THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL....

So, all of you lovely bloggers who have been posting about enjoying your sunshine and plants sprouting up through the ground to indicate Spring has arrived, I just thought I'd share with you what our weather looks like today. Our poor little green plants don't have a chance. I just keep reminding myself that last year, we had 3 inches of snow on June 13th, so I don't expect much anymore. ENJOY the snowflakes in my pictures while you're enjoying your sunshine, warmth, and greenery!!! I'm sure Spring will eventually make it's way to Eastern Oregon!!! :-)

BASKETBALL AWARDS CEREMONY

So, all 6 teams (4th-6th grade, boys and girls) met this evening for an end-of-season "mini-tourney" as well as to pass out certificates and awards. I asked a friend to take some pictures for me and he didn't get very close. Unfortunately, due to a crummy camera and the lights in the gym, they didn't turn out too well, but boy were we proud of our team. We were the only ones who placed in a tournament, and 1st place at that. I'm so sad to see this come to and end, even though I need some extra time for studying, because I love every one of these little souls just like they were my own. Half of them spend a lot of time at our house, so we said we'd adopt them all if we could. I'm sure you're all glad the season is over so I'll quit bragging about them!

Kamille accepting her certificate. She shook my hand, then grabbed me in a BIG hug. We also thanked Keanna for being our equipment manager this year. She was an excellent help with shagging balls, handing out jerseys and supporting us from the stands.

Our girls all lined up waiting for their awards with Coach Steve & Coach Wells. I was announcing their names and saying something about their part that made such a great team. I'm sure there's some remark to be made about me being on the microphone :-)

Our 5th grade girls team
Shalynn, Chloe, Haleigh, Teara, Kamille, Elly, Cheyenne, Jaiden & Gloria
(It's hard to see, but the first girl in line is in a sling. She was injured in our 2nd game of the tournament this weekend. The ER thought she had broken her collar bone, but now have decided she just strained the muscles/tendons, etc. Coach Wells came to sit at the ER to check on her and brought her a candy bar. He said he had a hard time deciding on a "Skor" bar, or a "Crunch" bar. He finally purchased the Crunch bar, so she's earned a new nickname! If she doesn't show improvement they'll do further tests, but we're just glad she is OK thus far. We sure missed her height and skill in our last game, but Teara stepped up and filled her shoes well)

FIRST PLACE IS A WONDERFUL PLACE TO END YOUR SEASON!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't too sure how we would end our basketball tournament this past weekend, but I'm glad to announce that we took first place out of 4 teams. We won all 3 of our games, even though we lost our tallest player at the end of the Saturday game due to either a dislocated shoulder or broken collar bone. Thankfully, she was able to join us on the bench Sunday for our final game and acceptance of our medals, but she yawned the whole time due to medication. The ONLY drawback to being a coach is I never have the chance to take pictures. Yesterday, I get the bright idea to take my camera and ask another parent to get a few shots. Well, in typical "Digital Camera's for Dummies" form, I left the memory card at home. Hence, no action pictures, but we did get some pictures of our medals. They even gave the coaches medals and when I delivered Keanna's "Leprechaun Trap" (another story for another post on another day) I seen 2 of our team wearing their team shirts and medals. Makes me wonder if they wore them to bed, too?!?! What a way to end the season!!! We have one more meeting;tomorrow night, we will be having an "end-of-the-season" party, then a few fun scrimmage games and our team is meeting early for team/individual pictures. WAY TO GO UNION 5th GRADE GIRLS BASKETBALL. We look forward to working with the kids next year for our 3rd year in a row. However, somebody is going to have to split off and coach our youngest as she'll be in 4th grade and is MORE than ready to start playing. For now, we gearing up for Little League. Kamille will be in Minors and Keanna will spend one more year in Coach Pitch, as she missed one year sitting on the sidelines in a wheelchair from a broken leg.

Our 1st place medals..front & back

Kamille's Sportsmanship award medal and tourney medal...front & back

Kamille was so excited that the ribbon on our medals were red, white & blue since she has two cousins in the Air Force and red, white & blue are very common colors in our house these days.

OUR BASKETBALL TEAM

So, our final basketball games are this weekend at a 3-day tournament. There are 4 teams playing, and we knew we could beat one (last meeting, we beat them 40-0) so we were really optimistic. Well, our girls showed up last night with their A-game, and beat the hosting team 14-10. Today, they showed up with their A-game and more because we beat Pilot Rock 10-0 and they trounced us the last time we met like 30-0. Tomorrow is our last game, against Elgin, and we are pretty sure we have that one tied up (nothing is certain!!!) If we win tomorrow, we take 1st place. If not, we're still guaranteed 2nd.

BUT, the best part of all, they hand out a sportsmanship award metal to one player from each team at every game. This momma/coach had tears in her eyes last night when they announced that my beautiful little girl was chosen for her sportmanship on the court. At today's game, they wanted to choose her again, but only allow each child to be chosen once per tournament.

So, I'm very proud of my daughter for being kind on the court as well as off. She definitely has a heart of gold. Even more, I'm proud of a group of 9 girls who came together the 1st of February and have come so far and have taken everything their coaches have taught them, putting it to use on the court, and coming out looking like a great team. Watch out for when they hit High School. They'll definitely be a team to be reckoned with.

Keanna, the younger daughter, has attended every practice since we've been coaching these girls for 2 years now. She will be old enough to play next year and I believe she's going to be a good player, because she runs all the drills she can with the team, and when she can't participate, she's dribbling up and down the sideline practicing her dribble with both hands. So, she's our official "Ball Girl" and we got her a shirt to go along with the teams shirts we had made. She was pretty excited.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. We're staring a NASTY snowstorm on it's way here so next week might not be as nice as it's been the last few days. Keep smilin'. I'm off to feed the horses, then hit the books as we have a 3 chapter test Monday night.