Basketball and Duplo

 Our little girl is growing up, and she joined her first team this winter.

 We have always had a pretty busy schedule, but YMCA basketball is our first foray into true team sports with "actual" games.

 Every Saturday morning this winter, Orelia will have a 30 minute practice followed by a 30 minute game (she will play two quarters in each game).

 Why basketball?  Why now?  Well, some of our closest friends are the coaches and some of Orelia's best friends are playing, so we decided why not?

 Orelia had been eagerly awaiting what she deemed "the big game," and she was basically ecstatic the entire time she was practicing and playing.

 Bennett decided he wanted to come and watch (which you can imagine he later regretted).  He deemed himself the coach and said he wanted a whistle.  A toddler with a whistle in an already loud gym is pretty low on my list.  No thanks, buddy.

Orelia knows very little about basketball, but it turns out neither do most of the members of her team!  So she fit right in!

 She left the experience so pumped up and said she wants to play basketball for the rest of her life.  I'm not sure if that's going to happen, but I am so happy she is playing in a way that encourages the love of the game.

 Bennett is frustrated he doesn't have soccer class in the winter, but he's entertaining himself by building "Chicago City" out of Duplo every day.  We aren't sure where he even heard of the city of Chicago, other than one of John's work trips a year ago, which makes playing "Chicago City" all the more fun.

 Our Duplo ice cream set is living its best life these days too (a second life, really, as Orelia always loved these) as Bennett creates cone after cone of creations that he either lovingly shares or cheekily hoards.  That's Bennett in a nutshell, really.

It's time to wake up my favorite Duplo ice cream maker from his three-hour nap or else he will never sleep tonight.  Wish me luck!