Where Did June Go?

Yikes! The summer days are going by way too quickly!!! How can June be almost over already? We've had quite a busy month. First, we still had a lot of soccer games to get through. Even though Kyle's season was over, Delaney's team Three Lions kept us pretty busy. They had a tough stretch with the League Tournament and the Challenge Cup playing the same team. They lost the League Tournament and came back the next week and played much better, but they lost in the final minutes of the Challenge Cup. Being at the Challenge Cup was an honor, only the top 8 teams in the state were there. (We qualified by winning the Fort Wayne Preliminaries.)



Delaney's goal at the Challenge Cup!

Afterwards, Coach Graeme handed out the awards for the season. Delaney was thrilled to get a trophy for "Most Goals Earned" with 23 goals for the season. Way to go, Dee! Great job!

After a short break, Delaney had her try-out with Three Lions and is thrilled to remain on the team. We can't wait to see what happens next season!

Even though the kids are "officially" done with soccer, soccer is far from finished. We've been out to the field a few times just kicking the ball around. It's hard to resist this beautiful weather. And, of course, our DVR is filled with World Cup Soccer games. We've been watching soccer game after soccer game. :-) And if that isn't enough, Delaney and Kyle have been playing Wii FIFA Soccer incessantly as well. If it had the annoying buzz of the vuvuzela (the noisemaker horn in the background of the World Cup games), I wouldn't be able to tell from another room if it was a real game or not. I CAN'T GET AWAY FROM SOCCER!!! :-)

The kids already had their week of Theatre Camp at the high school. With Delaney going into middle school next year, the kids camps were conveniently at two different times (not!). So I was having flashbacks to Kyle being in kindergarten with my day segmented into 2 hour and 1 hour blocks. UGH! Kyle was there from 12-2, then Dee was from 3-5. We really couldn't do too much that week -- SO GLAD THAT IS OVER. That is one of the reasons I like summer so much, the lack of structured events (no homework, practices, school events, etc.)!

Kenny wanted to make some "Guinness and Bailey Irish Cream Cupcakes" the next time he played poker with his soccer buddies. They apparently are aficionados of this drink when they get together, so he thought it would be neat to try them. I foolishly said sure without really checking out the recipe. It was a bit more involved than we've ever made cupcakes before, as we had to not only make the cupcake batter, but also a ganache filling to insert in the middle, as well as a buttercream frosting made with Bailey's. The scent was a bit overwhelming, and as I don't drink alcoholic beverages, I decided that these cupcakes could probably knock me out and passed on them. But I heard they were really delicious, and I found a few more fun cupcakes to make with a ganache filling, now that we know what we are doing. I think we'll try these next: Homemade Hostess Cupcakes. At least they won't be hands-off for the kids and me! :-)

We've also been having fun this summer: miniature golfing, movies, playing games and just "being vegetables" at times. It's been great. My sister just got a new pool, so we're hoping to bask in the sun and swim with our cousins here soon as well.

My BFF RuthAnn was able to come visit last Wednesday and Thursday, which with her four adorable kiddos is a difficult task to achieve. We had a great time, got a lot accomplished, and she took some great photos of Delaney and Kyle for us. We'll be sharing them here soon! I hope everyone is enjoying the summer as much as we are!

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle