As If Learning The Rules Of The Game Wasn't Confusing Enough

After many rain outs, Thomas finally had a soccer game. The whole family loaded up and went out to support our favorite son/brother last Thursday evening.

Joshua meets us at the fields since the games start at six. I was on my own to get the kids ready, out the door, and to the field on time. We were not late, but we weren't a minute early, either. I noticed a couple of light blue jerseys running around at the opposite end of the field, sent Thomas to the gathering of green jerseys, and then took then took the girls to get ourselves situated on the bleachers.

It takes several minutes to 'get ourselves situated on the bleachers', people. I finally looked up and realized that the 'couple of light blue jerseys' that were running around were just that...two whole players on the other team. This age groups plays three team members on the field at a time. Their team was short one. Being the youngest age group in the league, it's all about play time for the kids. We don't even keep score. So we loaned a player out to the blue team and the confusion began.

Within seconds, one of the little blue jersey-ed kids was sitting on the ground wailing for Mommy. He sat there and cried and wailed and refused to play for the entire first quarter. Finally, his parents removed him from the field (his Dad was the coach) and he cheerfully played at his Mother's feet for the rest of the game. To try to even things up, we loaned another player to the blue team, which was now mostly green.

Check out those droopy socks!

Throughout the rest of the game, our green jersey boys rotated to play on the 'blue' team. Our boys had no idea which way they were supposed to kick the ball, and much hilarity ensued. When it was Thomas' turn to play on the 'blue' team, he was a bit uncertain. He hugged Sparky (who was visiting our family for the week! Yay!) close, then carefully sat him down on the bench by the coach and went off to play on the blue team for a quarter.

Thomas hugging Sparky.

I laughed more than usual as the game progressed. The kids were lost and I have a sneaking suspicion that I wasn't the only adult that wasn't sure which goal was ours! In the end, we all took our boys home, played out and happy.

I bet he hates this picture in years to come!

And that, friends, is one of the huge benefits to ball playing boys. Tired, happy, and looking forward to bed!