Soccer Season is Finally Over!

Tonight we had the pizza parties for Courtney's and Katelyn's soccer teams. Kylie's party was last week which means soccer season is officially over! Soccer season runs from August to November and has proven to be a very busy time for our family. Three girls in soccer meant five practices a week and three games every Saturday. I felt lucky that the three locations of the girls' games were pretty close together. Lloyd worked a lot of Saturdays so it was always a trick for me to get the girls to their games and watch out after the boys. Each of the girls loved playing soccer. I have mixed feelings about it. I love to see the girls play, but it also turns our life upside down. I have to admit that we haven't had Family Home Evening in months mostly due to soccer. We are looking forward to having more time at home and improving on our Family Home Evenings and scripture study. We'll see how next year goes because Cameron will be playing next year and that will mean four in soccer. Yikes!

KYLIE

Kylie is definitely the most competitive of the three girls. She is elated when she scores a goal and when her team wins. On the other hand, she is very upset when the opposing goalie blocks her shot on goal or when her team loses. Luckily, her team only lost a couple games this year. I guess I can admit that Kylie was the star player of the team. She scored the majority of goals. This was her third year playing soccer and she seemed more experienced than the other girls on her team. However, having your seven-year-old daughter as the "star" isn't always a good thing. We had to talk to her about being humble and giving all the girls a chance. She began the season by doing a cartwheel after every goal she scored. Lloyd told her she wasn't allowed to do that any more because it showed poor sportsmanship to the other team. I did enjoy watching Kylie's games. It's a bit humorous to watch six and seven year olds play soccer. Kylie's team - The Pink Panthers

Kylie celebrating after she scored a goal!

Kylie received a medal from her coach at their pizza party. They don't have tournaments or rank teams in her age division. She would have liked to have gotten a trophy like her sisters did.

KATELYN

This was Katelyn's third year playing soccer. She absolutely adored her coaches this year. They are a husband and wife who coach as volunteers; they don't even have any of their own kids on the teams they coach. The last two years Katelyn had coaches who yelled a lot. She really liked her coaches this year because she said, "They actually taught us how to play soccer instead of just yelling at us." Her team didn't have the best record. They won a couple, tied a couple, and lost the rest. We felt bad for Katelyn because it seemed like Courtney's and Kylie's teams won almost every week. Although Katelyn's team didn't have the best record, their team was very unified and close. Katelyn contributed a lot to her team this year. She has made a lot of improvement in the last three years. She mostly played midfield so it was hard for me to get a lot of action shots of her. Katelyn's team - The Purple Bruisers

This picture was taken during the second game of their tournament. They tied the first two games of the tournament, but lost the third. They didn't qualify for the finals and didn't end up placing in their age division.

They had to play their second tournament game in the dark!

Katelyn's coaches, Wendy and Larry, gave all the girls a Bobble Head trophy at their pizza party. We will always remember what great coaches they were!

COURTNEY

This was Courtney's fifth year playing soccer. She is a very talented soccer player, but doesn't brag about it (like someone else). Courtney tends to have a fairly reserved personality, but when she gets on the soccer field she isn't shy at all. She's our sporty girl! Last year Courtney played on a traveling, competitive team called AJAX. This year she was sick when they had the AJAX tryouts and wasn't put on the team. It ended up being a blessing for us. The AJAX team was costly and a huge time commitment. We're glad Courtney played on a rec. team this year. She was so excited when she went to her first practice and she saw that a lot of her friends were on the same team as her. Courtney loved her team (The Shockers) and they loved her. She played forward for a lot of the season and was able to score several goals. I enjoyed taking these action shots of her.

Her team qualified for the final game of their tournament. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, and they were forced to do a shoot out as a tiebreaker. Courtney's team ended up losing the shoot out 1-2. They got second place in their age divison and each of the players got a trophy. They had a great season!