Soccer Shots + One of My Proudest Moments of All Time

I posted a few pictures of Shelby wrapping up her spring season with Soccer Shots in our "day in the life" post {HERE}, but as I was writing that post I realized I'd never mentioned her playing on the blog before that! Oops!

Right when Shelby turned three, we had our first experience with soccer on a team at the YMCA in Mississippi with a couple of Shelby's friends from Kindermusik. It was an experience to say the least! It was very clear to us after the first game that 3 years old was probably a bit too young for a competitve sport. ;)  All the kids had a blast at the practices, but the games were miserable! After three years of being told to share and to not take something from another kid, they were suddenly thrown into a game with only one ball and were not only expected but also encouraged to take the ball from the other team..I'm sure this seemed completely ludicrous in their three year old minds! Each time a kid had the ball taken from them, they would run crying to the sidelines for comfort from their coach or parent..it was a mess!

We were so happy to find out when we moved to San Antonio that they offered developmental soccer programs for younger kiddos. We tried out Soccer Shots, and I'm so glad we did! They don't have any games, just one practice session each week! Perfect for little ones! The coaches have a little curriculum they follow with fun warm-up games each week, followed by teaching and practicing a new skill, and then finally they do a little scrimmage at the end. Shelby LOVED the warm-up games & new skill each week but never wanted to have much to do with the scrimmaging. ;)  We were so proud of her this season! She joined a team where she didn't know anyone & ended up making lots of new friends, getting a ton of exercise (those kids ran all over the field!), and making a lot of progress in dribbling/controling the ball! A huge difference from a year and a half ago!

My little buddy during soccer :)

Ladybug!

Daddy surprised us one evening by leaving work early to catch the end of Shelby's soccer session!
Here is Hadley sharing her goldfish with him ;)

Roly polies!

We had a lot of fun with Soccer Shots, but I don't think we're going to be rushing into any more organized sports just yet--with the exception of doing a few swim lessons for Shelby later this summer! I'm suddenly realizing these "care-free" days (I'm using that phrase loosely here, ha!) of parenting small children without the busy schedule of full school days/practices/games/recitals are truly numbered. So we're going to take full advantage of it while we can!

And on a completely & totally unrelated note, I just had one of my proudest moments of all time thanks to You Tube! I was getting dinner ready in the crockpot this afternoon while the girls were napping, and I could not for the life of me get a jar open. It was driving me crazy! I was literally getting ready to walk next door to ask my neighbor for help, when I randomly searched "how to open stuck jar" on You Tube and found {THIS} video. I had tried to open the jar on my own for seriously ten minutes with no luck, but when I tried the knife trick from this video I had it open instantly!! Am I the only person who didn't know about this trick?! Every other time I've had a jar lid stuck, I've always had another adult in the house to ask for help. This was my first time solving my stuck jar lid crisis on my own, and I was so proud! Independent woman right here, people! ;)