Daddy Daughter Dance 2023

It's back. The Daddy Daughter Dance that used to be sponsored by the Girl Scouts at our elementary school and have these elaborate balloon displays is finally back after a 3 year hiatus due to COVID. 

Even though she's in the 3rd grade, Hailey finally got to partake in it (Peyton missed her 4th and 5th grade years due to COVID).

The theme was Candyland but aside from a few kids no one really dressed to theme as in years past. Perhaps the themes were easier to come up with an outfit for or maybe no one knew you were supposed to dress to the them. In fact, since so many of the kids had never experienced a Daddy Daughter Dance before they really didn't get all that dressed up period. 

Hailey did look very cute though in her new dress (which doubled for Easter; look familiar?). She received a corsage from Tom in her favorite color (orange) and off she went to go dance and get silly with her friends. 

Tom said it wasn't as nice as it used to be (probably because the parents who used to plan it cycled out of the elementary school already and the newbies didn't really know how elaborate it used to be). Still they had two photo booths with props which were a huge hit with the kids. A deejay was also present as well as lots of candy, and the kids, especially the younger ones didn't really know the difference.

The kids mostly danced and hung out together while the Dads congregated together and chatted about past dances or caught up on each other's lives. 

There was no after dance ice cream at Oberweis like with Peyton's friends and their Dads. So they were home earlier than usual but I think Hailey still enjoyed her time with her Dad.

Ready to go!

Having fun in the photo booth!

Easter 2023

April was a busy month of activities including Easter which in all of my efforts to chronicle my kids' lives  got put on the back burner while other topics bubbled to the surface. 

Easter 2023

Now I must remember all that we did for Easter and that was more than a month ago! The kids had lots of candy in their Easter baskets and each had something fun too. The Easter Bunny sent them on a treasure hunt to find their Easter baskets where they to read a trivia question about each other and tried to discern which was the correct answer to find their next clue. Austen could barely remember his Kindergarten teacher's name or his license plate number while Hailey had trouble remembering the boy she had a crush on when she was 4 (there were so many it was hard to come up with the right name) and Peyton stumbled on what her room in the city had (a bullet in the wall). 

But the kids' had fun working together to try and solve the trivia questions and they eventually found their Easter baskets flush with candy. Austen also got a new golf shirt, Peyton got a pair of these flowy pool blue shorts that she wanted and Hailey got a recently released book in a series that she is reading. 

After church, we went to the first Grandma's house for brunch and our annual Easter egg hunt. We were missing Papa and Uncle Mickey due to COVID but it was still good to carry on the traditions. Hailey won the hunt and a $50 gift card. Peyton and Hailey got Easter baskets with more candy, swimsuits and bath bombs in them. (High schoolers and above age out of Easter baskets.)

We took a quick trip home to let out and feed Sadie and then we were gone again to the other Grandma's house for an early dinner. 

It was a long day but worth it to see family. As we've experienced recently, life is too short so you must try to see everyone when you can. 

The hunt in Grandma's backyard

They made finding Austen's egg much harder

The cousins are off!

Hailey reading the letter from EB

Peyton finds a clue

Peyton Tries Track

Shot Put!

This spring, Peyton was very excited to participate in her middle school’s track team. Now she should have great cardio fitness due to all that swimming she does so I encouraged her to participate in the longer runs if she could. But she really wanted to do the shorter distances (minus the hurdles). 

She went to practice and just a few days before her first track meet and the day before she gets assigned what events she will run, she tells me she pulls a quad muscle in gym class and she can’t run or participate in gym. Her texts are non stop throughout the day. I tell her to take some advil and stretch it out. She tells me it really hurts. These texts back and forth all day are grating on my nerves as she shouldn’t be texting me at all during the day or especially not this much. She’s not even allowed her phone in class but she now has an Apple watch so it gives her access to me and her phone now. Ugh! 

I encourage her to still go to practice that afternoon and to practice any stationary events she can do like the shot put. She does but comes home all bummed that she won’t be running any events for this first meet. She’s going to do shot put and I tell her that’s a great event for a swimmer with a lot of upper body strength. Nevertheless, she’s still bummed.

Meet comes, I’m there for at least two hours to watch her do the shot put. She does well and secures a 17 feet and 3 inch throw. Not bad. She beats out her teammates at least. 

By the next meet she’s healed and can run. She’s going to do 3 running events. Tom and I are both there to see her run the 100 yard dash before the meet gets canceled due to a storm. Next and only meet is a home meet at Austen’s high school. Looking forward to this one but it gets canceled due to field/track availability due to rescheduled rain outs for the high school girls soccer team. Next up is now the conference meet. She’s only participated in two events and is not guaranteed an event for conference. Somehow she secures an invite to the shot put and the 100 yard relay. 

Tom and I are both there to see her shot put and she records a 17 yard and 7 inch score but it’s not enough to come back for the finals the next day. She runs the 3rd leg of the relay and her team gets disqualified for leaving too early (not her) so despite their second place finish in their heat they don’t make the finals either. 

It was a quick track season hampered by rain, storms and injuries. I'm glad she tried it but track is sort of like swimming, lots of waiting around for your kid to run a few quick events. She didn’t love it like she thought she would but she really did love riding the bus to the meets and the social aspect of joining the track team. So that’s definitely a positive. Austen did volleyball and cross country in middle school and so far Peyton has done cheer and track. Always good to be part of your school and try new things. Congrats to P! 

Making His Mark

Austen has recently begun thinking about college including what he thinks he wants to major in. This year, he took an honors engineering class and loved it. We thought he should focus on schools with engineering so Tom started asking him questions about types of engineering. Tom would say do you like this? And, Austen would answer, no, I like to do this. Then Tom would say, that's architecture Austen. This went on for several minutes with different questions and Tom's same answer, "that's architecture, Austen." So while he never really expressed any interest in architecture now we had to shift gears and start thinking architecture. 

He is already signed up for an honors architecture class next year but it also meant finding out which colleges actually offer an architecture program (not many) and then couple that with the fact that he wants to play college soccer and that list gets incredibly narrowed. Not to mention that he likely won't even be allowed by a coach to pursue that major (maybe at a D3) due to the rigorous course load. 

As a funny aside, Hailey got wind of Austen wanting to pursue architecture and she was like, "What?" He can't be an architect! I want him to be famous!" We had no idea what she was talking about? So she elaborated. "He's supposed to be a great soccer player and be famous!" she said.  We laughed that that's how she sees her brother even though she hates going to his games and if Peyton stays home, she doesn't really even come anymore. 

He's not going to be famous for soccer but he just may have a chance to play college soccer. Recently, during school he received an email saying that had been named to ProScore's "Best XI" from his National League PRO  games. National League PRO is a very selective league with teams from all over the nation competing for a chance at the National title. Austen played his games over the course of essentially two weekends away (FL and AZ). So 6 brackets of 8 teams in each with roughly 18 kids rostered on each team so a pool of about 864 players. ProScore is some computer generated system that tracks players through game film and essentially puts together their stats and then names the best 11 players so Austen gets the email that he's been named to this team. Apparently, he didn't think anything of it but all the players also follow this ProScore Instagram feed so his teammates notice he's been named and Austen starts receiving messages and screenshots from them. He comes home excited to tell me. I think it's cool that he's happy but don't really understand the magnitude of it until one of our parent's who is President of our club and has an older kid playing takes me aside at a recent game and says, you do know that's a big thing, right? I don't really know how big it is but then she proceeds to tell me the few names in the club (older boys) who have been named and they are all going D1 this year or next. I say, that I thought he played well but not exceptional in some of those games and she said well, ProScore is not subjective. It analyzes him and his stats so it's pretty accurate and pretty spot on with identifying top players. Wow. I didn't know and neither did Austen. It's a good confidence booster for him going into his junior year and the height of the recruitment season.

And, that's why he may ultimately decide not pursue architecture. He joined the Investment Club at school and is really thinking about majoring in business now because it casts a wider net of schools for him with soccer - and this kid just really wants to continue to play the sport that he's loved since he can remember. 

So he's putting in the work. He's created a list of possible schools with soccer and architecture (D1 and D3); schools with soccer and business (D1 and D3); and schools that he may just want to go to without playing competitively (maybe just club soccer). He has a highlight reel on YouTube and a soccer resume. He's emailed coaches and invited them to his games. D3s have started to respond since they can talk to him anytime. D1s have to wait until mid-June since he's only a sophomore unless they are just inviting him to their ID camp. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love the game. It would be great for him if he could play college soccer but it doesn't matter to me if he plays in college or not. I just want him to go to a college he loves and pursue the career he wants and of course to be happy and have fun. Isn't that all we want for our kids? 

Our club's repost of "Best XI"

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