Time To Relax?

Today was Hayden's last basketball game of the Upward Season. (Yahoo! Sorry that is not nice but man am I glad it is over)

It was a great season and Hayden had a lot of fun. He loved his Coach and his teammates. He told us on the way home that he gave each one of them a hug. (He only goes to school with one of them - so he does not know if he will see them again) How precious is that? He is so thoughtful sometimes.

I thought whew it's time to relax now. No more busy weekends and Thursday night practices for us. Silly me! Hayden and Harold went out with Jack and Ethan last night to the batting cages. Why? Well, because baseball tryouts are this Friday and Sunday....no rest for the Moms and Dads of busy growing up kids these days............We would not have it any other way though.

This photo is after he had a buzzer beater at the end of one of the periods. He was so proud. He is so funny though. On the way home, "Narcissus" wanted to know if the crowd was on its feet when he made the shot. Hmmmm, apparently Upward Basketball is much more important than his Dad and I knew.......
This is when the cheerleaders were performing.....oh my..................I'm not ready for those days.........................

Pittsburgh? Seriously?

Okay, this is a family from the South! Not just the South but really THE South! We live in Arkansas for goodness sakes. Except for college and law school, we have ALWAYS lived in Arkansas, all of us!!!! So how is it that my son has decided that the Pitt baseball team is his favorite college team? Well, we have Ryan to thank for that.

Hayden had never been to a college baseball game before last weekend. Whew, who knew that it could be soooo cold at a baseball game? Hayden just loved it.

I think it was the sound of the bats and just being at the baseball field. Of course part of it was that he got to spend time with Ryan. He just loved that. It was wonderful to be there for Ryan's first game as a college baseball coach and get to be there to see him embark on this next stage in his life.

Now let's just be serious though.....absolutely NO WAY my kiddo is going that far away from home to college....his accent would just NEVER ever fit in..............

Here is my precious little Southern boy pretending to be a pitcher! Yikes, that is almost as scary as thinking of him going away from the South!

Too Much Competitiveness

Is it possible to have too much competitiveness? After the basketball game on Saturday morning, the young referees came over to talk to Hayden's coach about him.
It seems that they were a bit concerned about these sweet faced boy's retalitation after he gets fouled, hit, run over, pinched, held on to, etc.
Apparently he was just a bit too rough with the bigger kid that you see going in as Hayden is about to take a shot.
Must be that all that retaliating makes one tired......

Of course it does not take the spring out of our step after one sweet boy makes a goal
Nor does it stop us from being so tenacious on defense.....without grabbing on and holding......
Guess the good lawyers that we are, we are going to have to teach the kiddo how to be a little more sneaky when "retaliating" and being overly competitive...if that is even possible
I mean really....how could these sweet faced boy ever be too mean....?

Hearts and Fun

I love Valentine's parties at school. The kids always have so much fun. It is just precious to hear them laugh and just be kids. School is so structured and they push kids so hard these days that it is nice when they have days to just hang out and enjoy fun. Here is my little Valentine! See what I mean about the laughing. He was laughing about someone trying to pin the nose on the puppy.
Getting ready for his turn at pinning the nose.....

Talking it up with his friends at one of the tables of games

Can you see the chocolate on his face? They played a game with oven mitts and Hershey's kisses. It was hysterical
Enjoying the cookie cake. Nothing like a little sugar before the end of a long school day.
We had to go see Mrs. Parker too. Hayden will always love his 1st grade teacher. She is amazing.
Hope everyone had as great a Valentine's Day as our little sweetie did.

Our Own "George Washington"

Last night the 2nd grade at Hayden's school performed a patriotic program for PTA. Last year our fella was the Prince in Sleeping Beauty for the 1st Grade play. http://givenscraigfamily.blogspot.com/2008/03/thursday-march-13-2008-fairytale-play.html This year he was George Washington in the reader's theater program. (Maybe if the baseball / basketball / author / rock star careers don't work out for him, he can be an actor. HA) It was a precious program and lots of precious kids. There were quite a few proud Mommas, Daddys, Poppaws and Mommaws in the audience too. The evening was not without some excitement in the form of one of the little girls getting REALLY really sick. It will not be an evening to be forgotten.

This is ole George coming in for the program. He was being the line leader. I cannot tell you how much he enjoys that role.

Going to his spot on stage
This is Sleeping Beauty from last year. Isn't she still just as adorable as ever?
This is "Betsy Ross". One or more of the kids in "George" and "Betsy"'s class had these two convinced that after Betsy made the flag, she and George would get married. HA
So precious, I could just kiss those rosy cheeks all day long
" When, oh when, is it going to be my turn?"
George on his way to the microphone.
This is "Benjamin Franklin". "George and Ben", I mean, Hayden and Luke play basketball on the same team this Upward Season.
Such good looking fellas....gosh they grow up so fast
"I am George Washington. I helped write the Declaration of Independence. When the King of England invaded our shores, I led our military in the fight for their lives...their freedom...YOUR FREEDOM. That is how I became so famous. I was a good General. When it came time to write the rules for our country, I helped write the Constitution. It took 11 YEARS!!! During this time I was elected the first President of the United States" (Just wish you could hear him say these lines, he was so animated.)

This is "George" watching "Betsy" doing her lines. Maybe ole George does have something for "Betsy".
Emmanuel, Mrs. Faith and Hayden. Mrs. Faith is such an incredible teacher. I hope for all our friends with kids in school or going to be in school, you are blessed with teachers like this one.

Hayden told us last night that the best part of the night for him was that his grandparents were there with him. He sure loves these two! Hayden and the girls!

My Heart Just Overflows

Tonight was the 2nd grade program at school. I will write all about our little George Washington in a separate post but this one is all about how much I love this kid. You see one of the songs that they sang tonight was the National Anthem. Well this song is special to my kiddo....he knows it is important and he treats it that way. He was all in costume and turned to the flag when the music came on and ....he immediately took his hat off and put his hand over his heart. It was all this Momma could do not to cry. He was the ONLY little boy in costume that took his hat off during the Anthem. Can you tell just how proud I am of that?

The pics are not great because well...they just are not but maybe you can see enough to know why I am and will always be so proud of this moment!

More Basketball

Hayden plays basketball with a neat group of kids this Upward Season. (Truth be told we have been very very lucky with the Coaches and the kids he has gotten the opportunity to know each of his three seasons of Upward). The kids all really like playing and have really come a long way in four weeks of games. Check out the intensity even in warmups....This little guy just could not get away from Hayden. This player that Hayden had to guard one of the periods they played was taller than our kiddo (and rougher too). He threw a shoulder into Hayden's chin to try to get him off of him. (Ask me sometime how mad Hayden's daddy was about that? Especially when the teenage referees said nothing.......)Apparently we got a boo-boo during the game. :-)Hayden was tough on defense all day. He had 10 rebounds, all on the defensive endThat's Hayden on the other side of this kiddo. Hayden had 10 steals during the game too.I love this shot. Hayden and Luke are both trying to anticipate where the ball is going on the inbound playOur fella was worn out but played five of the six periods without complaining about being tired and without slowing down....Such a sweet face.....I wish he would just let me kiss it all the time.....