Plant Buddy

Robb might be in trouble. Emmy seems to be as excited about plants as I am. This is what she picked out at Kaw Valley. He better get his wallet and shovel ready!

 

Bryce's Summer Supreme League

Bryce played on the Supreme Summer League. This was probably one of the most fun seasons he has had in a while. He had a young coach that really enjoyed coaching and put a lot of time and effort into playing to each players strengths. I liked that he wore really crazy outrageous shoes to each game and he never repeated wearing a pair. 

The team had a great group of boys that loved basketball and got out there and played hard at each game. They were fun to watch and the parents were a good group to have to sit with each weekend for tournaments. 

Bryce got a lot of playing time and I love watching him just play basketball when he doesn't have to over think it. Sometimes for school ball you could tell he was worried that he might be in trouble if he shot or was going to get taken out for doing this or that. He is by far the most fun to watch when he is just having fun. 

He is also big enough now that I don't hold my breath every time he goes on the court because I am worried he is going to get hurt. He has shown time and time again that he plays tough and can hold his own. 

 

Emmy's YMCA basketball team

Emmy played YMCA basketball this year with some girls from her class. At this age Norris starts doing the NYBA teams but Emmy and the other girls that she played with weren't so sure that they wanted to commit 2 nights a week and most weekends to tournaments at this level. We had a group of girls and parents that had the same thought process so we made our own team. This was great except between scheduling conflicts, illness etc we had a hard time getting a full team plus subs to show up and it was a weekly battle to have enough girls. At this level it is all about learning the fundamentals while still having fun. This is not Robb's first rodeo with coaching so he knows that and makes it fun for the girls. 

Emmy has really enjoyed playing this year and her competitive nature is starting to come out. Robb is thrilled because I lack competitiveness and so does Abby. Although Emmy is a combination of Bryce's skill and Caleb's scrappiness. She has pretty good ball handling skills and is getting better all the time and to some degree, lacks some anger control when it comes to basketball. She manages to make some girl cry every game which is never really her fault but we still give her a hard time about it after every game.  

Emmy is never afraid to get on the floor and fight for the ball. She will straight up tackle people to get that ball back. Robb loves how aggressive she is and I try to embrace it. 

 

Volleyball for Fun

Abby has loved volleyball for years a I was a little sad when she decided that she didn't want to tryout for school volleyball this year. I understood her reasons. Her grade is very heavy in girls that play volleyball and she didn't want that stress. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Abby started a YMCA volleyball with a group of friends, focusing on playing for fun and enjoying the game without the stress of intense competition. Their practices were full of laughter and goofiness and everyone encouraging one another. Robb took on the coaching position and all the girls had fun giving him a hard time each week. Together Robb and Abby chose jerseys online and crossed their fingers that they would work. The jerseys were cute and it was fun to watch this group of girls go out there and have fun playing.

 

Golf is Life

Caleb played on the High School Golf team this year. The tryouts were pretty cut throat and the ratio of how many players they take and how many tryout is pretty tough. Caleb was thrilled to make the team even if he didn't get to compete in many rounds. He enjoyed getting to go play every day after school and he worked hard to improve his scores. One of the best attributes Caleb has is how great of a teammate he is. He attended matches he didn't get to play just to support his teammates and friends. We have heard this again and again from teachers and parents and it always makes you feel good to hear that your child is a great person. 

On of the people that Robb works with moved to Georgia recently for her husband to take a position with the IT team for the Masters. When Caleb heard this he as so excited because you can only buy Masters gear if you attend the Masters. As a surprise Robb has sent Riley money to purchase Caleb a polo, hat and golf balls from the Masters. We had planned to give these to him for his birthday but we were too excited to wait so he got them a couple months early. This may have been one of the best gifts we have thought of to date!

 

Madagascar Show

The Lied Center knows what it is doing when they send out full color promotional flyers with all the cute characters on them announcing the newest play that they have coming. This is how we ended up with Madagascar tickets. Emmy saw the flyer and was desperate to go. If you know Emmy you know she is very persuasive. I also really really love it that the girls like going to shows with me because if you know Robb you know that it not his thing. I had bought tickets to the show and then later found out that Bree and Bryce would be going to prom as sophomores. Bree is in student council and in a round about way they all had different dates to get a bunch of the sophomores in. Harmless I figure. 

Long story short, Susie was willing to take my place and take the girls to the show so that I could go do prom pictures. They had a great time and they were pretty impressed with the costumes that the people had to make them look like animals. 

 

Prom Night

Bryce and Bree went to Prom this year as sophomores. Bree is in student council and they plan a lot of the prom so they were able to match up some of the Sophomores with the Juniors for ticket purchasing purposes. Bryce wasn't so sure about it but as it got closer he seemed excited about it. Bree had a really cute neon green dress. She wanted something fun since this was her bonus prom. Bryce wore a black suit, grey shirt and green bow tie. They shopped for Bryce's outfit together which was eye opening to her. Bryce didn't really know what size he needed or anything about how to purchase a suit. It was ok he had us both there to tell him what looked good.

Prom in April in Nebraska can be really cold. They took a few outside pictures but I have no idea how Bree didn't freeze! It was cold and windy and her dress was whipping all over but the pictures still turned out.

The kids all meet at Ashley Grubers house to take pictures and then they had food catered there so they could all eat together and then go to the dance.

Bryce looked so nice and Bree looked beautiful.

The bonus of having Grandma come to Lincoln to take the girls to the play was she let Bryce borrow the sports car for the night.

 

Easter

We spent Easter Sunday with the Lutz's. This year was special because Bree was able to accompany us. Her family was spread out to a couple different places for the holiday, so they had celebrated the week before. We threw her right into the mix by Susie asking her to frost a cake when we got there. She wasn't so sure about it, but she was even less sure about things when Emmy rushed up to her and asked her to ride the mule with her. The look on Bree's face was priceless, it took us a minute, but we then realized that Bree thought Emmy actually wanted her to ride a mule the Hee Haw kind. Of course, Emmy meant the side-by-side ATV that they call the mule. Bree was very relieved to find out that she was not expected to ride any animals today. 

The girls helped frost the little cakes for dessert. 

 

This group of kids are so fun to be around! I love that they all get along so well and they make a point to keep in touch in between times that they see each other. 

Bryce and Bree are adorable and looking at them I can't help but think of Robb and I back in our high school days. 

This was one of the all-time cutest pictures of Caleb and Brook so we tried to recreate it. 

The girls.

Happy Easter!

Abby and Brook having fun with the camera.

We had a fun day hanging out with the family and seeing extended family. 

And we ended the day with some basketball.

Thanks for being a good sport Bree and hanging out with our sometimes a little crazy family.