Basketball and Friends DPP 2017 Day 9

Today was a busy day of basketball.  This made for a good challenge for me.  One that revealed that it remains a challenge.  My photography strength has always been candid moments and portrait photography.  Sports photography is a whole different ball of wax and I do not have the settings right yet and I miss more than I get. It is why this post is so late.  When you know that you are bad at something, you have to take a volume approach.  So when it came down to edit photos and pick ones that would work for today, I had 400 or more photos to look through.  I had to hit the delete button a lot. Something to work towards in the future.

Heading in to Big B's game.

E had an early morning game that we barely rolled out of bed in time to feed her some breakfast before we left.  I left without coffee.  WITHOUT COFFEE!  I don't know how I made it either and I appreciate your concern.  Naturally, I didn't take a camera to that game.  Too bad as she took an elbow to the eye, enough that the ref stopped the game to see if she was ok.  It is puffy and we are waiting to see if it will blacken.  We figure it will keep the elbows away at the next games because she will look so tough.

The picture above is us heading in for Big B's basketball game.  I didn't think he would play this year because he didn't have much fun last year playing.  He has had a complete turn around this year thanks to great coaches and a team full of good friends.  What is not to love.

I love how much of himself he puts into everything that he does.  This is the effort he puts in for a warm up shot before the game.  I can't believe how much air he got.  You will be happy to know that shot went in.  He sunk a bunch of shots during this game.  He doesn't always do that but he did today!  It is really hard to get a picture of him shooting because the kiddo has no fear and just barrels through the other players towards the basket.   Here is a series where some of the pictures are really blurry but I had to keep them because he is coming up on a kiddo that is bigger than him, kept going full speed, got past him, and then took a shot.  Not bad for a little guy. . .

And he made it!

 Most of all, I love that he is an encourager.  That he cheers for his teammates, believes in all of them, and never puts winning before team.  He isn't disciplined in his words and actions; it is that what was done well outweighs any mistakes in his mind.  It is how he views his teammates and himself.  On a day they got absolutely clobbered by the other team, he said, "Mom, is it ok that I don't care we lost?  Some of the guys were really frustrated but we have the best team.  It just didn't go our way this time."  He always says things that as I reflect on them I realize how much he has to teach me.  Love that kid.

The younger siblings have organized.

The three musketeers.

Then it was off to E's next game where she took on a tough team.  It was a close game but they won.  E works hard to improve as a player all and her work is really paying off.   She absolutely loves the game of basketball and we love watching her play.

This picture is really just to give you an idea of the difference between E and other girls her age.

Moving down the court quickly.

With no one in front of her, she takes the shot.

This is a terrible picture when it comes to focus and composition but I am including it anyway.  E used to hang back on offense, worried about making mistakes and missing shots.  In the last 6 months, she has shaken off that fear and has had a game or two where she was one of the top scorers.  So I love this picture because it shows the work and the growth.  She took this shot and she made it.  As her parents, we don't care much about the shots taken and the shots made.  We care about the journey, overcoming the intimidation factor, and learning to take chances in the name of growth.

No day is completely consumed by basketball.  There are always sweet moments like this one.  Marilyn (Rich's mom) is so wonderful about coming up to our house frequently to see basketball games, babysit for date nights, and helping out when there is a parent out of town.  Consequently, the kiddos have a close relationship with her.  Tonight, B decided that he needed to share his artwork with Grandma.  Grandma was dutifully impressed and showing it off.  She already knows where she will display it.  Our kiddos really won the grandparent lottery on both sides of the family, if you ask me.

E also had a really fun Christmas party with friends tonight.  That mom has my utmost respect!  She had a big group of middle school girls to her house and put on what by all appearances was the dinner party of all dinner parties.  There was pizza, cookie decorating, a gift exchange, and a group of kiddos that left their phones alone and interacted instead.  Three cheers for that party!

So today's post is almost done....   But there is one more picture I have to post.  As I was clicking through photos at basketball to see how I was doing with this new photography skill, one of the basketball dads gave me a little grief as to why he wasn't in the pictures.  Naturally, I spun around and took one quick and promised him it would find its way here.  That'll teach him.  HA!