Need a little help here.

I coach my daughter's U8 Soccer team...this is my third year coaching.  The squad is pretty good this year; some really good players on our team but there has been an interesting development this season.

Every week we have different referees - some weeks they are total sticklers for the rules, other weeks it's pretty loose.  So far we're 2-2, first game we won 4-0, second lost 7-1, third won something like 6-1, Saturday we lost 4-2.  The weeks where the refs have been more laissez-faire are the weeks we've done well - the kids have been allowed to just run & play & score goals and have fun.  The weeks we have had the sticklers are the weeks we've struggled - refs constantly stopping play for do-overs (throw-ins where one foot barely leaves the ground; ball didn't go far enough on a goal kick; stuff like that).

My attitude has been that at this age it should be about running hard, playing hard & having fun so I haven't focused that much on teaching rules & fundamentals.  The reason we do so much better when the refs let 'em play is that we have some really fast kids on our team and we use it to our advantage.

Question for you Soccer guys - which approach is best for 7 & 8 year olds?  I'm thinking of saying something to the league commish but I want to make sure I'm not in the wrong here.  If I need to make some changes I will.