Thursday, April 30, 2009
Happy Birthday, Anna!
It's Not Cindy-Loo-Who, It's Anna Lynn!
My beautiful little Anna was born 10 years ago today. Even at a remarkably young age, less than a year old, we knew that she was an especially gentle and loving child with a warm heart and overflowing joy.
She has always loved snuggling and tickling, hugs and kisses, raspberries on tummies, chewies on the neck, cuddles on the couch and naps on the bed.
She's always been effusive with her love and affection. She was her brother's most enthusiastic cheerleader at his football games. And when his team lost the state championships, tiny Anna was so upset about how he felt that she had to run through all of those big football players to hug on him and tell her how proud he'd made her.
Happy Tenth Birthday, my little Anna Lynn! You're even more beautiful inside than outside. And your outside is really, really beautiful!
With love,
-Dad
Labels: Kids
Friday, April 17, 2009
Springtime Soccer
We spent a few hundred bucks to get all five of the girls signed up for Upwards Soccer. Upwards Soccer is a church-run league that emphasizes playing and fun over winning. For example, there's no official score keeping at the games. Although the registration was expensive, the gear (such as the jerseys) was really high quality.
The only downside we experienced was that the league was only open to kindergarten through fourth grade. So that meant that Savannah couldn't play this year. Otoh, she helped the girls practice a lot and kick the ball with them in backyard.
Anna has always enjoyed soccer. Although her natural tendency towards pokiness definitely showed up on the playing field.Kaylee showed a really strong athletic flair for the sport. Katie also showed a lot of potential as was one of the fastest kids on her team, if not THE fastest. On the other hand, the spirit also has to be willing - and with Katie - many times, it was not.
Ava has done a really fantastic job coming up to speed in her first season of sports. She could be a really strong player in the future if she wanted.
Labels: Kids
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Senior Night and the All-State Choir Concert
Dylan and Connor were the MC's for this year's Senior Night at Mt Juliet High School. They chose an SNL theme and, so, did a lot of skits from Saturday Night Live. Dylan and Connor did great, as did the other actors and actresses that were in all the skits. Some were truly hilarious.At left (rt to lft), Dylan, Alec Odem, and Connor.
Despite the great skits, there were some difficulties that night. First, the other MCs weren't so great. In fact, they were pretty bad and took up a huge amount of time. Second, there was a ridiculously long and self-indulgent slide show half-way through the program. In all, we spent four and a half hours on what should've been a two hour evening. That's really tough when you're herding five other little kids around.
In the photo below, on their way to All-State, (rt to lft), Ellie, Kylan Burgess (with the thumbs up), and Dylan with others in the background
The next weekend, Dylan and Ellie (Emily's best friend) went to the TN state All-State Choir Concert.These guys blew the doors off! They sounded so incredibly good. I was really amazed. In addition, even after hearing Dylan going to All-State several times in the past, I could tell that their director was exceptional. He was able to wring a great deal more out of this troop than any other guest director I'd seen in the past and left me truly impressed.
Dylan had a really successful choir year in 2009 and ranked as 15th tenor in the state. You can see him in the picture below just immediately to the left of the elbow of the guest director.
I was also really pleased to be able to go and hang out with Emily and enjoy the show. Emily and I skipped over for some lunch and snapped a picture of her and Ellie with the TN State Capital Building directly behind them. We've been seeing so much of Ellie that, at this rate, I'm going to claim her as a deduction on my income taxes. After the show was over, I also got to hug, kiss, and slobber all over Katie and Anna, who were staying with their mom that week. I didn't even know they were coming. So it was a double treat to be able to see them, as well as Dylan and Emily.
Below at left, Emily and Ellie, and at right, Anna and Katie.
Labels: Kids
