First Basketball Game

 Justin has been waiting for this day for years!  He got to play his first basketball game ever. Justin was so excited that he could barely contain it. He is so ready to play something/anything instead of just watching his sisters.

 He is on a team at the YMCA for 1st Graders.  Justin's age group plays 4-on-4 basketball with no refs, no time clock, and no score keeping.  But, when the final whistle blew, Justin knew that his team had won. 

 They must play zone defense and each player needs to stay in his zone on the floor.  This keeps the kids from playing bunch ball.  Justin stayed in his zone on defense.  He knew that he was playing as a forward.  His coaches are doing a great job of teaching the boys positions, how to throw the ball in bounds, a defensive stance, how to pass, etc.

 Justin didn't score any points, but he did shoot.  He played good defense and he didn't double dribble or travel when he had the ball. 

He is on a basketball break now because of the holidays, but he is ready to play again and wants to go practice over the break at the YMCA.  He even got a new basketball for Christmas.

Take care,
Michelle

Ashlin's Holiday Piano Recital

 Mrs. Nissen's older piano students asked if the students could perform a holiday concert this year.  She was all for it and the students went to work on Christmas music to perfom.

Ashlin played "Frosty, the Snowman", "Happy Holiday" and "Let It Snow". The concert was held at The Meadows for family, friends and for the residents.  It was a very packed room for the event.  Ashlin did a great job!  There are many new students this year and everyone performed well.

Take care,
Michelle

Christmas Concert

 Last Sunday afternoon was the Jr. High and Sr. High School Christmas Concert.  The students were to wear ugly Christmas sweaters.  This was Cara's response, "I am not going to wear some ugly sweater.  We are already going to sound bad, at least let me look good."  Sometimes it is just painful to watch this small class get through events.

The 8th Grade sang, "A-Caroling We Go".  They also sang "Christmas . . .In About Three Minutes" with the 7th Grade.  At least when they sing with another class the sound is more balanced.  This was Cara's last Christmas music concert as she will not choose to go out for choir in high school.

Take care,
Michelle

Volleyball Ends

 The Boomerrangs volleyball season came to an end a few weeks ago.  Ashlin had so much fun while being part of a team.

 She learned to work with others, call the ball, bump, set and serve.  This is all getting Ashlin ready to start club ball next year when she is in 5th Grade.

Now that volleyball is over, Ashlin has moved on to basketball.  She is going to play YMCA basketball and club ball at school.

Take care,
Michelle

Elementary Christmas Concert

Last Sunday was the elementary Christmas concert at school.  It is nice to see all the students out of school uniform and dressed up for a change.  Justin got to sit between two girls which is right up his alley.  He likes to talk to girls.  Oh, and Justin does not like to dress up.  He asked me why he had to wear a nice shirt?  None of our children like to dress up.

 Erica hanging out with some of her classmates waiting for the concert to start.

 The students sang some really catchy Christmas songs this year.  They had the crowd laughing and tapping a toe to the music.  Mrs. Nissen teaches the younger grades and Mrs. Cornett teaches the older grades.  This year Mrs. Booth helped get the students ready for the program due to Mrs. Cornett having a baby this fall.  All the songs had actions to go along with the songs.

 This was Erica's last grade school Christmas program.  It seems like just yesterday we were going to her first program when she was in preschool.

 The program concluded with the teachers singing a song with the Sacred Heart Singers.

Take care,
Michelle

Jr. High Basketball

 Cara has been playing junior high basketball for a few weeks already.  The junior high girls have a short season.  They started playing games the week of Thanksgiving and the season wraps up next weekend.

 The last week has been a long week for Cara they have had four games in less than a week.  They played at Battle Creek on Saturday morning, at Hartington CC on Monday night, at home against Pierce on Tuesday and tonight they travel to Columbus Scotus.  She is exhausted between playing and trying to keep up on homework.  She needs the weekend to rest and recover.

 Next week they play Monday against Wayne, Thursday against West Point Guardian Angel and in their own tournament on Saturday.  Then the season is over right before semester finals the following week.

 There are five 8th Grade girls out for basketball; therefore, some 7th Graders have been playing up.  It is rough playing when you don't have the numbers to field a complete team.  I give the girls credit for going out and completing, but it is tough.

Take care,
Michelle

3-on-3 YMCA Basketball League

 On the four Monday nights in November, Erica was on a 3-on-3 basketball team.  There were actually three Norfolk Catholic 6th grade girls teams playing in the league.  The coaches divided the girls playing club basketball into teams and entered them in the league.  It was a great warm-up for club ball season for the girls which starts after the first of the year.

 Erica was on a team with Adri, Carly and Reilly.  Every Monday night they played two games of basketball.  Each week they split, winning one game and losing one game.

 This was a new and tough experience for the girls.  The games were 25 minutes long with a continuous running clock.  Each basket was one point.  No free throws were shot.  It you were shooting the ball when a foul was called it was an automatic point.  After seven fouls, each foul was a point for the other team.

 The girls continue to improve on their skills - boxing out, defense, ball handling, etc. 

 For now, Erica attends practice once per week for club basketball.  They will start playing in tournaments after the new year.

Take care,
Michelle

Helping One Another

Cara recently had a project for Theology class.  The project was to create a place of worship. 

 

 Cara enlisted the help of her brother, Justin, and a neighbor boy, Aiden.  She explained that they needed to make a church, like our church, out of Legos.  She told them they needed an altar, pews, parishioners, etc.  These two little boys went to work digging through their stash of Legos and this is what they came up with.

Our church, St. Mary's Catholic Church, is a circular place of worship.  The people sit in a circle with the altar in the middle.  They made pews with people sitting in them.  Notice the priest is a Star Wars figure, but the boys picked him because they said that Father Andrews usually has on a white robe.  You may also notice that on the altar is a cup and a bowl of hosts for communion.  Then they added a piano and a guy, Mr. Henkel, to the mix.

By the way, this did cost Cara a bag of candy and gum for the boys' help.

Take care,
Michelle

Diamond Clover 4-H Awards

 Recently, 4-H Awards Day was held.  Ashlin and Erica both completed levels in the Diamond Clover Award.  Ashlin completed the Amethyst Level and Erica completed the Aquamarine Level.  They both received certificates and pins for completing the levels.

The Diamond Clover program has a list of activities at each level to be completed.  Out of the list, you must complete so many activities to achieve success and qualify for the award.  The Amethyst level is for 8-9 year olds and the Aquamarine level is for 10-11 year olds.  The higher you go up in levels the harder the activities and the more activities that much be completed.  Next year, Cara will have a level to complete.  Cara and Erica both received this award last year. 

Another year of 4-H has come to a close.  Next month, our club will host a family soup supper and planning will start on what projects to take for next year.  Hopefully, we get a good winter start on our projects.

Take care,
Michelle

A Season Ended

Cara had her volleyball season cut short by an injury.  She strained the upper shoulder muscle on her rotator cuff.  Therefore, she missed the last week of the volleyball season.  She missed a regular season game against Columbus Scotus and a tournament at Norfolk Public.

 

Therefore, Cara became a coach from the bench.  She helped direct floor traffic from the bench with Coach Freese.  It killed her to sit and watch and not be on the floor.  But, Dr. Adams told her no physical activity for two weeks. She has daily exercises to do to strengthen the shoulder and she has been working with the trainer at school.  Dr. Adams feels that it is just a strain and not a tear because she has too much strength in the arm.  Naturally, this would be her right "swinging" arm.

She shed a few tears over the fact that she could not play.  But, we told her how lucky she is that this happened as an 8th Grader and not as a senior.  She is lucky that it isn't torn.  A tear would mean surgery and 4-6 months of rehab and recovery.  Cara still has spring volleyball to look forward to.  The rest will help, plus basketball is right around the corner.

Take care,
Michelle

Trunk or Treat

 On Sunday afternoon, our church hosted a Trunk or Treat event at the school for families.  First, the kids could paint or decorate pumpkins.  The pumpkins were donated by a family that raises produce to sell.  The Clinch Family raises pumpkins, squash, sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.  Their produce ends up in our local supermarkets, but also other grocery stores in the state of Nebraska.

 The kids painted some pumpkins to set on our front steps for Halloween.

 After the pumpkin painting, the children headed out to the church parking lot to trick-or-treat out of car's trunks.  The high school house system and some parishioners had treats ready for the kids. 

 Some trunks were really decorated with a theme and others were not so decorated.  The kids just cared about the treats involved.

 Justin and Bailey made the rounds together in the parking lot.

 Their last stop in the parking lot was Ty's party bus.  Ty is a classmate of Justin's in first grade.  Ty's family had decorated the bus and had treats for all the children.

After the trunk or treating, families were treated to hamburgers, chips and a drink in the Parish Center.  It was a great family event!

Take care,
Michelle