Thursday, April 26, 2012

Easter, Soccer, Track and more!!!

Way back on the weekend of March 17th and 18th, Delaney's team had some pre-season games in Indianapolis -- the Dynamo Round Robin.  Since Delaney had won third place in the St. Patrick's Day Parade Logo Contest... it was going to be a busy weekend with a lot of driving so she could attend the tournament and the parade.  (I've been a bit behind organizing all the soccer photos, but hopefully now I am caught up!)  Since I didn't think I could handle all the driving, soccer games and still attend the evening parade without complete exhaustion, Kyle and I chose to stay home that weekend.  So Delaney took Shelby (a friend from school) with them and headed out for the tournament.















































It was obviously a bit wet and muddy!  Shelby helped out by taking some pictures since I wasn't there, and Kenny was busy keeping stats during the game.  They went 2-1 for the weekend -- 0-4, 5-0 (Dee had 1 assist) and 3-0 (Dee had 1 goal). 

Before Spring Break, Delaney's soccer team had a "friendly" game with Junior Irish.  It wasn't an official League game for the season, just another chance for her team to play before the season started up.  An old buddy of Kenny's from school was the "informal" referee for the game.  He was telling Delaney during some down time that he had a lot of stories about her dad that he could share.  :-)

 





Then, the next day after our little Spring Break trip to Key Lime Cove, it was Easter!  Kenny hid 118 eggs in the lower level for the kids to find the next morning.  Pretty much everywhere you looked, it seemed as if there was an Easter egg there. And usually their Easter baskets are sitting on the couch waiting for them during the egg search, but this year they had an added challenge:

...so they had an exact amount of eggs to find!  After the obvious ones were discovered, it took them a while to find the stragglers that were more strategically placed.  But they finally found them all!



  
 
 

Which was a good thing, because they needed all the puzzle pieces to put the puzzle together to find out where their Easter baskets were!



The back of the puzzle finally had their directions to find their baskets.



Tah-dah!  They finally found them!



They each had a t-shirt just for them in their basket among other goodies.  Kyle's was a nod to his constant love of video games (and the fact he never wants to quit).



While Delaney's shirt was soccer-themed with a quote that she's always liked.  She is always teased about being so petite, but she doesn't let that stop her from playing soccer as hard as she can.



Our very next weekend was yet another soccer tournament in Rockford!  This time they were playing in the Puma Champions Cup. The girls were playing so well!  They had worked out their kinks with their earlier games and were ready to bring it.  :-)  They had two games on Saturday.  Their first game was a 2-0 win (Dee had 1 goal); their second game was another win 3-0 (Dee had two assists).  She was psyched!

The next day they had to win their first game to get into the semi-finals.  At the beginning it seemed as if the game could have gone either way, but they pulled out a 4-2 win (Dee got 1 goal and 1 assist).  So now their second game of the day was playing another team who made it to the semi-finals too.  They played hard and won that game 2-1 (Dee got both goals).  That win took them to the final game, and by then you could tell that both teams were pretty tired.  Three games in one day is a lot, especially since the weather wasn't cooperating and the time to rest between games was pretty darn short.  They played hard but lost 1-2. 











So the U13 Three Lions team were runners-up in the Puma Champions Cup!  Great job, ladies!  They also had a team meeting this weekend where they presented awards from last season, Fall 2011.  Delaney was excited to receive the Most Goals award.  :-)



The Saturday after that, was SJC's Little 500.  It's always something!  The cold weather and so much running around was too much for me, so Kyle and I stayed home and chilled out while Delaney and Kenny took off again.  Kenny played in the alumni game that morning.  He said he was the oldest alumni playing!  He was playing against kids who were BORN the year he graduated!  He survived though, and then they had a lot of fun visiting and hooking up with Hurst and his family (see picture).



Later that same evening, we celebrated my mom's birthday at Danah's house.   I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I posted a picture of her, so here's a picture of the beautiful cake that Danah made:



It was beautiful, but oh-so-rich.  Yes -- those are malt balls covering the cake.  Way too much food and calories, but it was definitely a nice celebration.

The next day we were heading down South past Indianapolis to Bargersville (loooooong drive).  This was the team's official first game of the season for their league, which seems sort of weird after playing so many games already.  :-)

The girls played really well, but gave up a couple goals in the last 10 minutes and ended up losing 1-2.  Delaney had a great assist for our goal.







And as if that wasn't enough, sprinkled throughout all this was Delaney's new sport: track.  Yes, she had her first few meets.













She does like to compete!  She has placed so far in everything she had participated in.  Earning two firsts and a second her first meet, one second and two thirds her second meet, and just tonight got a second and two thirds.

Wow, getting behind on photos really adds up!  I'll try to keep up so our posts aren't always so long.

Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee and Kyle

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Spring Break!

Our Spring Break was really laid back! The kids slept in, played a lot of video games, and just chilled out most of the time. Towards the end of the break, we took the kiddos to Key Lime Cove for a few days. We had never been there, so it was our very first visit.



It was a nice little indoor waterpark, and everyone had a lot of fun. Pretty much as soon as we got there, we changed into our suits and headed to the waterpark. We were basically wet the entire time we were there. Kenny and Delaney hit every single slide that was in the park SEVERAL times.





Kyle is still a bit timid on rides, so he stuck to all the smaller slides and had a blast.



We didn't know it, but one of Delaney's school buddies was there too. She was excited to hang out with Katelyn and her siblings one of the days we were there as well. That worked out well!





Kenny and Kyle messed around in the large play area while Dee was off with her friends. Kyle loved all the little buckets that you could fill up and dump on poor, unsuspecting victims down below. :-)







And where was I the majority of the time? Here:



I get so cold so easily, that I must admit I felt like I was freezing most of the time. I spent most of the time covered up under towels! I read a lot, and occasionally gave in and rode around the lazy river for a while until I couldn't stop shivering. The cold also didn't encourage me to feel like tackling the very MANY stairs to go down any of the slides. Now if we were outside, on a hot beautiful sunny day... aaaah... that would have been more my waterpark trip.



Kyle loved the lazy river too; we kept losing him in there! He just liked going at his own pace and switching back and forth from the lazy river to the play area. Since we only had a few days, we thought the Key Lime Cove was perfect. If we would have more time, the Wolf Lodge up in the Dells is still our all-time favorite indoor waterpark.

Keeping with the lazy theme, we took our time heading home. We did some shopping, and Kenny and the kids played some more laser tag. THEY LOVE IT! Kyle won. :-)



The kids and I were so bummed to start up the whole school schedule again today. :-(

Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

Monday, April 9, 2012

Our Kids Are Growing Up Too Fast!



Kenny took this picture on Easter Sunday while at Easter Dinner at Danah's house. About all I can say when I saw this picture, is that our kids are growing up way too fast.

Here's a flashback to Easter 2003!



(* sigh *)

Ken & Dani