FFL Finale

After 7 years of cheerleading for the FFL, Sophie's season finally came to an end last week. She literally started cheering in kindergarten & has cheered every fall since then. The weekend before Halloween, they were all set to perform their dad & daughter halloween routine for halftime and this year it was troll themed:

Obviously, the girls were Princess Poppy & the dads were Papa Troll. They had practiced all week & we got to the game early for them to practice some more. Of course, we took lots of pictures before the game & you can see the weather in the background:

We have a photographer on the team, and she was taking pictures of everyone, so I didn't take any so imagine my disappointment when this is the only picture I found of my 2:

Oh geez. It happened to be the perfect weekend that wasn't too busy so most of the siblings were there also:

We literally got there an hour early & the weather continued to get worse so of course when it was our time to play, there was lightening. And then it started to rain. We ended up spending at least an hour sitting in our car waiting for the storm to pass so we could finally start the game. And we eventually did, much later. But not all of our girls stayed, and it was a mess outside so needless to say, they just cheered & didn't do their planned performance. Such a bummer!

Thankfully we made up for it the next weekend. It may have been the day after Halloween but the weather was perfect, so we went for round 2:

And this time I remembered to take a picture of my little trolls:

That was our last official regular season game & then the next weekend we played in the first playoff game. These boys were ready to go & so were the fans:

Unfortunately, it was a long & disappointing game. Lots of penalties, lots of flags, a few injuries & even a player & a parent were ejected. We were tied 6-6 the entire game & they literally scored in the last 1 1/2 minutes of the game for the win. It was kind of heartbreaking losing that way. The next night, their coaches had our cheer banquet & they went all out:

It was so fun to see them all dressed up:

We had a private room at an Italian restaurant where we all got to eat, visit, watch a slideshow, see the awards presentation & they got their final team gift, which was the cutest blanket with their cheer picture on it. Sophie LOVED it:

We couldn't be prouder of Sophie for seeing her commitment to cheer all the way through. Not only does she love doing it with her friends, but we have seen big improvement in her also:

and a big thank you to her coaches the past 3 years - Liz & Misty for making the girls who they are. They have really learned a lot from them & I am thankful she will take that knowledge & apply it to middle school cheer tryouts in the spring:

Farewell FFL - While we will miss watching her cheer, I am excited to have part of my weekend back!

8th Grade Cross Country

This fall is flying by & I don't think I've kept up very well on our blog. Volleyball wrapped up at the end of October while cross country simultaneously started at the same time. It is a short season, but they finished tonight. There were 3 regular meets the last 3 Wednesdays & the weather couldn't have been better this season:

Their first 3 meets were at different schools & we always see lots of friends along the way. I love it whenever we get pictures from friends who see her on the course:

That's our friend Adalyn running beside her in the yellow penny:

This is one of my favorite pictures as she sprints towards the finish line:

Lots of celebrating when the race is actually over:

because this is the picture I found on her phone on her way to their first meet:

Ha ha! I don't know if any of them really love to run, but they all do it for conditioning. Most of them are basketball or soccer players. 

Tonight they had their last meet, which was the FISD district meet at Warren Sports Complex. It was a little over 2 miles & definitely more of a cross country course with a few hills. Beautiful day but I think we broke a record for heat this late in November. It was 86. Sadie showed up ready to run with 180 of her peers:

Yep, that's just 8th grade girls. There were 18 schools & each school could bring their top 10. Somehow, she made it through the crowd, sprinted at the end & got 21st place:

I think she was disappointed she didn't crack the top 20, but still 21 out of 180?! I think that is amazing! She definitely beat her place & time from last year. Afterwards, she had fun celebrating with friends from other schools & then we stayed to watch the boy's race:

 So proud of her & all that she gives. Can you imagine going to cross country practice after school, then straight to basketball tryouts followed by club soccer practice that night?! I am exhausted just thinking about it. All of these girls did amazing & I am excited another sport wrapped up so we can move on to the next - basketball, here we come!

Halloween 2025

We may have 2 daughters in middle school, but that didn't stop them from being kids at heart & wanting to trick or treat this past weekend! Did anyone else love that Halloween was on a Friday night?! I felt like it was way more than normal - more trick or treaters, more parties & an even later night! I'll start with Sadie because I don't have much to report on. Ha! She invited 6 friends over, so I had snacks & they got ready together. I left while most of them were arriving & unfortunately, this is the only picture I found on Sadie's phone of her or her friends:

Can you tell who they are? Disney princesses! Sadie is Cinderella & her friend is Snow White. They did walk around the neighborhood & trick or treat some, but mostly they met up with friends & stopped by a party. Thank goodness a few friends sent me pictures throughout the night:

Sophie got ready at home by herself & thankfully we were able to get a picture or her before she headed out:

She LOVES Dr. Pepper, so her & her friend came up with the idea of being Dr. Pepper cowgirls. And Bryan? I think his shirt & hat speak for itself. Ha!

We went to one of her friend's house for a pre-party where we met up with all of her friends. She had an awesome CharBOOterie spread:

Once all of their friends got there, we took a few pictures of the girls:

and the moms:

That's what happens when you have a friend who is a photographer. She is always staging us!

Eventually, the girls went out on their own so after we visited for a while, Bryan & I went home to pass out candy. We saw both of the girls eventually when they stopped by our house, but for the most part, they both stayed out for several hours:

Blake & Sophie came home first & had fun drinking their Dr. Pepper & trading candy:

Sadie had a late night with her friends, but they both had sleepovers & thank goodness no one had early games Saturday morning, so everyone got to sleep in. Such a fun Halloween weekend!