Goooalllll

Shin guards, cleats, orange slices, the smell of dewy grass in the morning what could be better!  Miss Sophie started playing soccer this fall and I was in heaven reminiscing of the good 'ol days.  Sophie on the other hand.....jury is still out, she currently has a love/hate relationship with it.  She LOVES to run and LOVES to score but she HATES kids pushing her and HATES when other people (especially the boys on HER team) take the ball away from her.  So we shall see which side ends up on top once the season ends in spring.

Jersey # choice for this year

 This is a shot of Sophie at her FIRST game you can see she's not quite sure what is going on or what to do (blame that on not having ANY practices beforehand- thankfully the coach wised up and got on the ball for the remainder of the season).

 half time treats! Jens loved when it was our turn to provide the snacks since that meant he got to have some too.

 Another picture from her first game- after getting pushed over twice and tripped once Sophie decided the only way she'd be safe was if she was glued to her coach.  This was a shock to both Cory and I on how shy and reserved our little girl was being since anyone that knows our Sophie is that she is the complete opposite- outgoing and headstrong.  After awhile my frustration got the better of me and I couldn't take anymore of watching my little girl be soo withdrawn and getting shoved soo much, I had to take a chill pill and took Jens to the playground.

 Now here are some shots from the following games, huge difference!  Sophie is in the thick of the battle (not clinging on to coach) and you can see she has her game face on, determined, focused, and calculating her next moves.

Breaking away from a pack of boys, that's our girl!  Without a ball Sophie can outrun more than half her team (boys included), with a ball she is getting faster and faster as the season progresses.  And as the saying goes "Anything you can do, I can do better." :)

 little smirk of satisfaction after scoring :)

 We still have one more game this Saturday before the season breaks for winter but we have a hopeful outlook that the love side will overpower the hate side of the game.  Last week while driving to her game Cory asked how many goals she was going to score and Sophie replied, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11!" we both smiled and said "ok Sophie we can't wait to see you do that" when in our heads we were both thinking "hopefully she'll get at least 1".  Well in the end she didn't score her predicted number of 11 but Sophie did score 6 goals and made 2 assists!  Crossing our fingers that was enough to convert her!