Basketball, Thanksgiving, Vaccinations, and Christmas Prep

With the Schuerman kids, one sports season rolls right into another.  As quickly as fall ball ended, basketball season began.  There was even a little bit of overlap - we were busy those weeks!  Both kids are playing basketball again.  Colin's trying out travel ball and Cadence stuck with rec.  Colin's getting used to the pace of travel ball and Cadence is excelling as one of the older girls this season.  It's been a lot of fun watching them both play.  Watching Colin think ahead with each play and Cadence getting feisty on the court have been entertaining!

Here's Colin before his first travel basketball tournament game.  

And Cadence after her first game of the season.  There are only 22 girls who wanted to play rec ball in her age group (5th/6th grade), so they split into 2 teams that play each other each week.  Cadence's team has been dominating and Cadence is doing really well!

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I met Danny and the kids down on campus after work (they had just finished volunteering with FryOut Cancer delivering turkeys).  We had Adriatico's for lunch and walked around campus for a bit.  Since it was Beat Xichigan week, all of the Ms on campus had been crossed out!  We loved seeing the rivalry in action!

They had drained Mirror Lake to prevent students from taking a dip.

I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving, but we had a nice, quaint celebration at our house with mom and dad.  We had a lot of good food and plenty of leftovers!  We watched Elf and Home Alone - 2 of our favorites!  The next day, we got started on the Christmas decorations. The kids love it and enjoy decorating the tree the most.

The kids were off from school the Monday after Thanksgiving (and Danny was in Tulsa), so I took the day off from work.  Big Walnut was hosting a vaccination clinic so the kids got their first shots!  They weren't pumped about the idea, but I was very proud of them.  They took the shots like champs.

Colin got a DQ Blizzard and Cadence got McDonald's fries afterward as a treat.  We also played Googly Eyes when we got home!

Colin was excited to keep score at one of Cadence's basketball games.  He took the job very seriously!

We stopped by Christmas on the Square for a little bit that night - The Lex Center was having an art open house - some of the artwork from the kids was on display.  Here's the piece done by Cadence!  She's so talented!  She was disappointed with the piece that her teacher chose for her, but I think it turned out nicely!

Dizzert was back to entertain us this season.  Here are a couple of ideas Danny and I were proud of this year.

Cadence came up with this one 😁

In mid-December, I got a call from Colin's school while I was at work.  Luckily the call started with "Colin is fine, but..." his bus was in an accident.  I was nervous about what had happened, but I knew Colin was okay (physically).  Colin was in the office and wanted to go home, so I was able to talk with him.  He said that at first, he thought the bus driver was just slamming on her breaks.  He was somewhat right - she slammed into the bus in front of them at the red light near the access road his school is on.  I'm not sure how fast she was going, but they were going fast enough that the tires in the front popped.  Colin said his nose, shoulder, and ribs hit the seat in front of him.  He was alone in his seat, so he did not hit anyone else when he was jolted forward.  Thankfully none of the kids were hurt.  I learned that a couple of people in other involved cars were taken to nearby hospitals for minor injuries.  Colin was a little shaken up; I'm glad he was given the option to go home.  I picked him up from school and he picked out some ice cream from Kroger as a treat.  I let him do whatever he wanted so he played video games, watched TV, and we shot some hoops once I was done working from home.  Luckily he doesn't seem to be too affected by the whole ordeal.  When I picked him up, he said he kept thinking about what happened and that he was "happy he was alive."  The next morning, all he told me was that he wondered what bus number would be picking him up.  After I left for work, Danny told me that Colin told him he wanted Danny to drive him to school.  So there was some hesitation to get back onto the bus.  Totally understandable.  Danny gave him a pep talk and he pushed through and got onto the bus that morning.  He hasn't brought it up since.  I'm pleased with the way the school handled everything. I found out that Colin's principal was on-site after it happened.  Many people from the company nearby also helped out to make sure the kids were okay while the EMTs did their job.  

Again, no post is complete without a picture of Scarlet.  Here's the old lady basking in the sun like the old days.  She didn't stay in this position too long.  I think it's too difficult for her to stay on the stairs now.  She still loves to sunbathe, though.