Hoop Dreams

Saturday was Ty's last basketball game of the season. Some of the family is a little happier than others.  Not everyone enjoyed sitting at the games.

He had a fabulous year on the Ramsey Rebels. They finished the season 17-9-1.

They are a great group of boys and wonderful coaches. The coaches have a great "I don't care about the score" philosophy. They play man-to-man defense and run a motion offense.  They run their butts off. Oh, wait, the kids aren't allowed to say that word, so I guess I shouldn't either.  "They run their rears off." It's wonderful!

To you "non-basketball" people (is there really such a thing?) that's all really cool.  It means they are teaching my boy the basics.  Ty is learning to love the game in it's pure form.  Not the NBA version.  Not the watered down, "everyone should win" version, either.

But what I really truly appreciate the most about this season is how much more Ty loves the to play.  Sure, he knows more. He's gotten better, too. But he WANTS to play.  He shoots in the driveway, watches college hoops, and we've even gone to our neighbor's high school playoff game.

Some of the Ty's games were really fun to watch.  There were games that everything clicked and the ball went in the hoop.  There were games when it really looked like basketball, but we lost anyway.  There were also games that were flat out ugly. 

Yes, that's a final score after 4 six-minute quarters.

Still, this basketball-loving-mom enjoyed every game (even if sometimes I forgot they were 9 yo's playing and I may have gotten a little competitive and riled up.)

So proud of you, Ty!

Next up...baseball!

Did any of the Presidents Bowl?

When there are two people in the family with birthdays in February, Presidents' Day seems to get lost in the shuffle. It becomes a day to catch our breath.  There's never enough fore-thought for it to become much more of anything but a day at home. 

This year, I decided we needed to do something as a family.  Even if it was just something for a few hours during the day. Thankfully, I have a friend equally as crazy, that had the same thought: bowling! Low commitment yet something the gang rarely does, so they would reward us with tons of "cool parents" points. We decided we would attempt to bowl together. 11 of us. Crazy, right?

Still...we thought we would give it a shot.

We had to wait a little while for 2 lanes to open up next to each other, but that's what the Arcade is for, right?

Somehow, we scored a deal with the bowling lady that gave us shoes, a pitcher of soda (which we never did use), two lanes (each for an hour) for as many bowlers as we wanted for $50. SCORE!

Once we got lanes, there was a clear line drawn in the sand.  Eli and Ty joined the Veenemas.  The rest of us Higbys would be a team.  And the competition was on.  At first, it looked like the V+2 lane would run away with the match but we quickly found our rhythm and thanks to a few surprise scores, our lane was definitely the victor. 

Eli's delivery wasn't half bad.  He even managed to put his fingers in the holes of the ball. Granted, he used his left hand for the holes and held the ball with his right palm, but he rolled the ball straight...and with decent speed!

Cole was a little more of a "non-traditional" bowler.  He didn't even use his hands to take the ball off the return. He'd pick up the 6-pound ball with his wrists and stand sideways to chuck the ball down the lane.  He was probably the most thankful for the gutter bumpers since it looked a little more like pinball than bowling during his turn.

When it was Zoe's turn, she would race up to grab a ball and without even pausing to breath, she would head right straight toward the lane and throw the ball without any aim or plan.  It was as if choosing a bowling ball was part of her delivery.

Ty was a pretty typical bowler.  Not great.  Not horrible.  Not consistent. But competent. Doubt he'll get a bowling scholarship for college, but he'll hold his own on a date some day.

Poor Ava was at a disadvantage before she even got there.  The smallest ball we could find was 6 pounds.  Even for a 31 pounder, that's a pretty high percentage of her body mass. She'd lift the ball and it'd look like her knees were about to buckle. She eventually settled on a "put-the-ball-on-the-ground-between-her-legs" approach and then pushed it with all her might toward the pins. She always required my help, so don't expect to see any pictures. Even still...the ball moved so slowly down the lane that there were a few times I wondered if it would make it.

At the end of the night, the "Surprise Bowler" award goes to Cole! Look at these final scores!!! Yes, you're reading them right.  We all used the gutter bumpers and Cole came in 2nd.  He beat 3 parents! Crazy!

So who wants to be my travel companion when I have to sit through Cole's matches on the PBA tour?

Free Time

I've been looking forward to this year for 5 years.  Well, maybe "looking forward" isn't quite accurate. Technically, I didn't think I would ever get to it.  I didn't think we'd survive five years with five kids!

So what am I talking about?  Kindergarten, of course! 

That's right.  The triplets are in Kindergarten.  Not just Kindergarten...FULL DAY Kindergarten. Yup...8:10-2:50 every day. And yes, they've been there since September and I'm just getting around to blogging about it. Which brings me to the actual point of this post: What on earth have I been doing every day?

I get that question a lot now. It's not always in the form of a question.  Sometimes it's more of an accusation..."Wow!  You must love all that 'Free Time'!" Honestly, I doubt that most people mean it as an accusation, but that's how I take it, because, well, I'm me and I take things personally.  I am also my own worst critic and think I should be doing SOMETHING with all the "extra" time in my life.

Of course, that would mean that I'd have to FIND this alleged free time.  I'm not sure where it is.

I had all these visions of my life once all 5 kids were in school all day.  The picture looked amazing: I was super fit, the house was immaculate, my patience was abundant during homework time, dinner was always prepared on time (since it was started during the school day), the laundry was always caught up, I blogged daily, and I worked on my scrapbooks at least once a week.

Then there's reality.

None of these things have happened.

None.

Why not?  What, on earth, am I doing with myself?

Well, I think I've finally got a handle on things.  There IS some extra time in the day.  But guess what?  You don't find it until January, people.  In September, you're frantically trying to get used to the schedule, get supplies, deal with over-tired and over-emotional kids, and you're attempting to grab the last moments of summer.  In October, you're about to get in a groove but then homework, and Halloween hit. In November, you're kicking into Holiday gear...Thanksgiving...Christmas...both home and at school...for five kids.  FIVE!  In December, you're in full on panic mode...baking, wrapping, shopping, budgeting, hiding elves, and dealing with sugared up, hyper kids.

Then January comes. 

And you sit.

And rest.

And it feels good.

And you don't ever want to get up.

So I spent the first few weeks of January in full out veg mode.  I was lazier than lazy.  And it was wonderful.  But now I'm human again. I'm working out regularly.  I have somewhat of a schedule for cleaning the house and doing laundry. The crockpot is getting a workout.  And here I am...blogging.  I'm finding it, people...I'm finding the time!!!