Soccer Stud and one very special visitor

As most of you know, Owen is completely and totally soccer crazy! He lives, breathes, and eats soccer. He spent most of the summer playing soccer games in the backyard (him vs. him), watches professional soccer on TV, and reads soccer books. He knows the names of all the professional soccer players (fave team: Man U...that's Manchester United for us lay people), and even made his own set of red and yellow cards to give to himself if he breaks a rule. He went to 5 full week soccer camps this summer and still couldn't get enough. CRAZY! He's also quite good. It's completely against his personality and interesting to watch. When he is on the field he's completely focused on putting the ball in the goal. He's aggressive, competitive, and fast. We were approached this summer about putting him on a select league (can you believe it starts this young????), and in August he tried out and made the team. So, for now, he's playing on two leagues which means our Saturdays are completely consumed w/ soccer. I am officially a soccer mom! The first pictures are from his regular city league. He is on the "hot orange cheetos" team. This is the non-competitive team and Owen scores 6-8 goals a game. He has a good time, but is completely irritated by the players who think this is just fun (you know...the ones who are picking flowers, doing cart-wheels, touching the ball with their hands - God Forbid!) The other team....CNY United (which is costing us a small fortune, I might add!) is all business. He is the youngest player on the team (it's a U9 team and most of the players are 8-9) and he is learning tons. However, their team has been playing all u10 teams from the region and they have been getting squashed. Check out the size of the opposing players. He's in gray. Their "official" uniforms (track warm up suit, bags and all) are on order. I think they have lost the games 20-0 or more. But this week was a good week. They had a few shots on goal and even scored one on a penalty kick. Owen looks so tiny out there, but he's not intimidated. You should see him push the other kids around. He plays midfield. So, he's all over! Not sure if his love of soccer will continue. But for now, least of all, it's great exercise!

And...my dear friend, Amy Busch (high school friend) is here!!!! I haven't caught a pic of her yet. But I will, soon. Amy sat w/ us at the soccer fields all day yesterday. She's such a special friend. You know the kind that you could organize your closet w/ all day and still have fun doing it. She's also Owen's God mommy. I'm so lucky to have her!