Soccer Practice

It was really cute.  I have to say this is one of the things that I love about being a parent - watching Julia play with friends and do new activities.  Melissa, a friend of mine with 5 kids, set up soccer teams for the kids at the consulate.  Julia is on the red team and her coach is her very own daddy.  The red team met for the first time yesterday.  Julia was so excited.  She woke up yesterday morning and decided she wasn't going to school because today was soccer.  I had to explain the order of things - school, nap, snack, soccer.  In the end, we had to skip the snack because she was so tired and I had to wake her up at 4:30 to get to soccer by 5.  Oh - and by the way - having a car is AWESOME.  I love being able to drive ourselves places and not have to rely on friends, etc.

Melissa had a great idea - 15 minutes of instruction/practice and then the red team can play the orange with the green team cheering and then they switch up.  It didn't exactly happen that way but everyone had fun and that was the important thing.   When we got to practice, Julia practiced kicking the ball with everyone else until she saw her dad.  There was a bake sale that morning and I had asked Brian to pick up something for us for dessert (US meaning he and I).  Unfortunately, Julia saw what he picked out and decided she wanted food NOW.  She proceeded to have a meltdown until another mom went and found crackers.  Practice then consisted of cracker eating.

After a little snack, she was back to soccer.  I was impressed at how much instruction team red got from coach.  They actually listened and followed instructions.  The hardest part was getting the concept of no hands but after a while, they would reach for the ball and then drop it quickly after remembering they couldn't use their hands.

Doesn't look like he is actually running a drill?  Good job coach! 

There was a lot of cracker eating among the team during practice.

Notice the orange team sending in a scout! 

It was a great end to the week.  Julia thinks her dad is a great coach.  We'll see how things go next time - practice is every other week in the consulate gardens.

GO RED TEAM!!!!!

As a little extra note, it is a little cool and rainy here in Jerusalem.  I LOVE IT!!!  Is it possible to get tired of warm sunny days?  I think it might be.  I'm in sweat pants and there is a little chill out.  It didn't rain much but Julia got to go out on the balcony and use her umbrella.  I hear that driving after the first rain is not fun because of all the oil on the road that has built up makes the roads slick.   The sun is poking out and I'm sure it will be warm and sunny later today but right now I'm enjoying a change in weather.