The Lee Family: Purplicious Awards

Although Purplicious' soccer season was over more than a week ago, we finally held the end-of-season award ceremony and pizza party at one of the parents' house on Tuesday afternoon. It was a crazy day with Sofia having her 3rd grade field trip to the Perot Museum followed by a visit to an archery studio with her Girl Scouts after school. She absolutely loved shooting with a bow and arrow and had a great time, but the archery studio was about 30 minutes drive away, so we were about 40 minutes late to the Purplicious party! I felt bad because not only do I take the photos, but I had the coach's gift as well. Everyone chipped in $10 and I bought him a gift card to a restaurant for $75. It was hard to decide what to buy for Coach Ryan since he's a competitive body builder, so I'm sure he doesn't eat out very often. However, the gift card gave him and his family three different restaurants to chose from, so hopefully he finds something he likes. Along with the gift card, I printed off a photo of him coaching the girls and had each of the girls sign it at the last game, which he wasn't at due to a body building competition. The card really turned out super cute and I included a few additional photos I'd printed that I thought he'd like to have.

So, not only did we arrive super late to the party, but we really only should have stayed about 15 minutes before zooming off to Kindergarten Round-up at the elementary school so Olivia could meet the teachers she will have in the Fall. Of course, we were the only ones who had this obligation since most of the girls on the team aren't starting Kindergarten or will be starting at another school, so I was getting nervous as all the girls played and ate pizza. Finally, one of the parents suggested we pull all the kids in and do a team photo and then hand out awards.

The team photo turned out really cute and the girls are all so sweet and listen well. After the photo, he invited all the girls to climb on him, which the girls loved and went crazy! I'm surprised he didn't get hurt from all those girls jumping and climbing on him! Then Coach Ryan gathered the girls in a semi-circle on the driveway to hand out awards. He thanked the girls for their dedication and said he looked forward to next season together and then started to pass out the trophies to each girl. As he did, he spoke for a few minutes about each girl and what he found to be special about them and their soccer. It was really thoughtful. For Olivia, he thanked her for always listening and doing what he asked of her and said she is super fast and could be a great soccer player if she got her foot on the ball more. So, hopefully we can work on that for next season. It was really sweet of him to talk about each player, even if the girls were just focused on their trophies.

After the trophy ceremony and before the girls could jump up and run off and play, I thanked Coach Ryan, told him we'd be back in the Fall and said goodbye to all the parents and hurried over to the school. We had 15 minutes left of Kindergarten Round-Up and CK was there waiting for us. Of course, Olivia refused to wear her soccer uniform to school and had to change into a dress and sandals. She's very particular in how she looked. We changed quickly before arriving at school and headed to the Kindergarten hall. It was so fun to see Mrs. Schultz again, who was Sofia's 1st grade teacher, and talk with Mrs. McMeans and Mrs. Maddox. Whoever Olivia gets will be a great teacher for her. Hannah was there with her family, so Olivia ran around Mrs. Maddox' classroom and acted crazy. We finally reined her in and headed home! It was a long, fun day!

The Purplicious Team Photo!