Thanksgiving Tradition

We spend Thanksgiving in Keystone with Margret. The kids started helping decorate her Christmas Tree years ago. They are now old enough to do almost all the work themselves.

Ryan assembles...

...happily. He loves to construct things.

Megan decorates...

...finished!

We were teasing Margret that her tree is no longer old - it's vintage! We are guessing it at over 40 years old and some of the ornaments are the originals.

Another Dance for Megan

Megan went to another dance this weekend called Cheer Ball. It's a fundraiser for the Blue Valley North cheer/dance teams. They invite all cheer & dance team girls from Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley, & Olathe. We got lucky and found this cute pink dress on sale.

Here's the girls & guys. Megan took her new boyfriend Ethan. They've been dating about a month. He's a nice kid. He's a wrestler at South.
The all guy picture -- Ethan smiled in this one cause Abbie's little brother was being goofy & wanted in the picture. You'll notice later he uses his wrestling "game face" for most pictures. Recognize the redhead on the right? That's Megan's friend Alex. They went to the Sweetheart Dance last year.

The girls -- Jessica, Abbie (aka anger issues), Megan, & Haley. Brent & Amy - You'll remember the story. Haley is the hittee to Abbie's hitter.

Megan & Abbie - they are two of the three Sophomores on varsity.

Sorry - turn your head to see this one. Amy M. - Is there a way to turn these when I input them? Notice Ethan's wrestling game face. He does smile - just not for pictures.

I think this is dance 2 of what could be 5 this year. I'm glad we've got Megan on a dress budget!

Weekend Update

Megan had her first cheer competition this past weekend. It was in Topeka, KS. So it was girls to Topeka and boys stayed home for Ryan's football game.

Here's Megan posing outside the ExpoCenter in Topeka. This competition was called Twister Jam and the character on the banner is "Jammy." I made Megan pose by this banner cause she thinks Jammy is goofy but the little girls love him :)

Her team did great and won their category. They scored an 8.4 out of 10 which is really high so the coaches were thrilled. It was a fun, long day in Topeka.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the boys had a day full of football. They went from watching the Hawks lose to a big battle in Ryan's last game of the year. They scrimmaged this team earlier in the year and beat them easily. Ryan said they were big, strong, & dumb in early Sept. He remarked they are now big, strong, & smart. Bruce said it was a tough game.

The score was 16 to 8 at half with Ryan's team leading. SM North tied it at 16 to 16 with 2:35 left in the game. Our QB had a 50 yard run to the 5 yr line and we scored with 57 seconds left. Final score was 22 to 16. Bruce said the other team had 4-5 kids as big as him. Yikes! Good thing I was in Topeka!!!

Football is now over and Ryan's team is 7 - 1 which is our best record ever. It was a good year. He's not playing basketball this year so he's got a little break until indoor baseball practice starts in January.

Sorry for the big block of writing - can't figure out how this happened :)

Ryan's Latest Football Game

We all enjoy having Mom & Dad spend the weekend with us. It's especially fun when they get to attend some activities for the kids.

They watched Megan cheer on Friday night. I forgot my camera which is a shame. It was so cold & windy we huddled under the blankets I took. I would have loved to post a picture of Mom & Dad at that game. They were good troopers even though I know they had to be freezing. We enjoyed watching Meg cheer and made a quick escape at halftime. It was cold even for us non-snow birds.

The weather improved by Ryan's game & we all cheered his team to another victory. It's been a good season and the team is 6-1. They beat the top team from the other division in a 8-0 stressful win. The other team hadn't been scored on all year so this was a big win for Bruce as defensive coordinator.

Our OLineman with his fans. Dig Megan's SMS "pep club" t-shirt. Don't know who designed the shirt this year. The back looks better than the front.
Ryan and his "mini-me." Ryan used to be my mini-me since everyone says he looks like me. I have a feeling he'll out grow me soon and I'll be the "mini" one. Some Moms have been wearing their sons old jerseys to the games. Unfortunately for me, Ryan's old jersey is a youth large but I squeezed in for his game. I tease him I'll be one of those crazy moms in high school stands. Looks like I'm off to a good start :)

Megan has her first cheer competition next Saturday. I won't have pictures from Ryan's last game but will try to post some of her competition in Topeka, KS.

Even though the kids are older, they still love to carve pumpkins for Halloween. Cooper got into the action this year. I didn't get my camera out so I am thankful Amy M. took these pictures for me. Plus, her pictures are always better than mine :)

Cooper and Megan diggin' into the pumpkin guts.
Ryan was carefully carving yet another tigerhawk logo into his pumpkin. I think this makes 4 or 5 years in a row. The kid has a one track mind. Guess he got his inspiration from his shorts :)

Ryan posed with the finished product. See all those bruises on his legs - they are from football.

Megan's pumpkin without Megan. Megan was getting ready to go out with friends. I love how Amy took this picture - very artistic.

It was a fun weekend. We enjoyed having Mom & Dad here and the KC family contingent over on Saturday. More weekend fun in an upcoming post on Ryan's Sunday football game....

Ryan's Football Game

Ryan's team played their final league game this Saturday at the Chiefs' youth football field. It's at the stadium beside the team's practice fields and offices. The boys enjoyed getting to play on this field and on turf.

Our team was 4-1 going into this game playing Blue Valley West who was also 4-1. We beat them 32-7. It started out with a long touchdown pass by them. After they scored the first 7 points, we shut them down. I can say "we" since Bruce is the defensive coordinator for our team :)

Here's my happy boys after the game:

Here's some pics of the Chiefs' practice area. The youth field is the turf with the yard markings.
I like how this one portion of the building is shape like a football.

Pre-game warm-ups for our team:

The boys celebrate with a cheerleader tunnel after the game.

A quick team picture since the next set of 7th grade teams wanted to take the field. Ryan is on the front row to the far right (#52)

It was the boys' best played game of the season and they were all thrilled with the victory. Now we go into a playoff system (kind of) where we play the 1st & 2nd place teams from the other 7th grade division over the next two weeks.

Weekend Update...

It would be funny if I could come up with SNL Weekend Update type of captions for these pictures but I can't think of any and I'm just not that funny :)

Megan has finally "checked off" on the 150 or so cheers/chants required to get on the sidelines at football games. We went to the Blue Valley complex Friday night to watch her cheer. She's on the end in the row closest to the field. It was cold so they wore their wind suits.
Ryan had a busy, but fun weekend. He went to his friend's Bat Mitzvah on Saturday. I made him pose for a picture before going to the ceremony. Ryan's not much of a "poser" (unlike his sister) so I don't have many photos of him. I'm starting to force him to hold still for pictures. Megan has always said "take my picture" whereas Ryan has never uttered those words :)

Here's Ryan posing (again cause I made him) for a picture before going to Lani's Bat Mitzvah party. It was a dinner/dance at a country club. Megan taught Ryan how to slow dance before he left. He said it was fun & he's glad Megan gave him dancing tips.

Ryan had a football game on Sunday. We won 36 to 12 but it was 20 to 12 early in the 3rd quarter. This team wasn't very good but we fumbled twice to give them the ball on the 20 yard line both times. I'm so relieved we won or my boys would have been really mad. The team has only lost once this season and has 4 wins.

Happy Ryan after the football game! Looks like he might need a haircut soon Amy :)

Ryan's team plays next Saturday's game at the KC Chiefs youth football field. We've never played there before but I'm assuming it will be a nice field. I'll post some pictures of that game too.