Snowball Challenge & February Frenzie

Sophie is still in the middle of volleyball season & they had 2 tournaments in February. We are now 3 tournaments in & these sweet girls have won their pool bracket in 1st place for all 3 tournaments! They are doing better than we could have ever imagined & to top it off, we have Liz who has been amazing & documenting it along the way:

They got knocked out in the 2nd game of the snowball challenge once they made it bracket play but it was still a fun day:

This past weekend they made it all the way to the championship game & lost in the 3 set, 15-13! They were so close to winning but we are still celebrating 2nd place:

One of the fun traditions we have learned at volleyball tournaments is the clothespin challenge. All of the girls decorate clothespins & then you secretly go around at the tournaments & clip your pins on other girls bags. Our girls had fun making their clothespins before practice one day:

and then passing them out at the tournament:

2 more months of tournament season & we are loving something different compared to outdoor soccer. Can't wait to see where girls go the rest of the season!

Life Lately - February with Sadie

For some reason I have a lot of random pictures of Sadie from the past month so this post will be a catch up on her. She finished basketball season at school, but the boys in her grade were still playing outside of school, so all of the girls have had fun going to their games:

Their regular soccer league slows down during the winter so a few of the girls played futsal. They were excited to play until they realized the didn't have a goalie, so the girls had to take turns playing it. Surprisingly, Sadie actually played very well in the goal & was not afraid at all:

We didn't get a picture of the whole team but here she is with a few of her friends after their last game:

I posted their media pictures earlier this year but I don't think I ever posted their team media photo:

Besides sports, she has also been busy with NCL. After her last soccer game, we went straight to the Senior Recognition, which was a lot of fun. Even though Sadie was in her soccer uniform & everyone else was dressed up:

She also loves going to FCA & KLife:

I love how active she is with school, social clubs, church & sports. I am quite impressed with how well she manages it all & so proud of the girl she has become in middle school!

Valentine's 2024

We started the Valentine celebrating early this year because it fell on a Friday & the girls were out of school, so Sophie had her class party on Thursday. It's been a tradition at our school to share the love for Valentine's & have the 5th graders participate in a service project, specifically with FastPacs. We organized a food drive for the weeks leading up to the party & thankfully our community provided:

I took the lead on this since I volunteer with FastPacs every week anyway. The kids had their party in the gym & we pulled one class in at a time to help pack the bags. Of course I used Sophie as our example:

After they packed their bags & loaded the truck, they headed to the gym for the rest of their party. They had games, a snack table, a craft table & a flower table where they could make a Valentine with their carnation to give to the person of their choice:

I actually never went in there, so I missed the whole party because I was in the cafeteria helping with FastPacs, but thankfully my friends' shared pictures with me:

They had a cute backdrop for pictures so thankfully before the party was over, we got a group shot with the other room moms:

She was so excited when we got home to go through her Valentine's from her friends. She was super creative & made a vending machine for her friends to deposit their treats:

On Friday, Sophie got invited to a Galentine party with a few of her friends:

I politely reminded Sophie to enjoy all of the Valentine fun while she could because it would be the last year she would celebrate at school! However, Sadie lucked out because KLife held their annual Main Event Mania on Thursday night, so she had a blast hanging out there all night with a bunch of friends from school:

On Friday, her Valentine came over & surprised her with flowers:

They both had gifts for each other & side note, I believe this is the first time she has gotten flowers from a boy that was not her father!

Then they went to Chiller Bee to get fro-yo:

That night, we all stayed home & celebrated Valentine's as a family with a nice steak dinner & movie night. It was actually a busy day so it was kind of nice to have an evening at home just the 4 of us. Sadie & I even made peanut butter chocolate lava cakes that were heart shaped for dessert. Loved celebrating the holiday with our family together!

Life Lately - January

Let's wrap up the month with the random photo dump of pictures left over starting with Sadie. I don't think I ever posted this but for Sadie's 13th birthday, we gifted her an experience to get her 2nd holes in her ears pierced! She has been asking for the past year, so we finally surprised her. But we had to wait for their last basketball game before the winter break so she would have a few weeks off from sports for them to heal:

She happened to be wearing these cross earrings the day she got them pierced but usually she wears a small silver hoop in her original hole with the silver ball in her second. 

A random picture at the boys' last home basketball game:

She went to church with a friend one Wednesday night & a sleepover at a friend's house:

She went to D-Now for a weekend retreat at our church again:

I never posted that we did go to the Cotton Bowl. Sophie didn't want to go but Sadie went with us. We had a great time, even though we lost:

Finally, I am super proud of Sadie for meeting a goal & getting officially licensed to be a US soccer referee! She had to take about 6 hours of online training, so she knocked most of it out during out winter snowstorm when they got a few days out of school & then she went to an in-person clinic this weekend which lasted about 4 hours:

She has talked about being a ref for years, but you have to be 13 so I am so excited she did it & will get to start reffing later this month & make a little money along with it!

Sophie got to be spirit captain at GMP with her friends this month:

Sadie's NCL class went to see Legally Blonde, so I let Sophie come & she invited a friend. I think they enjoyed it more than Sadie!

She also had a play date with a few friends & her friend's mom just opened her orthodontic practice, so they went to check out her new office & then a week later I went with my girlfriends for the ribbon cutting. Her office looks amazing & I would highly recommend to anyone in the Prosper area:

Finally, the girls had to pick their classes for school next year. Sophie had to choose her fine art elective & just like her sister, she chose band. We went to try out all of the instruments last week & she chose percussion as 1 & flute as number 2 so we'll find out in the next month what she gets assigned:

We are so excited for her to be a Griffin Gator next year!