I Feel Kind of Bad

because all of my posts lately have been about basketball, snow, gymnastics and more snow. I'm afraid this one isn't any different. It's all we've had going on for the past few months. So let's go.

First, we got more snow. Like, 4-6 inches more. As if we really needed any more. But the kids didn't complain (what kid would?) and got to play in some more of the white stuff:

Lydia's an old pro at snowball fights now.

Typical.
At least he's not eating it off a shovel, right?

Next up, we have more basketball. But this time it's the 'fun' practice Cade's league has every year before the last basketball game of the season. The parents get to scrimmage against the boys.

Guarding his man.

Doin' a 'lil trash talkin'.

Perimeter shot.
Cade! Where's your man???

Down in the paint.

Aww, yeaahh.
That's right, ladies.
MY man can DUNK!*
*And I think we all know what that asterisk is for.

This is...

Lydia being...

Lydia.

Next up, we've got senior night at WU. We went to the double header against our rivals ESU. And everything was going swimmingly until...

HE showed up. I don't get it. Lydia has seen him dozens of times. One would think that after repeated exposure, the kid would be desensitized by now. Any time Ichabod would walk near our seats, we'd distract Lydia so she couldn't see him. Then I took her to the bathroom and who should we just happen to see walking in the door as we were walking out? Yes. The mascot extraordinaire went breezing by, unaware of the time we spent averting Lydia's eyes from falling upon his larger-than-life head. Lydia got a death grip on my legs and said in a very shaky, too loud to be convincing voice, "There's Ichabod, Mommy! See? He's nice! I waved to him!"

You can bet these guys didn't flub the lyrics and they sounded incredible.

Lady Blues overtime tip off.
They lost.
What a crummy way to end senior night.
And against your rival.

Bods tip off.
Our boy has got some UPS!

These two are football players. It took them forever to make a basket. Coach Schurig was sitting near us and couldn't stop shaking his head. Probably wishing they would represent.

Cade's basketball team did this little pre-game huddle at his last game.
I'm thinking he got his inspiration here.

My favorite Ichabods.

This used to be my favorite.
(No, it only looks like it hurts.)

Then this became my favorite part.
Terra firma.

Shout out!

Lydia getting inspired by the cheerleaders, doing her own cheer.

When the guy from ESU got T'ed up, the crowd
chanted, "You can't do that! You can't do that!"
And then Lydia started chanting it.
{Side note: The other day Lydia was recalling our time at the Washburn game and she asked me what the cheerleaders yelled. I gave her some generic cheer, but she wasn't satisfied. She persisted with, "No, wasn't it, 'You can't do that?'" Considering some of the other choice phrases the student section yelled that she could have picked up, that one isn't so bad.}

Moving on.
Some pictures from Cade's last two games.

Here's the WU-inspired huddle.

And now we're back to gymnastics.
Another first:
Lydia got to go on the 'big girl' balance beam all on her own!

She wasn't too sure about it the first time up.

Coach Heath is trying to convince her she can do it.
(Admit it. You're hearing Bela Karolyi saying 'You cahn do eet', just like me, aren't you?)

Doing her best to suck it up and make it across.

She kept looking over at me for reassurance.

Her dismount into the doughnut mat.

Now we're on a different beam that looks higher to her because the mat under this one is thinner, looking further away and higher up than the first one.

Made it! She was so proud. She ran over and said, "Did you see me, Mom? I DID IT!"