Four Baskets!

Nadia first started playing basketball in January 2014. Paul was one of her two coaches that year. She never attempted to make a basket during a game in her first season. In 2015 she did attempt to make a basket on more than one occasion, but she never made one in a game even though even the opposing team was trying to help her achieve that goal the last few games of that season. Paul's parents and my parents made it to at least one game a season those first two years. Last year was Ian's first year playing basketball. Paul's parents came up for some basketball games, but my parents weren't able to come to any games because of my mom's poor health. Nadia scored her first basket in February 2016 while I was in the hospital with Oliver. Ian scored his first basket the following week, and I was thrilled to have been able to see it. Now in 2017 Nadia is in her fourth season of basketball, and Ian is in his second. Neither of them scored in their first game this year, but they both scored in their second and third games! Ian made THREE baskets this morning!

One of her attempts (I didn't get a picture when she actually scored)

During each six minute period the coach puts a color tag on each child. All four years Nadia has always worn the color for the weakest player, and that was also true of Ian last year, but this year he has worn all three colors at different times depending on whom he is playing with in the rotation. Today was the first time he ever wore a red tag (strongest player). I am not saying he's the strongest player on their team, but for the kids who were playing at that moment he was given that tag. This represents a big improvement on his part! He needs to work on being more careful about not going out of bounds, and also I think he'd make more baskets if he'd be more careful where he made his attempts. Paul's parents and my dad were there to witness his three baskets! His team scored 10 baskets during the game, and he scored three of those. Way to go, Ian! We had about 40 minutes in between Ian and Nadia's games to eat lunch, and then we cheered for the Gators (Nadia's team). She didn't dribble the ball anywhere near as much as Ian did during his game, but she did make several attempts at baskets and one of them went in! Woohoo!

One of his attempts (I also didn't get any photos of his baskets)

Her team dominated the other team as they had the previous two opponents. There are two boys on her team who can easily score many, many baskets. This is her last year playing on a co-ed team. The teams for grades 4-6 are divided by gender. Last week after Paul and I witnessed them each score a basket, I was really hoping that the grandparents would get to see them each score a basket, and I'm so glad that actually did happen! Paul's mom happened to be looking over at Oliver when Nadia scored, but hopefully Grandma will be able to witness one some other time this season. :) Moments like this I wish my Mom was able to be with us also, but I'm grateful the kids still have three grandparents here on earth who can cheer them on, and I'm glad they live within driving distance to be able to present for these moments in their lives. Next year all three kids will be playing basketball - Oliver playing K/1st, Ian playing 2nd/3rd, and Nadia playing 4th-6th. I'm very thankful this church has the ministry. They have games from 8:00m through 7:00pm every Saturday. The 4th-6th grade games are full-court so they only can have one at a time, but the others are all half-court so there are two games every hour.

My Dad was here from about 5:20 pm yesterday to 2:00 pm today. We always greatly appreciate his visits! What the kids were MOST excited about this time was that he got to meet their guinea pigs. My dad had never held a guinea pig before, but he held both Patches and Jenna, which meant a lot to the kids. During the time at our house last night and this morning we played Twister and Headbands, read books, looked at a photo album he brought of pictures of mom when she was a child, etc. I scanned some of the pictures as my dad had the (excellent) idea that I could make a photo book of pictures of my mom. I really like the idea although I don't think I'm emotionally ready to work on that project quite yet. Nadia and Ian also played the piano for Grandpa, which was important to me because I knew how much it meant to Grandma in the past to listen to them play.

My mom and her cat. Wasn't my mom such a cute little girl?