It's Basketball Time Again!

It's that time of year again-time for basketball!!! I'm so excited for this season! Matthew has had 2 games so far and his team won both games! The first game I think Matthew was still getting back into the swing of things and remembering everything he learned from last year and this year's practices. The second game he was right there in it, taking the ball down the court, passing, rebounding. It was great to see him have so much FUN. That is what I love best about watching the boys play sports, when you watch them you can just tell they are having a blast. With the activities the boys do I often see other kids who look bored or just plain miserable. I feel awful when I see that, I wish they were having fun too! When you look at my boys they are smiling and jumping (and even dancing-MATTHEW! haha). I love it!

Here's a picture of Matthew from his game the other day..go Matthew! He's the one dribbling the ball.

It's been awhile!

I haven't written here for awhile! My inbox hasn't been flooded with people wondering where I've been or begging for updates so I'm sure you haven't been too upset, but I hope you at least missed my entries at least a little ;-).

Our family has been keeping pretty busy. I am definitely aware of the drawbacks of over scheduling our kids and I don't feel as if we are OVER scheduled, but some times it seems like we really do have quite a bit going on. It's all in a good way though. Sure, some days I have those.."I really wish we weren't doing anything today" kind of days but 99% of the time I can't wait for basketball days or cub scout days, or karate days. The boys feel the same way. I talked to them the other day about being over scheduled. I wanted to see where their minds were. Are they too tired-do they feel stressed-are there things they just don't like doing? I asked Matthew if he had to drop one activity which one would it be? He answered with "none!" The thought of not doing the activities he loves was just too much for him to even consider! I think it's all about balance. If you don't have any free days to just do "nothing" or just hang out as a family, well then I'd say you are stretching yourself too thin and definitely over scheduling your family. Luckily, though we keep busy with our activities, we do still get those days of hanging out in our PJs all day if we want to. If you have to drag your child to activities that are supposed to be fun for them, then I'd say it's not serving it's purpose. The reason that we have our kids in activities is for THEM. It's for them to have fun, to learn, to be active and healthy. School work is also a big thing to consider. Matthew and Riley both make wonderful grades in school. They surprise me with how smart they are! It's not surprising because I didn't think they were smart-I've always known they are, it's surprising because they amaze me each and every day with something that they know, or say, or do..they are just wonderful kids.

School has been going well for both Matthew and Riley this year! They are loving being in the same school and riding the bus together. Riley had a holiday concert at his school in December and it was the cutest most wonderful thing. I cried! The cutest part was that Riley was so happy to see me there. He kept smiling at me and waving to me in the crowd. Matthew is doing well too. He has over 100% in spelling and has maintained that the entire school year so far. He's also my little math whiz-he's even had to correct me a few times!

Matthew, as most of you know, is my New Year's Baby! He was born on January 1st, 2003. So, is everyone here as good at Math as Matthew is? That makes him 9 years old! I can hardly believe it, it feels strange to type! We had his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese with family and friends. We all had a lot of fun!

Cub Scouts is going great this year as well. Matthew is a Bear now! The Pinewood Derby is next weekend and we can't wait! It is probably the thing we look forward to the most all year with cub scouts. Matthew's car is going to be awesome! He is going to be painting it tomorrow. I don't want to reveal too much about it yet until it's all finished. We've had fun so far this year especially at the Halloween party. This past week the boys made toolboxes and it was a great time. Here is Matthew with his finished toolbox



Our Den Leaders are really nice and include Riley in everything we do. They let him build a toolbox as well!



Matthew and Riley also recently started Karate (actually Tang Soo Do to be officially correct). They are loving it! I love it too. It looks like a lot of fun-I wonder if the boys would mind mommy trying it? haha. It will be awhile before either of them can test for a belt but so far they are doing great. I think Matthew surprised me most of all because if you know him you know that he doesn't exactly have the greatest balance...let's just say-he falls down a lot..but so far at karate, he's been doing awesome! I think Riley's favorite part is the end of class when they make a fun obstacle course where the kids have to use different aspects of karate, it looks like fun and he's smiling the whole way through!

Matthew had his first basketball game of the season today. This is his second year playing basketball. He is on the blue team again and even got the same number he had last year. They looked good at their first game today and they won! The season is pretty short, only 8 games I believe. It should be a lot fun.




Well, this has turned into a pretty long entry. Hopefully I can keep up with this a little better in 2012-Happy New Year everyone!