It's soccer time!

We've decided to enroll the girls in a winter indoor soccer league at a local YMCA (Meagan calls it the YCMA, and no one can convince her other wise). Since they can't go out to play, I thought this would be a good way for them to get some exercise, and have interaction with other kids their age, as well as learning to listen to other adults. Those are the goals, anyway. Today was a 'meet your coaches' day, as well as an introduction to basic drills. We've seen people playing soccer a few times at parks over the summer, and it was all I could do to keep Bethany off the field, and not mess up the game, so I'm hoping she'll really like it.

They are in two separate leagues, split up by ages. Meagan's is age 3-4 and Bethany is age 5-6. It seems awfully young to me, but I actually found a lot of 3-year-old leagues. Soccer is a serious sport around here.

Bethany and some of her teammates. Out of the nine of them, Bethany and one other boy are the only ones who have never played before. Soccer starts young out here.

Lining up on the wall for a drill.

It looks like a free-for-all, but there was method behind the madness.

I had a hard time finding gym shorts for Meagan. These are actually some boys' shorts that were given to me. Believe it or not, they're labeled size 18 months. Meagan is also modeling her shin guards. Shorts and shin guards and decent shoes were the only dress requirements. The shin guards are built into some socks, so they're easy to get on and keep on. Unfortunately, the sock portion is too big for Meagan, with about twice as much material as she needs for her feet. I'm looking for alternatives. Today, they also got t-shirts in their team's color (white for Bethany and green for Meagan), with their names across the back. They'll wear those for their first game next Saturday.

Meagan getting ready to kick the ball.

Meagan's team chasing the ball.

Sean amused himself by getting into the cones they used in the drills.

Partway through Meagan's drills (they were at different times), Bethany got bored, so I gave her my camera and she went out and took pictures with Nate. The rest of the pictures were taken by her.

Nate and Sean walking down the hallway at the YMCA.

Bethany was fascinated with the scoreboard. She really loves numbers, so she especially loved watching them go backwards. Sometimes it was hard getting her to pay attention to the soccer ball, because she kept staring at the scoreboard. So it figures that she'd want to go get a picture of it.

Nate giving Meagan a little encouragement.

The drinking fountain? No idea why she wanted a picture of this.

Meagan's coach's wife, who ran things today since her regular coach was out of town. All the coaches are volunteers.