Basketball

The past 2 months have been enjoyable and frustrating as I watch my kids play basketball.  I LOVE basketball.  I can play basketball, I know the rules, I love the skill it requires, and I love the team camaraderie.  I love the sound when a ball bounces off the square and swishes through the hoop.  I do admit that I hated many practices, hated the "mad" feelings against my own teammates as we scrimmaged, hated getting cherry-picked, and hated losing.  As a mom, watching my own kids is a weird experience with many love and hate moments.

Carter, despite his unbelievable swimming skills, recognition, and fame, he decided he was burned out and wanted to try basketball this year.  With him already doing scouts, piano, sax, and 2 seasons of soccer, we couldn't add year-round $1500 swimming on top of basketball.  So, he has taken a hiatus and joined a basketball team filled with other boys from his school.  The beginning was rough, but he improved immensely and I found myself excited to see what he could do each Saturday.

It's always fun to be on an undefeated team!

My Athlete

**a note about these socks...These are Nike Elites.  They come in multiple colors and have a stripe up the back of a contrasting color.  They cost $15!!!  Every boy on his team wears them.  In fact, "all the guys at school have them" I've been told.  Apparently, they have extra cushion in the right places to help the kids jump and perform better. :)  I have no idea if this is true, but it was one of Carter's Christmas gifts that he never thought he'd get.  I think I saw the beginning of tears in his eyes when he opened his gift.  I do have to say that he wears them 2-3 times a week, depending on how often they are washed.

Emma loves to play, but is still figuring out how to be an athlete. :)

Her ball-handling is getting better.  It'd shock me when they'd have her run point.  CRAZY!

She had a cute team with girls from multiple schools.  Two were even taller than she was!

I'm most proud of her improvement on defense.  I taught her the stance and how to switch feet and hands depending on the direction your defender is moving.  She got a lot of turnovers because of it and was much more of a force to be reckoned with on her defensive end.  We're still working on her rebounding and using the backboard, but it'll come.  I'm just thrilled she wants to keep at it!

Braxton and Evan are playing church ball and having a great time with that.  Lizzie is a great cheerleader and is becoming really good at the games that are on my phone. :)