Cheaters Never Win

Cheaters never win; at least they didn't this weekend anyway. But we did. 

This makes three championships in a row and an end to our travel season. Evan always rises to the top when there is tough competition; he loves the challenge. When he got wind the coach of the opposing team had pulled an eighth grader and a ninth grader out of the stands and onto the team's bench just minutes before the championship game was to begin, it was game on. Evan had 17 points and was named defensive player of the game. 

Friday Family Fun Day - Take 2

Just a few miles from our house is a cave with nature trails and a small museum. The cave has been closed since we moved here, but it has opened to visitors in the last month. Today we spent our family fun day at the cave taking a tour.

The trails are my favorite place to be here. The wooded area is quiet, peaceful, and the perfect place to go for a run in the early morning. It's things like this I will miss when we return to school in fewer than four weeks.

Family Fun Day

The last week of school one of my students gifted me with a gift card to IHOP. We started our first Family Fun Day of the summer, or as Keagan refers to 3/4 Family Fun Day since Wes is at work, with breakfast. When the boys' bellies were full, I casually mentioned that our next adventure would include a historical landmark. The boys were not happy with this announcement, so I had to add that our final stop would include ice cream at an old 50s diner. That sealed the deal. 

We hit the interstate headed west and into the state of Kentucky. The drive is beautiful this time of the year with the Amish farms in peak growing season. 

After a short drive, we made our way to the Jefferson Davis Memorial. I was hesitant to pay tribute (in my eyes paying to see his memorial is a form of tribute) to this man in light of recent events, but I have had real questions about his political life and his belief system. 

We rode the elevator to the top of the oblesisk for panoramic views of the rolling hills and farms. 

Then we toured the museum. 

As it turns out, JD might have been against succession but he never really had a change of heart with the issue of slavery. Because he was such a progressive thinker in US expansion, transportation, and manufacturing, it is safe to say he was a very intelligent person. His heart, though, had to be hardened to accept the cruelties of slavery as an acceptable form of labor. Ironically, he had a church built on the same property as his home of birth. 

We ended our tour with selfies. We were laughing so hard, all of us had our eyes closed.

Such a fun time with my boys! Plans are already in the works for next week's adventure!

Football is His Thing

Over the past four years our lives have been consumed with sports and schedules. Everything we do seems to revolve around the next practice, the next game, or the next tournament. Summer has been no exception. 

The next two weeks Evan will be at football camp. While he has an awkward shot from the shoulder in basketball and while he may be a bit too deliberate when passing the ball in soccer, he has, oh be still my heart, a beautiful football pass. This week he has been working out in the QB position. Despite temps hovering near one hundred degrees, early morning wake-ups during the summer vacation, and a scorching turf field, he has not complained once. He has even smiled - just not in public when Mom and her camera are around.

Football is his thing. Beginning in the next month, he will be consumed with rankings, schedules, and injuries. He will talk non-stop about any stat that he finds interesting. He might even drive us a little crazy with all of his football talk, but come February the season will end, and the sparkle in his eye will dim until next August. 

Though I prefer his passion would be something a little safer, I am giddy with excitement for this season and the excitement it brings to our lives. 

Our Pre-Game Routine: Facial Hair Removal

This weekend we played basketball in a local tournament. Because Keagan plays up, he and Evan's team were in the same bracket; they were fortunate to not have to play each other. Keagan had some great defensive plays.

Evan is still off rythym and can't make a shot unless he is shooting on the outside, but he also played well defensively.

 

Keagan's team was stomped by the same team Evan's team beat in the championship game. This team was a good little team, but they weren't big enough or strong enough to hang with Glory. Some how, though, this was Evan's fault, and when his 145 pound body drove in for a shot, the other kid, sadly, didn't stand a chance. This is when the stands went wild yelling at my boy. I caught one mother screaming, "You got a grown man out there playing with these little boys." I said a quiet prayer of thanksgiving that I had forced Evan to nair his upper lip the previous night. Otherwise, there is no way anyone could have convinced her that Evan is really only twelve!

Summer league is upon us; everyone knows him locally as a middle schooler- not a man- so we should be safe the rest of the season. 

Chefs in the Kitchen

Today was the first day all three of us were home with no place to be. These days are rare - even in summer. True to my word, today was the boys' first cooking lesson. This was either going to be a huge disaster or prove to be a valuable lesson. So I started with something easy; we made pizzas. Evan cooked the ground beef and acted like it was a huge inconvenience for him, but his stomach is a bottomless pit. I also knew that after having a turkey sandwich for lunch four days in a row, the pizza was pretty enticing.

Keagan spread the sauce. He was not thrilled with cooking either, but after smelling all of the ingredients, he decided it was worthy of his time. 

Then each boy added his own toppings. I didn't even flinch - much - when I found Evan chopping onions without a cutting board.

 

My OCD almost got the best of me, though, when I saw this spoon hanging off the edge...just waiting to drop cheese and sauce on my clean floors. It took all I had to look past it and let the boys continue. Agh! Who am I kidding? It was at this point, I intervened.

The end result was edible even if it didn't look so. In the end I probably learned more than the boys; I had to really restrain myself and learn to let the boys do the work without my help. 

There were no leftovers. Next week the boys learn to do laundry. Two girls will thank me for this one day. 

Blue Grass State

Kentuckians take their basketball seriously; almost as seriously as their horse races. Put the two together on the same day and you get some intense white people. We drove through numerous farms, tobacco fields, and wide open spaces to the heart of western Kentucky to play in a basketball tournament this weekend. I can't say we have ever played the sport with such polite and courteous people. We played some tough teams, and we came out on top! After losing our second game, we made our way to the final game and won 67 to 32! 

Evan had eleven steals but couldn't make a shot to save his life. As a team, we've never played such good basketball, though. It was refreshing after a couple of tough losses. 

Fun in the Sun

It's my first week of summer break and all I wanted to do was sit on the back porch, soak up the sun, and read a book. Can you believe my very first day of break is the same day bulldozers decided to level out the pond in our backyard? It's deafening, it's dirty, and it's ugly to look at. But I'll take that over fighting to get nightly homework done and studying spelling word lists any day.

This summer has already started like no other. Our front door has brought friends over to play Air Soft, climb trees in the wood line, and play a game or two of basketball. 

The boys have gone swimming, had sleep overs, and taken a canoe trip down the Red River. 

And it's only week number two for them. This summer proves to be the best yet!

Wrap it Up!

OThat's a rap! I'm finally doing the summer time dance because my school year has come to a close. Meanwhile, the boys have already completed their first camp, a soccer camp,

and now summer camp number two (basketball) has come to an end. Keagan couldn't wait to tell me he won a game that allowed him to compete against his "coach" (one of the high school players) in a three point shot competition.  He won the competition! 

Getting a picture of the boys in public was out of the question, but apparently so was a picture within the house. Sometimes, though, the silly pictures capture a side of the boys that are treasured more than the "real" ones.