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

Kyle's First White Sox Game!

A friend of Kenny's nicely gave him four tickets to Saturday night's White Sox game. Since Delaney had an early game in South Bend, and we were going to have to leave our house around 6:00am to get there -- we girls decided to go to bed early instead. So Kenny and Kyle invited one of Kyle's buddies, Jake, and his father to go with -- fellow White Sox fans!

Everyone was dressed appropriately in White Sox gear, of course.

How cute do they look? I mean, really!



They did have a little bit of on/off rain...

And unfortunately, the White Sox lost 1-3 -- but it was a fireworks night. And Kyle said, "They were AWESOME!"

Great first baseball experience with a good buddy and your dad! Can't beat that!

Ken

Solon Awards Day!

Today was Awards Day at the kids' elementary - Solon Robinson. In addition, the entire 5th grade class was to get all dressed up and have lunch at Avalon. Delaney selected a pretty dress, borrowed a necklace and earrings set from me, wore her pretty new sandals, asked me to paint her fingernails & toenails, and put her hair up! She looked BEAUTIFUL! :-)

The kids did very well this year and received a variety of awards. Both of them excelled in their reading! Kyle had the most AR points in the first grade and received this medal.



Delaney also received an AR points medal for her reading. She had the most AR points in the entire school AS WELL AS all the other elementary schools! Woo-hoo! Way to go Delaney! She also received another certificate from the librarian for reading all 20 Hoosier books!



Kyle also received an award for math, as well as Deep River and Six Flags tickets for reading accomplishments.



And Delaney also received the same tickets for reading, as well as a 5th grade class-voted award for "Best Sportsmanship." I guess we're scheduling trips to Deep River and Six Flags this summer!



Kenny was recognized for his two-year term as a PTO President! (Which is why we were able to be there at all, the PTO was invited to come -- and I snuck along for pictures!) He received a wonderful thank you card from the school, a inspiration frame, as well as this adorable bee bobblehead:



We're so proud of how hard our kids worked and their accomplishments! Way to go!

Ken and Dani