Soccer Time!

It is possible that Daddy and Mama were more excited about Emily starting soccer.  But not much...she was PRETTY excited herself!!  We arrived at the field for her first practice/game last Saturday (Sept. 15). 

Right away she found her friend Sydney and they were quite happy to see each other.

Then, they took it upon themselves to pass the ball around while waiting for the adults to get everything together.

Eventually, Daddy was able to get her uniform and she was really ready to play.

For the first half of the hour there were stations with different drills to practice important skills.  Emily's first stop was the kicking drill.

She did a good job there...

 and then moved on to other lines and waited her turn to practice shooting...

and dribbling.  (#10)

Once they were all sufficiently warmed up it was time for a game!  Emily was put on the "green" team for that first game.

She did pretty well but with little instruction given to the girls, it was more of a mess than we expected. Nonetheless, Emily ran hard and after an hour in the 90-100 degree (at 9AM) temps she was thirsty, tired,

and ready for the water park!  (We invited Sydney and her family to join us - they live in our old neighborhood.)

This morning was week #2 of soccer and Emily was excited to play again with all of these girls.

Again, there were several drills...

(Everett really wanted to join the drills too and borrowed a pink ball from a little girl to play along.)

and then a game.  Today, Emily was on the purple team and played really well!  After a little conversation/coaching at home she had a better idea of what to do and not only that... she scored her first and second goals!  GOOOOO Emily!

*Videos to follow for the real soccer/Emily fanatics.  :)