Columbus Day Tournament

The CFC girls played at in the Columbus Day tournament this weekend to mixed reviews.  They were, for some reason, placed in a very high bracket for the tournament, but surprisingly, were able to play well on Saturday and even walk away with a win.  On Sunday, however, they crashed and burned, playing some of the worst soccer we've seen in a long time.  Emily played particularly bad, and for some reason, the team was unable to pull it together.  Hopefully, they will move on from the bad performance and use the good performances to take their team to the next level.

CFC 06 girls at lunch between games. 

This was Emily's 8th soccer tournament of 2017 (April - October).  There is a bit of relief in knowing that she won't have another one until spring.

Wickham Park Invitational 2017

Yesterday, the JPII cross country team ran at the Wickham Park Invitational, which is a huge meet.  There were almost 800 runners in the middle school races alone, from as far away as Vermont and Rhode Island.  This is a very difficult course and the longest race our team runs during the season.  Usually, it is quite chilly at the start but yesterday, it was in the high 60s and close to 100% humidity. Despite the unusual and difficult conditions, our runners did really well. Many beat their time from last year.  Emily set a new school record for 6th grade, narrowly missing the school record.  Elizabeth had another tough race, finishing a disappointing 5th for the school.  After a very difficult week and a rough night of sleep, she ended up falling on the trail; although she wanted to quit, she picked herself back up and finished.  Knowing how much she wanted to quit, I'm proud of her for not giving up, but I'm hoping she runs better in her next race.

I was too busy screaming at her to pick up the pace to get a shot of her, but thankfully, my friend Krista got this one for me.   We left almost immediately after the girls' race for a soccer tournament.

Emily on the long uphill to the finish 

Elizabeth at the finish.

September Soccer

September was a great month of soccer for Emily.  The unusual heat was something she had to battle almost the entire month, but it really didn't seem to bother her too much.  She had nine goals (including two hat tricks) and at least that many assists (two beauties just yesterday) and is really starting to grow as a player.  Here's hoping October is as fun and exciting as September!

Corner kick 

Leading the charge in congratulating her newest teammate on her first goal. 

She played her first game with the 05s last weekend. 

Magic girls are undefeated so far this fall season, including some tough league play and a great come from behind win in the CT Cup yesterday afternoon.

Camp Sloper Relays

On Friday, our school cross country team had its first race.  Eileen and I are coaching again this year and the kids are running really well.  We started on the road right away this year (last year, we did laps around a field for the first few weeks) and even though it was hard for some of the kids, a lot of them came into the season prepared.  On the boys side, we have a few new runners who show a lot of promise, so we were very excited about going into our first race.  Our goal is not to win meets like this - our school is far too small to compete with middle school teams that are larger than our entire school - but to do our best and prepare mentally for racing against smaller schools.
Our boys team had an outstanding performance - our top runner medaled, finishing 15 out of 188 runners!  We had three boys in the top 50, leading their team to a 5th place finish overall and beating all of the other Catholic school entries.  Our girls team finished 7th out of 8 teams, but even beating one team was a huge success.  More importantly, some of our weaker runners had outstanding performances, which really built their confidence.  I'm so proud of these kids!

The girls team with Miss Lynch and Mrs. Serio, two of our middle school teachers that came out to support them. 

8th grade teammates

The girls are off!! 

So proud of Emily, running her first cross country race.  She finished 37 out of 154 girls, the first runner for our school.  She set a new school record (and grade record) for this course of 11:25 (7:37 pace).

Elizabeth has been battling a wicked cold since the first day of school, which has hampered her training a bit and gave her some breathing difficulties during the race.  She still finished in 12:18, setting the 8th grade record for the school. 

At the awards ceremony, waiting to cheer on our top male finisher, who medaled. 

First race for these awesome 6th graders.

August Odds and Ends

End of Summer Odds and Ends:

"Hello?  Is there anyone there?"  You can't take this kid shopping without some antics.

Note to self - temporary hair dye is not temporary when you have blond hair....

Loves to shop.

Taylor & Nick's Wedding

Our long time neighbor, who wasn't even ten when we moved into our house, has apparently grown up when we weren't looking.  Taylor was the girls' first babysitter - she started sitting for us when she was 11 (Emily's age now) and Elizabeth was less than a year and she continued to babysit for us through college.  A few weeks ago, she married her long time boyfriend in a lovely ceremony that had both Lee and I shedding a few tears.  We are so happy for her.

Peter and Lee 

The girls with the beautiful bride.

Sixth and Eighth

The girls started school the Thursday before Labor Day Weekend.  Emily is now in middle school (no more lower school jumper) and Elizabeth is in her final year at JPII, which is a bit hard to believe.  The days are long, but the years are short.