YMCA Basketball

After playing soccer last fall we decided to go ahead and try out a new sport, basketball. This sport is one that I know quite a bit more about. Unfortunately, all the games are played on Saturday mornings and with the current weekend work schedule that I am on I didn't know if I could be one of the coaches. That made me a little upset, so each week I would try to be helpful and be an assistant during practice because it always looked like the coaches were out numbered. Ten little kids for just 2 coaches was just not enough. 

Our little players were numbers 11 and 12. Here Brinley is going for the shot. The whole game is so cute because most of the kids don't know how to dribble, or actually any rules of the game of basketball. So, Brinley and Landon would both get the ball and run down the court without any dribbling and then throw up a shot. Thankfully both kids scored during the season which was more than they did in soccer. They were both so excited too!

Our little 4 year basketball player. He was one of the only 4 year olds on his team that actually scored a goal. He tried so hard, but was so worried about trying to get more goals. Towards the end of the season he actually got a lot better at defense. I told him that he should just take the ball from the other team like he takes toys from his sister.

Brinley did really good for her first season of basketball. I was surprised at how quick she jumped out in the first game and actually scored 2 goals. She spent the rest of the season trying to score more than that but it never happened. She was the only girl on her team that scored all season.

Most of the team was at the last game of the season and they were all excited about getting their trophies. They won the majority of their games on the season, although they didn't keep score. I think that it is funny that Landon is the only kid looking at me.

Proud parents of our little ball players.

These two couldn't have been any more proud of their trophies.

Basketball is something that both kids really enjoyed and were both fairly successful for being their first time playing. I definitely anticipate that we will be playing basketball again. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Game Night

With the kids being so competitive I decided that we should try to harness some of that winning spirit and put it into a family game night. The kids have some favorites that they keep wanting to play, but we recently got some new games for Christmas that have really been a lot of fun. 

Pop the Pig is a quick fun game to play. You shove cheeseburgers in the pigs mouth and then press on his head the number of times that was on the cheeseburger that he just ate. The winner of the game is the person that "Pops" his belly out. As a nurse I can only think of the practice dummies at CPR certification when the kids are pressing on his head because it makes the same sound. 

My mother got me a new game for Christmas too called Blokus. It is one of my favorite games that I have picked up from playing over at my brothers house. Did I mention that my brother is slightly obsessed with board games? The game says that it is for 7+ year old but both of the kids really enjoy it. For a while I was actually undefeated. Now I spend so much time trying to help the kids find a perfect spot that I have actually been dethroned as the champ. 

The kids really like this game where you have a big board full of Disney scenes and you have to find certain objects within the pictures. You have to find random objects like plates, fish, bridges, etc.

Uno is our new go to. It is fairly quick and the kids were really quick to pick up the rules. The only issue the kids have is with trying to hold their cards. They try to build a barricade or some device so that nobody sees their cards. They have actually been pretty resourceful with how to block people from seeing their cards.

Another game of Blokus!

Oh no! The Yeti is about to fall into the spaghetti.

Yeti in my Spaghetti is another quick and easy game that the kids like to play.

Not every game night has ended well. With two kids who are really competitive it sometimes means that when someone wins that the other one is really sad. For some reason it doesn't really matter if Jennifer or I win. It is only a problem when the sibling wins.

Family game night has been a lot of fun for us and I am so glad to see the competitiveness that the kids are learning. I sometimes have to remind them that it is in fact ok when you don't win. The world is not going to end, but rather that there will be more games to play. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Puzzles

About 18 years ago Jennifer and I got a gift of a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas. Since then I have absolutely been a jigsaw puzzle addict. I will go periods of time where I will do them all the time and then other times I will go months without doing one. Well, as it turns out my kids have developed a love for puzzles too, especially Landon. So, over winter break I had a desire to start a puzzle, maybe because I had gotten one for Christmas. The kids said they wanted to help so I started them out with the grunt work of sorting through all the pieces to find all of the border. They were actually very helpful!

Many years ago I started dating and labeling the last piece of the puzzle. I thought it was just a cool way to see which piece was the last one since I have glued all of the puzzles that I have ever put together. This was the first puzzle that I ever completed that I got to include the kids initials. They weren't as excited about this as I was.

The first puzzle experience was so good that I immediately decided to start another one. This one was a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Here the kids and Jennifer were again helping with the border pieces. 

Even though I do most of the work on the interior of the puzzle I still think it is cool to let the kids help me with finishing the puzzles. Here all 4 of us are putting in the final piece to the puzzle, a true team effort.

The kids were struck with puzzle fever and got out one of their own puzzles to put together. Here they are almost finishing up their USA puzzle.

I decided to get a couple of smaller puzzles at the store because I wasn't wanting to do another 1000 piece puzzle again just yet. So, I picked up a 4 pack of Disney themed 500 piece puzzles. I sorted this puzzle by myself and when I do I usually pick out all similar looking pieces. Here Landon was putting together a little picture of Mickey and Minnie. 

Here are all the puzzles that I did in the first few weeks of 2018. I did a 1000 piece, a 750 piece oval bald eagle and then 4 500 piece puzzles. Not too bad of a way to start off the new year!

I have around a 100 puzzles that I have done over the years and I have glued every one of them. I had always told Jennifer that I wanted to have a puzzle room in our home where I could display all of them. That has never really worked out, but I was tired of having all of those puzzles sitting under our bed collecting dust. So, I went through them all and found some of my favorites as well as puzzles from places that we have been to on vacation. I hung these up in the laundry room and I was really excited about how it turned out. A nice little reminder while doing the laundry about some of the fun adventures that we have been on.

Seeing all those puzzles under the bed made me realize that we probably shouldn't glue all puzzles any more. So, from now on I am going to decide if it was worth keeping and putting up on the wall. If it doesn't make the cut then I am going to take it back apart and maybe pass it along to someone else so that they could maybe enjoy it too. I am however going to keep my tradition of putting my initials and date on the last piece. So, maybe someday you will get one of my slightly used puzzles. Thanks for reading and God bless!