Weekend Highlights

This weekend we went to a Baby-Q, a BBQ party for Stephen's co-manager and his wife who are expecting a baby boy in October. It was a pool party too and the kids had fun spending all afternoon and evening swimming in the pool. They had a black lab who loved to swim and cool off too. The kids thought she was so fun! She would play fetch in the pool with anything, even a paddle board! :)

I don't know how many times she went in to fetch that board, 

probably 20-30 times!

James would get out of the pool with her, and then make it a race. He would throw the board into the pool and then jump in with the dog and race to the board to see who could get it first. The dog won most of the time, but James is pretty quick himself and got it a few times.

Madeline loved looking underwater as the dog would swim by her.

The kids had a blast at the Baby-Q. I sewed some burp cloths for the baby gift, they turned out super cute but I forgot to take a pic of them. 

This weekend Madeline also reluctantly cheered at her first home football game (she's still getting over her summer cold she caught the end of last week). There was a problem with the girls cheer uniforms and last minute the league had to order them from a new company, but not all the right sizes came in. So Madeline didn't get all of her uniform yet. Here she is with one of her best friends Ashleigh. Their game was at 9am, but the sun was already blazing and it was in the 90's already. Poor kids were sweating it out!

We took James' buddy, Aaron along with us. He's really into sports now and memorizing the scores. They had fun and enjoyed the game and their slurpees. :)

Our nephew, Elias (Mike's youngest) had his first game of the season this weekend too. One of my old Medford Mom's Club friends contacted me and told me her son was playing on the same team as Eli. She said she would let me know about any pics posted to their team's FB page that had Eli in them. He's #44 and the tallest one in the line here. Go Elias!

Lastly with all that research I was doing last week on the Roku, we ended up buying the Revue with Google TV. The sales rep at Best Buy talked us into it. It was only $20 more than the Roku, had all the same applications and more. It comes with a Keyboard controller with integrated keyboard, remote control and touchpad and you can use it to go on the internet too! The kids love it, now they don't need to ask us to go on the laptop to play their PBS games, they can do it on the TV! We're happy with it so far. Check out the video to see what it's capable of, pretty cool!

It was a good Saturday

Today was Madeline's cheerleading banquet. The season has come to an end. She was super excited to be receiving her first ever trophy!

Kyle Invaders Football Cheer Banquet 2010 from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

There was a special guest at the banquet, our town mayor! Lucy Johnson was there to shake hands with all of the players and cheerleaders. She is the first person Madeline shakes hands with.

Here are Ashleigh and Madeline with their trophies.

Madeline was so happy to have a trophy just like her Daddy has (the kids and Stephen went through his box of childhood trophies). When we came home Madeline asked for some baby wipes so she could clean and make her trophy shiny. :) She said she would like to do cheerleading again next year.

Today we also got part of our new couch set! Part of our set was the showroom floor sample because they had discontinued the Chocolate brown color (we were able to get $500 off total and an extra ottoman). So our awesome neighbor went with Stephen to pick up these pieces. We love how they look in our family room! Our over sized chair that goes with our other ottoman (and will be replacing Stephen's beloved "man chair") will be delivered on Tuesday.

Lastly this isn't a pic from today but from Wednesday when Madeline had her cheer buddy Ashleigh over for a playdate after school. Here the girls are eating their mac'n'cheese dinner with apples. They had a lot of fun jumping on the trampoline and playing with Penny Lane. James had his buddy Aaron over, but the boys didn't want to pose for a pic.

Her 1st Competition

Yesterday Madeline competed in her first competition with her cheer squad. The girls on her squad range in age from 4-6 years old. And they've been practicing for this competition for about a month now. Considering this is the first time all these girls have done cheerleading I think they did good for their 1st competition. They had to have a 3 minute routine which consisted of 2 cheers, 2 lifts and 1 dance routine. Here is the video clip of their routine. Their squad was the 2nd one up in the competition and we followed a really experienced squad (who won 1st place) so all of us parents were a little worried - but the girls did their BEST & had fun ...that is all that matters.


Kyle Invaders PeeWee Squad Cheer Competition from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

Madeline is in the back row 2nd from the left. She calls out the first cheer by saying, "Ready!?". In the first lift she is the spotter standing behind the girl that is lifted. During their dance routine to music I thought she did great by actually "running" in place instead of just moving. And during the last cheer Madeline is one of the girls who kneels down on the right side to lift one of the girls up, actually it is Madeline's leg the other little girl trips and falls over. Whoops! At least she got up and they completed the lift! Way to go girls!

Unfortunately they didn't "place", but all the girls earned a gold medal on a ribbon for participating. The whole event took nearly 3 hours and on the car drive home Madeline konked out. We were so proud of her for having the courage to get up there and participate!

Kyle Texas Parade

It was a beautiful Fall day to kick off our town's city parade. And Madeline was participating, her cheer squad was marching in the parade and throwing candy.

Here's Madeline's squad! She's right below the white arrow. She did awesome. The girls had to march pretty far, but they made it all the way to the end waving their pom poms and yelling their cheers.

Go Invaders!

Our town has 2 high schools and their bands and cheer squads participated too. I loved these girls uniforms with their white cowboy boots.

This squad did many daring stunts and flips, they were great!

James liked seeing all the police, fire and medical cars in the parade. They made sure to have their lights flashing and sirens on. Here's an old Kyle cop car.

And here's the new Kyle cop cars.

We waved to the firemen!

We saw lots of animals too,

like these horses drawing a carriage wagon...

...and these cows, pigs and rabbits. :) It was a fun parade. Afterwards the director of our football league treated all the cheerleaders to a sundae at Dairy Queen.

We say "Kyle" You say "Invaders"

My mom arrived on Friday to help us celebrate Stephen and James' birthdays this weekend  - I have lots of pics to share from over the weekend, I'll put them into several posts. She also got to see Madeline cheer at a football game.

Mom took a pic of me taking a pic of Madeline with her friend Ashley during a water break.

Ashley and Madeline - Go Kyle Invaders!

James does pretty well sitting and watching all the football games we go to.

The girls sitting on the bleachers with Daddy.

Mom loved all our matching t-shirts so she wanted to take a family pic of us.

Last week at practice they had individual and team pictures. Madeline is the 2nd from the left on the bottom row.

Our cheerleader. Does the water tower in the background give away we live in Texas? :)

Madeline doing a cheer stunt

Go Madeline from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

We "heart" Football!

While Stephen's parents and brothers were out visiting, we had a fun filled "Football" weekend! Madeline had her first home pee wee football game to cheer at. It's nice cause it's about a mile down the road from our house at a local middle school football field. Madeline was super excited her Nana, Poppi and Uncles were there to watch her. She did great!

Nana and Poppi even made sure to bring red shirts to support our Kyle Invaders!

Madeline after the game with her Uncle Mike, Uncle Bryce, Daddy and James. She got a well deserved snow cone...it was a hot game!

After Madeline's game, the guys headed to downtown Austin to catch the Longhorns first home game. Stephen's buddy Albert has a brother who coaches for Wyoming, so he was able to get Stephen some free tickets to the game. Over 100,000 fans came to watch this game! Here is Dad (red shirt) and Bryce (blue shirt) walking to the stadium.

Bryce and Stephen sat together.

And Mike and Dad sat together.

Bryce and Stephen were sitting right by the canon shooters. Bryce got startled every time!

They sat on the visitors side where the sun was setting and shining. They said it got pretty hot and sweaty at the game. But they still had a good time. And the Longhorns won! At least the Longhorns and Invaders won this weekend, can't say so much for the Vikes.

Learn from your elders

Kyle Invaders Clap It High from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

On Wednesday I received a call from Madeline's coach asking if I could have her dress in uniform that night for practice because the boys had a football scrimmage and they were trying to get as many of the cheerleaders to go cheer for them. Madeline was the only girl from the younger squad to cheer (some of the girls from her squad were there but they ended up sitting it out on the bleachers, Madeline asked me if she should sit out - I told her cheering with the older girls was good practice for her, so she stayed in) - these are the girls from the older 2 squads. I thought Madeline did great cheering and keeping up with them! She's all the way on the left.

Kyle Invaders We Will Rock You from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

Who rocks the house?

Kyle Invaders Rock the House! from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

I say Invaders rock the house! Madeline front and center.

Kyle Invaders Cheer

I may have mentioned before that Madeline is doing cheerleading this Fall. Last school year she took a break from taking dance lessons because she was starting school full time. She really missed going to dance class and performing. So when her school bus driver gave her a flyer the end of the school year for football/cheer, and Madeline expressed how much she wanted to sign up - we decided to let her try it out. It's pretty affordable, much less than dance lessons and recital costs. It's only August through the first week of November, which is just plenty to get her dance fix of.

Today was her first game to cheer at. The football players had a Jamboree scrimmage today. Seeing those lil guys with their big helmets on made me chuckle, they were so cute! Luckily Stephen works mid shift on Saturdays so he should be able to make most of Madeline's Saturday morning games. Daddy's Litte Girl with her most favorite guy in the whole wide world.

Here Madeline is with her new friend Ashley. Ashley asked Madeline if she "wants to be friends" last week at practice and then gave her a hug after practice was done. Kids are so cute. Madeline and Ashley go to the same school and we found out Ashley is starting first grade too and will be in the classroom right next to Madeline's classroom.

Aren't the football players in the distant so cute? And the girls looked so pretty.

There's a few younger girls on the squad...their attention span isn't as long as the girls Madeline's age. Notice the little girl in the front row, no longer holding her pom poms and cheering - but her chip bag. :) The girls remembered their cheers they just need to practice at being LOUDER!

Taking a water break and sitting by brother. Yes, Jimmy-James has his hand in his pants for some reason. And it was sunny, bright and HOT out!

"Let's hear it for the boys! Go Kyle Invaders!"

Let's hear it...." I N V A D E R S, Invaders, Invaders, Ya!

It was a fun first game! Can't wait for the Fall Football weather to arrive though. :)

1st Cheer Practice

Kyle Invaders - 1st Cheer Practice from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

We signed Madeline up to do cheerleading for the Texas Youth Football Association this Fall. 1st practice started today! Their first jamboree football game they get to cheer for is less than 3 weeks away. Here is one of the cheers they learned. Go Kyle Invaders!