A Family for Ellie-Kate: January 2013

Ellie-Kate's 5th Birthday pictures!

Ellie-Kate took some very cute pictures during her photo shoot at Walmart on January 27, 2013. Usually, we like to take the girls ON their birthdays, but, wow, Ellie-Kate was literally booked from 8:45 a.m. through the rest of her birthday! We're grateful for these pics of her long hair because she had an appointment on January 28 to get a hair cut. Even though she "only" had two inches cut (and her hair is still quite long), it's nice to have pics of just how long that her hair used to be as she turned five years old.

Congrats to the AMS Lady Bulldog Seventh Grade team!! January 28, 2013

At halftime, we were ahead for the very first time of the season-- by one point! The girls came out after the half and continued to play hard. Emmy played great defense and did a generally good job of running the offense. (Okay, a very good job with the exception of a couple of ill-advised passes :) !) With only 10 seconds left, Gallia Academy had the ball and drove into their part of the court. Emmy STOLE the ball (her second steal of the game-- and the first two steals of the entire season!), dribbled back to her end of the court, and prepared to shoot when a girl from Gallia fouled her. Even though the ref didn't call the foul, the game saving steal enabled Athens to run out the clock and come off with their first win of the season!! The girls were SOOOOOO excited!!

Emmy, Audrey, Divya, Sidney, Haley, and J'lana celebrate after the game!!

Final score: AMS-- 29, Gallia Academy-- 28!!

Present time!

More birthday fun... January 26, 2013

Emmy, Ellie-Kate, and Patricia at Bob Evans...

More party pics!

Ramon and Britti

Happy 5th Birthday, Ellie-Kate!!!

Ellie-Kate began her fifth birthday with a goal-- literally, and FIVE of them! She wanted to make five baskets on her fifth birthday, and she DID! With 40 seconds left in the game, she swished her fifth goal, and she was soooooo excited! She is the youngest kid on her team, and she has the best dribble and understanding of the court. She instinctively seems to know where and how to move. We are so happy for her that she has this ability, and we're very grateful that she's having the opportunity to play at this age.

After her game, she went to dance class and then headed up to the Fun Barn for her friend, Aidan's, party. Aiden had a knights theme, and Ellie-Kate loved the party. At 3 p.m., her own party began at the rec center-- a Disney Carnival. We have a Princess Castle inflatable to represent the Disney princesses, a hot wheels track and ramps to represent the Cars characters, and coloring pages that featured Sofia the first, Buzz Lightyear, and Mickey and friends. The cake was decorated with Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Emmy invented a treasure hunt for the kids to go along with the Jake aspect of the party. All in all, the kids ran around like crazy, LOVED the inflatable, and left exhausted!