It’s March Madness!  Aren’t we all glued to our brackets, the TV, and our phones to check scores!?  It’s the end of the basketball season for our kids so we are occupying our time checking our teams and talking smack.  Or maybe that’s just Drew!?  He likes to go against the grain and root for KU.  I, for one, am happy to be a wildcat fan, especially last night!  I’ll take take that win against Kentucky to advance to the Elite 8 all day long!

Reece’s Pink Thunder 2nd grade team had it’s ups and downs, but they sure are cute!!They celebrated the end of the season with a sleepover complete with pizza, a candy concession stand, dance/gymnastics party, and pink trophies!Drew’s 4th grade Elite basketball team had their ups and downs too, but they were always fun to watch.  Here they are following their last game…Drew spent all of his birthday money on a new pair of basketball shoes with only two games left in the season!  Probably not the most wise move ever, but he was determined to get those shoes!Jake’s Panthers team ended their 6th grade regular season with a rough final tournament, but we have no doubt they will be finding success again soon.

Oh no, it’s baseball season again already!?  Go ahead and sense the panic in that statement right now.  Practices have begun and fundraising of course.  For the 2nd year, Drew’s Bulldogs team has served breakfast burritos at a local Mexican restaurant to receive a large portion of the proceeds.  It’s so cute watching them clean and serve their supportive families!

Shortly after, we rushed over to a soccer game.  It was so cold and windy!  Look at us…we look like we just robbed a convenient store and were hiding out at a soccer field to keep our cover.  Ugh…this is not a good look for us, MoMo 😉

Somehow I thought it was a good idea to leave Jake in charge of Reece and Drew while I attended Morgan’s Olathe Northwest basketball banquet this week.  Several calls from home and multiple text messages later, I was regretting my choice.  Nothing a little bribery couldn’t fix (double cheeseburgers and frosty’s from Wendy’s)!

This is actually my first high school sports banquet and I wish someone would have given me a heads up to bring a box of kleenex.  I had been told by multiple people before the season that the ladies head basketball coach was nothing short of amazing.  They were right.  As it turns out, every word he speaks is enlightening and he was tearing up 5 minutes into the banquet thinking about his senior girls.  Shortly after our meal, each senior had written a letter to her parents and read it aloud.  I don’t see how there was a dry eye in the place!  I, for one, was a mess, and these girls were perfect strangers to me!  Imagine how I will be when my own kids actually are seniors!  I’m scared of how I might behave and no doubt I will be an embarrassment to them.  Guys, this is your first warning!  Thankfully I still have some time to pull it together.Despite the fact that Morgan didn’t even show up to the first day of tryouts and was coerced to play by the coaches, she had a successful and fun season!  We absolutely loved watching her play.  MoMo, you should be so proud of yourself.  You handled this high school sport, that you were unsure of, with grace and determination and impressed all of us!You moved right into a week of soccer tryouts, a new season awaits, and we are once again excited to see how you grow in your 3rd high school sport.  You are the most fantastic freshman…you go girl!

 

 

 

Whew!!  Just in the nick of time, Brian’s flight arrived to take Reece to the Daddy Daughter Dance at her school.  This is  definitely a time when you are praying the airline gods come through for you!  Can you imagine the disappointment that would ensue if I had to find a ‘stand in’ for Daddy!?  She’s had this sweet little pink dress picked out for weeks!!

I’m giving myself a little pat on the back for coming through on a cute hairdo for the evening without my resident expert, Morgan, around to help me.  We all know that hair is not my specialty!!

She was very afraid I was not going to remember to get a corsage…where’s the faith in Mom!?!?  I have concluded I need to watch a few YouTube videos on making corsages so I can save myself $30.  It can’t be that hard, can it!?  Maybe I should take in a few videos on hair while I’m at it since Morgan will only be around to help a few more years 😦  Ugh, that’s totally depressing.

 

I love that she decided to tuck her dress into her tights to hang out on the balance beam!

They ended their awesome night with an ice cream treat!To close this journal, I want to share this adorable chalk drawing that Reece did on our driveway last night.  Is that not the cutest unicorn ever!?  Way to go Reecie!  This could be foreshadowing for an upcoming birthday party!

3.22.18 Reece’s chalk art, 7 yrs.

It’s been a month since I’ve had time to fill in this journal!  Ugh, that makes me feel awful and sort of sad…a lot has gone on!  Starting with the most recent events, Reece finished up her first meet season as a competitive gymnast!

You just never know what activities/sports your kids are going to love and heaven knows we’ve tried just about everything in this family.  If there was infinite time and money, these kids would do everything possible.  When I took Reece through the doors of KGDC (her gym), 2 summers ago, I never dreamed she would develop an obsession over the sport of gymnastics.  I never realized that December through April was gymnastics meet season and that it would take over our lives.  Ok, that’s a little extreme, but it has been difficult to throw that into our family schedule.

This little one practices 7.5 hours a week and would go more if she could.The meets are important to show all of her hard work but I must admit, I’m so happy this season is over!  It is mentally exhausting to deal with a little 7 year old that is constantly unhappy with her performance…always wants to do better…never good enough…never enough medals or the right position on the podium.  I’m not kidding!  This little lady is her own worst critic and intensely hard on herself.  I think I’ve said this before…I lasted 1 week in gymnastics as a kid before I quit.  It’s way too much pressure.  These little girls are amazing!

We spent the first weekend of March setting up, tearing down, and working shifts for the Pink Ribbon Invitational which is a very large meet hosted by our gym and takes place on the campus at UMKC.  It completely monopolizes the weekend.  The girls wear special leotards, paint their hair pink, and wear pink ribbon stickers on their faces while their parents work like dogs.  Kidding (sort of)!  These girls train so hard, and these meets don’t run themselves!  It’s a big deal for KGDC.  I had to work the admissions table on Friday evening and got the wrath of crabby gymnastics parents who don’t want to pay $15 to get into the venue.  I get it.  But seriously, give me a break, I’m just a volunteer!  I don’t make the rules!  Here are a few photos from the PRI–don’t be fooled by any smiles…they’re all fake!  She only smiles if she has to for a split second on the podium.

Most of us hold our breath throughout the entire competition and find ourselves gasping for air and rushing for the door as soon as the girls put their warm up jackets on.

This past weekend we traveled to Wichita so Reece could compete in the final meet of the season, the Kansas State Championships.  Morgan did the driving on the way there…her first long distance highway experience!  Woo Hoo…way to go Morgan!  She did awesome!  Particularly since there was more traffic for the KU game and St. Patrick’s day.  We spent the evening laughing at our unusually large room at the Courtyard – many gymnastics passes could go on through there!We laughed to the point of tears telling riddles during dinner and proceeded to stand in the elevator forever talking before anyone pushed the button to move!  Maybe you had to be there, but out of 4 of us, you would think at least one would clue in that 5 minutes had passed and we still weren’t moving.  Dummies!!  We cracked up on that one!!  Before we called it a night, Reece gave Nanny strict instructions on playing “Rollers.”  She takes her game playing very seriously and her uncle Scott has taught her a lot of bad unsportsmanlike habits!

These girls are fun to travel with!  Until it’s time to get up at 7 for a gymnastics meet, then it gets a little rough.  Let’s just say that Reece is not a morning person, even when it involves gymnastics.  She achieved a personal best on beam and we were so proud of her!

She hoped for better of course but still came home with several medals and a cool new $65 sweatshirt.

Reecie, we are more proud of you than you will ever know.  Your determination and work ethic are incredible!  The hard workers will eventually end up on top.  You go girl!!