Special Events

We've had some special events lately. Well, maybe "lately" is a stretch of the word, but they've been recent.

First off, was Grace's last Upward basketball game and celebration. For those of you who don't know about Upward, they are Christian sports leagues for kids. I usually refer to leagues like Upward as "namby-pamby;" you know, they don't keep score, we are supposed to cheer for everyone, etc. Yes, that annoys me. But as a parent and Christian, I find a lot of value in that, especially when kids are starting out in sports. We won't do Upward forever, but we will while the kids are beginning to learn the games they want to play.

Here is our girl running through the human tunnel at her last game. Sometimes, it's cool when your camera takes a fuzzy picture!

The best part of Upward? They pray before every game and teach kids the principles of salvation. Gotta love that!Watching Grace's Upward games proved difficult for this former player. I tried not to yell and if I did yell, it was pretty benign stuff like "Shoot the ball!" and "Dribble!" There were some games I could not sit down. These are not good signs for the future, especially if my kids play basketball. Amazingly, I don't have these troubles during soccer. Something about playing the sport your kid is playing makes it harder to sit still!

Grace had a lot of fun playing ball this year. The girl is quite aggressive; I have no idea where that came from! I think she had a good time and we were really proud of her dedication and team-building skills. Here are the Racers enjoying their last game treat: sprinkle donuts! See Davis back there enjoying a donut, too? There are perks to having an older sister! This was the morning after his severe bronchitis diagnosis. Poor guy!This Upward league (each Upward league has a church that sponsors the league) had a big final celebration at the Gaillard Auditorium in downtown Charleston. Each team had their name announced and got to run across the stage. Then they had a juggler/uni-cyclist perform for the kids. Jasen took Grace and they had a great time.

That's our girl in front of the coach in the blue shirt.

That same week was Grace's PTA program. It was all about being a Drayton Hall Bobcat. I think I mentioned before that Grace had a couple of props to handle. When we asked her why she had them, she said because she was sitting in the middle and her teacher knew she could "handle it." That's our Grace.
Here is Grace doing her best Bobcat growl!
Singing and signing about love!

Of course, Davis is great at just going along with all of the activities that come with having a big sister. We had the option of petitioning the Upward soccer league to let Davis play. He's a little younger than the cut off, but I was told they would make an exception for him if we wanted. When I mentioned that to Jasen, Jasen wanted to wait. He remembered what I have tried to remember: there is plenty of time for those activities and pretty soon, we'll wish we had some family downtime back!

Here is our boy enjoying his post-game donut!
This is Davis' usual position: sitting in his sister's pink chair, watching either TV or the big "kids" playing video games, with or without the dog.
I have to stop myself from taking a picture of our boy every time I find him like this. He's so darn cute!
Davis has a new favorite snack: a "foo-thie" a.k.a. a smoothie. Do not ask me how he can get it ALL OVER his mouth because I do not know! It takes talent, for sure!
I took this one morning when we were waiting to go into Davis' school. He loves to unbuckle and stand between the front two seats. I love these times with my little Handsome!