To the "G", to the "O", Go Colts Go!

After all of the wonderful years of coaching high school cheerleading, I swore I would have only boys when I got pregnant and that if I did have girls they were not going to be cheerleaders.  Well ... I am eating those words right now.  Someday I will learn to just keep my mouth shut, huh?  So Mackenzie wanted to do cheerleading, since the older girls across the street do it.  We signed her up and at the registration I somehow got talked into being the coach.  Here we are now ... and Mac loves it and I actually am enjoying this more than I did the high school age.  These Kindergarteners are so darn cute.  We have had a couple practices, two games and even had the chance to participate in the Grayslake Central HS Varsity football game.  Here are some pics:

Getting in form for a tuck jump (she has the "hug" clap correct)

Look at that form for starting her tuck jump ... she's a natural

The camera caught the after of the jump and not the during ... looks like she made the jump

Showing the Jr. Coaches (high school cheerleaders that assist them) what "candlesticks" are

Sideline cheer: "Keep it up, keep it up, keep that super spirit up"

"Say keep - it - up - whoo!"

Stunting with the older girls at the game



First time up with the older girls

Smile for the camera and nice high V!

At Grayslake Central  HS waiting in line to be introduced on the field at the Varsity game

These eight girls are future Central cheerleaders 

Making the tunnel for the Varsity football team to run through

Stunting with older cheerleaders for the parents at the Varsity football game

All the way up to a full ... she is loving this!

Mackenzie does a shoulder sit with Olivia (our neighbor)

All of the Colts cheerleaders that came to the first Central game

Taylor is a pommie, Mac is on the Mascot cheer team and Olivia is on the Varsity cheer team for the Colts

Mackenzie starts Kindergarten

The day has finally arrived, Mackenzie started Kindergarten.  On Wednesday we had a "Meet & Greet" at the school for an hour.  Mac was so excited and so independent.  She walked right in the school and right to the room with her mom and younger sister trailing behind.  The room is really cute and very organized (just how Mac and mom like it).  Later that evening we picked out her first day outfit and she was so excited that she jumped up and down and said "I can't wait!" and then "I'm so excited!"  She is in full day Kindergarten - best idea anyone ever had was to make a full day program.  She absolutely LOVES it!!!

Taylor, Olivia, Mackenzie and an upset because she can't go with Lauren

Can't you just see how excited this kid is ... Kindergarten!

Model pose?

Here we are ... outside of Park school on the "Meet & Greet" day

Inside Mrs. Ewen's classroom with her friend Jacob.  Both Jake and Mac attended FHS preschool together and now will attend Park school together.

Swim Lessons

We spend our entire summer at the pool.  Mackenzie has pretty much self-taught herself to swim.  I decided that I wanted to get her in a swim class so she can learn how to use her arms and breath correctly when swimming.  I took some pictures of her in class one day - she is doing so good!

Since Mac in a class that meets every day for two weeks, I thought why not put Lauren in a class too.  Well, Lauren isn't as into swimming as Mac is.  In fact, she is not really into socializing and being a "part" of anything.  Lauren's class is only two days a week for 30 minutes, so I thought ... piece of cake.  Ugh - - Boy was I wrong!  She made me be in the water with them the first day and she really didn't participate at all.  The second day I told her that I was going to sit in the chairs and watch her.  Here is what she did:

That is her laying on the edge of the pool pouting

As the class participates ... she sits and watches

Mac floats to the instructor

Comes up for air

Floats back to the wall

Waiting her turn

Getting out 

Push off the wall like a rocket

Good Job Mac

Floats on her own for a long time

Swimming under the water ... this is how she is the entire time we are at the pool

At the end of class they play a game

Ending class for the day

The BIG fall

On Friday, July 13th (yes ... Friday the 13th) I took the girls to Alissa's house for dinner because Chris was at the Brewers game.  We had a good time there and the kids were all so good and played really well.  At the end of the evening, the kids went outside to play.  Max and Lauren were on Max's motorized ATV and so Mackenzie decided to ride Max's bike while they rode around.  Mac has been able to ride a bike without training wheels since an early age 4, so this bike with training wheels was a bit too small for her.  She went down their sidewalk and was going around their court when the bike went a little too fast for her and she totally wiped out.  Mark ran over to her and checked to make sure all her teeth were still there.  She hit her face on the rocks that were on the ground.  She scraped up her nose, got a really bad bloody nose, scraped her chest (b/c she had a tank top on), and scraped her knee/foot.  When Mark brought her into the house it looked like she got shot - that is how much blood was on her.  She showed me her face and it really didn't look too bad.  This was just an accident and she has since then healed beautifully.  The pictures are of the first three days.  We hit the pool with a TON of sunscreen on the wound for two weeks.  We also have put vitamin E and Mederma on it everyday since.  You can hardly tell it happened.

This is from early in the evening ... Lauren is obsessed with  "Baby Josie"

High-light of her day ... feeding baby Josie

The night of the crash ... at home and cleaned up

The morning after the crash ... starting to scab up

Two days later ... scab is there and it looked yucky!

As of August 1st ... face is all fixed (oh and tan too).  No scar at all!!!

Cutest Cookie Party

Mackenzie and Lauren were invited to a Cookie Decorating birthday party the weekend after the 4th of July.  It was so hot out then.  They had so much fun and I was blown away by how awesome this was.  I could never have this kind of party because I am WAY too OCD to allow this kind of a mess, but it was so fun for the girls.  They decorated three large flower sugar cookies and then decorated a flower pot.  The favor was these darling pink aprons with each child's name embroidered on them.  Soooo cute!!!

Posing for a quick picture before we left for the party

All the girls at the party pose with their aprons on

After the party the girls pose with their aprons on and with their finished cookies

Love the aprons ... they can wear these for Christmas cookie making

The finished products ... Mackenzie's is on the left and Lauren's is on the right

Vera Bradley

So everyone knows that I have a slight obsession with Vera Bradley.  I have created two mini-me Vera Monsters.  One night at the beginning of the summer instead of going out to ride bikes in the sweltering heat, the girls asked if they could play store with my Vera purses/bags.  I said sure and we pulled them all out.  They played for two hours with all the purses/bag, their Barbie cash register, and of course they each had a baby to cart around too.

Keeping Cool in June

The Mertins girls have pool passes, but sometimes it is more fun to splash in the backyard.  In June we put the pool out at the bottom of the slide.  The girls had a blast!  Some of the older neighbor girls even wanted in on the action.  There are some days during the summer that I actually do some housework (yuck) and can't take them to the pool ... here is how they cool off:

Mackenzie gets ready to slide down into the pool

The hose is freezing but makes it super fast

Splash on in

Lauren gets ready to slide down

Going fast ... she isn't as big of a fan

She does like the big splash at the end though

Neighborhood chicks ... Taylor, Lauren, Kamden, Mac and Olivia (back)