GOAL!!!

My daughter, Tessa, played Spring Soccer for the first time this year.
She loved it, and was actually very good!
We had a lot of fun with it as a family and went to the park a few times to practice...
But practicing soccer is tough without a goal.

I checked out a mini collapsible goal at Wal Mart, but it was cheesy looking and so light that I figured (staked or not) it would fly across the yard if anyone managed to score a goal! Plus, it was $35.
I checked online and found a plethora of options - none for less than $40, plus shipping.

At this point I (of course) started to wonder about building my own goal...
I figured there HAD to be plans out there to build one out of PVC pipe. We have a large pile of PVC in the garage, left over from our sprinkling system.

Sure enough, I found several plans online.  This one, from This Old House, was my favorite.

I modified it a tiny bit and managed to build a goal for about $6!
Since my garage was full of PVC pipe, I didn't have to buy any of that. I bought a bunch of PVC joints (about $3) and 2 fishing nets from the dollar store.

The nets were the hardest part. The ones from the dollar store are NOT perfectly square. Actually, they're not any particular shape at all. They're sort of amoeba-ish.  So I started by tyeing one net on to the goal in as many spots as I could stretch it to on one end, then I did the same on the opposite side. In the middle I trimmed the nets where it needed it and tied the two of them together. I cut and tied for about 30 minutes and it was tedious - but the money saved was well worth it! $2 was WAY cheaper than I would have been able to buy any other net for.

 

Tessa will be playing soccer again in the fall, and this season her little brother will get to play, too!

We're all very excited - especially for practice at home :)