Our Weekend

Tobin was thrown the ball from out of bounds. He then went on to try for a basket. In picture below, Tobin is sitting on the ball.

We had a fantastic time this weekend. On Friday night, I took Tobin and several of his friends swimming (along with Brenna and her friend) to an indoor pool. Another mom met me there so I had a friend to chat with. It was so much fun watching Tobin and his friends have a good time. Tobin was timid about jumping off of the high dive, but he managed it several times throughout the night. Brenna--well, she had no problem jumping off the high dive. She did fabulous. What was funny to me was watching the other moms around me. I heard an audible gasp from several moms as Brenna jumped off the high dive. I'm sure these moms (not realizing I was right there watching Brenna) were wondering where was this girl's mother? Was she going to sink or swim? Didn't anyone care about this girl? I could only think You don't know Brenna. Some of you may be reminded of the time she was 18 months old and jumped right into the deep end of the pool with such confidence that all would be well. Remember the smile she had on her face as she came up out of the water? So, I knew she would me fine; no, I knew she would be escatic!!

Tobin and his friends jumped around all night long from pool to pool. At first the girl's followed them, but then they found their own fun in the slides around the pool deck. But the most curious thing happened. Towards the end of the night, Tobin and his friends started playing with Brenna and her little friend. It was so fun to see this happening. If we had gone to the movies there would have been little talking and they wouldn't have interacted with each other the way they did. The girls felt like princesses,and it made their night completely special.

The playful racing that took place between the boys was probably the most fun to watch. At first they did traditional races of freestyle, back and breaststroke. Then they grew creative and had spiral races (they would alternate between one freestyle and one backstroke so that they were basically rolling over in the water), then they did one where they had to carry someone piggy back. It was more laughter than swimming, but that was the point of the night, right?

On a side note: bedtime was a breeze even with sleepovers. Brenna and her little friend made a tent to sleep in.

On Saturday morning, we woke to our usual flurry of activity to prepare for the basketball games that fill our day. I took pictures and video of Brenna's game. I will only post the highlights. It is so much fun to watch. With Brenna, it just is so cute to have these little girls with the cutest ponytails taking the ball down the pint sized court and trying to make the baskets. Most of them throw the ball straight up so that it comes right back down. One little girl on Brenna's team was thrown the ball and instead of catching it, ran away from it. It simply touches your heart. And on another level, you see Noah's team passing and throwing more to each other. They have the logistics of the game down and can work together for the good of the team. Noah still has fun and loves making his layups which is what makes my heart melt. And then on the next level, you have Tobin's team which is trying to run sophisticated plays and execute both man-to-man and zone defenses. You love when Tobin gets the ball and you see the determination in his face as he throws the ball towards the basket. In my mind, I see behind the basket to all of the extra practices he has put in to make the very basket he has just thown the ball towards. When he makes it, your heart melts and your joy knows no ends. When he doesn't make it, your heart breaks, especially when you see him beating himself up. You want to hug him and make it all go away. But as a mother to a tweener (not a kid, not yet a teenager), you just have to telepathically communicate your love and acceptance, and persistance to him, as hugging him would only make it worse. And then afterwards, Andy and I come home exhausted, feeling like we have ridden a roller coaster.

Even after our roller coaster ride we still went on a date; we went to the movies!! Twice!! Instead of dinner and a movie, we opted for two movies. Who does this? And yet, I must mention that I ran into a retired teacher from my school who was doing the very same thing. We wanted light and fun (so the natural choice was 27 Dresses) and our next bet was for something with Oscar attached to it so we could, at the very least, be in the know about one movie. So, the movie time dictated that we see Juno (loving Jennifer Garner, I was not heartbroken about this). Both movies were great! Ellen Page was something else! Her performance was phenomenal.