Game Day!

Aside from the 90 minute homeschool gym class yesterday morning, we stayed at home all day long. I brought my camera because I am trying to expand my horizons in terms of where I take pictures. I took one of Oliver coming down one of the slides in the play land, but the slide was yellow and it made his skin look really yellow so I converted the image to black/white, which is very unusual for me. I also tried to take some photos of the kids in the gym, but I was limited in that because #1 I discovered even my 85mm lens was not quite enough (I think I see a new lens in my future...maybe 135mm?), #2 part of the time they played glow in the dark hockey (I wasn't even going to attempt taking pics of that!), and #3 Oliver didn't want to stay in there and watch his siblings very much. I was also trying to shoot in manual mode, which doesn't come naturally to me yet. After the gym class we crossed paths with the pastor's wife, and she referred to Oliver as the cute little dinosaur who came into the service on Sunday morning. The picture at left shows the mask he was wearing when he waltzed into the auditorium while the pastor was still preaching. OOPS!

Paul got home from Baltimore at 8:45 last night. Previously I wasn't expecting to see him until this evening because the last two months when he had business trips and got back to PA then he spent the first nights at his parents' house and then came home after work the following day. The kids didn't see him last night because they were all in bed by the time he got home. I found out this morning that since the kids hadn't seen him since Sunday, he decided to take today off at work and stay home. I didn't think he'd be attending their basketball games today because this past fall he only made it to see a game at the end of the season. The kids were thrilled to have Daddy home today as even over the Christmas and New Year's holidays we didn't get a Saturday with him. Ian's game was at 10:00. He played periods 2, 4, and 5. He dribbled the ball in each of the quarters and caused a few turnovers because he stepped out of bounds, but he played aggressively (I mean that in a good way). He attempted to make a basket a couple of times but didn't actually make any. He was assigned the color tag that meant he was the middle ranked player each time he was out, which was an improvement from last year when he was always given the color tag as the weakest of the three playing in that period. He still needs to work on the concept of not playing defense when his team has the ball. Overall, I was pleased with how much progress he showed compared to his first game last year.

On the way home we stopped for some groceries and then went home for lunch. I failed to check my calendar and went from memory (bad idea -in the future I will be sure to check my calendar!) and so we showed up back at the church an hour early for Nadia's game (OOPS!). I felt terrible, but I consoled myself that it was better to show up too early than too late. We drove to our church and let the kids play for 30 minutes before going back for Nadia's game. At her level they play four on four, and she always wore the tag given the weakest player. She didn't touch the ball at all the first two periods she played, but near the end of the last period of the game (there are six periods in every game), she finally was able to dribble and pass a few times. They don't keep score in the K/1st games, but in the 2nd/3rd grade games they do, and Nadia's team had a solid win. The team they were playing was coached by the man who was her coach last year, and some of the kids on that team were ones she had played with last year. Here's to hoping that both kids will get at least one basket during the season!

I woke up at 3:30 this morning and was not able to get back to sleep (frustrating when that happens). I just found out that the Steelers game has been pushed back to 8:20 tomorrow night (instead of 1:00). I had better get more sleep tonight if I am going to try to stay up later than usual tomorrow night to cheer for my team!