Soccer

Elena and Evan are playing soccer this spring! They had their first practice followed by a game yesterday. We hadn't done the best job at explaining the game to them beforehand, so we weren't sure what to expect. Everything Evan knew about soccer he learned from an episode of "Backyardigans"; so I think he was half expecting the "Soccer Monster" to jump out and his team to break out into a choreographed dance.

Anyways, Elena is on a team with her buds from church (yay!). And Evan is on the Rodriguez Family team. Seriously, the kids call the coach, Uncle.

Elena really amazed us with her persistence to keep up with the ball, and she had so much fun which is exactly what we were hoping for.

Evan's experience was pretty much the opposite. Poor guy, he had so much enthusiasm about the game (or what he thought was the game of soccer... curse you, Backyardigans!!) before getting out there. But that enthusiasm completely dissipated. There were tears... lots of them. Tears when I told him his water cup had to stay with me on the sidelines. Tears when we told him he can't push the kids (I think he thought he was supposed to tackle). And tears when the opposing team's player kept heading toward the goal after Evan yelled, "Stop!" right in his face.

It will certainly be fun to see how the kids progress during the season!

Elena, Emily, and Tanner!

One of her 6 kicks.

She kept careful count of her kicks and shared her tally with everyone!

Ben headed over to Evan's field to grab some action shots...