Soccer!

Austin and Sarah had lots of fun playing soccer this year!

Sarah really got it this year. Last year, she was a bit timid and would hang back a bit or be unsure about the contact aspects of going after the ball.  She would run around with her hands out in a bit of a "stay away" posture.  This year, she was much more comfortable and would go after the ball and take it away.  She made many goals and often would take the ball and break away to take it down the field.  Her team had 3 girls that were great together and they absolutely creamed an all boy team (to the boys' frustration). They did a good job learning teamwork and passing the ball to each other.  Sarah had a blast!

 Occasionally, Sarah would get the ball and do a little squat/kneel on it waiting to look around and make a plan for where she would go.

 Sarah's team - back row: Jaeyla, Sarah, Katelyn; front row: Ian and Aaavash.

Trevor, of course, is the expert spectator.  He gets dragged along to all of Austin and Sarah's games and practices, so he gets a little goofy sometimes. (Here, he is sticking his head out the side of his stroller through the back opening of the canopy.)

 He enjoyed practicing his soccer kicks on the sideline.

 And playing with Austin while Sarah was playing.

Despite being super busy caring for our ailing Grandma Dorothy, Nanny came to many of the games and is the kids' favorite cheerleader and Trevor's favorite sideline diversion.

 Trevor was a trooper, but was not always happy about it.

Austin really enjoyed soccer this year too!  He is really a good player and continued to learn a lot as they expanded onto the larger field this year, started playing more structure positions, and started using goalies and refs.  Austin was one of the best players on his team and was consistently improving his play throughout the year.  Austin's former coach (a former pro soccer player) has been encouraging him to try out for the traveling team.  Now he is old enough to go for it this fall (despite technically being just a couple months shy of 9 years old during the fall season and the youngest traveling team is the 9 year old team).

 He is really quick and it was tough to catch photos of him playing, but I got a few good ones.

Going for a goal...

And celebrating!

(He learned to tone down the celebration to be a good sportsman, so we didn't see this again!)

He got to play goalie for half games a few times. Here he is kicking the ball back out into play after a good save.

But his true passion seemed to be offense.  Even when he was on defense, he really had to work hard to restrain himself from going forward with the ball to go for a goal.

My happy boy!  He really had a lot of fun playing this year!

We had a couple games earlier in the spring that were pretty chilly, so at one point, we bundled up Trevor in a blanket and let him play games on Nanny's iPhone. He was sure a trooper throughout the season.

"Ring Around the Rosie" is also a fun diversion with Sarah. 

Their last game for now was June 27th, but we're looking ahead at maybe enrolling in the fall season as well.  Austin is trying out for the traveling team in a couple of weeks, so we may have much more soccer in our future.  We have really enjoyed watching Austin and Sarah thrive in soccer this season. They both show skill for the game and had a lot of fun!