They keep going, and going, and going.

Here I am, wiping beads of perspiration off my forehead, while they are drenched in their own sweat.

Makes me think twice!!

SOCCER IS OFFICIALLY O.V.E.R.

Well, soccer season is officially over for us! I'm happy and a little sad at the same time because my kids really love it! This weekend was great. The games were on time, and the kids did good. My three youngest kids teams didn't make it to the "playoffs", but that's okay, they had fun and had their snacks so it was all good! My oldest son's team got 3rd place in the Division 1 group, but they technically should have taken 2nd (long story...bad ref call). My daughters team also did G.R.E.A.T.! They got 2nd place in their Division 1 group too! We're all so exhausted so we missed church tonight also. Ha..they're the ones who did all the running around all weekend, and I'm the one complaining..LOL. I think we as parents get "mentally" tired. We have to double check their schedules, make sure their uniforms are complete and clean, that they're there on time, etc, etc, etc.! And can you believe I took only ONE picture of the entire weekend? I think I just took too many in the beginning of season, so I'm soccer pictured out!