Archive for "Events"
Pickleball Birthday Party at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on February 22, 2022 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
Cindy Witte, one of our pickleball friends, hosted a surprise 60th birthday for her husband Joe at Chicken N Pickle on Saturday night. It was absolutely perfect!
As you can see from the video above, I think he was truly surprised.
Cindy invited a bunch of friends (most of them pickleball players) to help surprise him. She rented all of the indoor courts and even had a DJ (another pickleball friend, Jeff) for the private event.
Jeff Kenworthy, DJ extraordinaire, played fun tunes for us all night long. He even got Joe to sing a Sinatra song! If you are looking for someone to DJ or host karaoke or just play background music at your event, Jeff is your guy. You can reach him at oneheavenlypeace@aol.com.
Lisa Laham did a great job with the cupcakes and her husband helped with the balloons. They did such a fabulous job of making the place look festive for the birthday party.
The wooden paddles were not just great signs but also made for great cupcake trays. Kudos to whoever made them. They were brilliant!
Here’s the man of the party.
I think some people had left already by the time we took a group pic.
Anyway, it was a huge turnout and I am glad I got celebrate his big day with him. Pickleball people are so much fun and Chicken N Pickle is the perfect place to celebrate. Can’t wait until the next birthday celebration!
Until then, GNG.
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Galantines 2022
Posted on February 17, 2022 by Ching under Community, Events.
I had such a great time celebrating Galantines Day with my pickleball girlfriends on Sunday. Debbie Fanning organized a great brunch for us ladies at Rain. She even went all out on the decorations.
It was league day so a few of us arrived late. Thankfully, there was plenty of food to be had. The $9.99 brunch buffet included bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, biscuits and gravy, french toast, fresh fruit, and a variety of dessert options.
The ladies brought all sorts of Valentines treats to share.
We had a wonderful turnout.
I had such a great time celebrating with these ladies.
Until next time, GNG.
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Open Play with the Pros
Posted on January 5, 2022 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.
Jack Sock came to Wichita last month. I took a vacation day so I could attend the “Open Play with the Pros” event at Chicken N Pickle featuring Jack Sock (world famous tennis pro), Lauren Stratman (the #1 female pickleball player on the APP Tour), Dylan Frazier (young, up and coming pickleball pro), and Jack Oxler (director of pickleball and resident pro at Kansas City Chicken N Pickle location).
I originally signed up for the 10 AM session only but my Oklahoma friends Grant Bond and Alvaro Terron Gonzalez (pictured above with me and my friend Karen Fox) said they were coming and were signed up for the 1 PM session so then I signed up to attend the afternoon as well.
They actually ended up driving up on Thursday night and staying with Patrick Smith so they played a lot that weekend. My friend Donnie Lesperance, who works at Chicken N Pickle, texted me on Thursday to let me know that “my guys” were there. I didn’t come out that night but, when Karen texted me the next morning with a pic of her and Alvaro, I skedaddled over.
I was going to be there for the 10 am open play session anyway so I basically just went an hour or so early. It worked out great because I got to watch Grant (Pat 2.0) play with Pat and Alvaro (Jay 2.0 aka “the Spanish Sensation”) play with Jocelyn “Jay” Devilliers. It was like seeing double. It was pretty much like an exhibition match for an audience of one.
Here are some pics from that day. The above pic features Jen Reifschneider (aka Chef Jen or Lefty Jen), Lesli Toubassi (who gets mistaken for me sometimes so I consider her like a sister), and Lauren Stratman.
This pic has Tami Racine and Ron Owens with me and Lauren.
Of course, I look like a midget next to Jack Sock. LOL.
It was fun watching them play a couple of games in between the two sessions.
Hanging out with Alvaro.
Lauren and Karen.
With my buddy Matt Nola who hopefully will be playing with me at the Minto US Open Pickleball Championships in April.
With Jack Oxler, plus Jody Vinson and Lonnie Lollar below.
The guys were smart and stayed together so they had some super fun competitive games. Pictured below are Ev Kim (playing with Jack Sock) and Grant and Alvaro (who are playing together on the far end).
With Dylan Frazier. He is the nicest guy ever! One night he was waiting for Jay at Chicken N Pickle and agreed to hit with me and we got two others to play with us and we actually got a few points in before Jay arrived.
Here’s a pic of me and Dylan with Zach Nguyen and Matt Nola.
I will leave you with a fun video montage that I made of some of the pics and video clips I took that day. Enjoy!
Until next time, GNG.
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Happy Hollitini Social
Posted on December 26, 2021 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
Debbie Fanning organized a fun holiday social at Todd Brian’s Brick Street Cafe & Tavern for the lady picklers a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun!
Here’s a picture of me with Kimberly Howe and Tami Racine.
Karen Fox and Janelle Lindeman.
Tiffany Lesperance, Debbie Fanning, and Brooke Ayala.
Todd Brian’s is known for its fun and delicious martinis aka funtinis. They have 75 different flavors plus a special new holiday one.
I didn’t get pictures of all the food but I got a few.
I didn’t have them but the wings looked pretty good.
I had the crab cakes and they were fabulous.
I heard the salmon was cooked to perfection.
I used the opportunity to give the girls their presents — cute little fuzzy animal tape measure key chains, so they can measure the net whenever the need arises.
There were 12 of us at dinner. Clockwise from left: MariAnn Hereen, Karen Fox, Janelle Lindeman, Chandi Bongers, Melissa Burgess, Amy Jaramillo, Tiffany Lesperance, Debbie Fanning, Brooke Ayala, Kimberly Howe, and Tami Racine.
There were a few ladies who couldn’t make it due to schedule conflicts but it was a great turnout overall.
A few of us stuck around for some fun pictures with the big Christmas tree in the middle of Old Town Square after dinner.
Everyone had a lovely time. Here’s a fun video montage that I made of the various pictures and video clips we took that night.
I am so grateful that pickleball has brought all of us together. I just love these ladies. They are fun both on and off the pickleball court. Until next post, GNG.
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Chicks that Click
Posted on December 13, 2021 by Ching under Community, Events, Things to Do.
I love the Snowbound pop-up bar concept at Chicken N Pickle so much that I welcome any excuse to go. When Kim Blackman and Lisa Orf invited me to the Chicks that Click event at Snowbound and told me I could bring some friends, I was all over it. I was already going to be playing at Chicken N Pickle that day anyway for the CNP ICT Major League Pickleball team tournament so I figured it was perfect because then I could just come out an hour early.
Sarah is the best bartender/mixologist/bar manager ever! She made an amazing “mocktail” for my friend Lesli Toubassi (below). I liked it so she made me an “adult” version spiked with rum, which was just as tasty.
Deana Holman, Karen Taylor, and Jenny Cole listening attentively to Abby and Kim. Deana and Karen are a couple of pickleball players from Oklahoma who were playing in MLP that weekend. They stayed at Jenny’s house.
We listened to Abby (brains behind the Snowbound pop-up bar concept) talk about how they did Snowbound at the Kansas City location (original/first ever CNP) last year and it was a huge success so they decided to bring it to the other locations this year. I’m not sure how it’s doing at the other locations but it is super popular with my circle of picklers so from that perspective I think it’s doing really well.
Missina Sharp (another out of towner), Krista Crawford, and Rachel McMahon.
The same ladies with Karen Fox. At first Karen said she couldn’t make it but she was able to come out after all.
Deana, Karen (Taylor), Jenny, and Michelle Pease with their fun drinks.
Group photo with most of the girls who attended. Lesli couldn’t stay.
I had to get a gondola pic with my friend Krista who I had ran into at Costco earlier that same day. Then we did again with all the other girls because everything is better when you do it with a group, specially a fun one like these ladies.
Jody Vinson was surprise when she arrived at open play because there weren’t many people there and when she found out we were still all drinking at Snowbound, she came to get us. LOL.
The pre-pickleball drinks made open play quite interesting but I did get a few good practice games in before heading over to Nahola for our more pickleball with Debbie’s group. Anyway, this was the day that we took my car in for an oil change and I didn’t realize they turned off my headlights which are normally set to auto so I don’t ever mess with them. Anyway, I didn’t realize I was driving around without headlights until I was on my way home. Ooops!
I highly recommend checking out Snowbound. I do not recommend driving around without your headlights on. I knew I should have checked but it was daylight when I went to CNP and, even though I didn’t have that much to drink, I completely spaced the checking my headlights because I never really ever have to mess with them. I will be extra careful in the future. Until then. GNG.
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