Gracie Loves Soccer!

Last Wednesday was Gracie's first soccer practice.  It's her first time playing and there's heavy parent involvement, so Daddy was right there with her the whole time... with a giant smile on his face every time I saw him!

They began with some stretching, which was adorable.

Reaching with wide arms

Daddy helping Gracie figure out how to stretch her shoulders.

A sweet shot of my favorite two people getting directions!

They divided the kids into 3 groups to rotate between 3 stations.  The first station was a dribbling station.  The kids had to weave the ball back and forth between cones.  It looked hard... and I'm pretty sure for most of the kids it was harder than it looked.

After the dribbling, Gracie and Ryan headed off to the passing station where Gracie learned to "squish" the ball with her foot to stop it.  Then to "pass" with her foot to kick it to Daddy.  Ryan was such a good coach, yelling with her "Squish!" and "Pass!" so she remembered to stop the ball before she passed it.  He made a great teacher!

Squish!

Giving her pointers on her pass.

Gracie was a good student, too!
She watched Daddy and tried to mimic him.

The third station was for practicing shooting goals.  The kids were to dribble the ball up near the goal and then kick it hard.  The teenage coach would yell "Gooooooaaaaaal!" every time anyone scored... which was every single kid, every single time.  Good thing he's young!

Daddy making sure Gracie understands what she's supposed to do.
I love this picture!

Daddy talked Gracie through the whole thing and never jumped in... hard to do!

After practice!

A friend from Preschool also plays on the team and so does Kia!  John came to work with Kik's while Steph stayed home with the others, so I snapped a few pictures of my sweet niece!

Patiently waiting her turn!

Getting ready to dribble.
She refused to let me tie her shirt up, so she looks like she's playing in her jammies!

Kia and her Daddy!

I'm so glad Gracie gets to have her Daddy there at her practices!  She was frown-faced on the way back to the car after practice.  When I asked her what was wrong, she said, "Soccer's over.  And I want to play more."  We explained that she'll get more time to play every Wednesday and we can even play at home in the backyard.  That made her super happy!

The best part of it all was seeing the smiles on both of their faces.  Gracie has been a Momma's girl from the beginning, but as time has gone by, she's becoming a Daddy's girl, too.  This is the first thing they've done without me, and I just loved watching them interact.  When we crawled in bed that night, Ryan said, "You know, I'm excited about the baby and everything, but if I could freeze time and keep Gracie at this age, I would totally do it.  She's so much fun!"  Melts my heart because I feel the same exact way.  There's always so much to look forward to!