We actually got to see Alex dribble the basketball in Monday’s game (a rare sight as he usually just passes it off) as he got a lot of playing time during the 45 point victory.  The opposing team only had 6 players and not very much experience, so the coach cleared the bench to get everyone a little bit of experience.  Something we learned was that the conference has a 40-point rule similar to the 10-run rule in softball.  Once a team gets a 40 point lead, the officials let the time clock continue to run even during free throws and when the ball goes out of bounce to keep the game moving and show some mercy to the losing team.  Alex did have quite a few assists and he had a couple of shot attempts, but he also had 4 fouls during the game – the team was taking bets whether or not he would  foul out.  🙂

Mom took a break from picking up after the boys and worked on some of her photos.  The top photo is from her Valentine’s bouquet and the bottom one is from the ice storm last week.

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Right around the same time as Spirit Week, one of Sam’s friends had a birthday party.  Mom dropped Sam off right at the same time a bunch of the boys were driving around the yard like maniacs in a Golf Cart – apparently that was one of his birthday presents.  She captured a short video of Sam jumping in for the joyride (those first time drivers are the worst).  Sam ended up staying up all night watching TV and playing games (non-electronic games – they weren’t allowed to bring phones or iPads), finally falling asleep at 8am about an hour before we arrived to pick him back up.  Hopefully this isn’t a precursor to college life.  🙂

We are trying to get caught up on some events over the last few weeks that we didn’t get posted to the blog.  The first event was Spirit Week at Trinity.  Sam and a couple of his friends participated in a chariot race for all the 6th graders.  You should be able to see Sam and another boy pulling a 3rd boy around the gym on a large towel.  Sam and his team will be easy to spot as his team is in last place and Sam collapses at the end of the race due to exhaustion.  🙂

We didn’t think the boys were going to get a snow day this year but here we are the middle of February and Mother Nature delivers us a cold blast of Winter.  No snow, but about 1/2 inch of ice fell overnight and the boys had the day off from school.  They will go in 2 hours late on Wednesday as well.  Most of the ice will freeze overnight as the temperature will not get much higher than freezing.

Cleaning the roof – because that’s important?

Use the Right Tool!

Dress appropriately for the cold weather?

Dumb and Dumber…….

Sam dressed up today for Moustache Monday as Spirit week begins at school.  Sam said that he managed to keep it on for most of the day and said that only one person in the class didn’t participate. How would you like to be that teacher staring out at all of those moustaches today?  Alex opted out today, but will definitely participate later in the week for Jersey day… he just can’t decide which soccer jersey to wear.  Sam is also looking forward to superhero day… is Arsenal a superhero was our question (for those unfamiliar with DC Comics – Arsenal is Arrow’s sidekick).

Trinity split the last two games, winning the first game by quite a bit and losing the second by just a few points.  Alex got a lot of playing time in the first game and took a couple of shots, including a 3 point shot that hit nothing but net!  Alex unfortunately didn’t get any playing time in the second game.

Alex taking the shot behind #15

Alex watching it fly

Swish!

  Alex got a little more playing time in last nights game because they were behind by over 20 points.  The team couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn last night and were making some really dumb plays, but at least he got to play.  He got one rebound and received a very poor foul call – technically he did foul the player but it was way after the shot and more because he was trying to get out of the way but that was the way the whole night was going.
  Sam meanwhile had a birthday party at Josh’s house.  We dropped him off around 6:30pm and picked him back up this morning at 10am.  Apparently they watched movies, drove around in a golf cart like crazy people and finally went to bed a couple of hours before we picked him up.  In other words, Sam  had his first all nighter and is now wrapped up in a warm blanket fast asleep in Alex’s room.

Alex scored his second bucket of the year last night as TCS defeated Bethel.  TCS was ahead the whole game and played a pretty good game against a school with much bigger kids.  Alex got a little bit of playing time since they were in the lead and had one steal and the shot heard around the world.  Alex got the ball on an errant pass to Sam P in the low post.  He picked up the ball, did a reverse spin that left the defender in the air and he easily shot in the 3′ jumper.  The whole bench exploded when he made the shot, but unfortunately Dad didn’t get a photo because he was expecting the ball to be caught by Sam P.  Mom was totally clueless and thought Sam P shot the ball, in fact it wasn’t until we were walking to the parking lot that she realized ‘her baby’ scored the 2 points.  After the game the team was calling Alex the ‘ghost in the post.’

We had a great time at the beach today, even though it was a little on the chilly side.  We gave back some sea shells and Mom collected some new ones.  Dad took the photos, Alex played a little soccer and Sam just generally goofed off and took a few photos himself (he took the photo of Mom below).  We stopped and got some fast food on the way home and will probably have dinner and a movie by the fire tonight.  Since the boys are getting older we may only have a couple of more years left when we are all together!!  Happy New Year’s everyone!