Madison's 5th Grade Basketball Season

Madison had a blast playing basketball this year. We weren't sure what to expect because she hasn't wanted to play it since her 2nd grade year in Pella, but it turned out great.

Her class is a very athletic class and they had 15 girls out (they have 19 girls in the 5th grade). It's great to see so much interest in the sport!

Since there were no 8th graders out, the 7th graders had to play both 7th and 8th, which then caused some of the 6th graders to have to play up with the 7th grade team. That left only three 6th grade girls to play their gams so our 5th graders were split into three groups of five and rotated playing the 6th grade games. It was a little crazy, but it all worked out.

After watching the first game, we reminded ourselves that they were only 5th graders and the main thing was to see how they improved from their first game to their last game :) It's easy to watch and say, "Why didn't they do this?" or "They should've been looking to throw it inside." or many other things that are going on in the game.

As the season continued, the girls were feeling more comfortable out there and doing a few more things that showed things were clicking a little more. They still have a ways to go, but they are only 10 and 11-year olds and have 7 years of basketball left!

Madison looking for the ball.

Playing point guard during part of one game.

Don't look at her face Madison, watch the ball and WANT it :)

Madison could've totally stolen the ball from this girl a few times if she tried. The girl was standing straight up and not guarding the ball at all while dribbling. Something to work on for next year.

And on the floor fighting for the ball! Love it!

The girls also had some great coaches that really wanted to be there and wanted to help the girls do their best. That's always a great thing to see, especially since it was all volunteer time for them.

I can't wait to watch these girls as the years go on. There is a lot of talent within them and they're going to be an amazing team to follow as they get older. I get excited thinking about it. Go Knights!

Noah's Fall Soccer Season

Noah absolutely loves playing soccer. He and his neighbor friend are playing it together whenever there is a free moment. We missed out on letting Noah play last fall because of the timing of our move from Pella to Normal so it was great seeing him get back into things this fall.

Noah was lucky enough to be on the same team as his friend that lives next door to us. Like I said before, they are playing soccer all the time!

Trying to save the ball from going out of bounds, but wasn't quite quick enough.

Noah turned into a more aggressive player throughout the season.

He was a lot of fun to watch!

Can't wait until spring soccer rolls around and we see how things progress even more. Great season, Noah!

Epiphany's 1st Annual Pumpkin Dash

Wow! What an experience it is to plan a race. So many things to take care of that you don't think about until you start planning. Something was always coming up.

It all started when I brought up the idea last spring to a couple of people at school. I started looking into things over the summer, but had been so busy with softball/baseball season, that I let it go for the time being.

Then after having coffee with my running group late summer, we started talking about it again. And from that day forward, it was a go!

My friend, Amanda Sanders, brought up the awesome idea of having the race close to Halloween and people could dress up in costume if they chose to. It would be something different than the other races.

We only had a couple of months to really plan this thing so we decided to make it low budget and more of a community event for our school and church. We also decided to hold it out at the junior high XC course because it was available, free and the trees would look great for the time of year we were holding our race.

With the late planning, we couldn't get the Lake Run Club to do the timing because of all their other commitments, but we were able to secure a time clock so people could see their time as they strolled across the finish line. We awarded the top male and top female finishers. We also awarded best adult costume and best kids costume.

Below is what was given as awards (trophies) along with a gift card that was donated by one of our sponsors! An Epiphany parent did an amazing job decorating the pumpkins for us!

We had a few sponsors who helped provide food/drink, rewards for prize winners and goodie bags for the kids run. They are so great for helping out and keeping our race costs to almost nothing (except the shirts). Thank you to The Rock Restaurant, Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Dr. Brett Keller from Central Illinois Orthopedic Surgery!

It turned out to be a great little event. Monsignor Powell even showed up in his Moses costume to "part the Red Sea" at the start for our runners :)

Epiphany Catholic's principal, Mike Lootens, also showed up to run with everyone. We had such great support from our administration and the families that had come to enjoy our fun run/kids run with us!

Sean and I are already thinking of some great ideas to make next year's event even better. It'll be nice that there aren't so many unknowns since I've been through the planning process once now.

Thanks to everyone who helped plan the race and to the the ones who donated their time or talents to help get things ready to make this event a successful one. I just love my church and school community!!!

Halloween Weekend

Wow, what a FULL weekend of activities! I think we were pretty wiped by the end of the weekend and Sean thinks we can skip next year after doing so much this year. The kids would beg to differ.

We started things off with a Halloween party on Friday evening at a friend's house. The hostess made chili for everyone and the rest of us brought a side dish/dessert. She had all kinds of fun games planned for the kids. I wish we could've stayed longer, but I had to run out to pick up a time clock for the race the next day.

The next morning we had Epiphany's First Annual Pumpkin Dash, which I'll talk about more in a separate blog post.

We came home to rest that afternoon for a little bit before having to head out to Trunk or Treat at church. We missed out last year so we decided to check things out this year. The kids had a lot of fun and ran into plenty of their classmates from school.

Sunday was used as prep time for all the Halloween parties at school on Monday. It was also pumpkin carving night. Every year, Sean has the kids design what they want for a jack-o-lantern and he does his best to carve it for them. Below is what we came up with this year.

Mason and I showed up for Summer's preschool Halloween party on Monday morning. We had fun watching the kids play their games.

In the afternoon we headed into the elementary school to drop off M&M rice krispie bars for Madison's class and to help with Noah's class party. First thing to do was to help kids get their costumes on and then everything was kicked off with a Halloween parade. The kids all looked great!

Madison leading her class out of the school.

Noah's 2nd Grade Class

After a full day of excitement at school, it was time to hit the neighborhood!

The kids before heading out!

Madison chose to stay back this year and help Sean hand out candy to the kids. She wanted to see them all in their costumes. I took the other three around and after about 25 minutes, Summer and Mason were ready to go home. Sean drove around the block to come get them and it was amazing how quickly Noah took off from house to house without the younger two slowing him down :)

At the end of our trick-or-treating evening. Another fun evening down in the books!

Enjoying Harvest Season/Family in Iowa

My brother's 40th birthday was October 20th and we were heading back for the weekend to celebrate. Madison had a basketball game on the Thursday evening before and we decided to just pack up and head out afterwards for the 6 1/4 hour trip to my mom's house.

It was well worth driving late that night. We didn't roll into mom's driveway until 2:15 Friday morning, but we were able to lounge and take our time the next morning. The kids had a blast playing outside at the farm! They had so much fun finding things to do outside and they got to hang out with cousin Max who we don't see much.

Madison, Max and Noah showing their love for the Hawkeyes!

We then showered up and headed into the Carroll Health Center to visit my dad for a couple hours. He wasn't in his room when we got there and found him watching the entertainment for the day there: polka! Yes, you heard me. We listened to polka with him and enjoyed root beer floats. And the bonus was that he was in a good mood so it was really fun talking with him.

The kids taking a quick picture with Grandpa Hinners

After having dinner with my mom, we went over to Kurt & Jackie's house to hang out. The kids had a blast playing with each other and it was great having a few drinks and visiting.

Noah, Madison & Lexi being silly! Love your jersey Lexi!

Emma, Summer and Mason were up to no good :)

Saturday morning we headed into Lizzy's for all of us to get haircuts. When we finished up, the kids went outside to play for awhile.

Madison and Aubrey

I caught Madison loving up Rodney's horse, Doll, all weekend. I think we all fell in love with Doll! She's a beautiful horse!

Rodney and the guys made it over to mom's farm place with the combine, tractors and wagons later Saturday afternoon and the kids finally got their rides in the combine! They especially enjoyed getting in the wagon of corn to play in :)

Once we all had fun playing around in the field, we headed in so Sean and I could get ready to hit Rodney's 40th birthday party! It was at Jessie & Mike's bar (Route 30 Roadhouse) so we left a little early so we could grill our own steaks there before the party came into full swing. Then we got to enjoy Brad Morgan play music for us the rest of the evening. It was great catching up with everyone. I'm positive we all had a good time!

Above is myself with all my siblings! Always love getting to see them!

The next morning we took our time eating breakfast and packing things up and then started heading back to Illinois around 11. We got a quick picture of mom with the kids before leaving.

We were all pretty tired by the time we got back, but it was so worth it after getting to be around family all weekend! Love you guys!!!