First soccer practice

Little Anna had her first soccer practice today. I went along with Carrie to help watch the boys. It was pretty fun. She finally peaked out of her shell a little and followed along. She also looked pretty cute out there.

I forget what league this is, but it is at the soccer fields at Concordia Seminary. They have a bunch of fields, and there were tons of people there. When we checked her in Anna received a shirt, socks, and a soccer ball with her name on it.

The nice thing about this league is... as a 4-year-old, first-time player, they only have 5 weeks of practice. And it is entirely instructional. They don't play games yet. They just learn how to dribble, to not use their hands, to listen for the whistle, and a few other basics. So it's not too overwhelming, but they do learn some skills. As they progress they teach them different things.

At first she didn't participate real well - she is so shy. Eventually they got her to put her ball down, then to kick it, and pretty soon she was dribbling up and down the field with the other kids. She did pretty good at that by the end, and even kicked the ball into the net when they did that. She was pretty tentative when they played some games designed to get the kids running around though. She likes order, and the chaos of kids running around was a bit much. All in all she did really great though.

Here are some pics (she is #4, in the pink socks)...