September Soccer

September has been an incredible month of soccer.  After winning the Labor Day Shootout, Emily's Magic team has continued its strong play and is currently undefeated, winning 3 league games, a friendly and an incredibly tense and hard fought Cup game.  In general, Emily is playing really well and with such confidence, we are just so happy for her.  So far this season, she had seven goals and eight assists.  Last weekend, she played three games and had three assists and three game winning goals - she is just doing a really great job either finding the net or finding a teammate who can put the ball in the net.  There is always room for improvement, but we are very happy with what we are seeing.  Most importantly, she is having a great time and really looks forward to every practice and game, even when we have to drive more than an hour.

The girls were losing 3-0 to Avon with 15 minutes left in the game and were able to pull it together and win the game, 6-3. 

Emily scored the only goals in a  2-0 win over Berlin. 

Hard fought 4-3 win over Enfield, a team that clean their clocks last year. 

Hard fought 1-0 win over Ridgefield in their first Connecticut Cup game. 

Coach Goran sent them on the victory run to the parents after the big win against Ridgefield.

On the premier side, we are very happy with her play at CFC as well.  Her coach approached me after her first practice and told me that she and her sporty bestie Abby should make a partial move up to the next age group.  They now practice one night a week with each team and they are rostered on both teams for games.  This has really given her a lot of confidence and both girls look like they belong on the 05 team.  Neither is used to not starting, nor are they used to having a coach that gets mad when the team is winning, but they have moved up to a more difficult level of playing, coaching and strategy.  On Sunday, Emily had an assist in the 05 game and played almost the entire second half, which is a lot more playing time than we expected her to get.

First game with the 05s 

Playing hard for the 06s. 

First assist for the 05s. 

Emily and Abby are two peas in a pod, waiting to go into the game.

Beau

Last weekend, we welcomed Beau to our family.  We have been looking for a dog for about a month now - all of us are finally ready to move on from the painful loss of Elliot.  We had a failed meeting with a senior dog that was terribly hard on all of us, followed by the loss of a dog that was adopted right out from under us.  Finding a rescue dog that is good with other dogs and good with kids is actually a lot harder than it sounds and the girls were becoming very despondent over how difficult the process had become.  We found Beau through a local rescue organization and took him home the same day that he arrived in Connecticut.  He is a two year old bull terrier mix, just a little guy.  He was found in a basement an abandoned home in North Carolina and brought to a high kill shelter.  Our local rescue pulled him and placed him with a foster family in NC and he was treated by a vet and neutered.  As all rescue dogs do, he has his share of "issues" - clearly, he has never walked on a leash; until he got to our house, he never navigated stairs (amusing all day Saturday and Sunday, I have to say); he refuses to walk through doorways, you have to push or pull him; he's never had human food; and he's scared of humans, dogs, cars, trucks, fog, Emily's soccer coach, headlights, loud noises, and pretty much everything else you can think of.  He has no idea how to get in and out of our cars, but he does love to go for a ride and he is very well-behaved in the car.  He loves Baxter and follows him everywhere, much to Baxter's great annoyance.  As we complete our first full week together, we feel very good about adding him to our family.  We hope that Beau continues to adjust well as we really do love the little guy.

This is the photo the rescue organization posted on its Facebook page.

He looks tiny in the picture, but he's 45 pounds. 

Emily and Beau, hanging out. 

Sure guys, make yourselves at home on our bed. 

As soon as the girls leave for school, they sack out on Emily's bed. 

Beau has no concept of "personal space."

Faith for the Future Campaign

Last weekend was the annual Faith for the Future Campaign.  Students from our school were asked to attend and participate in masses at churches all over the Deanery.  Over the course of two weekends, we attended four different churches and the girls did three readings.  The churches welcomed us with open arms and the students enjoyed getting to meet different priests and parishioners.

St. Sebastian's Church 

Elizabeth assisting the preschool class at St. Pius X Church. 

Elizabeth and Jamo

5th graders at St. Mary.

Elizabeth, Emily and friends represented the school at St. Colman's.

Contacts

Toward the end of the summer, Emily asked if she could try contacts for sports.  She doesn't mind wearing glasses at all (in fact, I think she loves it), but wearing goggles almost seven days a week for sports was becoming tiring, and very hot and sweaty.  Our eye doctor agreed to let her give it a try and after a few visits to the office, she was proficient enough at putting them in and taking them out to be released to wear them.  She wears them only for practices and games, and then to school on special occasions. You may have noticed that she is goggle free in her soccer pictures.  She really enjoys it, feels like she has better clarity and peripheral vision.  It's a lot more difficult to find her on the field now.

August Odds and Ends

Some photos and videos from August that didn't make it to other posts:

A beautiful day at the TPC enjoying the Travelers Championship.

Emily, putting in some extra work on a hot Sunday afternoon.

At the pool club - she's been waiting years to do this.

Labor Day Shootout

Over Labor Day weekend, Emily's Magic soccer team played in the Nike Bernie Ward Labor Day Shootout.  This tournament is the largest in Connecticut and comprised of only the top teams in the tri-state area, many of which are premier soccer clubs.  All of the parents were a bit surprised to find out that the Magic coach entered the girls in the tournament, especially when we found out that their bracket was comprised of only premier clubs (we were the only travel team in the bracket, although there was one other at their age group in a different bracket).  The girls won their first game on Saturday morning, 4-2, with Emily providing a nice assist on one of the goals.  They won 3-0 on Saturday afternoon, with Emily scoring the first goal of the game.  On Sunday morning, they squeaked out a win 3-1, with Emily again providing a beautiful assist.  And then it was on to the finals - something none of us could quite believe.  The girls won the final game 2-0, with Emily scoring the game winner.  It was incredibly exciting for the girls, their coaches and the parents.  Several of us were with this team when they didn't win a single game during the season; and most of us were with them when they won two games over an entire year (fall, winter and spring combined).  To watch them work together, to play their positions appropriately (most of the time), the cover for each other and to pass to each other beautifully because they actually seem to sense their teammates is quite a thing to see and a testament to the girls genuine commitment to each other and their incredible coaches.  We are all hoping for a great year, including the girls' first ever quest for the Connecticut CUP.

This one didn't go in, but it was pretty to see. 

Her big goal in the final game - this is a very cropped photo (thankfully, Grammy was there to catch this as my camera was taking photos of the grass, I was too busy cheering!) of her celebration run!! 

The victory run to the parents!

Getting her medal. 

Middletown Magic U11 Girls 

Nat and Emily, hamming it up with the trophy. 

Emily and Gianna 

Abby and Emily selfie. 

What do ten year old girls do to celebrate winning a tournament?  Selfies!!  It was crazy! 

Holding the team trophy.