Illinois Game

On a cold Saturday morning, we drove up to Champaign, IL to see an Illini football game. We got there early so we could walk around campus. Our parents got to see old classrooms, dorms, and restaurants. Then we went to Memorial Stadium to watch the Illini play Penn State. It was very, very cold but we managed to fun, even though we lost 35-17. We left a little before the fourth quarter ended and looked at another bookstore. Then we got dinner at Hot Wok Express, and old Chinese restaurant. We headed home after that, and this past Saturday got to see Illinois beat Michigan!!!

Kelsey's Soccer Season

This year our team was called Nine Irish Brothers after the restaurant one my teammate's parents' owns. We had most of the normal people on our team, plus five new 7th graders. We ended up only losing two games including in the tournament. We got all the way to the championship game and played our arch-rival. We lost 1-0, but the game was super close. Afterward some of us went to Nine Irish for dinner/random snacks.

Ethan's soccer season

I (Ethan) just finished a great soccer season this fall. Our record was 4 wins, 3 losses, and 1 tie (including tournament games).Our team is: top row:Coach Jordan, Coach Harding, and Coach Miller. Middle row: Bob, Devin, Nate Miller., Austin, Nate Matson , Adam, and Matthew. Bottom row: Nathan, Parker, Logan, Trevin, Ben, and me. I had a great time playing this year and I am looking forward to playing again next year.

Volleyball

We were very successful in 8th grade volleyball this year! The A-Team only lost 4 games, and the B-Team lots 2 and won the City Championship! A-Team got runner-up. We had a new coach this year and lots of new students played too, so it was a bit different this year than last year. We noticed some teams improved a lot, but we improved, too. By the end of the season, almost everyone could consistently get their over-hand serve over, which was a great accomplishment. The A-Team played West Lafayette in the City Tourney Championship and lost in the third game. The B-Team played Tecumseh and won in two! We were very excited for our victory.

Family Reunion

The weekend after Labor Day, we had a big Reder family reunion at our house. I (Kelsey) was there on and off because I had to work at the Parish Picnic at St.Lawrence, but I got to say hi and have a burger. We grilled out, played ladder golf, and watched football in the living room. Most people left later that night, but my grandparents, the Browns, and my grandpa's brother Rob and his family stayed the night. We all went out to breakfast at Bob Evans the next morning, and everyone else left from there. It was fun seeing everyone again, and we hope to have another reunion soon!

Labor Day Weekend

As always, on Labor Day weekend, our family drove up to Rockford to visit our grandparents. The Browns came too, and we had lots of fun playing with Gavin and Cassidy. On one day we went up to Edward's Apple Orchard, like we do every year. It was surprisingly warm for September, so we didn't have to rely on the delicious hot apple cider to warm us up (although we got some anyway!). Cassidy loved climbing on the old tractors and playing on the playground that looked like a ship. She would stand by the windows on the bottom and someone would peek through it. She thought that was pretty funny. We also got her to go down the slides.
At the orchard store we got fudge, cider, cheese dip, and lots of our other favorite things. When we got back to our grandparents, we watched football and snacked on everything we had bought at the orchard.

First Day of School

Hello! Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. Since we're so behind, we're skipping everything that seems "old", and going right to the first day of school. Or, rather, the second day of school because we forgot to get pictures the first morning. I (Kelsey) am in 8th grade this year at CC, and Ethan is in 5th grade at St.Lawrence. It's the beginning of the second quarter, and school is going pretty well! We both got straight A's (yay!) so that was exciting. We hope the next quarter will go smoothly too!

Door County camping

My dad and I (Ethan) went to Door County, Wisconsin on a camping trip with Gramma and D-Daddy. We had fun building fires and taking hikes in the woods. We drove up Thursday, July 16, and came back Sunday, July 19.

When we woke up on Friday, we went to the Maritime Museum. We saw all kinds of models and ship parts there. At the end, we went on a tour of a naval tugboat. We saw all of the different rooms there including the cabins, engine room, the bridge (the room where the captain steers the boat), and even the kitchen!
After going to the museum, we took a hike and saw an 70-foot tall tower that you could climb to the top of.
After the hike, we went to the shore of the Michigan River and went fishing. We didn't end up catching anything, but we had a good time.
On Saturday, we took a driving tour of Door County. We saw cherry orchards, little towns including Egg Harbor, and we stopped at an art studio, where the owner showed me how to cut the matting for framing art. We had a fun time camping!

Gavin's Baptism

The next week we went up to Wilmette to celebrate Gavin's baptism. We drove up on Saturday, the day before the baptism, to have an extra day to visit the Browns. We took a trip to a nearby park, built trains with Cassidy, visited a Lake Michigan beach, and ordered in Thai food for dinner. We loved entertaining Cassidy and cuddling with Gavin.


The park was just a short walk away from the Brown's house, so we decided to walk. We threw around a baseball, played on the playground, and went on the swings. After dinner we got in the car to go to the beach. There was a playground there, too, so we got to play on that and in the sand. We even got a little wet from a plastic whale that shot water out of its spout, but the lake was too cold to go in.


Then on Sunday we had breakfast at a hole-in-the-wall place who's famous for their pancakes. They were excellent! Later we drove into Chicago for Gavin's baptism. Ethan and I (Kelsey) tried to keep Cassidy calm and quiet, since our parents are Gavin's godparents and were up with Uncle Erik and Aunt Erin. After then ceremony was over, we went to Maggiano's for a big group dinner. There was so much food - we were stuffed after the appetizers! Gavin loved all his presents - I think Cassidy did, too! Once dinner was finished, we went home. We saw everyone again, though - two weeks later in Florida!

Cubs Game

On July 5th, as a Mother's Day gift, we got to see The Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field! We got there early to check out the stadium and batting practice. Also, we were four of the first 10,000 fans to arrive, so we got Ted Lilly T-shirts! We hung out close to the field to be up close by the Cubs during batting practice, and after a while we went to find our seats - the third row in the upper deck. It felt very high at first, but we got used to it as the game went on.


Ted Lilly was the starting pitcher, and he did very well! There were all the other normal starters in too (besides ARam, who was still injured). We got hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, sodas, and pizza. We had a great time watching the game, even though we were high above the field.


The Cubs have had a little bit of an on-and-off season, so we weren't sure how well they'd do. But they proved us wrong and won 8-2 versus the Milwaukee Brewers! Derrek Lee hit a three-run home run, and Jake Fox hit one to the street behind Wrigley! Marmol and Heilman came in as relief pitchers for Ted Lilly. We were so proud of the Cubs!

4th of July

This 4th of July we traveled up to Rockford to visit our Grandma and Grandpa, just like always. The Browns were there too, and we had lots of fun playing with Cassidy and cuddling with Gavin.

We drove up on Friday, and spent all day Saturday there too. We had our regular cook-out with hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats.

This 4th was pretty un-eventful (no broken toes, tornados, power outages, or lawn fires), but we had lots of fun watching the Cubbies and setting off fireworks.

This was the first time Cassidy knew what fireworks were, and we were anxious to see what she thought of them. She loved the parachute one, so we were sure she would like the regular, bright, louder ones that the boys of the family put on a show with. But when we lit the first one off, it made a loud BANG! and scared her half to death. The girls stayed inside with her the rest of the night and listened to her go on about how "the boys were too loud." Aunt Erin told us she still frequently reminds her about how the boys were just so loud.

The next day, as a Mother's Day gift for my mom, we drove up to Chicago and Wrigley Field to see the Cubs game!!

I (Ethan) have two friends, Nolan and Nate, who told me about the skate park in Lafayette. This summer, I decided to go to Skate Camp there. It's a really cool skate park that has lots of ramps. I like to skate on the roller -- that's in the picture on the left -- the curvy ramp where the two kids are skating. It's cool because it has a double ramp.

At skate camp, I heard about a cool skateboard shop at the mall called Zumies. I had been saving some money and decided to spend some on a new skateboard. At Zumies, there's a design-your-own skateboard deal -- which I did. I picked out a deck (the purple board that says "Baker"), trucks (the red things that hold the wheels to the deck), wheels (colorful ones) and other stuff like hardware and bearings. Zumies put the board together for me, but I also got a skateboard tool, so now I can make my own new boards, change out parts, or fix anything that breaks.

I have gone to the skate park lots this summer with my friends. When I go to the skate park, I also bring my bike and my scooter. It's fun to ride those down all the ramps too. On the skateboard, I'm working on doing a kick flip. A kick flip is when you spin the board under your feet and land it back up again. Other cool tricks I've seen people do are rock to fakey, a shove it, and a heel flip. Sometimes it's just fun to watch other people at the skate park and think about doing new tricks.

Kelsey's Spring Soccer Team

This past spring my (Kelsey) soccer team was called Gettings Reed. We had most of the regular people, with a few exceptions for some who played for Isbell instead. Both teams often had lots of people gone or missing, so we barely had enough people to play. So sometimes Gettings Reed players would help out Isbell and play during their game as well as the Gettings Reed game, and vice versa. It was also very rainy, so we didn't play quite as many games as usual because of all the rainouts. We were one of the youngest teams, too, and had all seventh-graders and eigth-graders. So we weren't number one or anything, but we did pretty well for being an underdog team!

Ethan's soccer championship

I (Ethan) just had a great soccer season. The people on my team are:Nate, Logan, Me, Jack, Nathan, David, Devin, Payton, Adam, Parker, Evan, Luke, and Brian. We went un-defeated and won the championship! It was tied at the end, so it went into overtime. After overtime, it was STILL tied, so it went into penalty kicks! We won in penalty kicks 5-4. I had a fun season and I am looking forward to another great season this fall!

Kelsey's Birthday Party

This year I had my (Kelsey) thirteenth birthday! Since I moved from St.Lawrence to CC, I've made so many new friends from St.Boniface. I had a big party at our house, and invited seventeen people! The party was from 7-9:30. We didn't want it to be too long, because with that many people, we didn't know how much we could think of to do. But it was lots of fun and definitely not boring. We probably could've even gone for another half hour. We ordered Domino's pizza and had plenty of other snacks set up on the dining room table. We ended up having sixteen people, including me. We had pizza, ran around in the backyard and pretty much the whole neighborhood, opened presents, and had cake. I got lots of Vera Bradley and Target gift cards (which I'm still trying to use up!). The time went by so fast-we were all surprised when we came back to the house and there were half a dozen cars parked outside! After everyone left, I was completely exhausted. It was so much fun, and I can't wait to have my party next year!

Easter

This Easter, we decided to stay home to celebrate. The day before, we decorated eggs using the classic colored water and colored Q-tips. We made ten eggs in all. The next day was Easter! The first thing we did was look for our Easter baskets. They were filled with lots of candy, books, gift cards, and toys. Then we went searching for the eggs. Some of them were hard to find! After we found them all, we looked through our baskets some more and ate candy and cinnamon rolls. Then we got ready for church. After church was over, we came home and had a snacky lunch and started getting dinner ready. We had a pork roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans (it's been so long since we've posted anything, we totally forget what we had! We're just guesssing about the sides.) It felt good to just relax and enjoy spending Easter together, just our family this year.

Spring Break

This year for spring break we went to Pompano Beach, Florida. It's a few minutes from Ft. Lauderdale, and we go there every summer. Our grandparents own two condos there, so that's where we stayed.

But before we flew down there, we visited family in Illinois. We stayed at our grandparent's house and visited two of our new cousins, Elizabeth (Elly) and Nathaniel (Nathan) on Saturday. Then on Sunday we drove to our aunt and uncle's house. We visited our cousins Cassidy and Gavin (we like to call him "G"). Cassidy loved playing with Ethan (she called him "Guy" -- no clue why) and we ordered in Thai food for dinner.

We got to Florida on Monday afternoon and left Friday morning. For a lunch/snack on Monday we got Stinger's pizza, our favorite. Then we went to Aruba's for dinner. I (Kelsey) got sesame-crusted salmon, which I LOVE! Ethan tried something new and got Seafood Alfredo.

On Tuesday we went down to the beach, looked for shells, swam in the pool and ocean, read by the pool, and got tan/sunburned! For dinner we went to Gianni's, another family favorite. We love their garlic-y rolls! I got pizza and Ethan got stuffed shells.

On Wednesday the waves we bigger so we got to do some boogie-boarding and skim-boarding. For dinner we went to Sea Watch, yet another favorite place. I was seafood-ed out, so I got a bacon cheeseburger. Ethan got a steak. Then we decided to go get ice cream from Maggie Moo's.

Thursday was our last full day, so we enjoyed our last of the warm weather. We went to Bonefish Mac's for dinner, which we'd only been two once or twice. Everybody got either a burger or a sandwich. We finished our Yahtzee tournament (we played each night) and I won! The first night I did horribly, but the other nights I got really lucky! My high score was 309. Friday we flew back and we hung out the rest of the weekend at home.

Battle of the Saints

On March 20 (Ethan's birthday!) we had the fourth annual Battle of the Saints game! The Battle of the Saints is a basketball game played by the dads from St.Lawrence versus the dads from St. Boniface, our rival school. Our dad was on the team this year, along with some of our friends' dads, plus some others. Ethan sat with the fourth grade on the St.Lawrence side, and I (Kelsey) sat with my friends above the sixth-graders. All the seventh-graders who were there and went to St.Lawrence last year stood on the St. L side. We also had some former St. B students stand with us because our science teacher was offering extra credit points for cheering for St.L (her kids go to St.L too)! Our dads got off to a rough start, but they started coming back and were suddenly winning by about ten points! They kept their lead and won 54- 39. The first year the dads tied, the next year St.B won, and St.L has now won twice in a row!!

Ethan's Pinewood Derby

A couple weeks ago, I (Ethan) had my school-wide Pinewood Derby race for Boy Scouts. My car was purple with a yellow stripe and was designed to look like a lightning bolt. Me and my dad worked on the car together. There is a practice race track that we tested our car on. I got third out of about 30 overall. Then I went to the district race.

In the district race, I got second in my heat out of eight. I won my first and second races. On the third race, I lost and went down to the loser's bracket. I won the next race and went to the championship. I raced the same person I lost to in the third race and lost to him again. During the fourth race, my car flipped over on a piece of popcorn! They had to clean off the track and redo the race. I had a good time racing and making my car.

Ethan's basketball season

I (Ethan) just finished a season of basketball with my friends. For our season, we had 7 wins and 1 loss. This year, we focused mainly on defense. We had plays called motion, 1-4, and CC. We lost to St.Boniface, but their coach teaches them the same plays as us. Here are the people in the picture: top row: Ben, Jake, Noah, Cedric bottom row: Clayton, Jack, Coach Yeaman, me, and Nathan. I am looking forward to a good season next year.

Elizabeth Grace's Baptism

A couple of weekends ago, we went up to Elmhurst to visit our grandparents and go to our baby cousin Elizabeth's baptism (her nickname is Elly). They day before her baptism, on Saturday, my mom and I (Kelsey) went to my Aunt Becky's baby shower (we haven't updated in so long, so she's now had her baby, Nathaniel Justin Horne!). There, we had dessert foods, soda, and punch. We played games, like trying to guess what characteristics Becky wanted the baby to have between her and Justin (for example, whose eyes, whose ears, etc.). We also got twenty birthday cards, and each person chose a card to write to Nathaniel. On each of his birthdays for the next twenty years, he'll receive a card from someone who was at his shower! Then on Sunday morning, bright and early, we drove to Aurora, where Aunt Cori and Uncle Ben live. We went to their church for mass and Elly's baptism. After that we had some time to kill while Uncle Ben finished cooking lunch (barbeque sandwiches). We sat at a McDonald's with the rest of the Hardings and the Volmers (Cori's family). Then we went back over to the church for lunch and dessert. After that, we hit the road back home so we could be home in time for school and work on Monday.