La Vida Loca De Flores

This spring Sierra decided that in the absence of softball, she would give soccer a try, which is a bit ironic considering we just moved AWAY from the Coachella Valley, where soccer is probably the number one sport kids play! However, a close number two was probably softball/baseball/teeball and we were (and still are) a baseball family...and Sierra has been playing Girl's Softball since she was 7 years old, Blaze since age 5, Jett since age 5, and soon Kolt will be playing his first season of teeball (not to mention I actually played co-ed softball for 5 years or so before Sierra got started). Needless to say, I have seen many, many softball/baseball/teeball games and I know all the rules by heart. I can count to 3 and I understand hitting a white ball and avoiding being touched by it. I understand everyone having a specific place to play on the field, and each team member getting a turn to try hit the ball and run to base...simple! I can follow the game quite closely and I know what the next move should be and where the game will go from there.

This is definitely NOT the case when it comes to soccer! Wow, this is a confusing game! Girls are running this way and that...from one end of the field to the other, some of them run all the way, some of them stay in the middle, and the ball is just going all over the place, seemingly with no purpose whatsoever. While I do understand the concept of no touching with your hands (then being confused when every 2 minutes someone is actually throwing the ball) and get the ball into the net...most everything else is totally foreign to me! Positions?...you mean there are actually positions in soccer...other than the goalie and "the kickers"?? Off sides...isn't that from football? I try to cheer them on, but mostly just look and sound silly, so I resorted to just cheering when I'm sure our team got the ball into the APPROPRIATE goal net!

Despite being totally confused pretty much all the time, we have really enjoyed attempting to understand the game, but we have mostly just enjoyed watching Sierra enjoy learning and later loving the game.

Another fun thing about soccer season this year was that Sierra got to play with my niece (her cousin, of course) Jessie (#35 above), who actually lives in neighboring town (30+ miles away), Burlington. Because Jessie's school doesn't have a soccer team for girls (along with a few other neighboring towns), Powell opens up their team to those girls so that they have an opportunity to participate. It was a really fun time for both of them. Since they are just 6 months apart in age, they have always been pretty close, so for them to be able to play together on a school team was a lot of fun for them...and for us too, since we got to hang out with Dan and Elaine and cheer the girls on...Go Panthers!