We traveled to Denver for a volleyball tournament in March. We left Friday around lunch and drove the 10 hours to Denver. Some of the team flew and others drove like us. The girls started playing Saturday morning. They had new warm-up jerseys that they got that weekend, so here they are in their new jerseys. They loved that their numbers and names were on the back. The girls in the picture on the left are Kendall, Khy, Diya, Andrea, Abby, and Emily.
They played some hard teams from all over the west. In their first pool, they played against teams from Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Here's a picture of Abby hitting and also one of Abby playing middle for a set because they were short some players this weekend. A couple girls were sick and a couple were hurt, so Abby got moved all around, but she played hard no matter what position she was playing.
The big Molton volleyball is at all the big tournaments. We took team pictures after that first day of pool play where we ended up second in our pool. Here's another picture of the girls with their warm up jerseys on, and then one of the whole team with the coaches.
Between games, the girls tried to relax. I got this picture during one of those times while they all huddled under the blanket together. We had a team dinner Saturday night at Maggiano's and all the girls sat at these two tables together, while the parents were a little more spread out. The restaurant was having a deal where you bought a meal and got a meal to go for free, so we all ate Maggiano's all weekend long. Good thing it was yummy Italian food that we all loved.
There are a lot of vendors at the convention center, so while the team played, our other girls loved walking around and trying everything out. One of their favorite stops was the cup stacking station. They had fun trying the timer out and stacking cups. They have done cup stacking in PE before, so they knew the process, but having the timer was fun for them to really test how fast they could do it.
They also had a station for pictures with this cool background, so the girls and Riley took their turn getting pictures taken.
They also had a station for puppies where an animal shelter brought puppies that you could play with and even adopt. You had to pay to be able to go in the ring with the puppies and play with them. The girls are always so good getting dragged along to all of Abby's volleyball trips, so this was something they got to do and loved every minute of it. Here they are as they waited in line with their puppy passes showing that they had paid.
I took a lot of pictures while they played with the puppies. They kept holding one puppy, and then letting it walk around; and then they'd just find a new puppy to pick up and hold. Here's Tessa. I love the one of them staring at each other.
Here's Aubrey. She was in heaven with all the puppies surrounding her. She had multiple puppies on her lap at one point. They had little pee pee pads on the ground that they'd replace whenever a puppy had to use the bathroom. The workers were very good and kept on top of it.
There were toys all around that you could use to play with the puppies as well. Taryn had a little tug of war with one of the puppies while she was playing. She loved holding the puppies too.
During the weekend of the tournament, there was a scavenger hunt going on that the teams could participate in. You had to take pictures of certain things around Denver and post them on their app. The winning team won a prize. Our girls ended up in third place, so they didn't win anything, but we had fun running around town taking pictures. This was one scavenger hunt item that I took some girls to find at a mall near our hotel. It took us a little while to find it, but the girls were so excited when they did. Here's Abby, Emily, Suzette, and Diya in the huge Colorado chair.
The girls thought the scavenger hunt was so fun that we ended up driving back downtown and meeting up with some of our other players to try and find more things to take pictures of. This was another picture that I took of the girls and the huge Denver bear which looks into the convention center where they were playing. Here we have Emily, Diya, Suzette, Abby, Khy, and Lyla.
On Sunday, we found a church to go to sacrament meeting and then we headed back to the convention center to watch the team play. Ally, one of Abby's teammates was sick and with hurt and missing players, they were down to only 7 girls playing. We got killed by every team, but the teams we played were really good anyway, but not having the full team really hurt. Abby felt bad that she couldn't help them out, but she still stands by her decision to not play Sundays. We're really proud of her. The fun part of this trip was that Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons came down to meet us and watch Abby play. I took this picture the last day of the tournament, but they were there all weekend to support Abby. It was so fun having them there and Abby loved being able to see them and have them there to watch her.
On Monday, they had their final day of games. They were not playing in the gold bracket, but they were playing teams that were closer to their level, so the games were good, competitive games. Abby was back in playing right side, where she's most comfortable, and they won their games and ended up ranked 30th in the entire tournament. They started out the tournament ranked 69th out of 72 teams, so we were very proud of how they played, fought, and worked together.
Here they all are getting ready to start one of their final games. We had so much fun watching them play and they had fun playing all weekend.
Ally played the last day although she was still feeling sick, and Andrea hurt her knee during the next to last game on Monday, but we were so happy with how they all finished up the tournament. We really love this team!
Abby played in a full orchestra this year for one of their UIL competitions. There were just a few honor band players who played with the top orchestra. They had early morning practices for a couple of weeks, and then they had a concert at the school. They actually went to UIL for their band competition, then rode the buses back to Hornedo and immediately had to play their one number with the orchestra. It was a full evening of music, but Abby did great. Unfortunately, in the orchestra, Abby is in the middle back, so you can't see her, but they sounded great.
They had their band UIL competition and received all 1s from the judges. Abby has enjoyed playing in band this year as first chair. She likes the music and likes playing, but it has definitely kept her busy. She has decided to focus on volleyball in high school, so she won't continue in band next year. I was pretty sad at first, but I pretty much saw it coming. She doesn't love it as much as she loves volleyball, and it really has been a stress on her this year to manage two very time-consuming activities. I do love listening to her play though, and she's done a great job this year. I thought it was fun that she got to experience a full orchestra number as well. They always have fun horn parts, and this song was no different. She loved playing it.
Aubrey's 4th grade program was in March. They had a western theme and sang songs about Texas. She loved that she got to dress up in western clothes and she was very specific about wanting her hair in a ponytail to the side. Her favorite part of the program was the dance that she was able to participate in. They danced a line dance to Cotton Eyed Joe, and Aubrey loved every minute of it. She even taught Taryn the dance because she was practicing it so much leading up to the performance.
Here she is during the number doing the line dance. She had the biggest smile on her face the entire time. During the song they had partners that they danced with, so we took a picture afterwards with her partner. They had fun practicing together and performing the line dance.
We took a few more pictures after the performance with some of Aubrey's closest friends. Here she is with Rianne and Bailey. And then one of Aubrey with Riley. They all looked so cute!
Another weekend in March, we traveled to Albuquerque for another volleyball tournament. We stayed in the same hotel that we stayed in last year. It's right next to a shopping area that has ice cream and some play areas, so we enjoyed some ice cream the first night we got there.
Abby played with the team on Saturday and they played well. Here are some pictures of her hitting and serving. We still had a few girls out because of injuries and sicknesses, but they were great at filling in the spots and still winning games. They even beat a team that they had lost to in the El Paso tournament, so that was satisfying. Aubrey got sick too, so she and I spent the day sitting at the end of the row of seats in case we had to make a made dash to the restroom; but after her first episode she was good and just rested on my lap the rest of the morning. We ended up driving home that night while the team stayed to play on Sunday. They kept us posted on their games, but with all the missing players, they didn't do their best. But the experience was good and it helped prepare them for their next tournament.
Tessa turned 12 on March 24th. We started her festivities the day before since her birthday was on a Sunday this year. We went to the mall and got her ears pierced. We have the girls wait until they're 12 before getting them pierced. Tessa had decided she definitely wanted them pierced, so she waited patiently for her birthday to come and then we got it done. She was a trooper even though she was nervous, and she was excited about the sparkly fireball earrings that she picked out as her first pair. While at the mall, they talked us into having a turn on the Kroozer animals. We rented two and let the girls take turns riding them around the mall. The girls thought it was the best thing ever.
Taryn got to drive one too and she took turns driving Tyler and me around with her. The mall was pretty empty, so they had all the hallways to themselves. They said it was so fun and doing it as a part of Tessa's birthday celebrations made it a fun birthday activity.
On Sunday we had our usual Kasibbons dinner. Tessa picked out the meal and after dinner it was present time. Tyler went above and beyond by wrapping her presents one inside another until she only had one huge box sitting at her feet waiting to be opened. She was so excited. Each box that she opened had a gift inside and another wrapped present.
By the time she got down to her fifth or sixth wrapped present (each one smaller than the last one), everyone kept saying that has to be it. But then there'd be one more. It worked out because she asked for gift cards so they did keep getting smaller and smaller, but wrapping one small gift card box and then one small gift card, she just kept unwrapping. We all thought it was hilarious. Her final presents were chic-fila gift cards which were exactly what she had asked for. She was so happy. We enjoyed a black forest pie for her birthday dessert. We love this girl who turned 12. Tessa's smart, happy, bubbly, and friendly. She loves to play with her sisters and with her friends. She likes to write stories and songs and she's very good at picking out songs on the piano just by ear. She's super smart in school and even got a 100 on her practice Math STAAR test. She still loves the color green and turtles. She likes playing board games with her family, watching movies, and playing games on the computer and on her phone. We love this girl. Happy birthday Tessa!
One Saturday in March was overbooked with activities, so while I took Abby to a local tournament, Tyler took the other girls to our ward's service project. Here is a picture of all the families who were at that service project.
They helped plant flowers in the garden and the kids had a great time learning about gardening and soil and flowers. These are a few pictures that my friend sent to me. I was so happy to have some pictures since I wasn't able to be there with them.
So while they were serving, Abby had another tournament. It was a fun one-day tournament where the girls ended up winning first place gold in Division II which is the age group older than them. Everything just really came together this tournament and the girls played amazingly well. Here's the team taking pictures after they got their medals. So proud of them!
Abby and Ally were the main hitters and they both had great games. They had so many kills. All the girls served well and dug the hits that came to them. It was just so much fun to watch. One play I posted on Facebook was where Abby was in the back row and ended up digging the ball five times during the play. They had some really long volleys, and we as parents had so much fun cheering them on. Here's Abby's team all jumping in the air after scoring an ace. We love how they're all in the air.
The sad part was normally their tournaments end in the late afternoon, so we planned Tessa's birthday party for Saturday night thinking the tournament would be over in time. But because they played so well, but had long games, I had to leave before they were finished. Tyler kept me posted on the games while Tessa and I prepped for her party. I missed half of the semi-finals and all of the championship game, but they won and I was so happy for them. And thanks to parents who record the games, I was able to watch them later that night.
So Tessa had her birthday party and invited five friends and planned an entire evening around the theme of Cupcake Wars. We let the girls make their own pizzas and then we split them into two teams and they battled against each other to make two different kinds of cupcakes from scratch. Here they are making their pizzas, and then getting ready to start baking.
We had all the ingredients on hand and some recipes printed out for basic vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. They had two rounds and we had picked out secret ingredients so for round one they had to use either orange or caramels in their vanilla cupcake; and in round two they had to use either raspberries or peanut butter in their chocolate cupcakes. The girls had fun concocting their own creations and making a mess in the kitchen. Here are the two teams showing off some of their final cupcakes.
In round two, we were pressed for time, so those cupcakes didn't turn out as good, but even if they didn't look exactly like picture-perfect cupcakes, they still tasted good. The girls also learned that regular sugar is very different than confectioner's sugar and they were very creative in their ways to combine tastes and flavors. Abby and her friends, Braelinn and Emily, were the guest judges, who took their roles very seriously as you can see from this picture. It turned out that there wasn't even a clear team winner. One team made better cupcakes, while the other team made better frosting, so they were all winners! It was a really fun night for everyone.
Finally, just a few pictures of the girls when we made a stop at the park to visit with Emily and her family one night in March. The little girls got to play while the older girls visited, but Emily's mom, Jenn, took some pictures while we were there. We love these girls and have so much fun hanging out together.
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