What a GREAT holiday weekend we had!

Our holiday started a day early on July 3rd, as Kenny and the kids went to Hebron to be in the parade with Aunt Danah and her boys. They were there representing her business, Greener Pastures, riding horses. Here is my dad Dan all gussed up for the event riding Sarah.



Here they are in the parade, Danah and Dad are towards the back.



Here is a closer shot of Aunt Danah riding Jackson.



Most of the kids were in the back of Danah's vet truck, ready to throw out candy in the parade.



Parker was in the gator with Kenny. They were trailing behind everyone in the parade on "poop patrol" cleaning up behind the horses. Parker was getting cheers everytime he cleaned up.



Afterwards, we headed out to Danah's to play the rest of the day in her new pool. Then we came back on the fourth to celebrate the holiday at Danah's big get-together, then we came back AGAIN on Monday. Whew!



The entire weekend had absolutely beautiful weather. The sun was shining, and it was simply gorgeous outside. The kids had on their new patriotic suits!





The kids wore Kenny out. They were having him toss them up in the air to flip and splash into the water. Parker got some great "hang time" here.



Delaney kept flipping completely over into the water.



Connor was the lightest, so he could really get up there.

Kyle had a blast, asking again and again to be thrown up in the air.

Great Grandma Imogene and my mom watched from the front porch, as the kids were going crazy in the pool.

Taggert even had his own "fourth of july" handkerchief for the festivities.

And there was soooooo much yummy food!!! I think we all ate way too much, but it was definitely good. Danah even made a special cake for the party.



The last couple of nights, we watched an awesome firework display orchestrated by Kenny and Scott. It was crazy how many there were, but they were definitely beautiful!



The fourth went by way too fast. But I'm sure the kids and I will be hanging out at the pool as much as we can the rest of the summer.

Dani

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

New Orleans, Awesome Weather, Soccer and more!

We flew out to New Orleans early last Monday the 17th and stayed until late on Thursday the 20th. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm -- high 80's -- great for shorts and sundresses! Simply lovely! We were flying to New Orleans to give a couple of speeches at the ATS Conference from a patient's perspective. I was to give a short 5 minute speech on my experience with pulmonary rehabilitation, and then I was to give a longer 15 minute speech on how being diagnosed with LAM has changed mine and my family's lives.



I didn't have to give the speeches until Wednesday morning, so once we arrived there Monday we had a couple of days to just hang out, sightsee, and have some fun. I've never been to New Orleans before, and Kenny had once before when he was a teenager.

The streets were VERY narrow, it seemed most everywhere. The shuttle buses and taxis drive through there like maniacs! It seemed like they barely had a quarter of an inch to spare at times. I kept cringing, and I know my mom would have completely freaked out. :-)



Kenny REALLY enjoyed all the New Orlean's food. We ate several places throughout the week:







I am not a spicy food eater, so I was doing all right at the beginning of the trip with the food; however, but by the end of the trip -- I was COMPLETELY SICK of food that was spicy in any-way-shape-or-form!!!! Even my prime rib that we got at The Crazy Lobster was spicy! UGH!!!

We did a little sightseeing, we went to Bourbon Street:



So I can say I've been there, but since it is pretty much just bars and strip clubs (and I don't drink at all), I was pretty much ready to leave after a few minutes and find something else to do. :-)

We rode the street cars around, and we got to see a lot of New Orleans that way (a lot less walking for me!).









And we found this adorable little restaurant off the St. Charles Line and ate up on their beautiful terrace:



We also went to the Riverwalk a few times. We had some meals in restaurants around there, like The Crazy Lobster, did some shopping, and checked out the Mississippi River.







After the speeches were over Wednesday (THANK GOODNESS), we had the rest of Wednesday and Thursday to relax. We slept really late (heaven!), no rushing around, and just relaxed. So different, from our average day at home with kids in school and various activities and, of course, soccer!!! We apparently also brought the warm weather home with us, as it has been simply gorgeous here at home since we've been back. You're welcome!

But the laid-back time had to end unfortunately, we came back late Thursday night. Friday we had to do TONS of laundry (for both us AND the kiddos who stayed at their grandparents), then pack and get ready to leave town again for a soccer tournament in Fort Wayne for Delaney! YIKES!

Since Kyle had an early morning game Saturday, Delaney went ahead Friday night with another teammate and her family. Then Saturday morning for Kyle's game, we were not sure where the projected sunny weather was, as it was misting pretty much the entire game. It wasn't really raining, but it was just drizzling enough that I kept up the umbrella because I didn't want my camera to get wet.

The ground was really soft and muddy -- pretty gross if you ask me! Just by walking slowly to sit and watch the game, we were getting mud splattered up on our clothes. Their game shirts were simply awful, with the mud that was splattered up while they were playing. I didn't have a good picture of one of Kyle's shirts, so here is one of a teammate of his:



Nasty! Then we had to get them clean for the team picture afterwards, nice. NOT!

After Kyle's game, we had a quick breakfast and headed out to Fort Wayne. We had to miss her first game of the tournament, which apparently was a very good one. She scored like 4 really great goals, and we missed it. :-(

We did make her second game though, and we got to see them win again!





Delaney had quite a few runs to goal, but she got overwhelmed by blue with this one and couldn't quite get it in.

Their third game was with a team that they beat twice easily, so coach decided to switch up the offense and defense. It made for a really strange game, seeing Delaney in defense the entire time AS WELL AS a goalie!!!



So we got some different shots than normal, like Delaney throwing in the ball.



Apparently coach had asked for any volunteers to play goalie, since everyone was switched around, one of our goalie's got hurt, and the goalie in there wanted to get out in the field. Delaney piped up and said, "I've played goalie before, but my parents said I'm not allowed to volunteer to play goalie anymore." Then coach said, "Well, how about if I put you in?" And next thing we know... here is Delaney as goalie!!!





Too much stress with Dee being goalie, let's put her back on offense. :-)

Since they won all three of their games, they'll be moving on to the next Challenge tournament. So... we have at least three more tournaments to go!

Dani

Brrrrrrr! Is it Spring or Winter?

Geez! Even with layers of clothes, hats, gloves, scarves and WINTER COATS -- we were still freezing at the soccer games. Why is it we can't have beautiful, warm and sunny weather for a game again?

A couple of weekends ago, Kyle got to hang out at Grandma & Grandpa's house to go to his soccer game and a birthday party. He had a blast! Delaney, Ken and I headed up to Elkhart to hang out with some friends for the weekend while Delaney had a game Saturday in Elkhart and Sunday in South Bend.

Delaney had a blast with our friends' two cats: Simon and Simba. Simon, shown below, decided he liked Delaney because she was always willing to pet him. We even laughed when Delaney was trying to study, and he sat down right on top of her book because she wasn't paying HIM enough attention. :-)

Saturday, May 1st, Delaney had a game in Elkhart. We were afraid it was going to rain -- but we somehow lucked out and avoided rain all weekend. I think they won this game.



Their second game on Sunday, May 2nd, was a tough one. They did score one goal, but I think they lost 1-2.



Then we get through another busy school week, only to go out of town AGAIN to Fort Wayne for a tournament over Mother's Day weekend. Now this is where the winter-like weather reared its ugly head -- and we had to endure five soccer games in this frigid weather!!! UGH!

We started off Saturday morning with Kyle's 9:00am game on Saturday, May 8th. This was definitely the coldest game of the weekend. The wind was strong and biting cold, and everyone's eyes and nose were watering, and it was simply pretty miserable. The kids still had fun though!

Kyle even got to play a quarter as goalie. He really likes playing this position (unlike his sister!).



Then we dashed back to the house, where we were already packed, and took off for Fort Wayne. We had JUST enough time to drive straight there, run through a drive-through for a quick lunch, and make it for Delaney's first game. (What a long, boring drive it is on 30 from here to Fort Wayne.)

This first game of the tournament was a definite win. They shut out the other team and won something like at least 6-0 or more.

Their second game was a really tough one, against a team that was a year older. It was sort of raining on/off throughout the game, and we got a really pretty rainbow to enjoy:

It was a rough-and-tumble, very physical and high-paced game. They worked really hard and kept the other team to only one goal for a while, but then they were able to score right towards the end of the game for a 0-2 loss.

Then on Mother's Day, we had two more games! This was yet again another physical game, and Three Lions rallied to fight the fight. This game ended up in a hard-fought tie, I think 2-2.

Then the tournament provided flowers for all the teams to give to their mothers. Their coach Graeme walked over with the pretty pink carnations.

And the girls ran over with the flowers before the game. So sweet!



With the 1 win, 1 tie, and 1 loss -- they ended up in the consolation game of the tournament playing the team that they beat the first time around. Coach switched the offense and defense around and everyone got experience playing in different positions. They still shut them out, and the final score was something like 8-0.



I'm looking forward to some games here at home with hopefully MUCH WARMER WEATHER!

Dani