Go Pigpens!

Hunter is playing his first team sport this spring.  We did a sports camp last year, and one day on the way home, he said, "Mommy, sports are hard.  I think I want to do music instead."  We finished up the 12 weeks of camp, and then I looked into music, but he seemed to be too young for any music lessons.  So this winter I asked him if he wanted to try sports again, and he picked soccer.  I'm sure it drove him crazy because I asked like 5 different times over serveral days to make extra sure he really wanted to do this because we have a no quitting policy in our house, and I didn't want to have to live through an entire spring of him begging not to go to soccer.

The first pigpens (don't ask) practice was while we were in Disney World, so Hunter went to his first practice this past Thursday.  And y'all.  He did GREAT!  He walked right up to the coach and was even fine when I walked over to the playground to play with Charlotte pretty quickly after we got there.  After James arrived, I was able to get some pictures...

He looks so tall to me!

Love this face...

Look how long his legs are...

It's really shocking to me that he's almost five.  I feel like I blinked and 5 years went by.

Toward the end of practice, the coach wanted to have the kids actually play a game and asked for parent volunteers to "stand there". So I volunteered, and then found out that "standing there" involved actually playing against the 4 kids that had been assigned to my side of the park. I felt like raising my hand and saying, ummmm, excuse me, but even though I spent 4 years of my life going to soccer games back in high school, I don't really do sports.  But I was a good mom and just played along...and promptly rolled my ankle. My normal response would be a dramatic screech and falling to the ground so that my ankle could be examined, but out of fear of embarrassing my son, I just kept walking and prayed no one noticed how clumsy I was.

After surviving our first practice, we headed to the first game of the season this Saturday.  The Pigpens played the Monsters, and both teams did great!  It was actually pretty hilarious to watch.  Several times Hunter and one of his teammates would kick the ball past the goal and just keep trying to play even though they were way off of the field; we had a kid from each team score in the wrong goal;  and this sweet little boy on the Monsters kept wanting to use his hands, so at one point when he was surrounded by kids while he was trying to kick the ball, he just picked it up and walked over to where he had a straight shot of the goal.  It was so fun to watch them!

Here are the Pigpens warming up...

When it was time for the game to start, Hunter volunteered to play in the first quarter...

Here he is with the ball...

Doing the kick in (I know that's not what it's called, but whatever...you get the point)...

During one of the times he wasn't playing, he looked at James and said, "That other team is the mean team."  So we said they're not mean, and he replied, "But they keep taking the ball away from us!!"  Hysterical.  We spent much of his time off of the field explaining the rules of the game to him:)

We were so proud of how willing he was and how well he played.  Can't wait for our next game!