It's Football Time Again!

Football season is going strong again. We missed the girl's first game because we were out of town. Then between Labor day and the rain all the games were cancelled until now. Last Saturday the morning of the pageant was their first game of the season to attend. They had a great time. It was pretty hot, but they didn't complain. Won't be long and they'll be bundled up, freezing and wishing for a day like this one :)

The run through sign. It is so cute when the little players run through. Just a second or two after this pic was taken, half the team was on the ground because one kid fell and the rest tripped over him.

I didn't get many good pics of the girls. We were playing at the neighboring towns field and it isn't set up really good and it was hard to get great pics, but this is their halftime routine.

This is THE CHEER that Maycee gets to stunt. She always wants to do this cheer, and this cheer Always makes Mommy nervous. I know she isn't very high up, but it isn't going to be good if she tries to get down and they don't let go of her feet. Besides we all know she doesn't have the best track record for not getting hurt. Maddie is doing cartwheels in front of the stunt. I will have to work on getting a pic of her actually doing the cartwheel. :)

Catch Up!

Okay so I'm a little behind...

First off I think Maddie had a great birthday. Her lunch surprise was Nana and Papa coming to have lunch with her. You can read all about lunch and the lunch nazi here. She was very excited and surprised.

Maycee also had a special day. She went to a gymnastics stay and play. She was a little apprehensive about staying without Maddie until she found out Addison was going too. After that she was all excited. She ended up having a great time and can't wait to go back next month!


After lunch I brought the cupcake cake Maddie had picked out to her school. She loved it, her friends loved, but her teacher and I did not love it. That thing was a mess. It had so much icing and it was hard to pull the cupcakes apart without losing the icing and without touching anywhere besides the paper. Lesson learned...no more cupcake cakes for us. It was cute though!

Friday night we went to Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate Maddie's birthday. We have a tradition of letting them pick any place they want for dinner every year on their actual birthday, but Thursday night (Maddie's actual birthday) we had cheerleading and a Girl Scout Rally. So Friday night it was and she chose Peter Piper Pizza. We had a great time, but unfortunately my camera battery was dead. I did borrow Carrie's camera, but I haven't gotten the pictures from her.

Saturday it rained so our extremely busy day (Cheer Pictures, Football Game, Opening Ceremony activities, Addison's t-ball game and 2 birthday parties) was reduced to one birthday party. It made for a nice lazy day. Especially since that one party wasn't until 7pm. I have to say though, I AM SICK OF THE RAIN!!! I've lost count of how many days it has been raining, but I know it has been too many.

Cheer Camp

Today is Cheer Camp for the girls. They are going to a camp put on by the High School cheerleaders of a nearby school. We met up with their coach, Lauren, this morning at 7:45 for them to go with her to camp. They were super excited. Here is a video of them practicing before we left for camp.

Chicken Cheer from april varney on Vimeo.

I spent the last week making these shirts and bows for their team.

It was alot of work, but it was worth it because they looked so cute this morning.

I already talked to Lauren and she said they are having fun. We are going at 3:30 to watch their show. They should be exhausted today after being at camp from 8:30-4.

Practicing the "Hula" Cheer

I didn't go to practice with the girls yesterday. I've been sick and Carrie offered to take them with her so I wouldn't have to sit out in the heat. (THANKS CARRIE)

Anyway, apparently they learned a new chant and they love it. They were wearig Guy and I out when they got home yesterday and started back up as soon as they woke up this morning. It's even stuck in my head now.

While I was cooking dinner tonight I got this video of them. Ignore the wardrobe they just got out of they bath :)

Don't forget to pause the music player at the bottom of the page so that you can hear them.

Hula Hula Cheer from april varney on Vimeo.

Cheerleading Practice

The girls are both cheering again this year. They love it. They are both on the same team and our friend Lauren and her sister Holly are their coaches. They are cheering for a 7/8 team which should be interesting for Maycee, but so far she seems to be keeping up.

It has been keeping us busy though. They are practicing 3 days a week until school starts. These are some pictures from a few of their practices.

Maddie stunting with the high school cheerleaders. She was so proud and Maycee was so jealous. :)
Practicing a stunt.
Maycee being Maycee!!
Maddie
Cartwheel
Maycee needs help with her cartwheel, PLEASE Aunt Ashley ;) I don't even know what she was doing here for sure. I thought it was an attempt at a cartwheel when I took the pic from the stands, but now I think it looks like more of a handstand on her head, LOL. Poor Maycee didn't hasn't had gymnastics classes since she was 2, I think. At least she tries, though.
Maddie stunting.
Maycee stunting. She makes me nervous when she stunts because she is so darn silly and not afraid to fall.
Maddie and Kara getting ready to "help" Maycee and Elli with their cartwheels.
Practicing cartwheels (or maybe handstands?) Maycee, Elli, Lauren, Kara

Parades

Saturday we went to the Adolphus Children's Parade downtown. The kids really enjoyed it. We had to get there at 7am to gets seats right on the curb and it didn't start until 10am. We were too late to get seats down where they were filming, but we had great seats anyway. I brought lots of things to keep the girls entertained, but we didn't need them because we brought breakfast for the girls and then we had to wait in line for 45 minutes at McDonalds for Maycee to go to the restroom. By the time we finished all that, there were clowns coming out into the street to play games with the kids until the parade started.

The parade actually started 15 minutes or so before the parade was to go live on TV so that the first of the parade was right at the filming spot. The Santa balloon ended up stopped right in front of us. One of the handlers came up and told Maddie that he was really tired and needed a break. He asked her if she could hold his rope for him. She did it and she was soooo excited. She talked about it for the rest of the day. She said it was "so heavy, that's why he was tired and needed her help."

The parade only lasted a little less than an hour. Guy pointed out that we drove an hour and waited 3 more hours to see a 50 minute parade, he's right, but it was fun anyway. We have tried to go the last few years, but it's been way too cold.

After we finished that parade we had our town Christmas parade. The girls were riding on a float with their cheerleading squad. We had just enough time to eat lunch and buy a bubble machine for the parade before we had to meet the team to decorate the float.

Guy Decorating

The parade going through our neighborhood.

The cheerleading squad



They ended up winning "Best of Show" in the parade. Wow! It didn't take much to win that one :) Compared to the parade we had just been to this parade was pretty funny, but the girls said they had fun.

"Best of Show" plaque
Santa on a boat

Cheer Extravaganza

This week was a very busy week for us. Monday started the book fair at Maddie's school which I worked at every day except Thursday, Tuesday was the PTA meeting, Wednesday morning was Muffins with Mom, and Friday was lunch with your child day. Add in 2 cheerleading practices, 2 days of bringing Maycee to preschool, my week to drive carpool for Maddie, and 1 playdate and I worked harder this week than I ever did at Portrait.

It was all fun though.

Thursday, the one day that I didn't spend at Maddie's school, I got a call from the nurse about 2pm that Maddie had been stung by a bee. The nurse said she was fine and didn't even cry. They were just letting me know. I asked if she was sure she was calling the correct parent because I couldn't imagine Maddie not crying. I can guarantee if that had happened at home it would have been major drama. Maddie is our little Drama Queen.

Last night was the end of season Cheer Extravaganza for the girls cheerleading team. Here is a video of their performance. Maddie is all the way on the right of the screen and Maycee is just to the left of her. Maycee was the youngest on the team, and you can tell. She tried her best and had a great time though.



Maycee, Maddie and Addison

Ashley, Adam, Mom, Guy, Dad, Maddie, Addison and Maycee


After the Extravaganza we went to eat at Posados. Kaleigh had them sing Happy Birthday to Guy. This is the picture of him wearing their 'special' hat. Doesn't he look so excited? I know it's a bad picture, but I had to use my camara on my phone....sorry!

A Lazy Weekend

After Halloween night, we didn't do much else this weekend.

The girls had a football game to cheer at on Saturday and Maddie had a soccer game in the afternoon.

Believe it or not a mother actually showed up to this game drunk. Unbelievable, it was horrible. She wasn't just a little drunk, she was stumbling around with make-up smeared on her face humiliating her child. I was embarrassed to be on the same team as her as well as embarrassed for her. The only positive is that she hadn't driven herself. Why on earth the sober person who brought her let her humiliate herself like that I will never understand. She said her daughter was tired because they had been out late at a Halloween party. It was 9am in the morning!!!! Lady I think everyone is already acutely aware that you were out partying last night. I felt so bad for the little girl. It was so sad. Someone called her grandmother to come and pick her up.

Anyway, here is the cheerleading squad with their football team. Don't they all look enthused to be taking a picture together. The boys were all hollering that the girls stunk. HaHa!

Maddie with her friend from her class at school.

The team with their coaches. We only have one more game, unless we win on Saturday. It is the first playoff game. Yeah, I said the other day that they had only won one game, but everyone goes to the playoffs, there are only 3 teams. I'm not counting on advancing to the next game.

On Sunday, Guy went fishing so I took the girls to our new McDonald's for lunch and to play and then we came home to paint. These girls love art. They will draw, color, paint or anything else art related for hours.

Maddie with her completed project.

They painted in the front yard so that I didn't have a huge mess to clean up. The weather was beautiful this weekend.

Maycee with her project. She was mad when I made them put up the paint. She said she wasn't finished with hers even though as you can see she had covered every single inch of the paper with paint.

Camping Was Fun...But There Is Nothing Like a Hot Bath at Home

We went camping this weekend. It was only the third or fourth time we used the camper.

The weather was very nice. It was definately Fall weather. We went up on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a nice fire to keep us warm. Maddie thought she could get the fire started with two sticks. When asked where she learned that, she looked at us crazy and said "on TV" with a little attitude.

The girls explored the nearby woods looking for bears. After a few minutes of bear talk Addison decided to stay out of the woods. Maddie and Maycee kept on their bear hunt and eventually found one. (Adam hiding in the woods with a garbage bag over his head.) Below is the result of their discovery.

We also rode bikes, played at the park, rode in the boat, played playdough, read the Twilight Series & learned that skunks don't respond to "get".

Addison practicing using the potty with extreme safety measures.

Saturday night by the fire Maddie and Maycee taught us the Tooty Tot. It goes something like...
Thumbs up,
elbows back,
feet apart,
knees together,
bottoms up,
eyes shut,
tongues out
and then with your tongue out you sing
the tooty tot, the tooty tot, the tooty ta-ta.

Anyway this is evidently a song they both learned at school...different schools. I would like to see the teachers doing it? I never did get a very clear answer for when they do this at school, but it's pretty funny. And it makes for some very funny pictures.

Nana and Papa learning the Tooty Tot
Maddie and Maycee showing us the Tooty Tot

Saturday morning we had to get up early to go to their football game and Maddie's soccer game.

Saturday afternoon we took the girls to the park to enjoy their lollipops from Maycee's carnival birthday party and snap some pictures.