He shoots, he scores!

Today was the first day of Upward basketball games. For those of you not familiar with the Upward program, it's a Christ-centered sports program that rewards kids for modeling behaviors that are consistent with the church of believers. Our church - GracePoint - is one of the co-sponsors for this program and Jamie is the Boys' Basketball Commissioner (and Jacob's coach). Today was the first day of games and Jacob's first time to play organized basketball! Well, early in the 2nd period (yes, I said period - more in a minute), Jacob found himself open out on the wing and threw up a beauty. It went in and Mom almost started crying tears of joy from seeing his face as he realized what happened. It was awesome! The team played fairly well, but the other team was very good and had two good ball-handlers (one of which is a friend of Jacob's). The final score was a loss of 40-16. They play 6 periods - 3 in each half - to ensure all kids get equal court time.

Josh was so excited about the whole thing that he fell asleep. Dead to the world. Limp limbs and a boat anchor on my lap. He even slept through all of the super-loud buzzers and Mom's cheering and clapping. Must have been a tired boy!

We were there a good part of the day, but Jamie was there longest. As a commissioner, he went up to the school late last night (think after a high school game!) to set up and got home at midnight. He was right back up there this morning at 8am and got home shortly after 6pm. Needless to say, Mom gave the boys a lecture about leaving Daddy alone for a while tonight so he can relax. :)

Funny story of the day... Jacob and I worked in the concession stand for a few hours before his game. Josh was really good and eventually wanted to come back and help us organize the candy. Jacob had some money burning a hole in his pocket and kept begging me to buy candy, drinks, popcorn... You get the picture. At one point after one of Jacob's forlorn looks and pity parties of hunger, Josh looked squarely at me and proudly parroted back, "We're here to work, not to buy." Ah, out of the mouths of babes...

We're looking forward to enjoying the rest of a long weekend as Amy and Jacob are off on holiday on Monday. Poor Jamie - who will spend the weekend "working" basketball games and practices - has to go back to his paying gig. Much love from KC...

J&A&j&j