Foxy Loxies V RoboTeam

Today the Foxy Loxies played their first real game. Abby was very excited, and totally hammed it up once she was decked out in her gear. I do have to admit she looked fantastic--and not just becuase of the pigtails, which took me half an hour to do (she has very fine hair, okay?) Here's the little star ready to go:

The game was scheduled to start at 10:10. We got to the soccer fields, which were mass chaos, a little before 10. There are 94 teams of all ages in this league, and all of them were scheduled to play today. Kids in soccer gear of every color were everywhere, accompanied by overwhelmed looking parents. We found our field and started settling in. Soon, other Foxy Loxies starting showing up, but at 10:08 there was no sign of the other team. Then all of a sudden, there they were. They all arrived at once--I joked at the time that maybe they had marched in together, but by the end of the game I was half convinced it was true. This team was hard CORE. They are four year olds, just like the Foxy Loxies. But they totally knew what they were doing! They could get the ball AND kick it in the right direction AND run after it. And when their coach told them to play defense, they KNEW what he meant! I was shocked. The poor Foxy Loxies were bewildered. In all their practices and talk about soccer, no one had ever told them that another girl would come up the them and TAKE the ball AWAY from them! And that instead of giving her a time out, the thief's mom would CHEER for her! Fortunately, score isn't kept.

The other fortunate thing was that as long as we kept cheering for our girls like they were superstars, they believed they were. I think they really had a great time, but it was just so bizarre to have a first game against this machine of a team. I think all of the other FL parents and I were relieved to see the game end. What happened after is, I think, the best illustration of the differences of the two teams. Matt and Chad--who are FANTASTIC coaches with more patience than 95% of the fathers on this planet-- called the FLs onto the field, where they had a huddle, told the girls how awesome they were, and did the hands-in-the-middle-and-yell thing. Then, the other team did THEIR after-game thing:

Do you SEE that? This is not something you just do spur of the moment. This is a choreographed and likely practiced procedure. I almost expected smoke and strobe lights. When our girls saw it, the other parents let them run through too, so I guess it wasn't all bad. But still!

After the game we did a little team socialization at every 4-year-old's favorite hangout--McDonald's. The parents sat together and talked about what freaks of nature those other girls were, and guessed how many hours of practice they had put in, and mused as to the possiblity of a few of them dabbling in steroids. The Foxy Loxies had, by this point, forgotten entirely that they had just played a soccer game and were having a ball together. After all, they had all gotten matching pet kitties in their Happy Meals--what more could you want in life?

We play another game Tuesday, and we are all hoping it's against an equally clueless team so we have a fighting chance to score a goal. We're also making plans for our rematch against RoboTeam, which I think happens sometime in early October. We're considering carrying the FLs in on our shoulders, preceeded by a small marching band and someone dressed up as a giant girl fox. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Just so you don't think we've forgotten him, here's a photo of E being cool as a cucumber:

And, lest you think my last post was an exaggeration, proof of his love to climb and yell from our last trip to the park: