Cross Country Meet at Panther Creek

Well, 7th grade volleyball ended last week & before it was over, the kids were practicing for cross country. Anyone is allowed to practice & they do not make cuts, but they have a time trial every week & only the top 14 girls & boys get to race in the weekly meet. We found out Tuesday morning that Sadie made the cut & then 2 days later they had their first meet at Panther Creek High School. There were 5 schools so there were probably around 75 girls competing in her age group:

She started our strong & was at the front of the pack - can you see her? She was easy to find because she wears 2 knee bands on both knees. It was our first cross country meet so we didn't know what we were doing or where to watch them. We did get the map before hand & were walking around with the other parents trying to figure out where they were. Thankfully we got to see her several times on the course:

You could tell she was tired! She is used to running from soccer, but not like this. The course was 1.9 miles, hilly, & they had to run through mud. Apparently she got knocked down along the way too. But she rallied & finished strong & we could not have been prouder:

I'm not sure this is her favorite sport, but they only have 4 meets so I am sure she will stick it out & hopefully each one gets easier now that she knows what to expect. Griffin took 1st place in 7th grade boys & girls and 8th grade boys. Sadie placed 12th overall out of 75! So proud of our Lady Gator!

Quick side note - even though it was the end of October, it was 92 degrees during their race. Ugh. It was miserable & the heat didn't help. I am hoping their next one will be cooler. Thankfully Sophie had a prime chilling on ice to help cool her down:

Ninja Nation 2024

Sophie's school did Raise Craze again this year for their annual fall fundraiser & since we met our financial goal, the kids got to celebrate with Ninja Nation again. Thankfully I am room mom for Sophie's final year of elementary so I got to go up there early & help her class get ready - can you tell their house color is blue this year?!

Isom's Inchworms were ready to go! And thank goodness we had perfect weather this year. I mean, it was a little hot, but at least it didn't rain:

I tried to take a few action shots of her on the course:

Of course her favorite was the climbing wall & she did make it to the top a couple of times:

As much as I have griped about elementary school this year & how we are ready to have both girls in middle school, I will miss a few events like these & hanging out with her & her friends:

October - Pink Out

In honor of breast cancer awareness, the girls have had a lot of pink out this month. They started the month with walk to school on pink out day. Sophie's friend, Sutton, invited everyone over early for pink donuts to celebrate & walk to school together:

Griffin had walk to school also, but it wasn't pink out. We invited her friends over to our house & we had donuts for them also:

These girls all play volleyball & their pink out game was their very last volleyball game against our rival school:

Sophie's football team also had a pink out game:

For some reason most of the siblings were there this weekend so it was fun seeing all of them running around & playing together. We even got a sibling picture:

We happened to play a few boys from their school so it was fun seeing them also:

We've had a lot of pink this month but we are ready for Halloween! Bring on the orange & black!

Texas-OU Red River Rivalry 2024

When we got the girls' sports schedules earlier this fall, I noticed right away that neither girl had a soccer game on Texas-OU weekend. What?! Neither had a volleyball game either. Technically, Sophie had a football game but we figured we could miss cheering one game to go to the red river rivalry:

We take the girls to the fair every year and we have been to the game several times, but the girls had never been to this game so they had no idea what we were taking them to! Unfortunately, it was a 2:00 game so we got there around lunchtime & it was hot already. We went & grabbed some fair food to hold us over before the game:

and then we headed inside the stadium to find our seats:

We loved all of the pre-game festivities:

Then it was game time! We let the girls go off on their own to get snacks & they came back with this huge bag of orange popcorn:

We won, which was exciting, but to be honest, we didn't look that good & it wasn't a very exciting game. But we still celebrated afterwards:

After the game we walked around the fair:

and went to visit Big Tex, of course!

We ate more fair food & let the girls ride a few rides. Sophie chose the swings (no surprise there - she either chooses the swings or the ferris wheel!)

and if you zoom in, you will see Sadie hanging upside down on the loop up there:

Even though it was a hot day, it was perfect that night:

We had a few tickets left so the girls got to choose 1 game before we left & they won! I don't know how I didn't get a picture but we came home with a huge, blue stuffed animal that is as big as they are:

We had such a great day together & I'm glad the girls finally got to experience their first Texas OU game - definitely a check mark on the Longhorn bucket list!