And our hectic schedule continues...

We had another busy weekend here at the Benich household with birthday parties, homework, soccer games and anniversary celebrations! Whew!

We started out with not one, but two soccer games for Kyle Saturday morning. It was pretty much calling for rain all day, but we lucked out and somehow made it through both of Kyle's games without any rain. That was definitely nice.



It's such a different game watching the younger kids play, but they were playing very well. Kyle made several runs on goal.



And was having a blast on defense, kicking those balls back the other way!



If you look closely at this pic, he has SUCH a look of determination on his face. :-)



Coming in for another run...



Kyle had a great two games today!



Then, Kyle had a birthday party to attend later in the afternoon, while Delaney worked on her homework (two posters to finish up), and I got to work on some craft stuff (while giving advice on Dee's posters).

Then Sunday afternoon, Delaney had a soccer game. Unfortunately, we did NOT avoid the rain for this game. (* sigh *) It was cold, a bit windy, and QUITE wet. UGH!!!



I guess at this age, the game just simply starts to get a bit more physical. Everyone works really hard to get that ball!



If you look closely at this pic, you can see the rain in the background!



She pretty much looks drenched in this picture.





Look at the row of unbrellas in the background! That's pretty much what we all looked like too, watching their game. We are definitely ready for some warm, basking in the sun soccer games!!!



Then after Delaney's game, we all ran home, changed into dry clothes and met my family to celebrate my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary! Their anniversary was Sunday, April 25th. We had a nice dinner out at Tequila Si's then came back here for some cake. Mmmmm! Here's their wedding pic (Mom will probably kill me):



Then 10 months after this picture, I arrived into this world. (Which, if you read between the lines, lets you know what I can look forward to next year!)

Dani

Another busy weekend in the Benich Family...

Let's see, we had soccer games, a gathering, Little 500 at Saint Joe, never-ending homework, and my Mom's birthday to celebrate -- while Kenny had not one, BUT TWO poker games on Friday and Saturday. (He said I cursed him on Saturday's game since his cards weren't lucky, which I said served him right for playing two nights in a row. Hmmmph!)

Kyle and Delaney had overlapping soccer games this past Saturday morning. So Kenny and Kyle went to his game, and Delaney and I headed out to her game. Brrrrrrrr! Why can't we ever have that unseasonably warm weather for some of these early Spring soccer games? It was COLD! I had on my winter coat and gloves with a blanket -- and it was STILL chilly.

Delaney's team was playing very well Saturday! Everyone was hustling from the get-go, and the other team was fighting for the win until the very end -- but Three Lions came out on top with a final score of 3-2. Here are some pics from the game:

Dee getting a goal:



Dee making another run at goal:



It was a bit of a physical game, but Delaney didn't let them push her around:

Delaney hustling for the ball:

Delaney said she felt like all she was doing was running:

Kyle's game ended early enough, that Kenny and he were able to make most of Delaney's game. Then after Delaney's game, Kenny and the kiddos headed out to Saint Joseph's College to hang out at Little 500 for a while. (I chose to hang out at home SANS CHILDREN and get some crafty projects accomplished -- and, of course, some never-ending housework.) While I had a wonderful hard-to-come-by-day all to myself doing whatever I wanted, Kenny and the kids had a great day at Little 500. While it was still a bit chilly out, the sun was out and the day was beautiful!

Delaney and Kyle had fun enjoying all the kid activities. They went down slides (yep, that's Kyle, not sure how he ended up in that position):

Our brother-in-law Ed's cousin, James, raced at Little 500. They even met up with their cousins Teresa and Michael there! All of them caught the race:



And Delaney even went rock climbing for the first time ever:



Check out this video -- she really went up high:



Then Sunday, we celebrated my Mom's birthday. Danah made an awesome cake for her:

And we had a great time, eating too much yummy food and playing some cards: Bid Euchre (Kenny said that the guys let the gals win for my Mom's birthday -- I say, "Whatever! We won fair and square!") and Texas Hold'em. And just like that, the weekend is over before you know it! LOL

Danielle

Dierks Bentley is the best!

Kenny surprised me with concert tickets to see Dierks Bentley in West Lafayette this past Saturday.



He puts on a GREAT show, and we had a wonderful time. It sure made for a long day, with a travel soccer game in Plymouth for Delaney (a ton of driving for poor Kenny); but it was worth it!

Notice we were "properly" attired, both wearing Dierks shirts!!! The kids had fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, and apparently even got to go on a late night call to see a brand new filly with their Aunt Danah. What fun!

Dani

Delaney has braces!!!

This is NOT an April's Fool's joke (although Kenny wishes it was due to the cost), Delaney actually got braces today. She is supposed to have them for two years, and she is doing very well right now. They said that she may be more sore tomorrow, so we'll see.



Here's her start on a long road to a better smile! :-)

Dani

Kyle is seven years old!

Somehow our younger child just turned SEVEN! How in the world that happened, I have no idea. His actual birthday was Friday the 26th, so we let him open a gift that morning from Delaney. He got a new card game and a new Webkinz (a goat he named Billy Bob). We also made him a quick cake to celebrate that evening just us.



But, of course, we had to have a birthday party too! On Sunday, the entire family came over to celebrate Kyle's birthday. He found his birthday crown from school and wanted to wear it the entire party. :-)

His cousins were right there watching Kyle and helping him open his gifts.

Kyle received a ton of awesome soccer clothes:

And several DS games for his DSi (he was super excited about those):

And really, a lot of wonderful gifts from his family -- what a lucky little boy!

And for his birthday cake, his Aunt Danah made him an AWESOME birthday cake -- complete with his requested Captain Rex and everything. (I wonder if we can convince Aunt Danah to make cakes all the time.... )

He quickly blew out all his candles as everyone was more than ready for some cake and ice cream! Mmmmmmmm!

Happy Birthday, Kyle! We love you!!!

Ken, Dani & Dee

And it begins again... Spring 2010 soccer!

Delaney's first games of the season, with the Three Lions team, was a Round Robin tournament in Indianapolis this past weekend.



We were hoping for some of that pretty warmer weather that we'd been enjoying here and there, but we weren't quite that lucky. It could have definitely been worse, so I guess we'll take what we could -- at least it hardly rained! LOL And in the afternoon, when the sun came out, one of the games actually got a little warm.





Delaney was very excited to play with the entire team again. She was working on getting a lot of goals -- I think she got at least one goal in each game of the weekend.



They won 3 of their 4 games, with a 1-2 loss on the losing game. On the games that they were way ahead, Delaney was switched around to defense.

She got several goals in some of the games!

She's been playing indoor through the winter, practicing and working out on the off days -- trying to get her endurance up. It's starting to pay off, as she was hustling really well this weekend.

We got some neat sequence shots of some goals (you can click on these and all the photos to see them larger):

And this one was some awesome teamwork with Kate (Stretch):

And here are Kyle and I all bundled up, watching the games. :-)

Here's hoping for some beautiful weather for the next game. More to come for sure!

Dani

Delaney's Science Fair Success!

Last night was Solon Robinson Elementary's Science Fair. Delaney was anxious to go and see the final results, as she knew her project was one selected to be judged. Her project was soccer-related (so surprising, I know), entitled "How Does Angle Affect Scoring a Goal?" She was a very fortunate girl that both her Dad and her Coach were able to help her gather data for the project. She worked really hard on putting together everything, including writing an accompanying report for the first time.

The first thing we did when we arrived at the Science Fair, was to go and find her board right away! She was ecstatic that she received a 1st place ribbon! Woo-hoo!



Way to go, Delaney! It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. :-)

Just as we finish up Science Fair with Delaney at Solon, Kyle will step into science fair projects next year. (* sigh *) As we looked through all the other projects, Kyle's favorites were the projects showing that playing video games increases your reaction time. Again, another shocker.

Dani

Delaney's 11th Birthday Party!

Delaney turned 11 on January 4th, and we celebrated that evening by taking her out to eat to her favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. We went ahead and let her open her birthday gifts from Kyle and us that night too. She was happy to open another Webkinz from Kyle (a walrus, who she named Buckteeth), and a Rockband guitar and the country track pack from us. She has been avidly working on building her "career" in her spare time, and she's getting pretty good at it.

Yesterday, we were finally able to hold her family birthday party. She was quite ready since her birthday was like 6 days earlier!!! I thought she looked like a queen holding court with all her cousins surrounding her watching her open her gifts. :-)

She got some adorable clothes as always, this cute penguin outfit being one of them. She also got a great soccer outfit, which somehow I didn't get a picture for it. She wore the soccer outfit with a new soccer bracelet as well today to school.

She also received the new Wii Fit Plus, which we all played last night after the party was over. It is so cute, there are a lot of new games on there. Kyle loved the snowball fight and Kung Fu game, although I think Delaney ended up beating his score on one or both of them. She also got some fun DSi stuff, so she was a pretty lucky girl with all the awesome presents from her loving family.

Then, of course, it was off to cake and ice cream!!! Yummy! She wanted a glazed angel food cake again, and we made "sorting hat" cupcakes to go along with her Harry Potter theme.

All the cousins anxiously awaiting their cake and ice cream, what a beautiful and handsome group of kiddos!

Delaney blew out her candles, and Michael started us off singing Happy Birthday!

Afterwards, we played a bunch of games and Delaney introduced everyone to Rock Band. Michael even got to try to play the guitar. :-)

Thanks to everyone for helping Delaney celebrate her 11th birthday!

Ken, Dani, Delaney & Kyle