Parks Parks and More Parks

Since we have been having such nice weather in January, Matt and I decided to research the top ten parks and trails in the KC Metro area and try to visit every one of them. Two weekends ago, we went to one in Parkville Missouri and fell in love with the town. Last weekend, we visited Penguin Park in Kansas City Missouri. It was a really cool park and the girls had a great time there.

Maddie's Game

Last weekend I was finally able to get a little video clip of Maddie during her game. I had a wii tournament for work so I only made it there for the last quarter. As soon as I got there, everyone told me that Maddie scored a basket in the first quarter. I was so sad that I missed her first and what could possibly be her only basket of the season, ha!! Here is the clip, it's nothing too special but she is definitely having fun out there!

Maddie is #13 in the light blue. What I think is so funny about this is at the very end of this clip, you will notice how she starts skipping back down the court.

Kynzie's Pie

Matt took Maddie on a date so Kynzie and I stayed home and made a pie. She was so proud and wanted me to take a picture of her with her pie. You can't see it very well, but her lips were covered with chocolate cookie crums.

Maddie's Basketball

I tried to get her to be number 10 but she insisted on 13

It's FINALLY HERE! Basketball season has started and so far it's been fun yet surprisingly challenging. That is.....fun for Maddie, challenging for me, haha! I'm helping coach her team so I haven't been able to get any pictures of her on the court yet but I will try and get some video footage soon. So far we have played 3 games and won our first but lost our last two. Maddie is improving slowly but surely. I have to remind myself that she is only in first grade and it's okay if she doesn't have one competitive bone in her body :). So far, I've witnessed her doing cartwheels in warm up, skipping down the court during a game, handing the ball to a girl who was trying to steal the ball from her and smiling as she runs down the court dribbling the ball looking at me on the bench and mouthing the words "am I doing good?" Oh and last game I finally got her to shoot the ball and some really tall girl stuffed it right back down. Meanwhile I sit on the bench and try and bite my tongue and smile and tell her how awesome she is doing. HAHA! On the positive, she still says she likes basketball, she gets out there every game with a smile on her face and seems to be having lots of fun. Oh and she looks really cute too :)

Our big SCORE

Matt has been going on Craigslist lately just to browse and see if anything catches our eye. A few weeks ago, he saw this Barbie Dream House being sold with all the nice wooden furniture. We got all of it for $75.00. Probably worth around $350.00. And it is in great shape! This thing is massive, it's around 4 ft by 4ft. The girls have to use a step stool to play with the top shelf. With Kynzie's obsession with Barbies, this thing has been awesome!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's always a fun day on the day we decide to get out the Christmas decorations and put the tree up. This year for the first time ever, we decided to put up lights outside. Matt was too scared to put them on the house so we just put lights on every tree. It took us all day to do it and I think we did it on the windiest day of the year but it was fun and they looked cool. We got lots of compliments on them. Next year, Matt thinks he will tackle lights on the house.


This was the ornmanents that the girl's picked out this year.


The girls in front of the Christmas tree after they decorated it


Outside in front of the blowups


A view of the house from across the street

Maddie's Cheer and Dance Competition

Maddie had her Cheer and Dance Competition in Overland Park at the end of their football season. They competed in the 1st/2nd grade division against 8 other teams. They took first in both their cheer and dance! It was a fun year and a great experience for Maddie that really helped her come out of her shell. At the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure if she would even get out on the field and cheer not to mention get out in front of hundreds of people for the competition. But she did and she did great!




Cheer Competition

Dance Competition

All her hardware!

Maddie's Star Student Award

In November, Maddie was chosen by her teacher as a star student and she got to share the following with her class. She really wanted to show all her grandparents but this was too big to carry around so I just took a lot of pictures of it. It's pretty cute!

Chief's game

Us girl's at the Chief's vs. Dolphins game. We were not good luck for them!

Birthday Party

The girl's at Applebee's for Maddie's best friend Emily's birthday!

Kynzie

Maddie cheers and this is what Kynzie does:


Sharing candy with her buddy Connor





Playin with the boys!

Maddie's Cheer Captain game pictures

That's Maddie holding the banner for the team to run through


Maddie taking a knee for yet another "injured" player



Being silly cheerleaders

Maddie calling out the cheer "Blazers Unite"

My Birthday

Matt and the girl's surprised me for my birthday with a trip to CoCo Keys. When I walked in the

room, this is what I saw!

30 Balloons with $5 attached to each one. The next day, I got to go shopping all by myself and spend the money!!!

Halloween

This is a picture of the girl's at my Halloween Boo Bash for work. Maddie was a bride and Kynzie was, well we're still trying to figure out what she was. I say she was a clown, I think she thought she was something else :). Either way, she looked adorable and still loves that costume.

Girl's Gymnastics

The girls have both started gymnastics again and this is pretty much how Maddie spends her days!







Maddie was asked to join the competition team at the gym but that would mean more time and money and it just doesn't work with our busy schedules. She does enjoy it though and as long as it is a positive experience for her, we will continue to go.

Kynzie loves her class and it is the cutest thing ever to watch her bounce around.

Kynzie's field trip to pumpkin patch

I got to go with Kynzie and her class to the KC Pumkin Patch back in October. It was a lot of fun to see her interact with her friends. Here is a picture of her and her friend riding the train.

Kynzie's parent teacher conference

Matt and I got to go to Kynzie's parent teacher conference last month and it was very interesting to hear what all the teacher had to say about her. Of course, we see a totally different side of Kynzie here at home that most others don't get to enjoy. She is very shy and reserved at school but is doing very well. Here is what her teacher wrote about her and I think it sums her up perfectly!

"McKynzie is such an adorable little girl. She brings her quiet disposition into our classroom and somehow calms the group down. She will do fine as she progresses through her school years. She makes friends easily and is able to stick up for herself without being bossy or pushy. The other girls all want to be her friend and she is always more than accomodating. It is her nature to be on the quiet side and she does prefer not to talk in circle unless she is really sure of the answer. However, when we are at the table working in small groups, she is very talkative and can answer most questions presented to her. Academically, I believe she is right on track for Kindergarten next year. She knows most letters and sounds that have been presented to her and her math skills are right where they need to be also. These might even be above average for her age. She counts well and her one to one correspondence goes through ten. Her fine motor skills along with her gross motor skills are good. McKynzie is a joy to have in class!"

This made mommy and daddy very proud :)