U-S-A!

We made it!

Last weekend, we ventured to Chicago to catch the last friendly between the US and Germany before the start of the World Cup. We had been planning on going to a World Cup game this year but when those ticket prices came out, we decided to do just the friendly game. Those World Cup prices are insane! Even our nosebleed seats for just the friendly cost us almost $1k!

The traffic was also insane. It took us 2.5 hours to get from our home to our seats causing us to miss part of the first half too. We arrived just before the US's goal so that was fun. Stadium was sold out too. We really enjoyed seeing Christian Pulisic play and of course knew more than a few Germany players from watching the Premier League (well, at least Austen and I did). 

What I didn't realize until I was watching the game was how much I really missed watching soccer. With Austen not playing anymore and always watching it, I didn't really see too many soccer games this year. And, until this point, I didn't really miss it. Maybe I did that subconsciously. If I watched more of them maybe I knew I would miss it too much. 

Excited to watch the World Cup starting today! I think I can get my fill of soccer with 104 games to watch over the course of a 6-week period! Hopefully that will last me all year!

Cute 'fit'

Our nosebleed seats that cost us $1k

 

Last Day of School!

6th Grade - Done!

That's a wrap on grades 6th and 10th for Hailey and Peyton, and freshman year of college for Austen. 

They all had a great year overall and handled the many changes in our lives pretty well with Austen heading to college and all of us moving to a new home.  

I was particularly proud of Hailey this year since she was the most resistant to change. She did not want to move and she did not want to go to middle school. But she embraced the change well, made lots of new friends and absolutely loves middle school (what girl says that?). She has friends in our new neighborhood too from her school so she loves how she can go back and forth between her friends in Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills easily walking or riding her bike to meet up with them. She also did a great job in school of managing her assignments, advocating for herself and studying for tests. She transitioned super well and I'm happy that as the last of my three kids, I can say that I never had to be on top of any of them to get their assignments in on time, do their homework or study. They all have exceptional executive functioning skills for which I am grateful!

10th Grade - Complete!

Peyton grew a lot this year as a person especially second semester - once she started driving! Freedom! She's been a little nicer to Hailey as well as definitely more focused on her grades in getting into the college that she wants to attend. She maintained excellent grades all semester and while we don't know all of her final grades just yet, it looks like she is going to have one exceptional semester GPA which is a huge confidence booster for her especially the "A" we know she earned in Honors Trig. She's on track to be part of National Honor Society next year (like Austen) as well as was selected to be a "Link Crew" leader to help orient new kids and freshman at the high school next year. 

Goodbye Bromley Hall/Best Room

And, what can I say about Austen's freshman year at Illinois? It's everything you'd want it to be for your kid who goes off to college. He had the best year. Made so many new friends. Joined a fraternity. Played a little soccer (but lots of other sports too). Studied hard but probably drank harder (sigh). He absolutely loved it. What he didn't love though was the food at his dining hall. He officially lost almost five pounds during his freshman year. Now, he probably has less muscle from not playing as much soccer as he did last year but really who goes away to college and loses weight?!! I'm hoping that next year he joins the club soccer team so he can gain some of that muscle back and stay busy so he doesn't have as much time to go out! Tom said his classes are going to get harder so he definitely won't have as much time next year. Fingers crossed! I like busy Austen! But he did do well in school and is looking forward to living in the fraternity next year with a new roommate (his old roommate and him are still the best of friends after a year at Illinois together but decided to not join a fraternity so he could live in an apartment). 

Onto 7th and 11th grades for Hailey and Peyton, and sophomore year for Austen but first SUMMER!

All cleaned out and ready to go home!