Hoops and gutter balls

Today began with another basketball game for Evan. The next to last. Evan has improved SO much since his first game. We are just so proud of him. Particularly at his practices, he's been showing a vast improvement in all his skills - from dribbling to shooting - as well as a better understanding of the game and even a little assertiveness. But in the games, he has still been a little timid (e.g., if he got his hands on the ball, he always passed it to the kid on the team who makes all the shots). Well, until now.

See, we went out to lunch with my parents after last week's game and my father offered up a little bribe to Mr. Evan. Dad told him that if he would shoot the ball in his next game, he would take Evan out for ice cream. Pretty good deal, huh? Come to find out, it worked as a pretty good motivator, because I'll be darned if he didn't shoot the ball for the first time - and SCORE! Hooray for our little guy. So proud. Who knew a little ice cream bribe would improve his game.

Next week is the last basketball game and the first soccer game, so that will be a fun feat of juggling.

I would provide pictures of all the basketball, but my camera has proven that it is unwilling to take photos in that gym. Stubborn camera. You can click over here if you want to see pics that my dad took at his first game.

After the game, he went off with GranNan and Poppy to my nephew, Will's soccer game and Pressley and I went to a birthday party for one of her friends at school. It was a bowling party. Let me say that again. It was a bowling party for a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds. I went armed with my camera and ready to be entertained.

It was actually less chaotic than I had imagined. The first 15 minutes or so were a free-for-all wherein all the kids just rolled the ball down whatever lane they felt like in whatever order struck them. When practice time was over, I have very low expectations for how the whole waiting-your-turn thing would go. But they were all champs. And lest you wonder how long it took for those balls to reach the pins at speeds so slow you cannot even imagine, I will tell you a secret. They have these nifty little ramps for little kids to use. They look like a walker almost, but the front part is a ramp. So, the kids hoist their 6 lb ball up to the top and then give it a push, and lo and behold, it makes it to the pins in a fashion that is not-too-painful to watch. Sadly, for the first 2 or 3 frames, our lane was the only one to not have said cool ramp thingee and we watched some painfully slow rolls that barely made it to the end until I had the bright idea to go ask for another ramp to be brought out. That sped things up a bit.

And then mercifully, because God is good, there was a time limit on how long they let the kids play. I think we had gotten through about 4-1/2 frames when a big blinky light came on all the screens saying that they had to stop. (As a side note, oh-my-gosh, I can't imagine how painful it would have been to watch them play 10 frames!) It was unfortunate that it happened right before Pressley's turn, but when she heard the magic word (cake), she quickly forgot that she had been waiting ever-so-patiently for her next turn.

At the end, each child got a trophy with his/her name on it that said Best Bowler, so-and-so's party, and the date. Cute. Pressley declared it to be the most fun party ever (at least until the next one).

OK. So, just look at my little cutie in her bowling shoes. Does she rock the bowling shoe look, or what? That picture on the top left is the best shot I got of the ramp thingee, but perhaps I am the only person who had never seen one before today and you are not the least bit impressed by this revelation.