IU Loses, Peyton Performs and Austen Scores

Friday began a fun few days for our family. Indiana was playing their first game of the Big 10 Basketball Tournament and being the Big 10 champs they were the number one seed. They happened to be on during the lunch hour, and coincidentally, I had booked a babysitter already for Hailey to have lunch with my husband after I dropped Peyton at PM Kindergarten before her big Kindergarten performance.

It was nice to escape for a little while in the afternoon as I don't get to do that too often and especially not with my husband. We met at a new, trendy bar in the burbs for a few stolen hours where we weren't with friends or at some charity event or with the kids. It was just us. We had a beer, enjoyed some great fish tacos and watched some bad basketball - by Indiana. They didn't win (I said they gave away the game so Michigan could make the NCAA tournament as they were on the bubble), but how could I be mad. It was a beautiful afternoon and I wasn't home watching a toddler.

After the defeat, we went on to see Peyton's musical performance. She was so excited that we were coming (even though she told her teacher we couldn't make it because Hailey had to nap!). Here is our little star - singing, dancing and growing up.

After  the performance, we went back to her classroom where she showed us what she wanted to be when she grew up... a vet - no surprise there!

Saturday was another big morning for her as her Indian Princess tribe (think Girl Scouts but the girls are accompanied by their Dads), raced their "Pinewood Derby" cars. Peyton and Tom built a shark. They didn't win the big prize but they had a lot of fun doing it and we did watching!

After the race, it was on to Austen's games - soccer and then basketball. They had a tough opponent but they were hanging in there. They scored first and Austen answered a few minutes later with a beautiful goal where he outran three defenders and faked out the goalie to calmly pass the ball into the net. It was beautiful to see someone his age with such composure. I've seen him do that twice at this young age and I have to say, I'm impressed when he does it. He is a far better player than I was at age 9. 

Next up was basketball. I'll have to admit, Austen doesn't love to play basketball mostly because they have lost every single game and there are still kids that play who don't even want to be there so it's been a different learning experience for him this season. But when he's there he does try his best. In fact, they almost won their last game of the season. Almost. 20-14. Austen had 8 out of 14 of the points. He definitely is fast, not afraid to take the shot and loves getting the steals. I think Tom was a proud dad when another father who we didn't really know came up to him after the game and shook Tom's hand and said, "Austen is a great player." Yes, Austen is good at most sports he tries. Mostly because he's interested, he cares and he loves to win. That will get most players pretty far. The rest I'd like to think has something to do with genetics!