Fro-yo!

Some days you just need a Cocomero break after school!

There is actually frozen yogurt in there under all the treats!

Extend Open House

On Wednesday night, the Extend (gifted) program that Avery is in held their annual open house. We got to see a few of the projects she has been working on and get a preview of what she could be doing next year in the program.

Their last unit was on the Iditarod, the dog sledding race in Alaska. As part of the unit, they had to build a board game. You start out in Anchorage and end in Nome, with checkpoints along the way. There are trivia cards and "test your luck" cards. Some of the test you luck cards include "your dogs are sick, lose a turn" or "your dogs are well rested, move to the next checkpoint". We played a few rounds with Avery.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner at Weber Grill.

Weekend soccer update

We had four soccer games this weekend - one for each girl on each day! Unfortunately, it's still really cold outside! We bundled up! I was too cold to take pictures, I guess, because I didn't get any good ones. :)

But, here's a recap...

Morgan's game was at 3:30 on Saturday and ended in a tie. They were down 3-1 with about 5 minutes to go. Then, Morgan scored 2 goals to tie it up! They had a couple of chances at the end to win, but just couldn't get it. The game was really exciting, but it started to sleet at the end and we were ready to go!

Avery's game on Saturday was a 3-1 loss. It was after Morgan's game at 6:00, but at a different park. Avery's team has a lot of newer players. They played well, but just couldn't pull off a win. Avery played defense.

On Sunday morning, Morgan played at 10:30 at McCullom. It was cold, but not as windy, so it was more bearable. Avery and I had to leave before halftime of Morgan's game to get to hers which was at the Oak Brook Polo Fields (15 minutes away). But, I did get to see Morgan score a goal! When we left, I think it was 2-0. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, though.

Then, it was off to Avery's game at 11:30. The coach had asked for a couple of girls to help their team out because they only had 9 or 10 players available. So, we had told them Morgan could play in the second half since she would be coming to the game anyway. Avery got to play defense and offense during the game, so she was happy. Morgan showed up a bit after halftime. The team was tied 1-1, then the other team scored, so we were down 2-1. The second half seemed to go on forever (like literally the parents on the sideline who were timing it said they were playing over the 30 minutes!) Anyway, there were a few minutes left and Morgan scored a goal to tie it up. So, the girls were all happy! :)

After the game, Avery ate Subway in the car and went straight to rehearsal for HSM Jr. Morgan and I went to Learning Express to pick up some dope slime with her tooth fairy money. Then, we picked Avery up from rehearsal and rested for about an hour before Grandma Ruth and Uncle Scott came over. We celebrated Ruth's birthday with dinner (she requested pork chops!) and strawberry shortcake. Scott was in town picking up some stuff from Ruth, so it was nice for us all to get together.

Another lost tooth for Morgan!

This time she lost a molar! She keeps accidentally eating on that side, though! She used her tooth fairy money to get some dope slime from Learning Express. :)

New fence!

Our old fence was on it's last leg and ready for retirement, so we had a new one put in. Milo was not a fan of the noise and workers being in his backyard. They started around 9:00 in the morning and finished by 2:30. We now have gates on both sides of the house, which will be nice. Now, we just need to convince Morgan not to use the fence for her soccer goal kicking practice!

Rainbows

Soccer practice on Thursday was called after about 30 minutes due to the weather. We were in Woodridge for the practice and the weather there was pretty gross. Once lightning is spotted, the kids have to stop immediately. We must have been right on the line of the storm, because on our way home from practice, we had sunshine on one side of us and storms on the other! We kept seeing rainbows pop up on our drive! The sun was shining at our house when we got home! Crazy spring weather!

Wish I could delegate some work to him!

 

Morgan's Soccer Tournament

Morgan had her first soccer tournament of the Spring season this past weekend. They played in the Rockford Puri Cup in Rockford, IL. The Black #1 and Black #2 teams were both playing in the tournament. Black #1 was in the "Gold" division for G2012 (the highest) and Black #2 was in the "Silver" group (the second highest). Morgan is on the Black #1 team, but subs on the Black #2 team when they need help (there are 3 girls that do this - Lynnea, Morgan and Jules). So, the coach asked her to play in both teams' games over the weekend. That meant a possible 6 games in 2 days! So, here's a recap of the weekend...

Matt and Morgan left at 8am on Saturday morning. Avery and I had to stay back because she had choreography boot camp for High School Musical Jr and then dance class. So, we missed the first two games. 

Here Morgan is at the beginning of the day! The weather on Saturday was gorgeous! Like sunny and warm and beautiful!

Game #1 - this was a Black #1 game and they won 9 - 1! Morgan played striker and wing and scored at least one of the 9 goals (she scored a goal that was taken back because of off sides, too). According to Matt, she had a lot of great passes and played really well! :)

Then, off to Game #2. This was a Black #2 game, so Morgan played goalie. They lost 3-1. According to Matt, Morgan played really well and had a lot of saves. He said a lot of the game was played at her end of the field, unfortunately!

Avery I made it for the rest of Saturday's games! There was a short weather delay due to lightning in the area, so that helped!

Game #3 of the day was for Black #1. Again, she played 9, 10 and wing. They won 5-2. She scored one of the goals and had a lot of great passes!

The cheering section... we used the umbrellas for the sun on Saturday!

After this game, the girls were hot and hungry! So, we grabbed some ice cream at the concession stand.

Avery and I ran to check into the hotel before the last game. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, which was in an old warehouse... it was a super cool building. Not your typical Embassy Suites!

Back for Game #4 of the day. This was a Black #2 game, so Morgan started off at goalie. When Avery and I got to the game, the score was 2-0. I asked Matt if Morgan was doing ok as goalie and he said she was, just that most of the game was being played at her end of the field. And then some parent from the other team who was sitting next to me started chatting with me. She said Morgan was playing great at goalie, but 98% of the game was being played on that end and she was doing her best. I know Morgan gets upset when they score on her, even if it's something she could never stop if she tried. At halftime, the coach moved her to offense to see if they could get some goals. Unfortunately, the team just couldn't pull it off. Their one goal was on a penalty kick from Lynnea. Morgan was exhausted and upset they lost.

We headed back to the hotel for the night. The other girls that were staying at our same hotel all hung out. They had a game room, golf simulator and swimming pool that kept the girls entertained! The hot tub was super bubbly... I thought someone had put bubbles in it, but it was like that the whole weekend, so I have no idea what was going on! But, the girls loved it!

We finally got dinner around 9:00 with the rest of the girls and their parents at the hotel. Then, Morgan crashed! She was so tired!

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel. They had a coffee shop with games, so the girls all played Uno and Chess.

Then, they swam a little bit more.

Then, it was time to head to the games! The weather was terrible on Sunday. We ended up going to Walmart to get some more cold/wet weather clothes! We were not prepared for the weather!

Um, feels like 30 and wintry mix!

We waited in the car before the game so we could stay dry.

Game #5 was a Black #1 game. We played the other team that was undefeated in the tournament. So, this ended up being the championship game. 

It was absolutely miserable! The girls were soaked and frozen. It was snowing/sleeting/raining sideways... so windy! They could barely see with the snow hitting them in the face. They called the game at halftime and canceled the rest of the games for the day (thank goodness!) At halftime, the score was 0-0. We had a couple of shots at the goal, but nothing went in. But since we had beat the other two teams by way more than the team we were playing had beat the other two teams, we took first place in the tournament!

We all ran inside to the indoor fields where they were handing out the medals and trophies. Our coach (Andres) grabbed the medals for the girls and handed them out.

There's a story behind this picture... apparently the day before, a blade of grass was blessed by all the girls (kissed, touched, licked, whatever!) and put in one of their socks for good luck. So, they were putting the lucky blade of grass in the trophy. Of course, by the end of the celebrations, the grass was gone!

All the girls got to pose with the trophy. Morgan had changed out of her wet clothes and put on my sweatshirt, but we made her put her wet jersey back on for the pictures.

Here are the Whittier girls - Ellery and Nora are in 5th grade at Morgan's school.

We were starving after the game, so decided to try out this place called Fozzy's for a quick lunch. It was a bar and grill. It's the kind of place I don't think kids go to often (ie they don't even have a kid's menu!). Avery had the mac-n-cheese, which she actually liked... it was really cheesy!

While we were eating, they dropped off a handful or raffle tickets, which we later learned was for a "meat raffle". They apparently do this on weekends where they raffle off pieces of meat. Someone won pork chops and then Morgan's number was called! She won a ribeye! Ha!

We headed home in the gross weather. Morgan was so tired, she slept most of the way home!

The soccer club posted on Facebook about the girls' win and Morgan was so excited... she felt famous!

Here's to a fun weekend hanging out with friends, playing a lot of soccer and nearly freezing our butts off... and of course, winning 1st place! It was a great way to kick off the Spring season!