Soccer tournament - Sockers FC

Morgan had a soccer tournament this past weekend in Schaumburg.

Her first game was Friday night at 8:30 under the lights. It was chilly, but luckily the rain held off! Her team won 5-1 and she scored a goal! I think she also had an assist. They all played great!

Morgan had another game on Saturday at 5:05. Avery and I went straight there after her dance competition. I didn't take any pictures at the game, unfortunately. But, the girls won 8-1. Morgan had two assists! She also got knocked in the jaw and had to sit out for a bit. Luckily, she was ok!

On Sunday, they had the championship game. Here they are getting ready with their "motivation circle", as some of the girls have dubbed this!

They played tough, but not their best. They ended up losing 0-1. The other team scored a goal off of a corner kick. Morgan was pretty upset. But, they came in 2nd in their bracket, so we still wanted to celebrate! We went to Every Day's a Sundae for some ice cream.

Avery was celebrating her dance teams great finish at the competition, too!

Talent On Parade - Dance Competition

We had a busy weekend! Avery had a dance competition in Waukegan at the Genessee Theater. It was the Talent on Parade competition. She had to be there about 10AM on Saturday morning, but she wasn't schedule to dance until 12:25.

Here we are in the car getting ready to head to the competition.

We made it!

Matt, Morgan and Grandma Ruth came to the theater to watch Avery's dance. With all the kids, it's hard to follow Avery, but around 1:15 she comes out with her small group and is on the left side. Then, she moves over to the right side in the front. Don't mind the bad video skills... we'll hopefully get the professional version soon and I can replace it with that! :)

   

After she danced, we grabbed a quick lunch at McDonald's down the street.

We had to stay for the awards ceremony, but they went back home to rest before Morgan's soccer game.

At the awards ceremony, Avery's dance was given the second highest adjudication - High Diamond. Every dance competition has a different ranking system! This one was from lowest to highest - Elite, Diamond, High Diamond and Double Diamond. The dance also came in 2nd place for her age division, so they were really excited!

Open House

The school held an Open House so we could see what the kids have been working on. There were lots of great projects to see!

Here's Avery's "Swiftie City" with all things Taylor Swift. :)

Morgan's showing off her art project (still in progress).

There was a jar of raffle tickets and the kids had to guess how many were in there... Morgan won along with two other kids!

Morgan's historical fiction book report poster... she read "Number the Stars".

The kids came up with questions to see if the parents were smarter than the 5th graders! :)

Here are some other state floats the kids put together... it was fun to see what everyone else did!

Self defense class

Avery's Girl Scout troop joined the 4th grade troop for a self defense class at TBK (Morgan's former karate school). The girls had a blast and even got to break a board!

Soccer Monday

Avery had a soccer game on Monday night. Ruth and Helen joined us to watch the game. Avery almost scored a goal, but they called offsides. So, that was a bummer! Morgan and Matt joined us after Morgan's soccer practice ended. The game was good and Avery played great! They lost 2-1.

A couple of blurry action shots and a picture of Avery's cheering section.

Partner Yoga Poses

We had a cookout on Sunday night to wrap up Ruth's birthday celebrations. It was a nice night, so we brought the tumble track outside for the kids to play on. They decided to do partner yoga poses for fun!

State Floats

The girls had a project for school where they had to build floats for their states they had chosen at the beginning of the year. Morgan has Vermont and Avery has New Mexico. I think the floats turned out great!

We went to Hobby Lobby and got a LOT of supplies! Then, we got to work.

Here's Morgan's final float. Vermont is known for Ben and Jerry's, Vermont Teddy Bears, Green Mountain National Forest, Maple Syrup and the state horse is the Morgan horse!

Here's Avery's final float. New Mexico is known for pueblos, hot air balloon festival, White Sands National Park, aliens (Roswell) and the state animal is a black bear, the state plant is a yucca.

Soccer Saturday

Morgan had a soccer game on Saturday. Everyone that was in town for Ruth's birthday came to cheer her on. It was a super chilly day with lots of wind. The game was a good one and tied almost to the end. But, then the other team scored at the end, so Morgan's team lost by 1. :( 

Dance pictures

Avery had another photo shoot for her dance team. I haven't seen the pictures yet, but will post them once we get them! We had to get ready fast for this one because we had a busy day, but I think her hair and make-up still turned out great!

Happy Birthday Grandma Ruth!

Ruth had a BIG birthday this past weekend... she turned 80! Helen, Sandy and John came into town to help us celebrate with her. The festivities started Friday night with a pizza party at our house.

Helen made this super "sweet" card for Ruth! :)

The girls and I decorated Ruth's apartment door while she was out to surprise her.

When she got back, she was so surprised and loved all the decorations!

On Saturday night, we went out for a fancy dinner at Parker's.

Here's Grandma with the girls and her birthday sash that Avery wanted us to get her!

We all sang Happy Birthday and she blew out the candle!

Morgan finished off the night walking around the table, giving shoulder massages. Ha! She can't sit still for long! :)

Gifted Open House

Avery's Gifted program held an open house on Tuesday night. Tuesday is like our busiest night, so Avery and I just went before her Cinderella rehearsal. We walked through her classroom and checked out her latest projects. They had to do a National Park binder, where they selected a National Park to visit. They had to come up with the itinerary, budget, where to stay/eat, etc. It was a really interesting project! Then, we saw her poster for her Shark Tank project, the Pencil Pal. She did a great job! We also walked through the 6th grade Gifted classroom to see some of the projects she will work on next year.

Ouch!

During Morgan's soccer game on Saturday, she got elbowed in the neck/side of head pretty hard. She came home and complained for a long time about how much it hurt and that she had a bad headache. Then, she complained about being dizzy and got really anxious that something was really wrong. Since we don't have the best track record of determining when to take the kids to the ER (when Avery broke her arm, when Morgan broke her toe), I decided to take her to get checked out. We lucked out that the ER was not busy and we were seen pretty quickly. They determined she did not have a concussion and weren't really sure why she was dizzy. But, they expected her to be fine. She got some Motrin and we were on our way. We picked up a McFlurry on the way home!

In other news, she did have a pretty stuffy nose and a sore throat. On Sunday, she was even running a fever. So, maybe the dizziness was just a combination of all of that, along with the elbow to the head. Who knows.

Rainbow Dance Competition

Avery rallied on Saturday and made it to her soccer game and to her dance competition. She wheezed through her soccer game, but almost scored a goal. And her team won 3-2, so that was great!

After the game, she got ready quickly for the competition because we had received a message that the competition was running at least 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We had to drive to Joliet and made it there in plenty of time. She ended up just wearing her dance costume there so she wouldn't have to change when we got there.

Here's the awards ceremony... which took forever! Her dance number took 3rd overall and got a Double Platinum!

She was so exhausted by the time we got home! She just can't shake this cough, but she's feeling better in general. Once the video is available, I'll post that here.

Bronchitis

It was a long week for Avery. She started off with a sore throat and a headache. She went to school on Tuesday, but probably should have just stayed home. On Tuesday night, she came home and crashed. She spent the rest of the week at home on the couch coughing and not feeling well. On Thursday, she spiked a pretty high fever, so we ended up going to the doctor on Friday. She was having bronchial spasms, but the doctor said it was viral. So, we got an inhaler to help with the coughing. Hoping she feels better soon!

Solar Eclipse

We met up with the girls after school on Monday (they get out at 2:00 on Mondays) to check out the eclipse. It was pretty cool to see!

Milo was not allowed outside to see the sun, because he wouldn't keep his glasses on correctly! :)

That's Spring soccer, for you!

Morgan's Spring soccer season started this week. Of course, it was rainy/snowy and cold all week. Her practices went to the rainout schedule, so she practiced on turf for less time. They had two games scheduled for Saturday, but one got canceled because it was a grass field and too muddy to play. The other was on turf, so they were still able to play.

The game was at 7:00 PM and it was chilly! It got even chillier as the sun went down!

Here's Morgan's cheering section all bundled up... she had two blankets on, her winter coat, gloves and a hoodie. I was still cold even 30 minutes after we got home. I just couldn't thaw out!

Here's Morgan in action...

Here she is giving a little push! :)

Her team played really well! They tied 1-1. Morgan had quite a few shots at goal, but nothing made it in. I'm excited to see how this season will turn out for these girls!