Friday, July 31, 2015

"Down! Set! Hut!" ~Football 2015

Football season officially has begun. The "littles" had try outs on Tuesday night.  The draft was immediately following tryouts. There are two football teams for Glenvar Youth Littles.  Darren is the head coach for one of the teams and he has 5 awesome assistant coaches.  The first practice starts Monday, AFTER a coaches meeting, held at our home, on Saturday.  I have the responsibility of cooking a scrumptious breakfast feast for the coaches tomorrow!

Below are just a few pictures that I took during the football try outs! The boys were each tested on 5 drills. These tryouts helped the coaches determine which players were the fastest and had the most skill, so they could accurately pick their teams. They lined the boys up, in chronological order, according to their game jersey #. Ty went first because his jersey is #1.  I'm sure that was a little nerve racking.
 Cooper.
I saw a ton of finger nail biting during the tryouts.  LOL!
 Gabe.
I'm looking forward to this season of our lives, but it will be a very jam packed season! Both boys start football Monday, which consists of 4 practices a week and includes the departure/non-existence of Darren since he is coaching. Lilah will be cheering and dancing! I don't think I've ever felt busier in my life. If you see limited posts, please know my heart is there to blog, but some times, the time is not.  I have some exciting "back-to-school" fun to share, but it may be a while before I post on it! 

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Sports Camp - Tacky Tuesday - 2015

This week, our kids are at the much anticipated Sports Camp that is put on by our youth Pastor and those he pastors. It's a student lead camp.  Older youth run the camp with the help of Pastor Brett and his wife Jody! It's always a great turn out! This year, the boys are focusing on  basketball and the girls are focusing on jazz.  Obviously, after the fun, the kids are also given a lesson on the gospel.  

Today was "Tacky Tuesday!".  I let the kids pick their own tacky outfits. It's a lot easier for them to be successful at tacky, than I.  My mind thinks too coordinated. LOL!  Ty actually WON the Tacky Tuesday contest.  He was excited to show both his daddy and I the Hillsong cd he won. Ty had every color of the rainbow on, underneath his Christmas light "dress".  He wore a wig, with all of Lilah's hair bows attached.
I loved Jax's outfit.  Goofy hair, headphones, tacky teeth, a bow tie, underwear OVER his jeans, two different flip flops, and a ball and chain attached to his ankle.
Lilah wore MY dance uniform, from when I was a kid, a polka dotted skirt, rainbow slipper socks, two different cleats, and a few hair accessories.  She looked more adorable than tacky!
Yesterday, the kids learned about God's holiness and today, the kids learned about man's sinfulness. Tomorrow, Pastor Brett will teach them about the bridge Jesus Christ, who made a way for us to know God and how we are able to be in His presence.  What a glorious gift!!!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Glevnar Youth Basketball Camp (2015)

Lilah chose to go to Camp American Girl and Jax chose to go to the Glenvar Youth Basketball Camp.  It's just as you would expect a girl vs. boy choices, of camps, to be: polar opposite. We did allow Ty to go to this camp, as well as the Roanoke College Basketball Camp, even though it was his second camp this Summer to date.  I am so glad that we did because the first day of camp overwhelmed me, a bit, for Jax, AND you must know I am not that over protective of a momma, unless I really have to be.  I want my to children to be well-rounded and experience as much as they can, within our faith, and sometimes "throwing them to the wolves" is good for them, especially someone with Jax personality.  He tends to get shy and turn red just talking to me. He was hesitant for about 45 seconds because there were so many kids there and of all ages, even up to the High School age.  The high schoolers were part of the "helpers/coaches", but still, he didn't know ANY of them. After a good minute, he grabbed a ball and dribbled away. 
Below: you can see a little be of what it looked like the first day I dropped the boys off.  

I posted MOUNDS of photos.  90% of them are awful because it's hard to capture actions shots in these awful lighting conditions. IF the photos or captions are not interesting to you, feel free to skip them all and watch the videos at the bottom of the post.
The boys practiced all WEEK with "their team".
At the end of the week they played several 5 on 5 games against all the other teams.!
Parents were invited to watch!
I have NO knowledge of how to make these types of rooms photograph well.  It's the SAME type of lighting/room that the FLES awards ceremony took place.  
Jax was one the "skins" team!  
He certainly hustled!
Check out those ribs!
Blocking the ball, even up against a girl. He's no holds bar!
Jax has learned a lot from his BIG brother.  I consider my boys to be excellent basketball players. Their speed, agility, and hustling definitely is part of their skill.  
 These speed shots are so hard to capture.  I have a new appreciation for NBA photographers.
Ty plays against Landen often.  These two will either be the greatest combination in High School aka great team players or they will be forever fighting for positions.  LOL!  Thankfully Landen is one grade below Ty.
My boys were dripping with sweat.  
In the end, Ty's team WON and Jax's team lost the championship. They did NOT play against each other.  I am just referring to the teams that won or lost for each age range.
The bitter-sweet moment was at the end. The entire camp met at center court and listened to the coach. He recapped the week and gave some good pointers. He asked everyone to put their hands in the center and scream a chant.  Everyone gathered, but then there was a long pause and the coach screamed, "Where's Jax? Jax?!?!?!" The boys searched for him, gave him to the coach, and everyone held him up in the air.  Then.... they did their chant.  I think he was the baby of the camp, so they treated him so special.  SADLY, the bitter part, was my camera died right as that all went down.  :(
Enjoy a few video clips of the games.  My camera's battery was dying so I was unable to capture as much as I would have liked! I also believe that's why SOME of the footage was so terrible.  When the battery is dying, the camera doesn't function at full capacity.