Varsity Night!

Thursday night, Abby's basketball team had their annual "Varsity Night". This is a special night for our girls when they get to pair up with a BHS Golden Girl Varsity player, run onto the court with them at the beginning of the warm-ups for the varsity game, and then sit behind the bench for the entire varsity game. Our Fifth Grade team also got to scrimmage each other at half-time of the Varsity game! It is a big night for the girls, as they really look up to the varsity players, and they get to play on the high school court!

~~~

Here is Abz and her good bud, Kristin, watching the game from behind the player's bench...

~~~

Abby has a favorite varsity baller, Jordyn Hover. Jordyn also plays the point guard position and has come to one of our practices to help the girls with their dribbling skills. Abz made Jordyn a sign to cheer her on during the game...
~~~
We had a big surprise this year when Coach Bartlett, the varsity coach, told me that he would have each girl's name announced and they could run out onto the center court to be recognized! No other team has had that happen before, and boy, were the girls excited!
~~~
As the girls had their name called, they all got "fives" from the varsity players before running to center court to join their teammates. Here is Abz as her name was called...

~~~
...and meeting her teammates at half court!

~~~
The girls had only about four and a half minutes to scrimmage at half time (due to the cheerleaders and pom and dance team taking up half of our time :-( ), but they hustled and played hard!
~~~
Abby played tough defense...

~~~
Bringing the ball down the court...

~~~
Shooting for two!!!

We had a fun night with Abby's fifth grade team.

~~~

Our next tournament is this Saturday in Spooner...

The Bears at the Dog Pound

Friday night, the BHS Golden Bears traveled to Chetek to challenge the Bulldogs on their home court. This was our second conference meeting for the season. The Bears dominated during the first challenge in Barron, and tonight was no different.

~~~

Andrew and his C-Team teammates won by about a 20 point margin.

Here is Andrew waiting for the open look at the point position....

~~~

Andrew sank 4-three pointers in tonight's game, according to his dad! Here is one of the golden three's!
~~~
Austin has worked hard to earn a starting position as the point guard on the Varsity team--tonight was his second consecutive night starting. Here he is taking control at the top...

~~~
Austin beats his defender and drives to the basket!

The Varsity team won by almost a 20 point margin tonight.

~~~
Tonight's game was a bitter-sweet victory. Although the guys were happy to win (all three BHS teams won tonight), they will be saying goodbye to one of their teammates after tonight...

Tino, one of our foreign-exchange students from Germany, will be heading back home this weekend after spending half of the school year here in Barron. Tino was a huge asset to us this year on our soccer team, and is a very popular guy in the halls at BHS. I know he will be missed when he goes back home to Germany.

:-(

~~~

The next BHS game is a non-conference game on Tuesday night in Durand.

I Couldn't Help Myself....

At tonight's game, my friend, Kelli's, little great-niece kept checking to see what I was up to.

~~~

This little girl is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen! My finger had a mind of its own when it started snapping a few photos--how cute is she?!?

~~~

I think she could be in the media!
(I wanted to pinch her...)

Squeezable Cheeks!

Tonight, we had an informal baby shower to celebrate the birth of a co-worker's new little boy. "Little A" is just over a month old, and has doubled his birth weight!

Just take a look at these cheeks! ~~~

He periodically got bored with all of the "lady talk" around the table...
~~~
But the little peanut managed to stay awake through almost the whole party!
~~~
Those cheeks were ridicously squeezable!

~~~

~~~
It's hard being the only guy at a party full of women!

Congratulations, Stacie and Muzin!

The Barron Bears in the Northwoods

Saturday, January 9th, Abby's basketball team had a day-long tournament at the Northwoods school in Minong, WI. Abby was fortunate to have both sets of grandparents come to watch her games! Grandma Pat, Grandma Debbie, Grandpa Denny, and Grandpa Ken all braved the freezing temperatures to come cheer on the Barron fifth grade girls--thanks, grandmas and grandpas!

~~~

Grandma Pat manned the camera for me throughout the day and captured the following pictures for your enjoyment...

Abby beating her defender down the court!

~~~

Waiting to play defense...
~~~
Number 25 is all about the defense!

~~~
The cutest point guard on the floor!

~~~
Our team played hard, but we ended up losing our first three games--by a total combined score of SEVEN POINTS! Yep, the games were very close, and our third game even went into OVERTIME! Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end of the scoreboard when the buzzer sounded.

Our fourth, and final, game of the day, however, ended on a much better note. We won by quite a solid margin, and the girls had a fun time playing in that game. Always good to end on a positive note!
~~~
Here is a pic of our fam on the bench, as Jamie and I coach Abby's team...

~~~
Jamie does a good job of trying to get the girls motiviated and telling them where they should be on the floor!

~~~
In the huddle...

~~~
Jamie and our other coach, Dean, both trying to get their point across to the girls!

~~~
Sometimes people may wonder where my twisted sense of humor comes from. Wonder no more. Here is a picture my mother took and demanded it show up on the blog...

She says it was a picture of the Barron Bear towel (that was a gift from Coach Dean to the girls)--I say she was just taking a picture of my butt!

Thanks, mom.

~~~
Good job to our girls on their good showing at our third tournament of the season. Our next tournament is in 2 weeks in Poplar, WI.

Bears and the Rails--Friday Night Fun

Friday night, Austin and Andrew had a home game against the Spooner Rails. They were the only boys on the team that had spectators all the way from Florida come to watch them play!

(Thanks, Grandma Pat and Grandpa Denny!)

~~~

Andrew and the C-Team played first. Poor Andrew was not feeling well Friday night and throughout the weekend. He still was a solid player and played well when he was in the game.

Here is Andrew bringing the ball down the court...

~~~

Andrew was thrilled to, once again, have his favorite referee, Coach Bartlett, or "Bart", officiating his game. This is a special picture of Andrew and Bart.

(Bart is our Varsity Girls Basketball Coach.)

~~~
Our C-Team won by another blow-out score--they beat the Rails by somewhere in the vicinity of 25 to 30 points. So far, our C-team boys have only lost one out of seven games. That loss was to Rice Lake by only 5 points.

~~~

Next, we headed over to the High School gym to watch the Varsity game. Our boys started off slow and quickly fell behind, but later in the game, we started to come together and eventually even took a shaky lead!

Here is Austin at the point guard position, looking to make a play...

~~~
Austin is proving to be one of the best defenders on the team. Here he is, playing tough "D" on his "man"...
Our boys ended up losing the game in the end by a final score of 60 to 70. The final score is a bit deceiving as to how close the game really was due to some fouls in the last minute to try to stop the clock in an effort to get the ball back in our possession . Our Varsity team is 2 for 4 in the conference, and 2 for seven overall.
~~~
The boys play again on Tuesday night against Cameron--a nonconference game.
GO BEARS!!!

Birthday Time!

Time for a little birthday recognition on the Klimek Chronicles!

~~~

Today, January 2nd, Auntie Nicole celebrates the day of her birth--

Happy Birthday to the first baby of the new year in 1974 at Tri-County Hospital!

We hope you had a great day!

~~~

Uncle Wes also recently celebrated his birthday on December 31st!

Happy Birthday to our New Year's Eve Uncle--you don't look a day over 32!

We love you guys!

love,

Jamie, Shana,

Austin, Andrew, and Abby

Timberwolves and Magic and the Klimeks at the Target Center

The Klimie Kids and their Dad had a fun night of basketball on New Year's Night when they went to the Target Center to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves take on the Orlando Magic! Thanks to Jamie's newfound friend on Craigslist, they got four awesome seats in the fourth row at half-court behind the player's benches in the V.I.P. section! WOW!

~~~

Jamie took my little point-and-shoot camera along to capture a few pictures of the evening....

Here are the kids, enjoying their seats in the V.I.P. area...~~~

Dad and Abz hanging out together at the game...

~~~
the Brothers...

~~~
And here are a few pics of the game action...

~~~

Warm-ups, complete with the cheerleaders!

~~~
The tip-off!

~~~
And AGAIN with the cheerleaders!!!!

(I wonder who had control of the camera?!?!)

~~~
Part of the V.I.P. tickets included passes to the "Back Court"--a club surrounding the area where the players go to and from the locker room. The kids got to see the players (thru the crowd of other V.I.P.'s) going back and forth. There was also a rumor that some of the Viking players hang out in the "Back Court" during some of the games, but there weren't any there tonight--bummer!

~~~

Here are the kids having prime rib sandwiches at the club...

~~~
Andrew sampled one of the interesting ammenities of the "Back Court" club--

an Oxygen Bar!

~~~
The kids and Jamie had a great time together at the game. The Timberwolves ended up losing by a score of 94 to 106, although it was pretty close until the fourth quarter (I watched the game on TV). We are hoping to be able to go again sometime--perhaps when the LAKERS are in town!

:-)

We love Basketball!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

from the Klimek Family!

~~~

The kids spent the evening ushering in the new year with friends.

Austin went snowboarding with a bunch of guys to Afton Alps and rung in 2010 on the slopes.

~~~

Abby had her friend, Brenda, over for a night of fun at the Klimek house...

~~~

Andrew was invited to a friend's house for a New Year's Party--here he is with Carson and Jake modeling the 2010 glasses before I took them to the party...
~~~
Even Sophie and Jack got in on the festivities!

~~~
Brenda and Abby spent quite a bit of time constructing a gingerbread house--all the while proudly wearing my new "hot cocoa" aprons that were a Christmas gift from Auntie Lou and Uncle Louis! (thanks again!)

~~~
They worked hard on their creation...

~~~
And it took some teamwork to get all of the pieces together...

~~~
And when it was all done, the gingerbread house was spectacular!

~~~
Abby, Brenda, Jamie, and I toasted in 2010 with some "champagne" while watching a re-run of the Times Square ball dropping at midnight central time. We blew our horns and hollered "Happy New Year"--much to Jack's disgust!

~~~
And when all of the celebrating was done, we were all "dog-tired" and found a bed to crawl into.

Happy New Year to all of our family and friends! Blessings to you in 2010!

Love,

the Klimek Family