Busy Spring

It's time for an update.  Still it seems like life never slows down long enough to blog about it, so here's a quick update.  

"t" was baptized on April 21st.  There were four kids from our ward baptized that day.  Two of them were in his preschool group.  So three out of the five kids from the group were baptized the same day! 

T had his birthday on April 22nd.  Happy Birthday!

"e" had surgery on April 25th. She had dental work done.  She got two root canal- crowns, two fillings and all her other teeth sealed to prevent future cavities.  We discovered the anesthesia masks make you look like Spiderman.  She recovered well and is a lot happier now that her teeth don't hurt anymore. It's amazing to think how much she has grown.  I originally started this blog to announce her birth.

"a", t and j ran the Marathon on May 5th with the YMCA running club.  This was our solution to exercise for the winter.  The kids ran two miles a week starting in February (for a total of 25 miles) and then ran the last 1.2 miles of the marathon on the course.  It was fun and they had a great coach.  Best of all they could all participate in one sport at the same time.  "t" really took to running.  He would often run an extra mile or so just for fun.

We really are very grateful for the YMCA it is a great place to go on days we need to get some exercise and relax.

This is the first time I've blogged about a2.  She was born in October and is now 7 months.  She has two teeth now.  Who knows if I'll ever get around to writing her birth story.  But for those of you who we haven't seen for a while.  This means we now have six kids.  a2 is a sweetheart.  She is patient and calm. She is generally known for her big smile. . . and spitting up.  She smiles for anyone who stops to say hi.  She really is a delightful baby.

3's and 4's Basketball

My sister has posted a lot of her creative ideas of things she does with her kids.  Among them Lego art and creative Star Wars stuff.  I was asked to coach my son's basketball team.  I was really nervous because I had signed him up because he begged.  I smirked a bit and though I have no idea how 4 year-olds can play basketball, we'll see what kind of magic the coach comes up with. 

Here's what I can up with.  Sorry the pictures didn't go through.  Enjoy!

Dear Parents,

The main goal of 3’s & 4’s basketball is to have fun.  From my experience as an assistant coach in soccer many kids will not have fun if they do not feel successful.  I found that after the other team had scored a goal or two our kids would be upset, go for lengthy bathroom breaks, or just refuse to play.  They were not persistent enough to find success after a discouragement.  I felt that if we could give them more skills and help them find success in completing a pass or mastering a throw-in they would be less likely to get discouraged and more likely to have fun. 

So, how does that translate to basketball?   All the kids want to make a basket.  My concern is that if they aren’t making baskets right away they will get discouraged.  I created some visuals to help them focus on the other skills they use in basketball.  If you don’t agree with me, you don’t have to do any of this, it’s just a suggestion.  I thought we could have parents and other fans hold up the signs, to kind of help coach from the sideline.  I’d love to hear cheering when kids dribble, passes and rebound as well as make a basket. 

Here is a simple run down of the pictures we used in practice last week and what they stand for.  We will not have any more practices this season, so if you want to work with your child on these concepts that would be great.  I believe it will help them find success and enjoy playing basketball this season. 

Thanks,

Coach Andrea

Basketball Visuals

Dribbling- (girl dibbling)  I didn’t actually use this picture last week.  But we all know dribbling is important and should be encouraged.   

 

Passing (form)- (karate guy bowing) Coach Angie taught them to put the ball on their bellies and push down to pass.  The best picture I could come up with for this one was a Karate guy.  Put the ball on your Karate belt and push down to pass.  Try to encourage kids to keep passes low below the waist.  It reduces chance of the received catching the ball with their nose.  

Passing (team work)- (blue triangle)  Triangle passing is probably a little too much for this age group.  Still, I thought I’d give it a try.  The concept is look for triangle shaped passing lanes. If you can’t go forward, look to the side for someone to pass to.  If you don’t have the ball, get  into a triangle formation with your teammate who does, so you’re ready for the pass.  Triangle passing really helps if the other team is good at blocking.  The kids can look to the sides for someone to pass to and get around the block.  Yes, this is a long shot, but maybe it will help someone.  

Shooting (form)- (a large soda pop) Coach Angie also came up with this one.  She told the kids to pretend they are drinking a really big pop and then shoot the ball.  When I was looking for coaching ideas I found that is really important.  One of the main complaints of coaches for older kids is that they have poor shooting form.  They mostly blame it on the kids starting too young  when the ball was too heavy and learning to shoot from the hip.  Using a smaller ball helps, but using the pop bottle will help them remember to shoot with their upper body.  If you hope your child will continue with basketball this would be good to work on.

Shooting (follow through)- (a cookie jar) Correct shooting form uses follow through.  One of the imageries I found for follow through was putting your hand in the cookie jar.  This one might be a little too much for kids this age, but if you want them to continue in basketball, it never hurts to start with correct form.  There are several websites that may help with this.  

Blocking- (a fall tree) Here we use the image of a fall tree.  Be the tree, extend your arms up and sway with the wind.  Catch the ball just like the tree catches the wind.  Some kids may need to be reminded that we don’t take the ball from the other players (no stealing in this league.) 

Rebound Star- (an orange star) I use the rebound start to try to reinforce that after we shoot it is important to rebound.  I’d like to hear a lot of cheering for rebounds.  Some kids will do this naturally; some kids will need a little coaching.  Please also remind your kids that whoever gets there first gets the rebound.  We don’t touch/tackle/wrestle the other players.  If you don’t get this rebound you’ll get the next one.  Just like the baskets.  

Trick Dirt

I remember the first time I saw trick candles on a birthday cake.  The candles were lit, the lights were turned off and we sang Happy Birthday.  We all cheered when the candles were blown out.  But before they could turn the lights back on the candles had re-lit.  I remember being shocked and fluttery with excitement as I watched the candles being blown out and re-light over and over again.  Finally someone pulled them out of the cake and put them in a glass of water.  We all had a good laugh.

Well today I asked j to wash his face off after a snack (Mint Oreo shake from Steak and Shake.)  He went and washed, but a little while later I saw him with cookie all over his face still.  I knew the shake was gone, so I was confused.  When I asked him about it he said that the dirt just went back on there.  Aha! Trick dirt.  I knew it.  I think I my boys might have trick grass stains on their jeans too.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday little t.  He turned 6 this year.  It's been a crazy year, but lots of fun memories.  For his birthday he wanted a fishing pole and a blue cake.  I tried fondant for the first time.  He loved it!  (Yeah!) For his birthday dinner he wanted fish and watermelon.  I think he's wishing for the easier days of summertime.  Aren't we all?  We took him fishing the next day and he had fun learning how to cast all by himself.  Enjoy the show:

More later. . .

Happy Birthday J

[It seems like all my post are for birthdays.  I guess if that's all I do at least I'm updating 7 times a year.  That's pretty good.]

* * *

Little j turned 4 today.  He is such a sweet kid.  He is a very good helper and a sweet kid.  He is the oldest one at home now and is really a great big brother to the two little girls.

His favorite thing is still sports.  We put him in swimming lessons for the winter.  We are planning to try soccer in the spring and baseball in the summer.

I still remember the summer after he turned two and Little a and t were in swimming lessons.  He was too young to swim, so we played at the park adjacent to the pool.  I let him choose the activity.  He usually wanted to play baseball or basketball.  He had a little plastic bat and ball and could hit a pitch.  He also got pretty good at dribbling and passing a full sized basketball by the end of the summer.  He got a lot of comments from such a little kid being so interested in sports. 

He also likes pirates and superheros and making "projects".  He makes projects every day.   Projects usually consist of cutting up some paper and then taping it together and writing letters from the alphabet on in.  He even asked Santa for rolls of tape for Christmas so he could make projects.   If you come to our house he will make some kind of a letter or project and give it to you as a token of friendship.

He asked for a pirate cake for his birthday.  We googled "pirate cake" and when he saw the treasure box cakes filled with gold foil candy he switched over right away.  We opted to make his cheese pizza birthday dinner into a pirate treasure map with the treasure box for dessert.

At his age I usually have a friend birthday party.  But Little j has friends of all ages that are important to him.  Like the neighbor boys, age 12 and 13, from across the street that come play ball and tag.  Or our friend from church, age 6, that sometimes can come play before he goes to kindergarten.  I just didn't know how to do a party for kids of all different ages, so I think I'll wait till the weather is a bit warmer and have a BBQ and invite all their families over.

Here's a slide show of the last year with Little j.  I'll add a few photos of his party too in case you don't want to watch the whole slide show.  :)
 

Random Update

 

We finally got the kids a pet.  Little t is going to take care of a goldfish and if that goes well we said we'd get him a turtle.  little e squished the first goldfish in less than a week.  After a tearful good bye to fish #1 we got a new goldfish and put it on a higher shelf.

 

Little t got a subscription to lego magazine.  The post photos of cool stuff kids make out of legos.  He was intrigued.  Here is one of his creations.

Playing in the snow.  This is actually from the storm we got in the begining of January.  All this snow melted and the flowers were starting to come up.  Then *pow* we got hit with the double east coast blizzards.  We have about three times this much snow right now and more coming.  We've had three snow days already.  Two this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.  My kids have learned to do a "snow dance" and then school will be canceled.

They grow up so fast!  This picture of v was taken 1/21/10.  It seems like babies all have there own specail "talents".  Little v's specail talent is cooing.  She loves to talk and "sing".  I've made a few videos for you all to enjoy.  But I have no idea how to up load them.  :(

Little j is such a good helper.  He really takes care of v when the older kids are at school and I'm helping e with something.  He sings to her or rocks her.  It's so sweet.  

Are you a supertaster?  If you don't know you can find out by counting your taste buds.  If you have less than 15 you're not super.  More than 30 you're a supertaster! 

Slideshow for E