We watched The Grinch, as always, and I paused the screen at the funny part where the dog leaps onto the Grinch's sleigh because he thinks he gets to ride on it, as always. And the kids laughed.
We made our own snow globes from a kit I bought at an art store. The idea was to do it on some quiet evening or weekend day, but instead we did it in the hour before gymnastics for Kate and Winter Clinic for Jack. They both wanted to make the reindeer one but Jack very generously let Kate do it. He made the snowman. They did a really nice job of it, better than I thought possible. Jack mixed blue and yellow clay to make a green tree, plus a blue penguin. Kate made a red and white candy cane arch. We filled them with sprinkles and water and it snowed in them.
Today, the kids made gingerbread houses at an after school activity. Jack's gingerbread people had funny little outfits made out of icing. Might have been underwear. On the roof he wrote his nickname, I think, "Jickety." Kate went very heavy on the icing. And she might have been eating some when I showed up.
We came home and Jack finished a Secret Santa project he had dreamed up. It was a board game set in a hockey rink, with little hockey players and an aluminum foil ice and cards he had made. Altogether he probably spent 4-5 hours on it this week. Impressive. Kate helped me make a pizza., rolling out the dough and going very heavy on the cheese. She is not as keen on sauce, so it had a lot of cheese.
We ate pizza together, listened to Mariah Carey Christmas songs, then I cracked open the mini chocolate Santas for a special treat. We watched some lame Christmas special on Netflix, because we wanted to save the good ones for when Emily was home (she had a work holiday dinner). But the kids enjoyed it. Got Kate showered, watched some football with Jack, and they went to bed. and I came downstairs to clean up pizza, write this blog, and realize Christmas is just a week away.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Basketball
Jack and Kate have started playing basketball this year in a local league, 3rd grade girls and 5th grade boys. We almost signed Jack up last year, then changed at the last minute and he did swimming instead. (After a few basketball practices, he said, "I love basketball! Why haven't I played before this?" And I said, well, you did swimming last year. Which do you like more? No hesitation. "Basketball. I hated swim team. Well, I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it.") A couple of times he had basketball and baseball practice at the same time. He wanted to go to basketball.
Kate seems to enjoy it. She wanted to do it, so we signed her up. I'm not certain she is really engrossed in it, but she gamely runs up and down the court waving her arms and generally smiling, so that's good. She had her first scrimmage the other day and a pass was sent her way and she tried to catch it. It's going to be a learning year for her.
Jack more or less knows what he's doing out there. He goes to his spots on offense and defense, runs hard up and down the floor, tries to guard people and participate on offense. He had a scrimmage last week and looked kind of overwhelmed. A lot of the kids did, we got clobbered by a better team. I believe they were called the All-Stars or Ringers or Globetrotters or something.
But the practices are helping, seem to be anyway. We play a lot of Horse in the driveway these days. I wish I could say I let him beat me, but that would not be entirely accurate. He likes to play, likes to practice, go out and shoot.
Tonight was his first real game. It was a lot like the scrimmage. We got clobbered early, the team looked like it needed a lot more practices, lots of kids didn't know where to go or what to do. When Jack handled the ball or tried to defend other kids he did fine, but it's not instinctual, clearly. Still figuring things out. I think he had a steal at one point, which was cool, and then he got saved from either a travel or a double dribble by a timeout.
With about 30 seconds left in the game he got a pass, and went to shoot for the first time, and they called a foul. So he went to the line for the first time. We were at the other end of the court so we couldn't see him, but I imagine he was nervous or excited or both. Seemed to hurry the first shot and missed, off to the right of the rim I think. Coach told him to slow down, take his time. He bounced it a couple of times and took the second shot. Banked it in off the glass. His first point.
He and the team jogged back down the floor. I think he was trying to be cool, but this little smile was peeking through. Then a bigger smile. Half a minute later the game ended, he had the post game meeting, and came over to us. Still smiling.
We congratulated him, chatted a bit with other parents, went outside. Jack was talking about this lucky quarter he found before the game and put in his shoe. "I'm always going to have this quarter," he said. Later he was still smiling, either about making his free throw or his lucky quarter, I'm not sure which.
Put him to bed, congratulated him again. He was still really happy.
So, the kids play basketball now.
Kate seems to enjoy it. She wanted to do it, so we signed her up. I'm not certain she is really engrossed in it, but she gamely runs up and down the court waving her arms and generally smiling, so that's good. She had her first scrimmage the other day and a pass was sent her way and she tried to catch it. It's going to be a learning year for her.
Jack more or less knows what he's doing out there. He goes to his spots on offense and defense, runs hard up and down the floor, tries to guard people and participate on offense. He had a scrimmage last week and looked kind of overwhelmed. A lot of the kids did, we got clobbered by a better team. I believe they were called the All-Stars or Ringers or Globetrotters or something.
But the practices are helping, seem to be anyway. We play a lot of Horse in the driveway these days. I wish I could say I let him beat me, but that would not be entirely accurate. He likes to play, likes to practice, go out and shoot.
Tonight was his first real game. It was a lot like the scrimmage. We got clobbered early, the team looked like it needed a lot more practices, lots of kids didn't know where to go or what to do. When Jack handled the ball or tried to defend other kids he did fine, but it's not instinctual, clearly. Still figuring things out. I think he had a steal at one point, which was cool, and then he got saved from either a travel or a double dribble by a timeout.
With about 30 seconds left in the game he got a pass, and went to shoot for the first time, and they called a foul. So he went to the line for the first time. We were at the other end of the court so we couldn't see him, but I imagine he was nervous or excited or both. Seemed to hurry the first shot and missed, off to the right of the rim I think. Coach told him to slow down, take his time. He bounced it a couple of times and took the second shot. Banked it in off the glass. His first point.
He and the team jogged back down the floor. I think he was trying to be cool, but this little smile was peeking through. Then a bigger smile. Half a minute later the game ended, he had the post game meeting, and came over to us. Still smiling.
We congratulated him, chatted a bit with other parents, went outside. Jack was talking about this lucky quarter he found before the game and put in his shoe. "I'm always going to have this quarter," he said. Later he was still smiling, either about making his free throw or his lucky quarter, I'm not sure which.
Put him to bed, congratulated him again. He was still really happy.
So, the kids play basketball now.
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