Basketball Game #3

Tavin had another basketball game last night. Astonishingly, I forgot the camera. So, briefly, they lost on the score board in a high scoring game for 4rth graders, 32-21, but technically they won because the team had to borrow 3 players from us to start the game. Tavin played very well, as well as aggressively. She even used her left hand to dribble!! We dont' know for sure, but we think she had 12-14 points. Since I don't have a basketball picture to add, I'll just put in this one of her "project" that she made for school. It is Cinderella's castle. Cineralla recently discovered her love for chiuahuas, or maybe it was Taco Bell.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is traditionally a day of too much sugar in our house. This cute little mess is the result of the valentine package from grandpa and grandma, for which their names were blessed profusely by Tavin and Simon; Lucy would have had she had the ability. Afterwards, Lucy was running around the living room screeching, while stopping occasionally to bang her head on the couch and laugh hysterically at herself. The marshmellow cream in her hair was painstakingly removed in a bath before bed.

Simon and Tavin each had parties in their respective classrooms. Tavin's teacher had forbidden valentine cards prepared at home to be passed out, because of some ill-conceived notions from some students about what was acceptable to write to their classmates. As a result, Simon came home with a pile of small cards and various small packets of candy. Tavin's class were all encouraged to bring treats to have a party in their class, where she consumed as much of the forbidden substance (sugar) as possible, not bringing any home. Rather than exchange cards,
Tavin's class each had a red plastic plate that they passed around and each student wrote a kind thing on a small paper heart, taped it to a pipe cleaner and attached it to the plate. The girls in Tavin's class wrote things like "I like you", "You're my best friend", "Your nice", etc. Most of the boys wrote "You're fast", which I tried to explain to her was a high compliment from a 4rth grade boy. She only had to "report" one comment from a likely very honest boy to her teacher, because he had penned "You're annoying" on her plate. He was made to change it, and he then wrote "I like your shirt". I suspect the one that declared her annoying probably holds her in higher regards than the ones that labeled her as fast. Kevin and I spent the evening at church, after he attended a school board meeting, in our respective youth group and men's groups, but I did get a few roses in the 5 minutes that we saw each other to collect children after school until we were all home together at 9pm. The chocolate that he was to get yesterday disappeared rather quickly, after watching the kids eat theirs.

Tavin's latest basketball adventures

Last night was Tavin's 2nd basketball game, only it was at home. Their gym is better than any gym I played in before college! If you notice the handsome referee, to the right, you'll see the reason that Tavin was whistled for a couple of fouls. This was a shot that she made, but I don't know how many points she actually had. One got called off by the ref because of a foul before hand, which was non-shooting. Someone in the crowd heckled him for that, but I have no knowledge of their identity. Tavin is #45, in the white uni with black shorts, pretty much the tallest one out there.



Kevin overheard people from the opposite side saying "They need to put a really short girl on that 45 and just steal the ball whenever she dribbles." Flattering for us, but Tavin was still very disappointed (near tears again) when they still lost by 2, actually the final score was 22-18 because of a last second shot that the ref counted. :) It was still legal, and one of these days, these girls will win a game. The coach and I agree that our girls are just so polite they don't want to cause any hard feelings and have yet to learn the value of a little aggressiveness. Plus, all get equal playing time without equal ability and there are 11 girls on the team, even though 9 is the most that showed up. Tavin played very well and had a good time, I think, despite the result.

This was Lucy's take on the entire evening. Of course, when her daddy picked her up she stopped immediately.

Basketball season arrives

Last night was the first basketball game for Tavin's 4rth grade team. It was her first "real away" game, ever. I had to keep the book for our team, so I was challenged to get any good pictures, but Tavin is in the center in the blue shirt looking away. The game was extremely nerve wracking, the girls lost in overtime 22-20. Tavin had 8 points, including the first and the last. At the end of regulation she had a steal, break away layin (missed), but got her own rebound and got a last-second shot off, that just missed. In this league, pretty much anything goes, but there are some very aggressive girls that adversely, and illegally affected the outcome of the game. And that's all I have to say about that. ;) Everyone plays equal amounts of time, and we look forward to Tavin learning about team play and having a good attitude, no matter the outcome. :) Another part that surpirsed Kevin and I was the crowd turn-out. There was at least 100 people there and they were ROWDY! It was very fun.

One week prior to last night, I surprised Tavin with a "mother-daughter" weekend at Lincoln City. This was part of her 10th birthday gift. We stayed in a hotel room, ate at Kylos on Friday night, Tavin enjoys good oysters just like all other rational people, and watched at least 6 movies in our room. Did I also mention we visited the outlets? Tavin was very much in the mood for crab, so for dinner Saturday night we hand picked 2 crab (live at the time) from a fishing boat on the old bayfront in Newport, bought 2 forks at the Goodwill store for $.39/each and made our own table in the hotel room with our own crabs. YUM!! You'll notice the window is actually open, not because of a crab smell, but because of the fair weather. When at the coast, one must be able to see and hear the ocean, or you may as well stay home.

A very rare picture, as it contains me. However, for the benefit of my daughter and for the sake of memories, I sacrificed my vanity. We were able to walk on the beach, but didn't find any glass floats or notable sea shells. Hopefully our summer will include a few days on the central coast, I guess we'll invite the rest of the fam too, even the boys.

Simon's birthday weekend

Here are (finally) some picts of Simon's 6th birthday weekend with all of his "boy" cousins (plus one girl). I think they all had fun at the bowling alley, and it was a great place for them as they didn't have to be quite or stay still, and the kids got unlimited pop. The party room was actually in the arcade, which was an additional (albeit costly) bonus. I have to admit, I did play a few games myself. One of these days, I'll beat Mel on that dumb driving game.


Grandpa taught T how to "swing" the ball, but I think the ball ended up swinging him more! Sunday morning was a great time as they all went on the stage with other kids from church with tambourines. I know dad has pictures and he may have even gotten one with T with his hands over his ears!


Brenden was as entertaining as always, with a ready smile
and an exuberant laugh. He enjoyed the cars that Simon had, especially when Simon and T went outside to play in the sand pit and he had them all to himself!! He did a great job bowling, I think he had the dubious honor of being the only one able to actually bounce the bowling ball off of the pins, and to get one ball stuck in the middle of the pins, without actually knocking over more than 1! Quite a feat!

Lucy and Jenna were confined for as long as possible, Jenna handled it much better! Lucy's cries were partially drowned out by the din around us, but not before a few of Simon's "guests" told me I needed to let her out so she could walk. Simon also got a bike, a Spiderman sort, but it has been too cold for him to ride it except for the day of his birthday. When he does, I'll get some picts of that too, just so we're fair! :)