Sports!

Our kids have been involved in various sports and activities this fall.  Gabe, who likes all sports in general, decided to forgo soccer and try out basketball.  So we signed him up for a team with other 6 and 7 year olds.

Here he is doing drills with his coach.  It turns out that she is a really good basketball player who played college basketball.

They met once a week to practice and learn the basics, such as passing, dribbling, and shooting.  Coach also tried to teach them special plays, but it went over most of the boys' heads.

The baskets are lowered, so it's easier for the boys to shoot.  Gabe's specialty was to wait by the hoop for a pass and then shoot.

At this age, there is a rule where you're not allowed to steal the opposing team's ball while they are dribbling it.  So this made it easier for them to learn the basics of dribbling.

It took Gabe a game or two to get used to the rhythm of basketball, which is very different from soccer.  But once that happened, he was able to get the ball more and scored 2 or 3 baskets almost every game!

After the last game, one of the boys had a birthday party at Round Table Pizza.  Also, the coach handed out trophies, which all the kids got.  She said a few special words about each boy that came up.  Gabe was very stoic when he went up, but was happy with the trophy especially because it is glow in the dark!

Some friends of ours signed their kids up for a running club, and so we signed up our kids as well.  Every Sunday for several weeks, the all ran a race of differing lengths according to the ages of the kids.  The goal was to get kids active and healthy.

In Karina's age group, she had to run 1/2 a mile.  She was playing soccer at the same time and we think that running made her be in better shape for the soccer games.

Gabe ran a 1/2 mile as well.

Because Eliana was in the older group, she was running a 1 mile race.

These events are timed and as the kids place in the races, they earn points.  At the end of the 6 weeks, they handed out trophies to the kids who had accumulated the most points.  To our total surprise, it turned out that Karina placed third in her age group for the girls!  So she got to stand on the podium.

 And everyone got a medal for participating.  (Xiao Yu ran the 1/4 mile races.)  Here they are standing (sort of) on the podium.

 Afterwards, to celebrate, we went out and got frozen custard from a restaurant.  It was yummy and a well deserved treat for our runners!

Karina played soccer again this fall.  Here is her team.  Most of these girls have played on the same team for several years and they've gotten to know each other well.

 She has gotten better every year and this year is passing well and dribbling well too.

Here she is dribbling and suddenly switching directions.

She is doing pretty well as goalie too, although she doesn't like being goalie because it's a lot of pressure.

She has been scoring too!  She has scored several times this year and in one game, she scored twice!

Karina enjoyed herself a lot!