Melting Her Mom's Heart

Morgan made me a card/note a little while back that I wanted to share:

"Mom's Love....Love Morgan"

"Mom's Love Kam (came) From God and His Love."

As far as I can remember this isn't something that we had ever discussed, but wether this is something that she realized on her own or it's something that she learned, for her to write it down and give it me made me feel like the most special mom in the world...and made me a bit emotional too ;-)

Morgan is Playing Basketball!

Morgan started playing basketball in a program that our church puts on for kids in the community called Upwards basketball. This is the first that she has ever played basketball since we don't actually have a basketball here at our house and has a lot to learn but, for now, she's just having fun!

These pictures are from her 1st game. She's had another game since and will play 6 more...plus have 6 more practices. I was asked to be an assistant coach, so I try to help out at practices and every other game since the main coach has classes every other weekend. It's been interesting! I don't know/remember much about basketball, let alone know how to teach it to kids, so thankfully I'm not the main coach! LOL!

The kids do a great job for their ages. They're Kindergarten and 1st graders. While they're playing they put on a color band that matches with a kid from the other team (that is at a similar skill level) for them to guard. Right here they're lined up with the kids from the other team so they can see who'll they'll be guarding for that period.

Each game starts with a prayer and then they play six 6 minute periods. They don't worry too much about things like traveling and double dribbling right now, so the games can run a bit smoother.

Being that this is a Christian-based program, I'm hoping it's something Morgan enjoys and will want to continue. They even have devotions at practice, so they can learn more about God's love...I think that's pretty cool! ;-) If basketball doesn't end up being her thing, they also have cheerleading, so we'll wait and see how the next 6 weeks go and how she feels about doing it next year....I think it'll be fun if she and Blake will want to play together! :-)

**Sorry for the blurry pictures. :-)

Filling Daddy's Shoes

I love to wear my Daddy's shoes

though my feet are small,

when they are in my Daddy's shoes,

I feel 10 feet tall.

Some day I'll grow to fill them,

I only hope to be,

as fine a man and great a Dad,

as my Dad is to me.

Author unknown

Super Bowl Party 2012

This is the first time in a while that we didn't go to a Super Bowl party. With the kids both being in school, we didn't think it would be worth going to a party and leaving a half hour after the game started to come home to put the kids in bed. Since we didn't go out to a party, we decided we'd have a little party at home!

With there only being 4 of us, I didn't want to go all out making snacky foods, so we had pizza, meatballs, chips with dips, popcorn and Peanut Butter (and chocolate) Blondies. It doesn't look like much, but it was more than enough! :-)

I was surprised at how well the kids sat and watched the game. They only had to look away from the commercials twice...the commercials weren'y really the best for the kiddos to see.

Blake really got into the laid-back feel of watching a football game...this typically wouldn't be allowed, but I thought it was kinda funny at the time :-)

They actually were able to watch for a whole hour before they went to bed...plus I think they had their fill of football and were getting bored....they were actually asking to go to bed ;-)

I really enjoyed the laid-back little Super Bowl Party we had. Morgan thought it was fun too and was excited to tell her friends about it in school the next day. I think we're all looking forward to making this a little Super Bowl tradition while the kids are young. :-)

Girls Weekend 2012

My mom, sister, Morgan and I had our annual Girls Weekend a few weekends ago, before Morgan's basketball games started. We were hesitant about going because Morgan had a slight fever and was lethargic the night before we left, but she woke up chipper and ready to go...unfortunately that didn't last. We ended up going, but Morgan would become feverish and sluggish on and off throughout the whole weekend. She never wanted to go home though-she's quite the trooper! ;-)

My mom, Morgan and I met up with my sister late Saturday morning at Cranbrook Institute of Science. It's a natural history museum, so we weren't sure if a 5 year old would enjoy it, but she found some pretty neat things. We got a picture of this T-Rex for Blake and found out that they most likely were not predators, but actually scavengers....I had never heard that about them before!

This was pretty cool too! There was an area where they taught about diversity and there were some pretty neat holograms...I'd never seen a hologram in person before! The display of the room was all physically there, but the women and the boy were just holograms-very cool!

One of Morgan's favorite displays was the butterfly case. All sorts of pretty butterflies to look at. As you can tell, she wasn't feeling her best at this point.
Another favorite was when Morgan found Nemo! You can't see him well in this picture, but I took another...

There he is! :-)

Again, you can tell Morgan isn't feeling the best, but she still crawled into the turtle shell for a picture.

We also saw a show geared towards Morgan's age in the Planetarium there. It gave Morgan a chance to sit down and relax a bit. It was fun to watch her in awe of the stars and participate in the interactive portions of the show. Very neat!

After the science institute, we went out for lunch at a Coney Island. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but my sister ordered Flaming Cheese. I had never seen cheese lit on fire before...very cool (or hot) and tasty!

We then went to my sister's place to relax for the rest of the day. We made Morgan's Valentine's for her class, talked a bunch, watched a movie, ordered some Thai food, talked some more, drank wine (not Morgan of course), laughed, and just had a great night.

Sunday, we got up and had a slow start to our morning. My sister made us omelets and cut my hair for me as she does every Girls Weekend. We then went to see The Muppets. We actually got there a bit early, so we did a bit of shopping first. I took Morgan into Barnes and Noble (she loves looking at all the books) as my mom and sister went into Bed, Bath and Beyond...then we went and enjoyed the movie. :-)

Afterwards we did a little shopping at The Great Indoors. Between my mom redoing her kitchen and my sister having a new house, they both had a lot to look at there....I just dreamed ;-) I also thought the shopping cart escalator was pretty cool...you can't ride it the cart while it's going up the escalator...that was a bit of a bummer ;-)

That was pretty much the whole weekend. Mom, Morgan and I stopped for a bite to eat at McDonald's on the way home. We actually all got ice cream...a sweet end to a sweet weekend :-)