It's Official

I'm now a Soccer Mom. That's right. Erin had her first day of soccer today. She's been talking about playing soccer for years now. I'm not sure where she got so interested in it or excited by it, but she's been wanting to play soccer for a very long time. Last fall she just missed the age cut-off so this is her first official soccer season. When I told her that she was going to get to play soccer this spring she went screaming and jumping around the house. We got all her gear last week (last Saturday was supposed to be the first day, but it got rained out). She's got the whole set-up. Cleats, shin guards, a water bottle, and a very cool pink soccer ball. They're the orange team so orange shirts and socks finish out the uniform.

All week she's been asking me "When's soccer?" "How many more sleeps?" This morning she was up bright and early super excited about it. She got her soccer shirt first thing when we got there. Clearly I'm going to have to buy longer black shorts. She was the one on the field who looked like she had no shorts on at all. Her number is 11.

They did some practice skills to start. She wasn't sure about these, because she really just wanted to kick her pink soccer ball into the net. Eventually she figured out what the others were doing and decided to take a go at it. Her favorite part was still when she got to kick the ball into the net.

After the skills, they held a scrimmage against the Yellow team. 4 on 4 with all the kids getting a chance to play. Erin ran after the ball as much as she could. She even got a few kicks in on it. Coach let her do a corner kick, and a throw-in too (which she really enjoyed and decided to do underhand instead of overhand). People describe under 6 soccer as herding cats.....and yeah that's pretty much what it is. The kids run and kick the ball whichever way they can. If they do score a goal (no goalies) it's an all out party. These two teams were actually pretty good at the scoring....not so great at the defense. But the best part was that everyone had lots of fun.

Next week they get professional team pictures done. I'll try to scan and upload them once I get them back. She was pretty tired after everything was done, and a little sad that she didn't get to kick the ball into the goal, but is already asking me when she gets to go to soccer again.