Oliver's Senior Night for Football

Last Friday was Senior Night at the football game against Burlington. Uggh. Here we go again. This would be the last time a Dwyer boy will be on the football field at Wellsville High School for Friday Night Lights. How did we get here so quickly??

 

Oliver is surrounded by a really great group of senior boys on the football team, for which I'm so thankful.  We worked hard on his poster and I think it turned out just right.  Lots of football and fall memories over the years with my boy!

All of the posters looked awesome!  Here's just a sampling of the 14 that were hanging in the school.

Before we knew it, they were calling the parents to the track for the ceremony.

So many seniors and parents! We took up the whole track.

Game time! I love that the cheerleaders gave Oliver his own football in the corner :)

Baby Oliver fathead really made the rounds.  He was just the cutest.

Oliver had lots of family there to support him on his Senior Night.  I love that he gets to be an integral part of the team, even though he can't actually play.  My boy loves football.

All that smoke means lots of touchdowns for our boys in blue!  Final score was ironically the same as it was Calvin's senior year against Burlington, 56 - 0.

I couldn't be more proud of my Senior! Love you, Oliver!!

Pumpkin Patch Tradition Continues

With Calvin being off to college, I don't take any of our usual family traditions for granted.  With it being the final weekend before Halloween, I was getting nervous that we may not make our pumpkin patch trip this year. But then he told me that Syd invited him to Joy & Scott's to watch the KU/K-State football game on Saturday and so he'd be coming home!  It was a dreary day at the pumpkin patch (and a bit muddy from all of the recent rain, which Violet hates), but that meant that there were no crowds at all.  We walked right up and got our picture by the wagon.  And then realized that it was a super-awkward picture with Oliver sitting on the pumpkin. My kids are getting too big!

My sweet baby girl in a sea of pumpkins.

We missed the other cousins this year, but got Syd and Jack in our "How Tall This Fall" pic. Schaake's had a banner saying "50 Years" and I was thinking how cool it was that our family has been coming for 20 of those 50!

Although the changes from year to year aren't as dramatic as they once were, Calvin and Evelyn were both convinced that they grew since last year.

They may be right. Calvin is certainly over the 6 foot mark now, and Evelyn has soared over the 5 foot mark.  My time of being the tallest woman in the house is quickly coming to an end, I'm afraid.

We checked out some of the animals on our way to the pumpkin patch.  The cows were very pre-occupied with their lunch, but the beautiful rainbow pheasants were happy to show off their colors.

Found some good ones!

A couple of pics with my girls.

We did some shopping in the store before it was time to leave.  Russ asked Evelyn to re-create a pic from when she was an itty-bitty baby.  She was much happier to do this today than back in 2012.

Here's our blog-worthy family picture from Pumpkin Patch 2025.  What a gift to have everyone together for the weekend.  The tradition continues another year!

Violet's Full Day

 Violet has been busy this fall with bowling and choir, and last week, she had both in ONE DAY! Not only that, but she had to travel to both events, which made for a very full day.  Her bowling meet started at 10:30 in Lawrence and she had a great time with her team.

I took Violet with me after the meet and she ate a lunch I'd packed as we drove back to Wellsville. She had to be back by 1:00 to leave for League Choir in Iola.  We changed her out of her bowling uniform and into her choir clothes and she was off! The parents were invited to the concert that evening, so Russ and I had a nice little date night at the Iola theater, which was really cool!

Look at how big that choir is! They sounded so great. I thoroughly enjoyed every piece they sang.

You'll have to look VERY closely if you want to find Violet.  Russ and I sat in the middle of the front row so she would see us. Once she saw us, she went back to hiding behind another girl.

Russ managed to get a smile out of her between songs. I know she was excited to be there, but I think she just gets a little nervous.

And I know she knew the songs because she had been practicing.  Listen to how good she sounds!

We caught up with our girl after the performance. She and Lillian were all smiles!

She had SUCH a great day! And after being gone from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., she slept well that night. I'm so proud of you, Vi!

Passing on the Eagle Tradition

At Friday night's football game, they had an emotional pre-game ceremony. I'm pretty sure the whole point of it was just to make every mother in attendance cry her eyes out. It was called "Passing on the Eagle Tradition" and all of the seniors lined up on one end of the field, while all of the kindergartners lined up on the other. Here's the class of 2026, walking out to meet. . .

. . . the class of 2038 at the 50-yard-line.  These sweet kiddos all had on matching shirts and weren't quite as orderly as their senior counterparts.

All the while, there was a very sappy speech about how quickly these school years go by and all of the wonderful traditions we have here at Wellsville schools.  Oh, and did I mention they had "You're gonna miss this" playing in the background the whole time?? Like I said, the whole thing was pretty cruel to us mommas.

The seniors had a gift for each kindergartner.  It was adorable watching them interact with our youngest Wellsville students.

It was cool to see the seniors in their uniforms for football, cheer, dance, and band, and others wearing their Senior class shirts.  They had a great turnout to pass on the tradition.  It was an emotional night which succeeded in making this momma cry.  It really is crazy how quickly the past 12 years have gone. I'm so thankful for our school and the strong tradition we have, and I love that Oliver and his classmates could "pass it on" in this ceremony.

Evie's 7th Grade Volleyball Season

What a fun start to "official" school sports for our youngest! She just finished up her 7th grade volleyball season and her team finished 2nd in the Eudora Tournament, undefeated Pioneer League Champions, and Pioneer League Tournament champions! They didn't drop a set all season except for the Eudora tournament and they played really well together. They were SUPER fun to watch!  I'll turn this post over to our girl to give you all the details.

This year was very fun and I had a great time playing volleyball. We did really well and won all of our games on B team. On A team we did also except we lost to Eudora. Miss Jeanette was our coach this year and she was a great coach and taught me lots I didn't know.

On B team I played all around and on A team I played front row.

I'm going in for Charli in this picture. 

We did lots of chants which where really fun to do. We would do chants after every play.

Charli and Ashlynn are the setters. I play right side hitter.

At the Eudora tournament we had a two hour break in between our second and third game so the parents brought food for lunch. It was fun to chill in between games. We faced woodland springs our second game and we were very even with them. It was a very good game and we came out with the win.

Lots of family came and watched me at the Eudora tournament so that was cool.

This was us facing Eudora and they were really good. We took the L but still got second in the Eudora tournament which is the first time placing in the last 10 years.

We had a team dinner at the Roost before our last game. Kandie (Piper's mom) and Tamelei (The Twins mom) made Chicken alfredo, breadsticks, and salad. It was delicious.

We won the pioneer league so it got in the paper. It was cool getting to win pioneer league at home.

Had to get a pic in the Twin sandwich. My mom says we look like triplets on the court.

We got to take home the plaque for winning the league tournament.

Charli, Maggie, and I had to get a pic after winning with our medals.

We got recognized at the football game for winning league. It was pink out so some friends and I have pink leggings on. 

Here are our volleyball pictures.

The trio had to take some pics together too.

It was a great season and I had so much fun! I can't wait for the next season. Time to start Basketball.