The Year I Became a Soccer Mom

 From left: Eme Evans, Julia Veurink, Gracie Thomas, Abigail, Coach Josh

 Daddy's Little Girl

 Abigail and Julia

 Abigail and her good buddy John Alan...two peas in a pod

 Pre-game warm up (for anyone that knows Josh, you probably see this picture and can't help but to think of Richard Simmons "reaching for the stars")

She shoots...she scores!! 

 On the count of 3...Go Charms!

 We were blessed to have the love and support of many of our friends and neighbors, like Holly and Sam, cheering on Abigail each week from the sidelines

 GOOOAAALLLL!!!!

 Abigail and Ainslee

 We love the Kotara Family!!

 The Charms' two biggest cheerleaders (and future soccer stars), Jake and Caroline

 Even Mrs. Erin, Abigail and Julia's CDO teacher, came to cheer them on

 

 Abigail's first medal

 For these two, the best part of spending their Saturday mornings at the soccer fields was seeing each other

 It seems like our small group should form a soccer team of our own

(From left: Julia, Abigail, Ainslee, Ethan, Reagan, and Caleb)

The not-so "Mean Green"

 

Well, it's official...I can now claim the title of soccer mom.  This fall Abigail participated for the first time in our local AYSO soccer league.  The season was 8 weeks long and her particular age division consisted of 6 teams.  Each game was 30 minutes long and consisted of four 5 minute quarters. Each team only had 4 or 5 players, so everyone had plenty of playing time out on the field.  Abigail's team was the Charms, and let me tell you...they were the most adorable group of 4 year old soccer players I have ever seen.  I know I'm a little biased since my daughter is on the team and I have a slight crush on the coach but there aren't too many other 4 year old girls that I know that can make bright green look cute and make spending my Saturday mornings at the soccer fields with a 3 year old and a 14 month old in tow enjoyable.  We were blessed to have a group of girls that clicked with one another right away.  They found the perfect balance of having fun but also learning and somewhat improving on a few soccer techniques as the season went on.  Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of moments where all focus was lost...some girls went and hung out with their moms on the sidelines for a few minutes (while the game was still in the middle of play); others would get so excited about waving to people who came to watch them play that they would miss a goal being scored entirely.  In the end though I'm proud to say not only did each girl score a goal at some point during the season, but in our very last game, every single girl scored a goal.  While statistically we probably didn't finish in first place overall, I don't think there's another team out there that had more fun as a group than our Charms.  If you would have asked me in the beginning how the soccer season was going to go, I probably would have described our team as the soccer version of the "Bad News Bears".  I was wrong though.  The girls actually resembled a soccer team by the time it was all said and done.  More importantly though than wins or losses or how many goals were scored in any given game, it was the friendships we walked away with that will make this soccer season one to go down in the record books.  Congratulations on a GREAT soccer season Charms!