Long Weekend

Our weekend started with Alyssa's birthday party Friday night. She took 7 girlfriends to the opening night of the movie "27 Dresses". A very cute "chick flick," Noah and Forrest would have been bored to tears. After the movie we went to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream. The employees made Alyssa turn bright red when they sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Her friends know her so well. Alyssa got jewelry, scrapbooking and card making supplies, cash, and gift certificates for manicures and to Target. Her real birthday is still nine days away, but she really wanted to take her friends to the movie on opening night so we celebrated early.
On Feb. 1st she'll have had her learner's permit for 6 months so we can go get her license. She already passed her drive test last month so all she has to do is go in for her photo. I'm taking the afternoon off on the first to make an event of this momentous occasion.

Saturday night Noah and Forrest went to the Monster Truck Jam with some friends. They missed the first half hour of the show because the freeway off-ramp was so backed up. The boys had a great time regardless. Who doesn't love noise, dirt, and huge tires?

The rest of our weekend revolved around Noah's basketball tournament. His team was the only 6th grade team to enter so they had to play in the 7th grade bracket. There is a huge difference between 6th and 7th grade boys. The first team they played had one player who was over 6 feet tall, and the second team had two 6'2" boys. Noah's team has four boys who are all about 5'6" (including Noah). They were giving up 8" to those twin towers. The 7th grade is also when the boys graduate to a full size basketball. Noah and his friends are still using a junior size ball in their regular season games. The boys played with a lot of heart considering they were so outsized. Their coach was very proud of them. They played close in all three of their games for the first half, but eventually they got worn down by the larger boys. The bigger ball was a disadvantage to our shooting, especially to our smaller guards who have small hands. Somehow Noah's team ended up playing the top three seeded teams in the bracket. I watched two of the lower ranked teams play, and I'm sure Noah's team could have beaten both of them.