Summit Volleyball - End of the Season

Last weekend Sophie's volleyball team had their last tournament, so not only was it the end of the season, but the end of her volleyball era with that team. Insert me crying here...... She has played with them for years! They started out as a rec team with a group of friends, eventually played competitively in the summer at Frisco Flyers, before their coach took them to Summit to join their club:

They played the past 2 years with Summit & they have had a pretty good team! They made it to the gold bracket almost every single tournament in those 2 years but unfortunately never took home the gold, but they got silver several times. Sophie has grown as a volleyball player & we have loved watching her play:

She absolutely loves all of the girls & we love their parents just as much - it really was a fun group of families to spend time with all those weekends at tournaments:

This was their last official team picture after their final tournament:

Unfortunately, the direction of this team might be going in a different way. A few of the girls are trying out for different clubs, Jessica is moving the team up to the regional level & is hosting open tryouts. It's been a tough decision for our family, but ultimately, we think Sophie has too much on her plate next year. She will finally play school sports & she hopes to play all 5, just like Sadie. She also made cheerleader which is additional practices & games on top of her athletic schedule, so I just don't think she has the time for 2 more practices a week for club volleyball. We would do it in a heartbeat if we could make it work because we hate to leave this team but ultimately, it's not fair to continue if Sophie can't commit to the time. But she is going to play school volleyball at Griffin so right now, that is our focus - helping her make the team!

After their last practice, we went to celebrate the end of the season with the girls & their families:

We had a cookie cake, Coach Jessica had awards for the girls & of course team gifts. We lucked out it with great weather & a fun night of celebrating:

Here's to Griffin & to all that this girl has to look forward to as a Lady Gator!

Life Lately - April

Life lately in April flew by! May 1 is this week & the girls only have a few more weeks of school. Don't get me wrong, we are ready for summer, I just can't believe it is already here! This spring has brought a lot of school & club soccer for Sadie:

Club volleyball for Sophie since we are in the process of wrapping up tournament season:

Sadie & Bryan went to Chicken 'N Pickle for a dad/daughter NCL event:

She has been an officer for NJHS all year & they inducted the new class for next year, so she got to be a part of the induction ceremony:

They are still really active in KLife & had a blast at their annual silent chicken dance:

Of course, these girls always have a birthday party or a sleepover whenever they can:

It's really been a fun spring so far & I am even more excited about all of the summer fun coming our way soon!

Derby Days - BLUE Girls' Retreat

This past weekend, our church had their annual girls' retreat for middle & high school. The senior girls plan it & come up with the theme & this year it was Derby Days:

Sadie had 2 soccer games this weekend, so we had planned for her to go back & forth, but thankfully a cold front blew in with a lot of rain, so she got to stay the entire weekend. Saturday night the girls dressed up for their derby dinner & I couldn't help but laugh when I saw their camera roll:

Sadie's group took a bunch of group photos, but apparently Sophie had her own photo shoot. Ha!

Her group decided to all wear blue dresses:

The retreat ended after church on Sunday, but it was baptism Sunday & one of the girls in Sadie's group got baptized so they were all excited to celebrate with her:

What did Bryan & I do for the weekend by ourselves? Well, we had a workday around the house on Saturday and got a few things done, but then we went to dinner downtown Saturday night because it was our 22nd anniversary. Can you believe it?!

Turned out to be a wonderful weekend all around. Cheers to 22 more years Bryan!

Easter 2026

Easter weekend was very relaxing this year and a much-needed break for our family! We had Saturday free, so Sadie had signed up to ref several soccer games, but the weather decided not to cooperate. Instead, I woke up early to a rainy, cooler & dreary day and let the 3 of them sleep in. I pivoted & cooked a big Easter brunch and hid eggs around the house so the girls would have a surprise when they woke up. Apparently, the surprise was on me because Sadie slept until 1:45 that afternoon! It was a fun egg hunt and took the girls a while to find all of the eggs so I'm glad we did it Saturday instead of Sunday before church. 

They still had a surprise on Easter morning though:

They are never too old for Easter baskets! Especially when they are filled with goodies for spring & summer:

Thankfully the rain moved out & we woke up to beautiful weather for Easter Sunday:

After we all got ready, we headed to church, which was very exciting because it has been under construction for the past year & our new worship building officially opened that morning. An even bigger reason to celebrate!

It was a fantastic morning seeing friends, celebrating Jesus in our new church and with perfect weather!

Afterwards we went to Bryan's parents and spent the afternoon eating & visiting with family. All around a great weekend together & so much to celebrate. He is risen!

Cotillion Grand Spring Ball 2026

Now that it's April, I feel like some things are finally starting to wrap up already. The first being cotillion:

Sophie has been attending their classes since August but they just had their final session with the Grand Spring Ball last week:

Her group had the late session so we met friends for dinner before and then headed to the Embassy Suites to meet everyone else:

We saw a lot of friends, from the session before & from our session from schools all over Frisco:

All of the girls looked so pretty in their white dresses! We stayed at the hotel and had drinks with friends but thankfully we had a few moms volunteer so they were able to take pictures of the kids during the ball:

They had cake & punch and then went through all of the dances they learned all season. Apparently, Sophie even won one of the dance competitions:

They let the parents in the last 30 minutes and we took turns doing a few dances with them but then it was really just picture time with all of our friends and family:

It was a fun night for all of us. Even though Sophie said she didn't like going, I personally think she had a great time but for now, it's one less thing on the calendar. So proud of all of these girls & the young women they are becoming: