soccer.

ek has been playing soccer this season - her first time attempting the sport. when i was signing her up, i volunteered justin and myself to assist in whatever way - team mom, assistant coach, etc. well, a few weeks before the season started, they called and asked if justin would please coach. of course he said yes, even though we have no foundation for this at all.

the team is pretty adorable - 6 kids, 3 girls, 3 boys. our friend cate is on the team, plus a super sweet girl named gabby. the boys are patrick, hudson, and mateo. mateo is basically a professional soccer player - it's insane. this kid is unbelievable.

anyway. ek is starting to get it, maybe. slowly but surely. when we play at home, i'm actually really impressed with her ball handling, scoring, etc. she does great at practice. but the execution in the game can be a little tough. she spends lots of time asking for snacks and/or whining because she only wants to be "in" when cate is also in. then, there's the whole disconnect of going after the ball. we spend every other minute of the day demanding that she share and not take things that don't belong to her...then in the games we're like "GET THE BALL! TAKE IT!". so, i can see where that is confusing (even if she's not the best sharer out there anyway...).

all that being said, it's been fun so far. the kids looooove justin and he's really good with them. he's super patient and they climb all over him and i think they leave practices and games feeling like they are having fun. the first game was rough on everyone - i didn't know what to expect and i may have gone a little too tiger mom on the situation, but we are getting the hang of it. as the weather gets milder, it's even more pleasant.