Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a shortened visit with my parents for Thanksgiving. They left a day early because of the snow storm that was coming in Friday night.

But, that didn't stop Avery from getting in as much Clue as possible!

Matt made his traditional Bloody Mary's!

All hands on deck getting the food ready!

Morgan also played lots of Clue with Grandma and Grandpa!

Matt spatchcocked the turkey in the smoker, but had to finish it up on the grill so we could all eat in time!

Milo tried so hard to get some turkey! Too bad he has such a sensitive tummy! :(

We had some very delicious desserts to choose from!

Avery loved the Oreo pie... she licked her plate clean... literally!

As we always do on Thanksgiving weekend, we went to pick out the tree at Wannamakers. We found a good one pretty quickly this year!

Overnight Friday and through Saturday, the snow hit! We already had tickets to see Wicked: For Good, so we braved the streets! Erin and Beckett met up with us, too.

It was a snowy drive! When we got home, Morgan opened the car door and got covered in snow! :)

Milo loves the snow! Mostly, he just eats it. This snow was even a little too deep for him!

I think at the end of the storm, we had almost 9 inches of snow!

Milo just watched outside and hoped we'd let him out for more "snacks"!

On Sunday morning, Morgan helped out the G2011 team in the Westmont Yard League. They needed a goalie, so she filled in. They are playing against high schoolers in this league and it's 6 vs 6. Their team won 9-2. She even scored a goal! :) No pictures as we're sitting behind the glass and nothing turns out.

Morgan also had a Team MC game at Glenbard West vs the Glen Ellyn Titans. I took one picture - oops! Matt got a video, so I'll post that eventually. They ended up winning 33-19.

Soccer tournament in Rockford

Morgan played on the G2011 Select team for a soccer tournament in Rockford this weekend. The G2011 team is short a few players again this season, so the G2012 girls fill in as needed. The G2011 team now has a dedicated goalie, so Morgan doesn't have to play goalie for them (which she is happy about!)

They had a game on Saturday, but Avery and I had to skip it because Avery had a dance team photo shoot. And we were also going to see Beckett in Annie, Jr. (he did awesome, by the way!). But, Matt and Morgan went and took Nora with them. They won the game and then stopped off at IHOP for dinner on their way home.

On Sunday, Avery and I came along. When we left the house, I thought it was going to be warm and sunny. Boy, was I wrong! I didn't even bring a coat. Ugh. It was cold and windy. They had a morning game, which they won. Afterwards, Morgan and I went to Jax's pub for lunch with the team. Matt and Avery stayed back at the fields. They had a restaurant there and the kids Avery was hanging with (Nora and Ellery's younger siblings) were playing the VR games.

The second game was in the afternoon. They had to score 3 goals to win the tournament since they were undefeated so far. This was the only picture I took of the games. Oops. Their team ended up scoring 4 goals and winning the game! Morgan scored one of the goals!

And wouldn't you know it, the sun came out just as their game ended and the weather turned nicer!

Gobbler Tournament

 Morgan played on the G2011 Select team in the Gobbler tournament on Saturday. It was a 7 v 7 format. She played goalie for half of each game and a little longer in the championship game. The girls went undefeated and came in first! Great job! :)

Morgan was excited to make it on the Facebook and Instagram pages again! :)

Soccer Saturday

Morgan played on the 2011 Select team on Saturday. They ended up winning 9-1 and it was a very boring game for her when she was at goalie the first half!

Avery had a blast playing with some puppies that were being fostered by another girl's family. They were cattle dogs and about 9 weeks old. Adorable!

Soccer Sunday

Morgan played for the G2011 Select team on Sunday early evening. She played goalie the first half, but didn't get too much action. She played attacking mid-field for the second half of the game. I didn't take many pictures, but I did get a video of her shooting a penalty kick and scoring a goal! Her team ended up winning 4-0!

Rainy soccer game

Morgan had another soccer game on Sunday morning. This time it was with the G2011 Select team. As I mentioned before, the G2011 Select team is short a few players so some of the 2012 girls play up and help them out. It was raining off and on before the game at 10:00. But, right at 10:00, it started raining really hard! We had brought Erin's pod for Avery to hang out in. It was collecting rain in a puddle on the top. But, she was nice and dry inside. :)

Avery brought markers, so she colored some pictures for us! Love this one of Snoopy and Woodstock!

Morgan played goalie in the 1st half of the game. The other team scored one goal on her. She also had some good saves! It continued to rain off and on the whole game.

In the second half, she played in the field in a few different positions. Morgan is #2 and has bright green shoes on.

She had some really great passes, an awesome assist and even scored a goal (which I got on video)! 

Their team ended up winning 6-1. We celebrated by grabbing lunch at Weber Grill.

G2011 Select Soccer Tournament

The soccer season has kicked off for Morgan and she had her first soccer tournament this weekend. As backstory, the G2011 Select team lost a lot of players since the spring season. They only have 8 players left (and they now play 11 v 11 at this age). Morgan is on the G2012 Select team, which has 14 girls on the roster. She was born 10/5/2012, so she's one of the youngest players on her team. The coach for both teams is the same, Coach Andres. So, he has six girls from the G2012 team playing up on the G2011 team. Also, both teams lost their goalies, so we have no official goalie. Morgan has played goalie before and likes it, so she volunteered to play goalie some of the games. The coach is going to rotate players at goalie.

The first tournament was in Montgomery, IL, which was about 40 minutes away.

The first game was Saturday morning at 9:30 AM... the weather was crappy! It rained off and on the whole game. Morgan started out as goalie for the first half. She did great and didn't allow any goals.

Then, she played mid-field. Here she is playing in the downpouring rain!

They ended up winning 2-1. We grabbed some lunch and relaxed a bit at home before the next game.

We came better prepared for this game... we borrowed Aunt Erin's pod! Of course, the game was sunny and nice, so it was not necessary!

Morgan played goalie the first half of the game again. There was one goal scored off of a corner kick (which by the way was awesome!) Then, she played mid-field for the second half. They ended up losing 0-1 this game.

We rested at home Saturday night. On Sunday morning, we had one more game at 9:30 AM. Before the game, Morgan decided we should recruit Milo for the goalie! :) He's ready to go in, coach!

He surprisingly did not try to chew off the shirt! Probably would have if we left it on much longer!

Morgan started off as goalie for the first half again. No goals were scored (for either team).

In the second half, she played mid-field.

The game took a bad turn in the second half with the girls getting really pushy. One girl on our team was pummeled a few times and was going back and forth with a girl on the other team. After the ball was dead on a play, as the girl on our team was walking away, the girl from the other team pushed her from behind. She got a red card for that poor sportsmanship. Then, the girl on our team got a yellow card. From what Morgan said, the girl on our team said "that's what you get, bitch" to the girl that got the red card and the referee overheard. So, of course, that wasn't tolerated either. The game ended in a 0-0 tie.

The girls (and Coach Andres) were still happy with their performance at the tournament (1-1-1). Considering the 2011's have only practiced one week, lost half of their team (and goalie!), picked up six new girls from a younger team, they did pretty well. The coach said all the girls need to work on their chemistry with each other, which will come with time and practice together.

Team picture after the last game!