Basketball Tournament and End of Season Party

The DYTBL (DuPage Youth Travel Basketball League) had their tournament for Morgan's conference over the weekend of the 22nd. There were 16 teams in two conferences (Silver West and Silver East). They took the top 8 teams for the Upper Silver Tournament and bottom 8 teams for the Lower Silver Tournament. Morgan's team finished 13th out of the 16 teams (or 5th seed out of the Lower teams). They definitely improved over the course of the season, but started off losing most of their games.

The first game was against Batavia (4th seed). It was a pretty easy win for the girls (41-25).

Tournament Game #1 - Team MC vs Batavia

The second game was an hour later. It was a close and intense game! We played against the 1st seed team, Orland Park. We hadn't played them before because they were in the Silver East conference. The girls played really tough! Morgan even made a 3-pointer! The game went into overtime. At the end of the overtime, Team MC was down by one point and a girl on our team went in for a lay-up and got fouled. She went to the free-throw line to shoot two. She made the first one and everyone was so excited! Then, she made the second one securing the win and the girls were so excited! It was definitely an exciting finish!

Tournament Game #2 - Team MC vs Orland Park

The final game was on Sunday evening. They played against the Knights, who they had just played against last weekend. That game ended with us winning 28-25 in overtime and was a super competitive game. So, we knew this would be a tough one! The girls played great. Morgan had a rough game and couldn't get her emotions under control. She was really stressed out and put a lot of pressure on herself for this game. The refs were a little all over the place, not just for us but for the other team. So, it wasn't an advantage for anyone. Towards the end of the game, the Knights were up 3 points. Morgan ended up getting hurt (she was on the ground going after the ball and someone stepped on her hand) and comign out of the game. She was really upset! Her team ended up losing by 3 points 19-22. They got second place trophies.

Championship Game - Team MC vs Knights

Matt put together a season highlights video from the videos he had taken of the games. He spent a lot of time editing and finding clips of all the girls. It turned out great! The girls have gotten so much better over the season. Can't wait to see what the next season holds! :)

Team MC Winter 2025 Highlight Video

Also, one of the parents took team and individual pictures of the girls at their last practice, which was a end of season party with pizza and fun games. I think the pictures turned out great! So nice to have a great group of parents with this team!

Morgan finished the season with some pretty good stats. She may not be the big point scorer in the games, but she does a lot of other things that help her team out! She had the most steals, blocked shots, defensive rebounds and deflections on her team. She also had the most fouls - ha! She's improved so much this season! The coach handed out awards to the girls at the last practice.

Reading Games

Avery participated in the Reading Games this year with a team of 6th graders from her school. There is a reading list of 9 books and teams of around 8 kids per each grade from each school. Each kid can read a subset of the books or read them all if they want. Then, they spend a day competing against other teams answering trivia questions about those books. Each team comes up with a costume and team name. Avery's team was the Winning Formula and race car themed. One of the books was math/formula related.

The competition was tough! The kids did great and ended up with a blue ribbon. From what I understand, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams gets ribbons with that on them. Then, the 4th and 5th place teams get blue ribbons and everyone else gets red ribbons. But, I think there were more than two blue ribbons, so there must have been a tie somewhere. Parents weren't allowed to watch because of space constraints, so I didn't get to go. But, we got updates from the parent chaperone. She also sent out pictures!

Max and Joe up front;
Katie, Rachel Maebel and Avery in the second row
Cara and Wes in the back

Afterwards, we went to Oberweiss for treats to celebrate!

Spiffy new 'do

 

A couple basketball games

So much basketball these days! We started the day off with a Team MC game vs Knights. It was a super competitive and intense game. These two teams are very evenly matched. At the end of the 4th quarter, it was tied 22-22. We went into overtime and Morgan's team ended up winning 28-25!

Team MC vs Knights (video)

After the game, we came out starving ready for lunch and our car was dead! We think the alarm had been set off and the battery died. Luckily, someone from our team was still around and able to jump the car for us.

Later that day, we watched Avery play in the park district game.

Avery played great and is really enjoying playing!

Avery's Game 2/16 (video)

Birthday Murder Mystery Party

My Aunt Lucy turned 70 and they had a weekend full of fun planned for her. My mom was still battling the flu, so my parents stayed home and missed out. I was just feeling a little better, so Erin and I went to the murder mystery party on Saturday.

Erin and I were partners. Her character's name was Cherry Bomb.

After all was said and done... Cherry Bomb was the murderer! Here she is getting cuffed!

Here the actors are explaining everything.

It was a fun time and something I hadn't done before. My Aunt Amy hosted at her house and had tons of great food for the crowd, as usual! It was fun to catch up with family we don't get to see very often.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was pretty low-key. I was still battling the flu, so I was feeling pretty awful. We got the girls some candies, pajama pants and some heart earrings.

Avery had a mandatory hair and make-up party for her dance team. So, I took her to that Friday night. She already knows how to do her make-up and I know how to do her bun, so we probably could have skipped it. But, she had fun hanging out with her friends.

When we left, it had snowed a bunch and we had a slipper ride home!

Field Trip Day

 The girls had a field trip on Tuesday - here are their fits!

I only got a picture from Avery's teacher. Avery's on the left with Caroline and Lizzie.

Super Bowl Sunday and A Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my Dad's birthday and watched the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Avery and my mom made a cookie cake

The kids were more into the game this year

Avery loved the halftime show!

They were "trying" to pretend to be asleep - but kept laughing

Finally got it - ha!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Cousins!

Our squares - Mama and Papa won and so did Avery and I - yay!

Team MC Double Header and a Park District Game

It was a busy Sunday! We started off with Morgan's double header for Team MC. My parents were in town, so they joined us. Also, Hunter and Grayson had Team MC games at Montini that morning, so we were there quite a while catching all the action!

Game #1 - Team MC vs Kaneland (video)

Morgan's team was up for most of the game, but ended up losing at the very end by one point (28-29). It was really disappointing! The other team had a very tall girl that was really hard to defend.

Game #2 - Team MC vs Elmhurst (video)

This was another close game (and low scoring!) Morgan's team ended up winning 13-12!

We watched some of Grayson's game. Then, Avery and I headed home to grab lunch and get ready for her game.

Avery's Game - 2/9

Soccer Saturday and a special gift for the coach

Our coach's house was destroyed recently by a water main break. The city and his insurance are both putting the responsibility on the other, so no one is taking care of it. So, some people set up a Go Fund Me for his family. The soccer team also collected money to give him after the game on Saturday. And the team won 1-0!

Happy Birthday to Papa

We FaceTimed with Papa on his birthday and he took a screenshot to send us - HA! This is what you get!

Milo is a velcro dog!

If we are in the room, he has to be next to us... or on us!

Sporty Sunday!

Our Sunday started out bright and early with a soccer game at Max McCook at 7:00 AM. Morgan's team tied 2-2. The team they played is tied with them for first place.

Then, we changed gears and got ready for Morgan's Team MC basketball game vs LAC. This was a non-conference game. They played great and ended up winning 41-25.

Morgan is getting good at boxing out!

Team MC vs LAC Video

Later in the afternoon, we watched Avery kick off her park district basketball season. She played great and her team won! :)

Avery's Game Video

Her friend Grace (who played Matilda in the show with Avery) came to watch her friends on the other team. They even made a sign! Avery's team is named the Pasta Players (so that's why her side on the sign has a bowl of pasta - ha!)

After Avery's game, we joined her friends at DQ for some treats!