DYTBL Playoffs - 4th place!

Big weekend for Morgan and Team MC - the playoffs! They were seeded 6th in the league, which put them in the Upper Silver bracket. There was Upper / Lower Silver and Upper / Lower Bronze (31 teams in total).

In the first round, Team MC played the Oakbrook Knights. In the regular season, Team MC won by 2 points in their first match up, but lost by 10 in the second match up. So, Morgan was nervous about playing them again. The game was at 11:30 on Saturday. Morgan and her team played great! She even sunk a clutch 3-pointer to help get them ahead! She also had quite a few free throws. They ended up winning the game 25-16. :)

   

Here's another video... Morgan with the steal and layup (and she got checked to the floor!). 

And yes, that was an over and back by the other team that the ref missed. :)

 

In the second round, they played against Western Springs (at 1:50 on Saturday). In the regular season, Western Springs beat them 34-26 and 30-17 in our two match-ups. Western Springs is a tough team and ended up seeded 2nd overall for the playoffs. The girls played tough, but just couldn't get ahead. Western Springs won 34-26.

Morgan was excited that Mama and Papa could watch her play!

Since they lost in round 2, they played in the 3rd/4th place game on Sunday at 12:40. The team they played was Huntley Red, which is a team from the other division. So, we hadn't actually played them during the regular season. Huntley was actually seeded 1st overall in the playoffs (undefeated in their regular season), but they lost in the second round to the 4th seed. This was another tough game for the girls. Their shots were just not falling. They were down by 11 points a lot of the game. They did get back within 5 points and it was an exciting game. But, Huntley ended up winning 40-31. Morgan played tough and got beat up a bit. The refs were all over the place calling lots of fouls and missing others. Girls on both teams were in foul trouble. Morgan was able to play with 3 fouls until almost the end of the game when she got her 4th. They ended their season in 4th place, which is great!

We are so proud of Morgan this season! She's improved so much since she started playing for Team MC in the fall of 2024! It's fun to watch her play and do so well! :)

Here's a link to all the games: Team MC 7th Grade Gold - Winter 2025 Season

Happy (belated) Birthday Papa!

My parents were in town for the weekend, so we had a quick celebration in between all the basketball games (Morgan and the boys all had lots of games!) for Papa's birthday. We stopped over at Erin's house Sunday before lunch for a cake/cookie/ice cream appetizer. Ha!

Erin had SO much ice cream!

Nice face, Hunter! ;)

Beckett didn't wait for Papa to blow out the candles and did it himself!

They let Papa blow out the remaining few candles

We got Papa a "brrr" basket of sorts, with some things he likes. Avery made sure we put peanut butter in there, since she knows he loves that! :)

Cutie!

Milo got a big hair cut! He looked so spiffy with his cute little pink bow! :)

Basketball pictures

One of the moms of Morgan's teammate took some player and team pictures for the Team MC teams (both Gold and Maroon).

Back: Coach Harper, Coach Frankie, Morgan, Ella, Clara, Ellie, Antonia, Emily, Malani, Coach Knutdson
Front: Samantha, Molly, Francesca, Ariana, Charlotte, Maebel
Missing: Madeline, Nadia, Gabrielle, Coach Olympia

President's Day

We had the day off of school and work! The girls hung out with the boys at the Wilken's house playing basketball for a bit in the morning. I caught up with Erin. :)

Then, Matt and I took the girls out for lunch to Gia Mia. We were hoping to be able to sit outside, but they didn't have any tables set up outside. We walked around a little downtown and stopped in at the toy store to see if they had any new Needohs.

We chillaxed during the afternoon for a bit. Then, Avery had a quick dentist appointment to put some sealants on her new molars.

The girls still had their Monday night activities even though school was closed. So, Morgan had basketball practice and Avery had hip hop class.

We spent time watching the Olympics... I think curling is my favorite!

It was nice to all have a 3-day weekend!

Shorts in February?!?

Who would have thought it would be warm enough to wear shorts in mid-February?!? The girls both met up with friends and enjoyed the nice weather!

I don't know how that snow hasn't melted yet!

Last regular season Team MC game

Morgan's Team MC played their last regular season game against Riverside Brookfield Sunday. I remembered to take some pictures this game! Morgan's team had already beat this team at the beginning of the season and they won this game easily, too.

Here she is grabbing the rebound.

Going in for a layup...

She got fouled... in case you couldn't tell - ha!

She made the free throws, too! :)

They ended the season as the 6th seed (out of 16 teams). They had the same record as the 5th place team, but had given up more points per game than that team, so that was the tie breaker for seeding.

Next weekend is the tournament! There are two divisions in the 7th grade - Silver and Bronze. And each of those divisions are split into two subdivisions by location East and West. For the regular season, you play the teams in your subdivision. Then, at the end of the season they rank all the teams in Silver and split them into an upper (top 8 teams) and lower (bottom 8 teams) and do the same for Bronze. Then, each has their own tournament. Last year, Morgan's team was in lower bracket. This year, they made it to the upper bracket.

Happy Valentine's Day!

After Morgan's soccer game, we chillaxed at home! I made some cookies. We just cooked out at home for dinner that night.

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday night with dinner out at Parker's.

Soccer game at the dome

Morgan's team had a game on Saturday at the Bridgeview dome. Their goalie was hurt, so Morgan had to play goalie this game. She hasn't actually played goalie much of this winter season now that they have a dedicated goalie (Caiti). She had some great saves, but did get scored on once on a corner kick. For the last five minutes of the game, the coach switched Morgan out to play offense. Our team did not have a lot of luck scoring. Two girls had great shots that hit off the post. Then, Morgan had an awesome shot that hit the crossbar. She had a couple other shots in the few minutes she was offense, but their team never was able to score. The final score was 0-1.

Hair and Make Up Party

Avery's dance team competition season is kicking off and they always start with a hair and make-up party to teach the girls how they want them to look for the stage. I still need to do Avery's hair, but she takes care of the make-up!

I thought I did pretty good considering it's been a while since I last did a bun in her hair!

Then, she worked on her make-up.

And she decided to draw on her knee... ha!

After we got the sign-off from the dance teacher, we were done! I always think the girls look sunburned with all the blush, but the lights on stage wash them out a lot!

Super Bowl Fun

We watched the Super Bowl at home. We stopped by the grocery store and picked up some Girl Scout cookies to have along with our other Super Bowl goodies. Now that we no longer have a Girl Scout in the house, we have to track cookies down elsewhere!

We weren't rooting for either team, really, so Matt set up the outside lights for both teams. :)

The game was not too exciting as you can tell by the attention we are paying to the TV. Ha!

More Team MC basketball

Morgan's team played against Glenbard East again this weekend on Saturday. This time it was an away game. Glenbard East is a huge high school! The game this weekend did not go as well for the girls. They started out really slow and tired. They were losing 10-1 at the end of the 1st quarter. They managed to tie it up by halftime. It was close the rest of the game and they managed to win by 1 point at the end.

On Sunday, Morgan's team played against Western Springs, who are in first place in our league with a record of 10-1. We already lost to them once this season. Morgan's team got down pretty quickly and just could never get back up. They actually tied them for points during the second half, but since they were already down by so much the first half, they just couldn't pull off the win.

Impromptu sleepover

The girls were hanging with friends Friday night and asked if they could have a couple friends over for a sleepover. Then, I got a text from Avery that five girls were coming over! :) Luckily, we still have stuff from their birthday slumber party a while ago, so I set up the family room for them. Morgan had to go to bed early (like 11pm) and sleep in her own room because she had a basketball game in the morning. But, the other girls were up until the early AM. I brought Milo upstairs and slept in the guest room with him. After the last time we let him upstairs and he ate another sock, I made sure to clean out the room super good before letting him loose in there!

All ready to go!

He was very excited to be upstairs again!

He finally crashed after giving up on getting to sleep downstairs with the girls!

Dentist

The girls had a check-up at the dentist on Wednesday morning. Both girls did great and were cavity free! Avery does have a spot inside one of her teeth that they are watching. It formed when her teeth were developing and the enamel grew over the spot. Not totally uncommon, I guess. This is our second time at the dentist's new location. It's pretty nice with TVs on the ceiling. The girls watched YouTube shorts during their appointments.

While we were there, they told us that Avery's carrier (orthodontic gear) had come loose, so we had to visit the orthodontist later that day as well!

Happy Birthday Dad/Papa!

Happiest of birthdays to my Dad and the best Papa! Hopefully, we can celebrate in person soon!

A cute ChapGPT picture my sister put together!