Soccer!

Oh. Holy. Goodness.

Peeps.

M’peeps.

Humans (all three of you) who follow along on this here blog.

We have entered an entirely new phase of parenting life that I’ve held off for as long as humanly possible:

The life of weekend, extracurricular sports.

I mean, can we just pause for a moment of silence here as we pay our respects to the life we once had on those beloved Saturdays that will never again be the same. 

(Don’t mind my near-silent sobbing. I’ll adjust, I swear.)

That’s right, people. We’ve happily enjoyed weekday dance classes and play dates as often as possible. And, of course, Sunday church and the ocassional weekend bday party or other random commitment.

But for the most part, I’ve adamantly kept our weekends sacred because I knew at some point, we would enter these years of weekend activities and they would hang around, well, pretty much until we have an empty nest.

Am I right, or am I right???

Alas.

Chica expressed interest some months ago in soccer. 

And any chance the girlies have ever had to do any silly playing that involves kicking around a ball has greatly entertained them.

And, let’s face it—I love my babies and want to expose them to a plethora of things to see what catches their interest, and organized, team sports are a biggie.

So...we hemmed and hawed and noodled over whether to rip off the bandage with one, two, or three kiddos playing simultaneously. And eventually, we decided to dive in on behalf of both girlies, and give Little Man just one more year to age.

And, apparently, when we dive in, we DIVE in, because not only are the girlies playing, but the hubby is coaching—both teams, despite only expecting to be needed for one—so...yeah. We’re all in, ha.

Now, heeeeeeere are my girlies suited up and ready to go on Saturday morning, despite a legitimate game-time decision as to whether on not we would let them, since the whole household has been sick for more than a week now, and all three kiddos were up many times throughout the prior night, hacking up their lungs. Oye.

So not the soccer kickoff we wanted, but aren’t they stinking adorable??? ;)

But look how stinking cute my littlest nugget was—all geared up, just like his sissies. :) 



I’m glad I went with my gut and bought him an inexpensive pair of cleats and shin guards so he wouldn’t feel completely left out. But, hilariously, he wanted shorts identical to his sisters’, so he rocked these too-large ones of Chicklet’s that I rolled up without success. The dang things dropped to his knees and he had to change, hehe.

Now...of all the kiddos, I was worried about Chicklet’s health the most, as she was the one with the worst night prior to the big kick-off day. But it was my Chica who had the toughest time on the field with very little stamina, poor girl.

The format of this organization is a practice immediately before a game, at the same time, each Saturday. I greatly appreciate that it condenses the commitment to just one day.

But it takes a lot out of the kiddos when it’s still as hot as it is outside. And, Chica’s all-girls team ended up with fewer players than Chicklet’s coed team, which meant fewer breaks off the field for each girl—oye.

I know we’ll get into a groove eventually, as the whole process gets more familiar.

And I can’t tell you how comforting it is to know that the hubby is so involved in the process (by force, and a little by choice, since I prompted him to coach when it appeared that more volunteers were needed, ha).

This pic makes it seem like all these peeps were staring at him, and they so weren’t. They were staring at the sports association employees that were standing behind me when I took the shot, calling out team member’s names to send them to their assigned fields, ha.



I gotta give my hubby major props for diving right in to a really hot, really, physical and really long (with two team practices and games, back to back to back to back) job. And he did it so enthusiastically.



It appears that Chicklet’s team might be the slightly less stressful one to manage, since the hubby has a really active co-coach, and there are plenty of players, so everyone gets breaks.

And, let’s face it: kindergartners running aeound on a field are just so, dang, adorable, ha.







I mean...just look at this adorable, over-heated face, tehe.



All in all, as kickoff impressions go, I think we chose a great organization to kick off this weekend sports thing. It’s nearby the house, relatively condensed, in terms of time, having the hubby in a coaching positions helps us maintain some feeling of control, and so far, the parents all seem lovely.

But I’ll be super curious to see how we settle in for this wild ride. How the girlies end up enjoying it. How we manage the schedule juggling between the hubby and I (it’s too long for Little Man to just bake out in the sun for both practices and both games), and how we acclimate to that cooler/fold-up-chairs life.

All part of this ever-changing family adventure, I tell ya.

So...woohoo, here we go!

Wish us luck. ;)

Over and out.