YMCA Basketball

Over the weekend, I was thankful that my parents live ten minutes away. Everywhere I have lived, I have been envious of friends I meet that live very close to their parents. I envied them more after the birth of Jack. And even more after the birth of the girls. I never thought I would be one of those people who lives by their parents. And I am lucky that I not only have my parents ten minutes away, but my in-laws too!

Now is John's busiest time of the year. He was working on Saturday and so I was going to have to take all four kids to the YMCA for Jack's basketball game. Seriously this thought gives me a stomachache. I used to think the girls were harder to care for as newborns/infants, but I'm not sure anymore. I think they will get easier someday...at least I hope. Taking the three out anywhere is not easy right now since they are not the best stroller babies (why would they be, they really don't ride in one that much), and they LOVE to walk and roam--which isn't good in the snow and also isn't good on a basket-ball court. My mom offered to watch the girls, take Jack to the game or come over in the morning and help me get all of the them to the game. Since the weather was nice, I decided to take all the kids with my mom's help. I figured it would be nice for Jack to have his own little cheerleader section. Speaking of Jack and basketball, he started this league about five weeks ago with no understanding about basketball and he is slowly getting the hang of it. He does really well with the first half which consists of skills practice, but he hasn't quite caught on to the game they play after practice. He is most likely one of the youngest players on his team of four-to-six year-olds considering he just turned four at the end of December. As his first year playing, he is doing pretty well, we think. He is enjoying himself which the most important thing.

See how small he is compared to some of the kids? He is standing next to the really tall girl with her hands up in the blue shorts.

The coach let Jack dribble the ball up the court (which consisted of him dribbling it a few times and it getting away from him and his teammate recovering the ball. The referee made her give the ball back to Jack). Jack then did this pass to his teammate after considerable coaxing from his coach (the ball is blurry).

Jack's biggest fans

Thank-goodness for Moms :)

I wanted to mention one other story about my dad. My parents have been going to mass with us on Sundays to help out with the kids. Since moving, they have still been going to the same mass services as we do. Recently, we started sitting in the cry room and letting the girls wander which has been great for everyone and made the entire service go a little more smoothly, if that is possible. We used to sit in the pews and each one of us held a baby (that didn't want to be held) during the mass. Since sitting in the cry room, most days, like today, none of the girls were held during the mass. Near the end of mass, I heard my dad call Anna's name. She saw him, smiled the biggest smile and walked over to him. He picked her up and I heard him do his little Granddad chuckle--hehehe. Makes my heart smile. I think he misses the kids :)