Fall Wrap Up Tournament

This past weekend was supposed to be completely free of soccer but with just one email from the girls' Magic coach, we went from no games to five games (to be fair, one was for CFC), as the team was invited to play in Sporting's Fall Wrap Up Tournament.  They needed a team to fill out the 05 bracket - so our 06/07 travel team took on three 05 premier teams.  I was so worried about how the girls would do that I didn't even tell Emily that they were playing in an 05 bracket.  The girls played great soccer, finishing with 1 tie and 2 losses - every game was close and the girls played very tough.  But for a communication mishap in front of the net on Sunday morning, they probably would have won their third game and ended up in the finals for the 05s.  It was great to watch them play (mostly) fearless.  The weather conditions were brutal on Friday night and Saturday morning, but the girls didn't seem to mind too much. And, in the middle of it all, they started their indoor season with a solid win.  It's so much fun to watch this team play!  From now until April, they will be inside.  Two practice-free nights during the week and only one or two games each weekend, no further than 30 minutes away.  What will we do with all of our free time?!

Friday night, it was 40 degrees with winds blowing at 15-20 mph, gusts up to 50 mph.  The other team wore their jackets over their jerseys.  The parents were in winter coats and wrapped in blankets.

Saturday morning, it was sunny and 28 degrees. 

Sunday morning, it was close to 50 with no wind. 

I didn't think that Emily played particularly well on Sunday - but she did score and the assistant coach pointed out that she was almost always double teamed, with one girl in particular pushing and shoving her the entire time.

Halloween 2016

As the girls get older, Halloween costumes get more and more tricky.  The lack of "not sexy" costumes available for preteens is pretty appalling.  After searching high and low, Elizabeth settled on a "forsaken soul".  Emily picked out a costume in a store one day and I realized that we already had it at home, because Elizabeth was the same thing a few years ago.  So Emily was a huntress.  They had a great time at their school Halloween party and then trick or treating on Halloween night.

Regional Honors Band

Elizabeth recently participated in the 35th Annual Connecticut Future Musicians Souther Regional Honors Band.  This program is open, by invitation only, to students who participate in their CT Future Musicians school band and who meet the nomination performance criteria.  Students who qualify after the audition are accepted into the Regional Honors Bands.  Elizabeth practiced with the band on Friday nights and Saturday mornings for the month of October and the concert was held last Saturday.  She played both flute and piccolo for the band.  We are very proud of her and very grateful to her amazing band instructor.

Alex, Elizabeth and their amazing music teacher, Mrs. Hernandez, represented JPII at the concert.

Piccolo

Flute

Cardinal Lacrosse - Local Play Day

Both girls played Cardinal Lacrosse this fall, participating in five weeks of clinics with girls from other lacrosse teams from all over the state.  Unfortunately for Emily, not enough 5th and 6th grade girls were interested in playing on the tournament team, so she wasn't able to continue beyond the clinics.  Elizabeth did all of the clinic weekends and was looking forward to a big tournament in Massachusetts in November.*  On Sunday, the team had their local play day to get ready for the tournament and Emily was invited to play with Elizabeth's team - a 5th grader playing with 7th and 8th graders.  She was definitely the smallest kid out there and would have benefited more from playing with girls her own age, but she held her own and didn't seem the least bit concerned about the size difference.

After a cold week that featured snow accumulation, Sunday morning was gorgeous.  Elizabeth took the first draw of the morning for Cardinal.

Elizabeth ended up playing a lot of defense, which she normally doesn't do.  She has a badly sprained (we hope) wrist and it really impeded her ability to play middie.* 

Not a midget at all. 

Making a pass. 

*So, Elizabeth took a hard fall rollerskating on Saturday night and played through the pain on Sunday.  By Monday morning, the pain was significantly worse and Lee took her to the walk-in ortho after school.  She fractured her growth plate and is in a cast for the rest of the month, so no more lacrosse for her.

Catholic School Invitational

The final cross country meet of the season was the Catholic School Invitational at St. Bernard School.  It was a good meet for our teams to participate in because we were (mostly) against similarly sized schools that also only have a couple of practices a week.  The girls team did great - Elizabeth was our top finisher at 13 and then we had two girls place just outside the top twenty, at 21 and 22.  Overall, they finished 5th out of 9 schools, missing 4th by just a single point and 3rd by only five points.  After watching our girls crush the course, I went to talk to the boys - told them that I expected an even better performance, that this seemed like a fast course and a good course for us.  They exceeded my expectations with five top 20 finishes, finishing 2nd out of 9 schools.  I was so proud of them!

The start.

Coming up the first big hill.

Elizabeth was 18th when she came out of the woods and then starting picking off the runners in front of her.

Killing it the last 100 meters.  You can't see it in the photo, but there was a girl right at her heels and she was not about to let that girl pass.

Elizabeth and Brody

Freezing and pouring rain, but we got them to smile for a photo.

The medal winners (top twenty) and the boys' trophy.