Zach and Allie's First Trophies

Allie shows off her trophy.

It came as fast as a 5-year-old chasing down the ice cream truck, but Zach and Allie's first soccer season came to a close this past weekend.

And like most kids in the under-9-or-so crowd, the lure of trophies at the end of the final game was almost as exciting as Christmas morning.

Zach and his hardware.

"Mommyyy ... we get trophieees!" they squealed throughout the morning of their last game.

But the real prize is that they both loved playing. Allie was one of the younger girls on her team and sometimes unsure of what to do and where to stand and when to move, but when the ball was in motion, she chased it down with the rest of the pack. When she played goalie and the ball came her way, she punted it down the field with all her might.

Allie chases the ball.

Zach, too, made it his mission to pursue the soccer ball every time he was on the field, many times with his tongue lodged into his cheek. He also loved throw-ins, forcefully hurling the ball into play, just like Blake taught him.

Zach closes his eyes and punts the ball.

The other great part about their first soccer venture was doing it with Gabe and Riley, the twins across the street. The four of them (and Gabe and Riley's brother Jake) are inseparable. When the kids aren't at school or sleeping, chances are they're together.

Happy kids and their trophies.

Allie and Riley

Photo of the Day: Life with a 13-Year-Old

Here's Blake on a recent family outing to Brett's company picnic at the Phoenix Zoo. As Zach and Allie cheesed it up for pictures and Nick ran out of sight, Blake did this. At least I got his eyes ...

Zach and Allie Join the Soccer Ranks

After years of packing up their backpacks with coloring books, Star Wars toys, barbies and snacks, Zach and Allie finally get their turn at playing soccer. For months they've been donning their older brothers' old soccer jerseys and shin guards and kicking the ball around in the back yard in preparation for their turn to play "on a real soccer team."

So with the school year winding down and Nick's soccer season over, we decided it would be a good time (or at least better than trying to shoehorn their soccer seasons into the busy fall months).

The biggest difference between the way the boys play and the way the girls handle it, is in positioning and following directions.

When Allie (or any of the other girls on her team) are told to play the back defender position, they stay planted.

We yell (I mean encourage from the sidelines) for her to move up when the ball is down at the other end of the field, and she'll look for her coach's OK or wait for her co-defender to move up before she uproots herself and scurries down the field.

The boys, on the other hand, play that typical bunch ball that we remember so well from Blake and Nick's early days.

Zach reminds me of a young Blake out there ... always darting to the ball and offering up his quick, powerful, short-legged kicks.

Both Zach and Allie are loving it as they squeal and holler when practice and game days come around. They adore having their own soccer ball and ball bag and building upon what their big brothers have taught them. So even though Blake's been playing soccer for eight years and Nick has five years under his belt, it looks like with two more just beginning, I could potentially still have more soccer games ahead of me, rather than behind me ... and that's a good thing. :)