signing day...

Iowa State to Matt is like the American flag to the United States; synonymous in every way. He loves Iowa State so much that I swear he switched out Iowa State for my name in our wedding vows. "I, Matt, take you, Iowa State University, to be my..." If I wasn't in the room after Kate was born he probably would have penned CY on her birth certificate. These may be slight exaggerations but for anyone who meets Matt, one of the very first things you'll learn is his passion for all things Iowa State. From his shirts, to his jackets, ball caps, golf balls, tea mug... name a possession and it probably has the ISU logo on it.

So when Matt caught wind of an Iowa State women's basketball clinic for girls you better believe he signed up Kate's name as fast as he could find his Iowa State pen. 



And I believe there is mutual affection by Kate as well. Her dad has brain washed her good. While I help her say prayers at night, Matt can be found singing her to sleep with the Iowa State fight song. 

Iowa State or not, Kate is developing a strong interest in basketball and man can that girl dribble.


I think her jump shot still needs some work though.



And what good basketball clinic wouldn't be complete without Iowa State balloon swords. I'm sure each kid was told to go slay a Hawkeye. (But I'm a total neutral party in this, okay people. I don't want my Hawkeye-loving family to disown me!)


After the clinic the kids stuck around for the women's game. This is Kate's impression of a cheerleader, I guess.


And afterwards Kate got her picture taken with her favorite ISU basketball player, 6'7" Anna Prins. Kate actually got quite nervous for this photo. 


The clinic was great for Kate and for Matt. Kate learned some new skills, well as many as you can possibly learn at age 5, and Matt further instilled his love for ISU into his favorite, oldest daughter.


Comments

J-D-K-G said…
Love it Sarah...even if it IS Iowa State related...!
February 7, 2012 at 1:34 PM
Great Gramma Smith said…
The basketball floor was made for Kate or is it the other way around.
February 8, 2012 at 6:48 AM
Great Gramma Smith said…
kate is a beautiful girl!!!
February 8, 2012 at 6:51 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October things...

Image
It has not been the easiest October on record. Kate had a couple of hospital visits to Rochester but she is somewhat better at the moment. She continues with chemotherapy and has not been back to school for quite some time but she is doing her best to set aside time for online school work between naps, loving on cats, and hanging out with her family. I was able to get the girls to visit their great grandma in western Iowa a few weeks back. Here's Claudia shortly after arriving at great grandma's house. She is very into jewelry and lots of it. Grandma had several questions for her about the number of bracelets and thankfully Claudia loves talking about them. Many she has made, some were gifted to her...it's a lovely hodgepodge of middle school girl goodies. Clearly the girls and I were blessed with height genes from relatives not named great grandma. We spent time relaxing, taking four wheeler rides, eating candy and we also received a visit from my aunt and uncle. Aunt Deb ...
Read more

March Madness 2024...

Let's talk brackets. I love a good competition. I love to win. But when I don't win I can typically move on quite quickly from a loss (unless we are specifically talking about Big Six Swim Offs, but I digress.) We have a family group on ESPN for the men's NCAA basketball tournament and it's "high stakes" with no entry fee, a chocolate rabbit for the winner and most importantly bragging rights. While I've never won, nor have I ever been close to winning, I thought I'd share my rationale for my picks through the first round of play. You should not follow this advice but if you so choose to, don't blame me when you too lose out to a cat with it's own bracket. East Region UConn 1 v Stetson 16: This is a silly way to start because it's a 16 v a 1 seed and clearly we know the very likely outcome of this game. But if I could, I'd choose Stetson cologne over a Huskie dog because Huskies kind of scare me a little. Regardless I am going with the ...
Read more

The dark day of June 27th...

 June 12, 2023 We typically don't share a lot of updates about Kate's health, primarily because she wants to remain "a normal teenager." However, we still get asked how Kate is doing and I started thinking maybe it's okay to share updates now and again. Most people care about her and our family, some others could maybe be labeled as "tragedy junkies," but I'm going to operate under the assumption that most people have the best of intentions.  Today is June 12th and we are quickly approaching the dreaded dark day of June 27th. Have you watched, "Gilmore Girls?" It's a witty, comforting television show from the early 2000's. In it one of the main characters has what is dubbed, "a dark day." This is a day the character dreads each year and in response he goes into hiding from the world with no communication. Well for Kate, and the rest of us to some degree, the dark day of the year is June 27th and that date is closing in on ...
Read more