Favorite Book Character Day

This was one of Millie's favorite days last year! Reed was very excited to be able to dress up this year too. Millie wanted to be Harry Potter again but I talked her out of it. Reed we had trouble with. What books does he love that the main person isn't an animal?? He had his Curious George animal out one day and I had the idea of him being The Man in the Yellow Hat. I was thrilled when he was excited about the idea.







Millie was excited to wear her dragon costume to school. She was a Mudwing from The Wings of Fire books. She loves all books dragons right now.  She loves the Wings of Fire books and the The Last Dragon Chronicles. It's always great to get multiple uses out of the great costumes mom makes for my kiddos. Thank goodness for her!!

Basketball Round 2

(Bad Phone Photo warning - must remember good camera)
Millie was asked to play on the St. Mary of the Knobs Catholic School basketball team. She doesn't go to school there but if you attend a church in the Deanery then you can play on a catholic school team if they need players. So here we are on yet another team. I only said yes because I knew who the coaches were going to be and we love both of them and she knew all the girls on the team from playing softball and basketball with them in the past. I'm sure some of our family think we are crazy for having her in so much. But with her, it's not about the sport, it's about the social aspect. She is so very shy and if I see an opportunity to put in her in a situation to build her confidence while strengthening friendships, it's a no brainer. Yes, we are over booked. Yes, I'm running the wheels off my car. But she needs every chance she can get to meet and make friends and I'm willing to run myself crazy to help with that. Thanks goodness for mom being around to help and support us, I'm sure Reed would get pretty tired of all this if we couldn't drop him at mom and dad's once in a while so he didn't always have to tag along.

The girls were pretty excited about their first game. It ended up being a low score, just 8-10. 

Reed was excited to cheer them on. This is the school he attended PreK at last year so he had some school spirit. I actually played for St. Mary's when I went to school there. I'm glad they don't recall my skills, although I never let that bench get cold. 

The game started off well, we were up 6-0 against St. Paul's for the first half. Millie had 4 of those points. Then they came back and had it tied 8-8 with 20 seconds left. We had the ball and our coach made sure Millie had it. I was so nervous!  She brought it down the court like a champ and made the layup making it our win 10-8. 

Jacob enjoyed having his hair braided by Reed during halftime. What a couple of goofs.

More SMK Basketball

Millie had high hopes going into her championship game this weekend. Her team was undefeated and she won the championship last year. I knew it would not be easy. Although they had beat the team once before that they were to play in the final game, they are a good team and it could have gone either way. They got ahead of us from the start and although we closed the gap, they still beat us...by 2 lousy points. Millie had a great game and scored 3 or 4 baskets, all in the first quarter I think. The game was very aggressive and there was never a full up and down the court run without a jump ball. It was more like watching football. One of our girls fouled out. Millie was still happy even though her team didn't win. They played great.

These photos were from the first play off game that they won 20 something to 3.

These are the photos from the championship game. We were Guest.

Free throws

Free throws

We might have had a few fouls

SMK Basketball

Reed had a great year playing basketball. He really showed his stuff out on the court. He made several baskets every game and was one of their better players. He was great on defense and offense. I can't wait to see him next year to see how he improves.

He sank this shot.  Nothing but net!

Very proud of his championship medal!

Ice Ice Ice

The kids are now out of snow days and now they are tacking on to our already very short 8 week summer break. And that is with the state waiving 2 of the days from a few a weeks ago. I think we are up to 9 days missed due to snow and probably a weeks worth of delays. I'm trying to look on the bright side and enjoy the beauty it brings us but I'm having a real hard time with that. Summer is too short the way it is, go away snow and ice and let us have a summer, what's left of it!

Miami Beach

It was time for my mom and I's annual January beach trip. This year we went to Miami Beach. The weather could not have been more perfect, especially since schools were delayed and closed back home because of cold and snow. Of course, this is WHY we go on a warm trip every year around this time. I could not do this if it weren't for my dad, aunt, sister, Joe and Rick at home taking care of the kids, thanks a bunch! I guess this means it takes 5 people to replace me when I'm gone.

I didn't take many photos on this trip. Just a few around the condo we stayed at and our beautiful sunrises every morning from our third floor balcony.

One thing about our condo, it was beautiful. But it was for the oldies. My mom and I were the youngest there by far. Didn't bother me one bit, though. Some things I over heard from the other guests...

"Oh, how do you like your oxygen tank? Does it have a plug in for the car lighter, that's just a must!"
"I had that same procedure last year. I'm still recovering but you will start to feel better in about a month."

So these shirts were funny. They had activities throughout the day at the condo for the oldies. It was raining one morning so mom and I thought it would be fun to make shirts for the kids. I need to post an after picture because the blue, red and yellow one is now pink and baby blue and the purple and white one is now just pink and light purple all over. The kids still like them but clearly we were supposed to somehow set the dye before we washed them. Oh well.

Mom and I had a great time but if I keep coming back sick with the plaque every time I go to the beach, it's going to start to make me have second thoughts about going. I'm willing to give it a few more tries though before I stop going. Maybe I should stop licking all the handrails at the airport...