These past few weeks have marked the end of a crazy winter season. On one hand, I've been grateful for a lot of things to do to keep us busy and press through the long, dreary, dark winter months. I'll post an update about Joshua's musical participation because it deserves one of its very own. I was so proud of that kid I don't even know where to begin. But this weekend, we spent our last Saturday at the church for this season of Upward basketball. This also marks the end of two nights each week of being at the church for basketball practices. All of this is fine by me. It has been such fun, though, to watch Josh and Lauren play basketball this season. It was Lauren's first season, and she really had a great time. Honestly, Jason and I have said a few times that we think Lauren has definitely benefitted from playing in the driveway with Josh, because she is further along in learning than he was in his first season. I have loved watching her role as "team encourager" develop. It is so fitting for her, but she is the first one to give everyone a high five when they score a basket, and looks just as pleased when anyone on her team scores as when she does it herself. I just love her heart and hope nothing ever changes the way she quietly impacts her surroundings with her genuine kindness.
Josh continued to do well this year, and continues to love the game more and more each year. His team had a tough loss this week, after an extremely physical game (which, if you're asking me, didn't need to be anywhere close to as physical as it was). Josh had two great coaches, though, who really invested in him this year. We were so grateful to both of them- both local junior high and high school coaches who took a group of kids with varying skill levels and turned them into a team. It was fun to watch from the sidelines. I should mention that I got a serious butt kicking on Tuesday night this past week. I had volunteered to take him to his practice because I expected a pizza party, as is customary on the last night of practice. And managing food situations and risks seems to be in my wheelhouse (unfortunately). Imagine my surprise when I found out that we weren't having a pizza party, but instead were going to play a Kids vs. Parents basketball game for the entirety of practice. Well, let me tell you that this non-basketball playing Mama had her tail handed to her more than a few times by the remainder of the parents, most of whom played basketball (and played well). No doubt I was one of the ones bringing my team down. But we did a lot of giggling and I actually managed to score a few points for my team. And, on another positive note, it earned me an extra 3000 steps that evening on my FitBit!
Mara has spent the entirety of this basketball season eating snacks from the concession stand. Each week includes at least one slushie, a piece of pizza and normally a bag of gummy worms. I guess I can't blame her. The poor girl has to sit through at least two hour long basketball games, and usually one in between them. She has enjoyed the time with just Jason and I together, and seems to have handled it a lot better than I would have expected her to. I count it a blessing that she is the age that she is before she has to manage sitting for that long. Her favorite games have been when Cooper's games coincide or come just after ours, so that she can see Kinley. (I feel the same way when Emily and I end up in the same place at the same time!)
We came home for a quick few hours after Josh's game and then headed back to the church for the Easter Egg Hunt there at 4:00. I clearly was delusional to think that I could handle this myself (and I don't believe it is the first time this has happened to me). I panicked as soon as they split the kids up by age group and sent them to different corners of the gym-- since I had one in three of the 4 groups. We got to the right spot for Mara's group to start, but then missed Lauren's altogether. And then barely found Josh's group before it was too late. The kids were confused, I was confused, and also sweaty from the running between fields to find our correct groupings. It was not a good experience. Somehow, the kids each left with 6 eggs, which made me wonder why we bothered to split up in the first place, and six of the 18 pieces of candy we brought home were Snickers. This was a big bummer for all of the kids since we don't eat them at all. Needless to say, they're now looking very forward to Nana's egg hunt this weekend because "Nana doesn't have a rule that we can only get 6 eggs". And I guarantee we will find no Snickers in Nana's eggs.
Saturday night took a turn for the worse when Mara woke up throwing up in the middle of the night. It continued through the night, but at sunrise she seemed to be done with the puking. We spent the morning cuddled on the couch, but by lunch time it was as if nothing had happened. She was up, playing and very hungry. So we went with it. After she was feeling better, I used the found time when we normally would have been in church to make some Easter cutout sugar cookies for Mara's class party on Wednesday, and get my workout in for the day since puke duty took over my normal early morning time. (I don't know why but it is about 10 times as hard to exercise when it isn't first thing in the morning!)
Since Mara was feeling better, we all decided to go to the Upward Awards Ceremony at Milton High School. Josh and Lauren were excited to be with their teams one last time, and the performance is usually pretty good. They had a great time being introduced with their teams and seemed to enjoy the performance by Seth Franco, who was a former Harlem Globetrotter. He did some really cool ball handling tricks. I still say last year's acrobatic slam dunkers were a lot more impressive to watch, but I liked Seth's message about understanding that God made each of those kids perfectly, and that they are never to feel less than good enough for anything. If that isn't a message every single one of us needs to hear, I don't know what is. The picture below is just one half of the kids in the Upward program this year. Josh is in that group somewhere!
I enjoyed watching the show with Jason and this spunky little monkey on my lap. As crazy as she makes me, I'm usually smiling when I'm with her.
Looking very forward to our trip to Nana and Pap's this weekend to spend some time with them, and Aunt Libby and Uncle Zig and the girls. We haven't been there for an overnight trip since Christmas, so we're long over due.
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