Sock It to Me

I believe that we have finally found something that will take Lily's mind off of being Dorothy for Halloween...at least for the time being. I must say, this excitement really came not a moment too soon, considering she has told me that she wants to have a Dorothy themed party for her birthday, which by the way, is in February.

So, what is her new obsession??

SOCCER!!

Unfortunately, it does not begin until mid-September, but at least it is something that will occupy her mind until the end of October.

With any new activity, of course you need to have the proper gear. Since we had some free time yesterday, the Murphy clan decided to take a trip to Academy, the local sporting goods store, and let Lily pick out all of her soccer necessities (ball, shin guards, cleats).



First, we came to the aisle of soccer balls and I told Lily she could get any ball she wanted, as long as it was a size 3. "I want a pink one," she tells me. She picked up the first pink one she found and thankfully, it had the cheapest price tag.


Next up, the shin guards. I thought it was going to be near impossible to find Lily some that would fit, considering that her legs are a little on the short side. Joe managed to find some Nike shin guards (with pink) that fit her perfectly. I had to explain to Lily why she needed to wear shin guards and I think she didn't fully understand the need for them until this morning, when she went to kick her new soccer ball, missed it and proceeded to kick me square in the shin. Lesson learned!


The final leg of our shopping journey was to find Lily some cleats. Searching for a little size 9 soccer cleat wasn't as easy as one might think. There weren't many options to choose from and I just don't get how it is that the smallest size shoe out there is also the most expensive. Lily had her choice between a black and pink Adidas cleat or a silver and pink (notice the theme here??) Nike cleat. She said she wanted one black AND one silver. After explaining to her that she has to wear matching cleats, she decided to go with the silver and pink Nike shoes, because as she put it, "They make me run the fastest." No arguing with that logic!



With Lily's cleats, shin guards, and ball put away in her very own soccer bag, she hung it up on my nightstand so that I could watch and make sure that nobody would take it. By "nobody", she really meant Swiper the Fox and Sophia.


Apparently I didn't do a very good job because when I woke up this morning, the bag was missing. No need to worry, though. Upon further investigation, I discovered that Lily woke Joe up at the crack of dawn and wanted to put her new soccer stuff on.




Joe happily obliged and this is what I woke up to...

Eat your heart out David Beckham!