Princess Birthday Swim Party

This year the Princess decided to have a swim party and since there were so many pictures taken, I'm just going to insert slideshows. The party started in the afternoon with swimming, of course.

The pool pictures are from both before and after the cake and presents. After an hour of swimming everyone got out of the pool, and after drying for a bit, all took seats at the tables in the studio. First there was cake and ice cream. It was questionable as to whether 12 candles would fit on such a small cake, but she got them all on there. The Princess was certainly ready to blow the candles out when the birthday song was over.

After cake & ice cream is was time to open presents...

The last slideshow has pictures of hotdogs grilled at the firepit, miscellaneous shots and picture after dark when the the movie was showing on the big screen and the glow sticks had been handed out.

The only bad part of the party was the mosquitos. Other than that, everyone had a wonderful time.

Happy Birthday, Princess!

Princess Basketball Tournament

Tournament was played on Saturday February 13th and I am finally getting around to going through all my pictures to get something posted. The Princess stayed the night and the two of us woke early to shower and eat then drive 30 minutes to Garden Plain for her first game at 8am. Both her mother and father had to work so it was just the two of us. Not having a someone to help me I missed out on getting pictures of the jump ball since I was also running a camcorder.
It was a pretty aggressive game from the beginning. After the 1st quarter I recruited help in the form of one of the other girl's younger sister. She did an excellent job of following the game with the camcorder and gave me the ability to get better still shots. To her I say, "Thank YOU!"

The girls were 'Home' on the scoreboard and had a slow start.

After halftime they picked up, snatching some balls and making baskets.

Catching the other team off guard.

The picture below is out of focus because it's from a larger photo. This is the only shot I could find to show how close the game was. At 33.5 seconds they were 1 point down.

I'm not exactly sure what the foul was, but in the first photo below #22 threw for a basket, in the second photo #22 appears to be rubbing her face or eye. In the third photo the ref to the back is signaling a free shot and the 4th photo is after the free shot finds the basket.
At 5.5 seconds the score is tied...

It went 2 minutes overtime with both teams vying for the winning basket. Below is the shot that won our girls the game with seconds left on the clock.

Good game, Girls!

Second Game of the Tournament

Because they had won their first game they were scheduled to play again. Their second game wasn't till noon so we drove to Goddard and got a bite to eat at McDonald's. I was surprised that their breakfast menu was still up. I'm not used to being up and out so early.

With my little helper on the camcorder I was able to get the jumpshot for the second game.

The second game went a lot faster...

The girls were "Guests" on the board this game...

They put their all into it and played hard..

...but this second team was more of a challenge for them.

They never gave up, but neither did the other team.

Good season, Girls! We'll see you all back on the court next season.

The Princess Plays Basketball Feb. 06

Up early last Saturday to take The Princess, her mom and siblings to her out of town basketball game. Her dad had to work so I drove. Below The Princess swooshes a ball during practice.
Jump ball and "The Games Began!" The reason I say this is because I don't think I've ever been to a basketball game that was quite as aggressive as this one.

There were more tug-o-war over the basketball than tackles in a football game.

Here was our first point, a foul shot.

The Princess even got in the middle of a few of these ball grabs.

She hung on pretty well...

...and ended up with the ball this time.

Another loose ball...

...ending up in another tug-o-war.

The Princess got to throw this one back in.

The scene below would have been comical if it wasn't on the basketball court and hadn't seemed like it was escalating over whose arms would be in front of who.
She got in a lot more action during this game.

But there was just plain more action all the way around during this game. Look at the score board at the end of the 2nd period. Look at all the fouls compared to the score!

I could fill this post with pictures like the one below.

Note that number 5 on the opposition was their most aggressive girl.

Just a few more shots to show you what a great deal of the game looked like from our side doing the grabbing...

...to their side doing the grabbing.

Our girls seemed to get fired up after half time and started getting the ball to their court in into the basket.

The game was pretty intense and the girls certainly got a workout with this one.

They were pretty happy with themselves but I don't think their opposition felt the same.

That was the last game of the season. On to Tournament!

A Proper Thank You

Back in July of last year a Princess Tea was held in honor of The Princess's birthday. When their Majesties, King Allen and Queen Christine, received The Princess, His Majesty the King presented her with a gift. She did not know at the time but this gift contained Thank You notes. Among the many lessons that were taught that day she also learned about giving a proper "Thank You" to show appreciation to those who honor you with their good will and generosity. That is why yesterday before the girls went home they helped me design Thank You notes for them to send to those they received Christmas gifts from.
I am very proud of how they eagerly took to their task, writing their own feelings of love and gratitude in each card. Well done my little princesses, well done.

Into the New Year...

Winter has come over us here in the heartland. We've had a couple snow days...
...actually, one was at night. I woke around 4am and looked out the window, everything was white. By noon the next day it had all thawed. This latest snow cover isn't very deep...

...but it's sticking around longer. Baby, it's COLD outside. At least the wind hasn't been blowing to terribly.

I invited the granddaughters over today to try out the ballet video that finally arrived. I purchased it to late to get here for Christmas but I included a print out of the order in with PK's bag of ballet clothes. Doesn't she look cute in her pink and black outfit.

After going through the stretches and positions 1 through 5 the girls spent some time on the music instruments.

These are the more durable ones. I'm not so worried about supervising the use of these. The better ones won't go to the studio till they have a place to be stored.

Since the girls don't have school tomorrow, teacher's inservice, they decided that they were going to stay the night so we went to their house and got their blankets, jammies and cuddle critters. We set up the cots in the playroom instead of going downstairs to sleep in the guest room. The TV for the guest room is in the studio so there's no way to watch movies and the playroom has a computer that will play DVDs.

Sleep well my lovely little princesses!