Champions!!

Pre-game "wave." Faith is the short one towards the right :)

One of my favorite pictures.

One of Faith's hits.

Ready for some action in 115 degree "heat index." The tournament weekend was HOT!

Looking pretty before game time.

Faith with Marissa...one of her closest friends.

Faith receiving her 1st place trophy!

Final score of the tournament!

Faith getting a turn with the "big" trophy that goes to the team sponsor.

Faith with one of her BFF's...Jaclyn.

Here's the team and coaches....In Town- BNGSA 12U 2011 Champions!!! These are some happy faces!

As I mentioned in my previous blog post...Faith's team the "Maroon Magic" ended their regular season 14-0. They won their first two tournament games but lost the third against an undefeated team in the tournament. They won their fourth game to make it into the championship game. They had to face the undefeated team again and had to beat them twice to earn 1st place due to the tournament being double elimination. They beat them the first time with ease and then had to play them immediately again with a 20 minute break. The second game was a "nail biter" but they pulled it off. It was VERY exciting! I was very nervous and couldn't wait for it to be over with. The girls were all amazing! Faith did great the whole weekend...good fielding and had several good hits. She only stuck out twice the whole season and tournament combined. Faith was on a "losing" team a couple of summers ago and it is definitely more fun to win! I am so happy she has had this experience because one never knows if it will happen again :) Next up....Cross Country... Faith is our most low maintenance child in terms of her temperament but she definitely costs us the most money in gas and activities.

Softball

Eden is in her first year of non parks and rec. softball. She is in the youngest league available. It is coach pitched, everyone bats every inning and no score is kept. I don't think she enjoys it as much as Faith does but she likes it and I will make her play every summer :) Her team name is the "Blueberries." She improved a lot by the end of the season. Aren't their polka dot socks cute?

Faith is playing her 3rd year of softball. She loves it...not sure what she loves more...the sport or the socializing. She has been part of a very talented team the past two years. This year she moved to an older league and the games have been more exciting because the girls can steal bases and bunt. They just had their final game tonight. They were undefeated ending the season 14-0. She has great coaches and great girls on her team. They are all very friendly and get along great. They look tough on the field but are crazy 11-13 year old girls in the dugout. The end of the season tournament starts on Friday. Will keep you all posted.

Reunion....20 years BABY!!!

Here we are...had 33 in attendence and close to 60 with significant others. Wished we would have had more.

Four of my closest friends from H.S. Amy and Shelly (two on the left) are still 2 of my closest friends.

Not sure what Kyle was thinking zooming in this close...this is me with Aimee. We spent a fair amount of time "helping" each other with math homework and sharing secrets. I had not seen her since her wedding...she has 5 kids!

This is Shells and I with Mike O. Shelly actually dated him in H.S. ;) He was/is a great friend. SO FUN to catch up! He is a math professor at some college in California and has kid #4 on the way :) Take away the facial hair and he was "least changed" to me. If you look closely you can see my name tag and what I looked like in my senior picture....Kyle joked that he was hiding behind my hair somewhere. We dated my senior year so I am guessing we had a mutual respect...him for my big hair and me for his mullet.

Me and Amy. Amy is a 2nd grade teacher in our hometown. She was homecoming and prom queen. I still see and talk with her often. She is married, a mother of 3 girls and a wonderful teacher.

Dave is one of my favorite people. We have been able to keep in touch through the years. He lives in Texas, has a lovely wife and 3 kids. He is also a minister. Of course, I really admire him for this! I am only going to write this because he doesn't know about my blog...in H.S. he had a massive head of dark hair.

Amy B. was a very close friend in H.S. and another one who I have kept in contact with. She just moved to California (from Chicago) and is in marketing for a shopping mall corporation...or something like that. Not married but live in boyfriend and a dog. She is an independent woman!

For the past 5-6 months Shelly, myself and Andy (an awesome guy we graduated with) have been planning our 20 year class reunion. I can't believe it has been 20 years. High school was a very good experience for me so I am not quite sure why it is so weird to see my fellow classmates. We had a 10 year reunion and it was nice...I remember receiving an award for the youngest baby. Sawyer was just a few months old. Anywho...not much is left to the imagination now with facebook so that definitely helped! Speaking of facebook...thank goodness it exists for events like this!!! It made it so much easier to find and contact people. Andy is a pharmacist in our hometown so that helped as well. He sees a lot of relatives, etc of former classmates. My graduating class had 100 graduates. The town I grew up in has a population of 4,400 people. I loved growing up there... although I love more where we live now. We tried to make the reunion as simple and cheap as possible and I think it went really well! Kyle was a good sport and tagged along. We met at my friend, Amy's house before hand for dinner. We invited some other classmates we were close to. It was a lot of fun. It made me realize how much I miss them. Even though I had not seen some of them since graduation we definitely have a bond. Some of us were together from kindergarten to graduation. It was fun to catch up on kids, spouses, careers and share old memories. Most people at the reunion were recognizable...I will just leave it at that. I told Kyle that it was fun and disturbing all at the same time...fun to catch up but hard to see that some have not had good lives/made bad choices after we graduated. This has weighed heavily on my mind today. Praying they all find peace and happiness in life. We had a little quiz/contest...learned that the longest marriage in attendance was 20 years...that means they got married right out of H.S. and oldest child was 20 as well. We had a couple of classmates travel clear from California. Our valedictorian attended, has 9 kids and home schools. Not sure when our next reunion will be...5 years seems a little soon...but in 10 many of us will be grandparents! I didn't take near as many photos as I had planned on...too busy talking...but here are a few.

End of the school year CHAOS!!

In May I had the priviledge of chaperoning a band trip to Six Flags in Gurnee. Half of these lovely girls were my group and the other half were my friend, Amy's. Half were roller coaster riders (my group) and the other half were not. It was a very fun trip and the girls were great!

Faith, for the 1st time, took a Hip-Hop Dance Class through the Parks and Rec. She took it with two of her best friends, Jaclyn and Megan. This was the girls right before their dress rehearsal. There were 16 kids on their dance squad (2 were boys). They all did a great job.

Eden with her very loved 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Scott!

Eden with Miss "A." This was her very loved student teacher.

Last day of 1st and 4th grades!! You may notice that Sawyer's face it scraped up. He was tackled for a basketball by his best friend....yep...they are still friends...BOYS! I can't wrap my mind around the fact that after this coming school year he will be entering jr. high.

Last day of 6th grade!

Choir concert.

I am sewing! I know it is weird. I made her skirt and headband...she picked out the fabric.

Faith received an award for earning straight A's. She was 1 of 33 6th graders out of around 250 kids that earned straight A's. Faith is a great student. We are so proud of her. One of her teachers emailed me at the end of year and told me how much he enjoyed having Faith in class and that he hoped his daughter turned out just like her. The kids all had successful school years with wonderful teachers!

New York City!!

This post is going back to April. Kyle and I celebrated 14 years of marriage on May 10th. Kyle surprised me with a trip to New York City for a weekend! I knew we were flying somewhere but didn't know where until we were on our way to the airport. We have not been away together (alone) more than one night since we have had kids. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. Leaving Beckett was the hard part, knowing he would not do well without me at night. He had also been sick with vomiting and diarrhea. The doctor had put him on a dairy and sugar free diet to try and stop the vomiting. So...he was left sick and cranky (wanting sugar!!!). Friends and my parents helped with the kids and they all survived!!!

We had an amazing time!! It is comforting to know that after 14 years we still really enjoy each others company and being together. I really appreciated all the effort Kyle went to! He is too good to me!! We can't wait til retirement (but not the "being old" part). We stayed in a very nice hotel right off of Times Square. Kyle made reservations at two VERY fancy, expensive restaurants. I was googling menu items on my phone to try and figure out what I was ordering. Some of the food was amazing...some not so much! It was definitely an experience. We saw the musical "Memphis" and it was amazing!!! We took a helicopter ride over "The Statue of Liberty." We also toured "Ground Zero" and went to the museum/memorial they have. This was very depressing. I cried. We also had a guy pull us on his bike in a little carriage through part of Central Park. I wanted a souvenir so we went to "Tiffany's." We went to the 3rd floor (this is the floor where one can actually afford to buy something) and I got a necklace. Times Square was very crowded no matter what time it was but also very exciting. It reminded me of our times in London. I am looking forward to our next "getaway" although it might take years for my parents to recover from watching Beckett. We took a ton of pictures but here is a sampling :)