Tournament in Ohio

Morgan had a soccer tournament in Cincinnati, OH this past weekend. We left in the afternoon on Friday and got there about 9:30 Cincinnati time. It was a long drive in some nasty weather and traffic. The whole team had to stay at the same hotel, which was nice for the girls so they could all hang out together.

The first game was at 9:15 Saturday morning. It was freezing cold! We were all bundled up! I think it was in the low 40's with the wind chill.

Avery was a trooper! She wore two pairs of pants, 3 pairs of socks, a winter coat and big sweatshirt and then wrapped herself up in the blanket! Ha!

Team picture - the only one we got all weekend, unfortunately.

We have a break between games, so the girls all wanted to grab lunch at Chik-Fil-A.

No pictures of the second game. I did terrible at taking pictures of the weekend! Ugh.

After the game, the girls got cleaned up at the hotel and we all went to Dave and Buster's. Avery ran into a friend of hers whose sister was playing in the tournament (as part of the 2015 Roadrunners team). So, she was happy to see her! Morgan played all kinds of games with her teammates. Here she is doing some virtual reality thing. I must say this icked me out because this goes over your face and there were no wipes or anything to wipe it down before using it. She must have played this three or four times. Yuck.

Avery won a cute drinking cup and loads of lip gloss with her tickets!

Even Matt got in on the games with some of the other dads.

Everyone hung out at the hotel after that. The adults were in the lobby drinking, while the kids ran around the hotel going from room to room. I wish I had taken a picture of the lobby table that the adults had taken over. Oh my!

The game on Sunday was at 8:00AM, which felt like 7:00AM to us. And was also super early because we all stayed up a little too late on Saturday night. The girls had to be at the field by 7:30AM to warm up. And it was even colder today than Saturday! In the 30's with the wind chill. Here's Avery all bundled up!

This is really the only picture I got of the game... Morgan taking a corner kick.

After the early morning game, we grabbed the breakfast at the hotel. Yep, it was still breakfast time!

Then it was back at it for game #4 of the weekend. Morgan played striker in this game for a while because our other two strikers were injured.

It was a really rough weekend for the G2012 Select team. They lost all four of their games. :(  We had some injuries and just all around not their best showing. I know Morgan was disappointed. At least she had fun hanging out and bonding with her team.

She crashed a few minutes after we got on the road home.

Morgan's birthday at school

Morgan had a great birthday at school, too!

There is an ongoing competition between the students and Mr. Krugman, the principal, to play the game Isolation. On Morgan's birthday, she played against Mr. Krugman and won! :)

Her class also got to play a game with Morgan trivia!

Her teacher also gave her a folder that everyone in the class had signed - so neat!

Happy 11th Birthday Avery & Morgan!!!

 Another year older... how are they already 11 years old?!?! We celebrated their birthday in the morning with a few presents before school. They both asked for Stanley drinking mugs and Lululemon belt bags (of course, every 5th grade girl at their school has these!) They also got some sweatshirts and socks, two of their favorite things. The grandparents sent gifts as well, so they opened those. Then, it was off to school! 

I was supervising at lunch/recess, so I brought them lunch. Morgan requested Great American Bagel and Avery wanted Subway. I also got them gigantic cookies and necklaces to wear that said Happy Birthday!

Morgan had soccer practice and Avery had Jazz class at night, but afterwards we celebrated with Oreo ice cream cake!

Let's see... a little bit about them now that they are 11!

Avery loves dance. She does Jazz and Acro and is on the Jazz team. She also loves to do musicals and is currently rehearsing for Willy Wonka, Jr. She still plays the piano and has recently picked up the trumpet (but not so sure that's a big hit yet). She is in Girl Scouts and recently went on an overnight campout with her troop. She's just wrapping up her soccer season with the park district. When she's not doing those activities, she loves hanging out with her friends and playing Roblox.

Morgan loves soccer. She plays on the Select travel team with Roadrunners. She also is still doing karate and wants to keep at it until she gets her black belt. Between three soccer practices, games on the weekends and two karate classes a week, she doesn't have a lot of time for other activities. She really wants to play basketball, so we'll be trying to fit that into her schedule next season! When she's not busy with soccer/karate, she loves playing Roblox and watching videos on her iPad.

The Morgan Show

At school, each kid gets a turn to "tell their story", which basically means they can bring in whatever they want to showcase who they are. Then, they talk about it in front of the class. Morgan brought in all kinds of pictures and things. She had soccer medals and a trophy, a karate medal and a board she had broken at belt testing, a bowling pin, her signed cup from Dolly's Stampede, Chicago Fire flag, pictures of her doing things she loves and pictures of her family and Milo. Great job Morgan!

Soccer game

Avery had a soccer game during her normal Monday practice because their Saturday game was canceled. She was still pretty tired from her weekend of not-enough-sleep, so she seemed a little sluggish. Her team is making some progress, but still struggles a lot. They did have some good plays, but just couldn't get anything in the goal. :(

 

Dance Team Kick-Off Cookout

Avery's dance team had a cookout to kick-off their new competition season at Ty Warner Park. Families were also invited, so Morgan, Matt and I joined her. They did an activity where the kids had to find their name on a paper and then find the person with the initials at the bottom of their paper... to figure out who was in their dance "family". They pair up the team kids with a couple of company kids to help them throughout the year if they need anything.

Morgan enjoyed playing on the zipline

She also approved of the desserts!

Getting ready to find out their dance "families"

Avery's dance family

Spa night

Avery was at a Girl Scout campout, so Morgan and I had a spa night! We did face masks (forgot to take a picture, but it was really creepy!) and Morgan did the hand and feet treatments as well. She rated it "slimy and gross" - ha! We also got orange nail polish per her request, but didn't get a chance to paint nails. I think she enjoyed being the only child for a night! :)