Friday, March 27, 2015

The Pet Party

[Jan 24 2015]



Katie had 5 little friends over to our house for a party the Friday following her birthday. As her theme, she chose a "pet party". Everyone was to bring a stuffed animal "pet" (loaners were provided for those who forgot to bring pet stuffies.



We had a few activities for them to try. We took a picture with them and their pet that we printed and put in a popsicle frame, which they decorated. They could also sew a felt pillow for their pet, using Katie's new sewing machine (that was a bit hit). They also got a little collar for their pet, with a little nametag on it (which happened to be made from narrow slice of a branch from our tree that we cut down last fall). Katie's little pet is named "Bay-boo", which originally was the name that I used for the imaginary person who I would pretend to scold for silly things. At some point, Scott suggested the name for Katie's little kitty.



I don't know if you can tell, but the cupcakes are arranged in the shape of a animal paw print. True to form, the kids mostly just licked the frosting off the top of the cupcakes. The frosting was this interesting stuff that comes in a non-descript white, but then you can add a packet of colouring/flavouring to make it into whatever you want. We picked the purple packet and the berry-ish flavour was a bit off the mark, so the kids didn't quite finish licking it all off before they ditched their treats to go take a turn on the zipline.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Katie is FIVE

[Jan 20 2015]

Katie turned FIVE today! Happy Birthday Katie!
She has a birthday party planned for the weekend, but we wanted to open presents with her on her actual birthday. We decided to open presents in the morning, so that she could enjoy them all day, rather than opening them just a few minutes before bed. Scott was very excited to give her the mermaid bath toy that he had bought for her. The photo of them hugging sort of melts my heart.





Katie loves animals and stuffies, so we got her a Furby toy, which is a quirky little stuffy that babbles to you in Furby-speak and needs you to play with it and take care of it. It also has an extension on the tablet that lets you give it baths and feed it and stuff. She was pretty wrapped up with the toy all day.



Katie is such a little sweatheart. She treats people with kindness and she loves to laugh. And even though she is growing bigger, she will always be our baby. We love you Katie! Happy birthday!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

First Brush with Community Basketball

We didn't sign up for community basketball this year because it was the "learn to play" format where a bunch of kids practice in a gym one night a week for like 6 months for about $250. We decided instead to do church-run Biddy-Ball for 2 months for free, since it was about the same thing and both kids could attend. However, we know a guy who pretty much runs community basketball and he has a Tuesday-night learn to play group that was wrapping up. He offered to let Scott come out and benchmark his skills to figure out if he was ready to play 1 year above his age level to be on a legit team next year. We were told to show up 10 minutes early with a t-shirt, shorts & shoes.

Scott didn't want to wear his old shoes (with grip) because his new ones are cooler. They are no-name skater hightops that he wears outside to school. He was so excited when he first got them that he wore them around the house for a week until the snow melted and he could wear them outside.



After a few minutes of shooting around, practice started with wind sprints. Scott lined up on the end line with everyone else, and then tried to figure out what they were doing. Everyone touched a spot on the foul line, so he ran over to touch the same spot, which was out of his way and put him a bit behind the pack. When turning around at the end line, his "cool" shoes were quite slippery and he fell further behind. However, he quickly caught on to the idea that you just have to touch the lines (or slide over them), and not a specific spot on the floor, so he made up the distance, eventually catching up to the front pack.

You could tell it was a bit awkward at times because he didn't know what was going on. A stray ball got him in the back during a dribbling drill and he projected all the awkwardness onto the "injury", resulting in tears. He eventually got over it.

Sharks & Minnows. They called the parents up to be part of the game. I caused a collision that sent some poor lady crashing to the floor. Whoops.

Scrimmage at the end. Scott scored, which was nice. He likes to pass the ball, which works against you in the world where dribble-and-shoot is the dominant strategy. When he subbed off I reminded him of the advice I had given him before: There are some kids on your team who are going to shoot EVERY time they get the ball. If you see one of those kids get the ball, stop calling for a pass and just get under the hoop for a rebound. The time he scored he scooped up someone's air-ball shot that ended up being sort of a sweet pass to him under the net.



After the scrimmage there was another game with the kids against the parents. No subs. So it was like 16 on 16. Madness. What I thought was strange was that the parents were so aggressive on defense. They intercepted every pass and even stole the ball away from kids while they were holding it. I am not to blame, because I only played offense. The first time we got the ball I ran down the court and took a pass for the lefty dunk (parents could not dribble and had to shoot with weak hand). I actually missed the first attempt -- the tiny little ball flew out of my hand as I tried to figure out how to cradle it lefty. I nailed it on the second attempt, with Scott hanging from my shirt-tail.

They handed out rice krispie squares at the end and Scott got to keep his ball. He left very happy, and anxious to come back next year and play on a team. I may or may not end up being his coach. It depends whether we are ready to commit to be there EVERY week, given that we are also heading into our first year of weekly Cub Scouts.