1st Soccer Practice...

...so several of the parents in Patrick's class decided that we would all sign-up for Spring Soccer at the local YMCA. Now the youngest age group is 3&4 year olds. Well all four of our kids turn three between April and July of this year and they are all big for their age so we signed them all up. The director of the program said that was fine but remember we will be up against kids turning 5 in the summer. So we all sign up and requested to be on the same team. Our team consists of Patrick, Mary (his girlfriend from school), his best bud Tyler (whose dad volunteered to be our coach), and another good bud from school Austin. We needed 7 kids to make a team, so we were given Hayden and Holly (twins) and Cully - all of who are 4! So today was our first practice. Now Hayden and Holly played in the fall so they are pros at dribbling the ball and the 'no hands' concept. This is Cully's first season, but he is already a pro. So we are in luck come Saturday when we play our first game.

So it went a little like this at our first practice - first task find our practice field. Let's just say they aren't marked very well. It took Patrick, Mary, and Austin about 15 mintues to find the rest of our team. Ok, so we are all together. Everyone has a ball and practices kicking it straight and into the goal. Well Patrick decided that he was going to carry his till he got about 1 foot from the goal, which he then set it down and kicked it in. *Note - need to work on the 'no hands' concept of the game. While Steven was trying to get the kids to take turns (not a known concept among our group), Hayden and Holly's mom mentions that to expect them to run around in circles and pause when a plane flies over. Not five minutes pass and a huge Southwest Airlines plane flies over (we are less than 5 miles from the airport so they fly pretty low) and all kids stop and look up. Except once it passes, Patrick immediately starts running after it as if he can catch it! Only problem...he turns and runs through another teams practice! So we re-group and get the kids to focus and lo and behold, another plane, this time it is the HUGE military cargo planes that are based out of our airport. Patrick immediately looks up in complete awe and then proceeds to chase after the plane, again. So we chase after him and get him back on our field.

A couple times Patrick would pick up his ball, run over to the side lines, and tell all the parents, "I'm playing soccer!". It was the cutest thing.

Now Coach Steven tried to introduce the 'we only play with one ball' concept. This does not go over well with Patrick who then has a melt down over the fact that he wants his own ball. Boy is he in for a rude awakening on Saturday morning!

All in all I think it went well. We do have some superstar 4 year olds who will keep the ball moving for us so we should be ok.

Look for a post about how the Green Machine (we have lime green shirts) fair on Saturday morning!

Thanks for checking in!

Love
LeAnna, Matthew, and Patrick