Mikayla Archive

With the first day of school hanging over everybody’s head, our house is getting geared up with new school supplies, backpacks, clothes, lunch bags, and shoes.

Probably the easiest part of getting prepared for this coming school year was placing a single order through Target for all of Mikayla’s school supplies (including a stylish backpack and lunch bag). No lists, no multi-store shopping, no hassles.

Mikayla is entering 4th grade this year and is looking forward to catching up with friends, making new friends, enjoying recess and learning new and exciting things.

Kennedi is starting preschool this year! She will be attending preschool at St. Francis on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. She is all geared up with new shoes, clothes, a huge backpack (comparatively speaking). She is excited about showing off her new shoes to her teacher and making new friends.

Photos of each of the girls’ first days of school will be posted later this week. Check back to check them out. are available for your viewing pleasure.

This past week was Mikayla’s official last week of softball for the season. Her team, the All-Stars, took the challenge of their first year of kid-pitch and crushed it. Mikayla (as well as many others on the team) did very well hitting and fielding and they all had an amazing ability to cheer their own team on. Mikayla was pitcher for her team this year and did a very good job of getting the ball over the plate. I think she’s already looking forward to next season.

But with one sport down, we have managed to pick two sports up. One minus one = two? How can that be (and how crazy are we for signing her up for so many sports that all happen at the same time?)?

Starting in late July, Mikayla will begin practicing for soccer. This year she made the jump from AYSO to WFC (Wichita Futbol Club). WFC is a much more aggressive and competitive play than that of AYSO. Her friend Elizabeth from school (as well as some friends from her basketball team) play in the WFC and she wanted to tryout this year…and she made it! She will be on the Strikers team with her friend Elizabeth. In addition to her normal season, her team will also be playing in two tournaments (one in Hutchinson and the other in Emporia). A soccer schedule for Mikayla will be posted on the site as soon as we get it.

In addition to soccer, she also has started basketball practice. Unofficially they are practicing once a week for a few weeks, then will have two weeks off, then will be diving in to practice hard for their upcoming season at the Biddy Center starting the first part of October. She is back playing with the Storm (the team she has been on for the past two years). This year the courts are about 25% longer, 25% wider and the free throw line is back further. There’s definitely going to be more running required of her this year. In addition to her normal season, her team will potentially play in two tournaments (TBD). A basketball schedule for Mikayla will be posted on the site as soon as we get it.

Everyone is welcome and invited to come out to any/all games for either sport at anytime. I know she’ll be excited to see you cheer her on. See you on the sidelines/bleachers!

Edit: I uploaded the last days worth of photos from the trip. This final day entailed the park, the Oklahoma City Zoo, and Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater. See the photos using the links below.

Edit: Uploaded more photos - Dallas Natural History Museum, Adventure Landing and Visiting the Thompsons in OKC. See them below.

Edit: Uploaded some photos of the Dallas Zoo. See them below.

Our trip to Dallas/Oklahoma was pretty awesome. In addition to going to Jamie and John’s wedding, we also explored several cool attractions including the Dallas Zoo, the Dallas World Aquarium, the Dallas Natural History Museum, Turner Falls, the Oklahoma City Zoo, the park, Eskimo Joe’s and many excellent restaurants. We were away for a total of six days and drove a total of 957 miles. We took many photos of the trip and I am still in the process of uploading them to the site have one last set of images to upload before I’m done. Take a look at some photos of our trip (more photos to be uploaded later):

• Turner Falls
• Dallas World Aquarium
• Dallas Zoo
• Dallas Natural History Museum
  & Adventure Landing
• Visiting the Thompsons in Oklahoma City
• The Park, OKC Zoo and Eskimo Joe’s

Good afternoon sports fans. It is going to be another fantastic year for watching softball. This year Mikayla’s softball team has gone through a series of changes, for the best of course, and their schedule is posted below.

First, their team has moved from the YMCA to the Goddard Junior Softball Recreational League. Although the YMCA was a great way for the kids to be introduced the basics of softball, it just wasn’t the type of playing that these girls should be doing. The Goddard League is a bit more competitive, not as competitive as let’s say…Westurban, but more so than the YMCA.

Second, they have gone from a machine pitch game to a kid pitch game. This means this year they will do away with the machine pitch and have a kid pitch game. And guess who’s one of a handful of pitchers for the team this year? Mikayla!

So get out your lawn chairs, pack up some snacks and water and come out to Goddard to cheer Mikayla and the All-Stars on toward victory. See you at the fields!

All games posted below are at the Goddard Junior Softball Recreational League fields (get directions to the fields | see what field she is on) and are on either a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night (p.m.).

Last Sunday the kids and I went outside for a little fresh air. Mikayla practiced her guitar, Julian played with his Radio Flyer and Kennedi painted our driveway with water. Check out some photos of them playing outside. Make sure to drop us a note to let us know you enjoyed the photos.

This past Saturday was an excellent day for playing soccer and the Orange Crush did just that. They came out strong during the first quarter. As the season comes to an end, I thought I’d share a few photos of Mikayla playing soccer and let you preview some of the sideline action too. Check out these photos of Mikayla playing soccer and leave a comment for us letting us know if you enjoyed them.

In Mikayla’s science class at school, they are learning about animals and their habitats. As a cool project for the kids, her teacher assigned them to research an animal, make a report about this animal and then create a diorama to display the animal in its natural habitat. Mikayla choose to do her habitat project on the green sea turtle.

For a couple of nights, Mikayla read books and websites about green sea turtles to gather information for her project. Now in its completed state, she is taking her diorama and report to school tomorrow for a formal class presentation.

Check out photos of her green sea turtle diorama. It turned out flippin’ sweet.

After a few days of catching up with the real world in Wichita, I have managed to get some photos up on the site from our snowboard trip with the CYO group at St. Francis. This past weekend Mikayla, I and 22 other St. Francis parishioners took at 12.5 hour bus ride to Monarch Mountain for a few days of snow-filled fun. As usual, we stayed at Waunita Hot Springs Ranch (where the home cookin’ is unbelievable) and had a great time. Take a look at some of the photos I took while on the trip.