Soccer Practice Harding - Wheeler Style

With three kindergarteners in the house we have a few kind of cool dynamics going on this year. First - homework and reading occur all together at the kitchen table or in the littles room. It's like we have our own kindergarten class and Annie is the teacher's helper! I love it. Second - all the girls are playing soccer on the same team and -their cousin Katie is playing with them. Since our family drafted four players to one team it just makes sense that Auntie Karla and Daddy are going to be the coaches. We had a whole long weekend to fill which meant we had plenty of time to head up to the soccer field for a few hours for "training"!

The little's are ready for some fun at the park. We even bribed their big sister to come with them by offering a quick trip to Froyoworld for anyone who played soccer with us! Molly could not resist!

Our monkey bar queen! She is so fast!

Annie had some "coffee" - Ovaltine in Daddy's DD cup!

Auntie Courtney introduced my kids to Ovaltine and they drink a cup every single morning now!

Ellie Bean showing off her balance!

The "rolling hill"! The girls love it but I can't even look at them do it without feeling nauseous.

Our soccer superstar! Molly gave up travel soccer this year in favor of more dance classes (I didn't think that was possible!) but she still loves to kick the ball around with Daddy!

Annie Bananie LOVES soccer!

Lizzie's soccer dance - the enthusiasm was overwhelming until the ball got taken away the first time by one of her sisters! I'm not sure she is going to be up for a sportsmanship award anytime soon!

Going for the goal!

Lizzie was annoyed that someone took the ball from her so she tried to hide it!

Annie Bananie was a star - she just kept running back and forth between goals and scoring on whoever was in goal - she was having a blast and sweating like crazy! It was so much fun to watch our little energizer bunny!

Lizzie gave up trying to defend the goal or the ball.

Molly and Ellie used teamwork to try to defend the goal but they still couldn't stop Annie!

Lizzie is having a meltdown - can't wait until she has ten kids on her team trying to get the ball away from her!

The three little's going after the ball.

They couldn't score on big sister but they kept trying!

And Annie scores!!!! And yes - she has a victory dance which involved a lot of butt shaking that I didn't get a picture of! We told her that she could NOT do it in a real game where other people were watching! A little humility is not a bad thing but I suspect that we may see it anyways!

This is her response to my suggestion that she not get overly excited everytime she scores!

A little break

Lizzie Bug can run all day so the length of the soccer field was no issue for her. She just kept running back and forth scoring in each goal.

She even tried to score on Daddy in goal!

Lining up her shot!

And SCORE!!

Ellie Bean does not LOVE soccer the way the other girls do but she got in on the action stealing the ball from Annie and going for the goal!

But Annie is having none of that!

Molly's turn to take Daddy on!

It took a while but she kept trying!

Annie took a little rest on Mama's leg!

Ellie Bean loving the light sprinkle of rain - she did a rain dance!

Stealing the ball again! NO hands, lizzie!

A little bit of the victory dance!

Daddy's turn to try to keep the ball away from the girl.

Chasing Daddy!

Molly found a way to defend against the ball hog so the little's could go in and steal!

Annie took full advantage and scored!

It was a great morning at the park - even when it started sprinkling. At one point the girls all took off their shoes so we could play barefoot soccer - I'm pretty sure that isn't a real game because my toes still hurt from kicking with no shoes on! We had a blast with our four girls and ended up staying so long that we had froyo for lunch!!! I was the photographer so my mad soccer skills are not represented but needless to say I was the real superstar - I only landed on my butt in the wet grass four times and ended up in bed with a hot pack on my back for a few hours! I am certain there will be lots of soccer pictures to come!

GNM - ILY!