The BIG GAME weekend
We had a productive and enjoyable weekend. It happened to be Super Bowl weekend although the Super Bowl had very little influence on our weekend's enjoyment.
Saturday, Abby was at dance for six hours. She didn't dance the whole time. The dance competition season is almost here and her studio did a dress rehearsal for the first competition- all the dance routines were performed. The dances took a few hours to complete. After that, the studio had a (much) belated holiday party. The girls exchanged gifts and we ate food that we all brought to share.
May I brag for a moment about Abby? We dropped Abby off at the studio in the morning. The timing worked out for us to drop Abby off and then head straight to Alyssa's indoor soccer game in Mason. After Alyssa's soccer game, I went to the dance studio to watch the remainder of the dances and then to stay for the party. One of moms of one of the girls whom Abby dances with, Stephanie, related an exchange she had with a mom when I was not in the studio. Stephanie and a mom of one of the new girls on the team were watching a group dance that Abby was a part of. The mom asked Stephanie which daughter was hers. Stephanie pointed out her daughter. Then the mom pointed to Abby and asked, "Who's that?" Stephanie told the lady that it was Abby. The lady started talking about how good Abby was- not only was she a good dancer but she looked so at ease and like a natural when she performed. Stephanie is a big Abby fan (Stephanie has told me numerous times over the years that she loves to watch Abby dance) and she told me how wholeheartedly she agreed with the mom and how they talked about how good Abby was. Stephanie was pleased to relay the conversation she had with this dance mom to me.
It feels good to hear compliments about Abby. Certainly not every moment in dance is a bright shiny one; most moments of dance consist of practice week after week after week. I'm thankful that Abby's love of performance shows when the hard work pays off and she gets to perform. From my end, Abby's love of performance makes writing checks for dance classes, dance competitions, solo practices, ordering costumes, rhinestoning costumes and feeling ALL the stress during competitions worth it!!
Switching gears to soccer and to a little girl who HATES to be on stage but is pretty happy on a soccer field, Alyssa's soccer team lost its soccer game. Schade, they were up 2-0 but then ended up losing 3-2. Alyssa's team is playing in the boy's league at Wall2Wall. They played in the boys league last year and won the league. They tied one game last year and won all the other games. This year, they are 0-3. The boys' physicality is making a huge difference in enabling them to win. As the kids this age lurch towards puberty, boys are getting faster and stronger than the girls- even a really good girls team like Alyssa's. Fortunately, Alyssa takes losing in stride. She does not want to lose but she understands that it's just a game. Despite the loss, we enjoyed watching Alyssa play.
Later on Saturday, Alyssa and Donnie headed back to Mason for a soccer team dinner and coat drive at Marion's in Mason. Alyssa had fun with her soccer friends. I stayed home with the teens- Abby didn't want to go anywhere as she'd been almost all day at dance while Jacob went over to a friend's house in the neighborhood.
Sunday morning, we didn't go to church. Our church has in the past had a "Super Bowl Sunday Service" on Super Bowl Sunday. Gospel- lite, the service is more focused on entertainment. This year, with the NFL's (inane, in my opinion) crackdown of its trademark "Super Bowl" moniker, our church had a "Big Game Sunday." We didn't watch any NFL games this year- too much political hypocrisy for us. The fact that our church service didn't call the service "Super Bowl," this year almost made going to it sound more tenable. However, the reason for which the church couldn't use the word "Super Bowl" in it made not wanting to support anything pertaining to the NFL even more pronounced. So, we stayed at home and watched a sermon that we missed the first weekend in January when Alyssa was sick.
Not being gone at church gave us a lot more time on Sunday than we normally have. I was able to make some treats to eat later when we would not watch the Super Bowl. Donnie and Jacob went to Ikea where Donnie bought Jacob a new bed. The boys worked on assembling that a good part of the day. We invited Uncle Doug over to not watch the Super Bowl and eat junk food. He brought a movie with him, Facing the Giants, that we watched. Jacob wanted to watch the Super Bowl and so we let him- he loves watching sports yet he's been such a trooper with us and our decision to not watch the NFL this season. We let him watch the game at a friend's house.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Abby at dance on Saturday- she's posing with the girl with whom she exchanged a gift.
Saturday at soccer-
Alyssa gets ready to throw the ball in...
Another throw in- this picture is bad for a couple of reasons- her arms are hiding her cute face :) and you can't even tell she's in a soccer game. The field on which the girls were playing was the middle one of three fields. So most of people in this photo are not part of the game. It doesn't really look like a game is occurring as only two people in the photo are playing in the game (Alyssa and boy with the white shirt/ black shorts).
There's that cute face...
Alyssa and the center forward from the opposing team
Alyssa is not in focus but at least it looks a little bit more like she's playing in a game...
Fightin' those pesky boys...
Sunday morning- this looks kind of like a candle that I have... except there's no wick and it's not a candle. It's homemade caramel sauce that I'd made on Saturday.
...to put in the middle layer of these brownies (pecans aren't on the whole pan because one Rineer child DETESTS pecans)
Caramel sauce and chocolate chips added before the final layer of brownie dough is added
My yummy breakfast!!!!!
The brownies with the top layer of dough before being baked.
The brownies don't look super scrumptious but they are. I only make these for special occasions as they are so full of sugar and fat it's not even funny. The kids love it when I make these; I know they'll look back at the "caramel brownie times" fondly.
Our food to enjoy while we didn't watch the Super Bowl...
Abby asked if we could use the "green turtle" onto which we'd place the cocktail sauce. The turtle is an art project of one of Abby's friends. The friend was going to throw it away but Abby said she liked it and didn't want it thrown away. So now we have a green turtle cocktail sauce holder :). We are so artsy!!!
Saturday, Abby was at dance for six hours. She didn't dance the whole time. The dance competition season is almost here and her studio did a dress rehearsal for the first competition- all the dance routines were performed. The dances took a few hours to complete. After that, the studio had a (much) belated holiday party. The girls exchanged gifts and we ate food that we all brought to share.
May I brag for a moment about Abby? We dropped Abby off at the studio in the morning. The timing worked out for us to drop Abby off and then head straight to Alyssa's indoor soccer game in Mason. After Alyssa's soccer game, I went to the dance studio to watch the remainder of the dances and then to stay for the party. One of moms of one of the girls whom Abby dances with, Stephanie, related an exchange she had with a mom when I was not in the studio. Stephanie and a mom of one of the new girls on the team were watching a group dance that Abby was a part of. The mom asked Stephanie which daughter was hers. Stephanie pointed out her daughter. Then the mom pointed to Abby and asked, "Who's that?" Stephanie told the lady that it was Abby. The lady started talking about how good Abby was- not only was she a good dancer but she looked so at ease and like a natural when she performed. Stephanie is a big Abby fan (Stephanie has told me numerous times over the years that she loves to watch Abby dance) and she told me how wholeheartedly she agreed with the mom and how they talked about how good Abby was. Stephanie was pleased to relay the conversation she had with this dance mom to me.
It feels good to hear compliments about Abby. Certainly not every moment in dance is a bright shiny one; most moments of dance consist of practice week after week after week. I'm thankful that Abby's love of performance shows when the hard work pays off and she gets to perform. From my end, Abby's love of performance makes writing checks for dance classes, dance competitions, solo practices, ordering costumes, rhinestoning costumes and feeling ALL the stress during competitions worth it!!
Switching gears to soccer and to a little girl who HATES to be on stage but is pretty happy on a soccer field, Alyssa's soccer team lost its soccer game. Schade, they were up 2-0 but then ended up losing 3-2. Alyssa's team is playing in the boy's league at Wall2Wall. They played in the boys league last year and won the league. They tied one game last year and won all the other games. This year, they are 0-3. The boys' physicality is making a huge difference in enabling them to win. As the kids this age lurch towards puberty, boys are getting faster and stronger than the girls- even a really good girls team like Alyssa's. Fortunately, Alyssa takes losing in stride. She does not want to lose but she understands that it's just a game. Despite the loss, we enjoyed watching Alyssa play.
Later on Saturday, Alyssa and Donnie headed back to Mason for a soccer team dinner and coat drive at Marion's in Mason. Alyssa had fun with her soccer friends. I stayed home with the teens- Abby didn't want to go anywhere as she'd been almost all day at dance while Jacob went over to a friend's house in the neighborhood.
Sunday morning, we didn't go to church. Our church has in the past had a "Super Bowl Sunday Service" on Super Bowl Sunday. Gospel- lite, the service is more focused on entertainment. This year, with the NFL's (inane, in my opinion) crackdown of its trademark "Super Bowl" moniker, our church had a "Big Game Sunday." We didn't watch any NFL games this year- too much political hypocrisy for us. The fact that our church service didn't call the service "Super Bowl," this year almost made going to it sound more tenable. However, the reason for which the church couldn't use the word "Super Bowl" in it made not wanting to support anything pertaining to the NFL even more pronounced. So, we stayed at home and watched a sermon that we missed the first weekend in January when Alyssa was sick.
Not being gone at church gave us a lot more time on Sunday than we normally have. I was able to make some treats to eat later when we would not watch the Super Bowl. Donnie and Jacob went to Ikea where Donnie bought Jacob a new bed. The boys worked on assembling that a good part of the day. We invited Uncle Doug over to not watch the Super Bowl and eat junk food. He brought a movie with him, Facing the Giants, that we watched. Jacob wanted to watch the Super Bowl and so we let him- he loves watching sports yet he's been such a trooper with us and our decision to not watch the NFL this season. We let him watch the game at a friend's house.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Abby at dance on Saturday- she's posing with the girl with whom she exchanged a gift.
Saturday at soccer-
Alyssa gets ready to throw the ball in...
Another throw in- this picture is bad for a couple of reasons- her arms are hiding her cute face :) and you can't even tell she's in a soccer game. The field on which the girls were playing was the middle one of three fields. So most of people in this photo are not part of the game. It doesn't really look like a game is occurring as only two people in the photo are playing in the game (Alyssa and boy with the white shirt/ black shorts).
There's that cute face...
Alyssa and the center forward from the opposing team
Fightin' those pesky boys...
Sunday morning- this looks kind of like a candle that I have... except there's no wick and it's not a candle. It's homemade caramel sauce that I'd made on Saturday.
...to put in the middle layer of these brownies (pecans aren't on the whole pan because one Rineer child DETESTS pecans)
My yummy breakfast!!!!!
The brownies with the top layer of dough before being baked.
Our food to enjoy while we didn't watch the Super Bowl...
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