Upward Basketball

Cooper was on an Upward Basketball Team this winter season.  He absolutely loved it!  He embraced the sport wholeheartedly, and loved every minute of it.  Cooper has some great qualities that allow him to make and reach his goals.  He is determined to succeed if it is something special to him and nothing will stop him!  This is the attitude he took with him onto the basketball court.  

He already was an expert dribbler.  Being on the team helped him learn how to pass, block, run hard, and how to tell the difference between offense and defense.  His team name was The Rattlers and he had some great coaches.  

Cooper's strength is definitely defense.  They help the kids by giving one boy from each opposing team a color.  Then, the kids with the matching color are to block one another at appropriate times during the game.  Cooper went above and beyond just "blocking" his opponent.  He would not let him go anywhere.  He followed that boy around the court with his arms outstretched around and around.  Even during offense, Cooper often would continue to block his opponent till his coach would remind him to stop blocking and put his arms out for a pass from his teammate.  He was not tall enough to ever make a basket for his team, but he could prevent the other team from passing and making baskets simply by blocking the opposing team's best players.  It was awesome!

The team was great because it really taught the kids how to play a team sport.  They practiced on Thursday nights and often would practice passing the ball to a teammate who then would make the point.  Of course this helps little boys realize that they don't have to make the basket themselves, but  by passing to one another they could work together to make points.  The Upward League is a Christian based league.  During half time the kids would have a little meeting with the coaches on a gospel subject, like loving one another and trying to be like Jesus.  While this was taking place, there would be a Christian speaker that would speak to all the adults and families on the bleachers.  Often they were stories of conversion and talks about how Christ has influenced and changed their lives in some way or another.  It was very uplifting.  It was really neat to see other Christian people, not of the LDS faith, but of other Christian denominations, to share their stories about how they felt the spirit and were led to do certain things in their lives.  It made me more grateful for the Savior, that He has influence over everyone around us.  It was very neat to see.

It was a great basketball season.  We will definitely be doing it again next winter.  Cooper had a blast!!

Preschool Highlights

Cooper has thoroughly enjoyed preschool this year in Mrs. Kruse's class.  She is an absolutely wonderful teacher!!  He has learned so much this year.  He is beginning to read, and can do simple math.  He is coming out of his shy shell and is spunky and excited to learn.  His favorite little friend in school is Hunter.  Here are some fun highlights about preschool this school year:

At Thanksgivingtime, Cooper's class put on a Thanksgiving performance of songs and rhymes on stage for all the parents at their Thanksgiving Feast.  Cooper was not one bit frightened this time around.  He stood up on stage proud as ever with his head high, and he sung those songs!  It was an honor to join him for that Thanksgiving feast!

On Cooper's snack day, the kids were learning about dinosaurs.  Soooo, we searched pinterest for a fun dinosaur snack to go along with the theme.  We found one!  It was made out of a watermelon, carved to look like a T-Rex's jaw with spiky teeth.  That was a lot of fun!

Cooper's school has "Daddy's Night" which they kids and dads seemed to have loved!!!!  They got to go together all by themselves, and they had an enjoyable time together. I'm grateful that Nate can work around his work schedule so he could do this with Cooper!!

Cooper's Valentine Party at school was a fun event that I got to help out with!  I helped to make a healthy valentines snack of heart shaped ham and cheese sandwiches.  We let the kids cut a heart out of the cheese by themselves to add to their ham and cheese sandwiches.  I cut carrots into heart shapes, and we had pretzels that were kind of heart shaped as well.  They made candy necklaces, played Valentine's Bingo, and read a Curious George Valentine's story.  Cooper got to write out valentines for each of the kids in his class.  

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Kindergarten Valentine's Party

Jaxton's Kindergarten class had their Valentine's Day party.  I got to be involved in planning and organizing it.  It was super fun!!  The kids did lots of fun activities.  And we had lots of moms to help out.  It's always fun to get to know other moms of kids in Jaxton's class.  We broke the kids up into 4 stations and they rotated around the room.  The kids put together I "heart" You Keychains to give to a parent or friend for Valentine's Day.  

There was a story corner where a mom read a Valentine's story about Splat the Cat.  At this station, the kids secretly put together a big giant heart valentine for their teacher Mrs. Hensch.  They each got to sign a little heart and glue it on the big valentine.  At the end, we presented Mrs. Hensch her Valentine and she was very grateful!

At the snack station, the kids had cup cakes in ice cream cones, which they loved!!  They also got to write down an estimate for how many conversation hearts they guessed were in the conversation heart jar.  

Well, believe it or not, guess who won that contest at the end of the party?  Jaxton did!!  He guessed 419 and there were 5 hundred and something, so he was the closest guesser!!  

The kids got to play Valentine's Bingo at another station with conversation hearts.  I think they really enjoyed this one!

It was a great party!  I had a ton of fun planning it, the kids had a ton of fun enjoying it, and all us moms had a ton of fun spending time together!!