Upward Basketball 2016 Season - Games 1-4

**GUEST BLOGGER**

 ~ Eric Hendrickson ~

Game #1 - January 9th

Coach Ro and I are coaching our daughters again this year for 1st-3rd grade girls in Upward Basketball.  We are the Nuggets.  After only two practices, we had our first game.  Sarah is jersey #3.

Our first game, as will be the remainder of our games, was against the Suns.  Like last year, there are only two teams.

We have three girls that returned from last years team:  Cari, Bella (Coach Ro's daughter) and Sarah.  New girls include Nienna, Addison, and Kylie.

Our girls know to race up the court after a steal or rebound.  The other team wasn't prepared for this.  We ended up winning the game 44-21.  Sarah had 20 points. 

Game #2 - January 16th

The other team was much more prepared for this game and started making picks for their best player Hannah (who is also one of Sarah's best friends).  Our help defense was not so good.  We will be focusing on this at next week's practice.

Coach Ro was out of town on business, so I coached by myself. 

We ended up tieing the game 30-30.  Sarah had 12 points.

Game #3 - January 23rd

So, we practiced help defense this week and our defense was much better.

Sarah being a tree,  (This makes Mommy really happy when Sarah plays good defense and blocks shots.)

Coach Ro providing instruction to our tall girls.

I have been working with Sarah on her shot as she has picked up some bad habits playing basketball at school recess.  As you can see from the picture above that her shot looks good.

Coach Ro and I (above).

Above, are some of Sarah's biggest fans and part of her cheering section.  Popee and Nanee have made to all of Sarah's games so far this season.  Grandma Great and Mike made it to the second half of this game (Sorry the games are at 8:30 in the morning).  They watched a well played game where our girls won 24-20.  Sarah had 16 points.

Game #4 - January 30th

Our 4th game was probably our best game.

We have been working on help defense and it is evident from the pictures that the girls are getting it.

Hands up, Help Defense!  Good job girls.

I guess Stacee wanted to take a picture of my butt.

#5 - Nienna, #12 - Cari, #3 - Sarah, #4 - Bella, #1 - Kylie, #2 - Addison

We won 44-32.  Sarah had 18 points.

Daddy Daughter Dates 2015

In 2014 Eric started taking the girls on "Daddy Daughter Dates".  The girls got to take turns going on a date with Daddy throughout the year.  It is a time that each girl looks forward to when it is their turn to go on a date with Daddy.  When it is their turn they get to think of something fun that they want to go and do with Daddy.  Then Daddy picks the date on the calendar that works the best (with help from Mommy) and takes them!  This has been fun for Eric and the girls to do together.  They get to have one on one time and lots of attention from Daddy.  We didn't get in as many Daddy Daughter dates in 2015 as we did in 2014.  But as you will read below, there was no lacking in the "Fun Department".

**GUEST BLOGGERS**

 ~ Eric and the girls ~ 

Saturday, January 24th - Date with Sarah

Derby Recreation Center

Sarah is quite the athlete.  For our date, she wanted to go swimming, so we decided to go to the Derby Recreation Center. 

                  Before swimming we practiced some basketball.  Look at that good looking shot!

We swam for almost 2 hours.  We climbed the rock wall in the deep end of the pool, jumped off the diving board, did handstands in the water, and played water basketball.

It was fun and exhausting.

Friday, January 30th - Date with Phoebe

3-Ring Circus

Phoebe got a free ticket to the Circus Spectacular at the Kansas Star Casino, so we thought it would be a great idea to make it our date.

There were a lot of cool animals that did some amazing things.  The animals included elephants, horses, tigers, camels, donkeys, ponies, .  Phoebe's favorite animal was the elephant because people were riding them.  The tigers did tricks.  Phoebe liked watching the high line guys.  They sat on a chair.  Phoebe recalled that, "Anyone (no one) fall off."  She got some cotton candy.  It was blue and it was yummy.  

During the intermission, we saw our friend, Carl, with Michelle, Mya, and Zariah, sitting 15 rows in front of us.  There was room next to them, so we went and sat with them for the remainder of the circus.

The circus lasted for three hours, so it was after 10pm by the time we left.  As you can see by the picture above that Phoebe was very tired.  Phoebe was really happy and really sleepy.  She fell asleep on the 15 minute ride back to our house.

Saturday, August 22 - Date with Sarah
Movie and Ice Cream

We had many months between dates.  Sorry for the delay girls.

We took a selfie outside the movie theater.  We went to the Minions movie.  It was alright but not near as good as the Despicable Me movies.

We then went to Freddy's for ice cream.  Sarah had a monster sized sundae.  I had a dipped cone.

Saturday, September 12th - Date with Phoebe
Exploration Place and McDonald's

Phoebe and I decided to go to the Exploration Place.  No one from the family had ever been there before so we were going into uncharted territory.

Phoebe loves puzzles and the like so this was a great place for us to go.  We built block towers (right) and hooked up small electric motors (left)

We also flew an airplane in the flight simulator (left).  After a few hours we went to McDonalds for ice cream and to play in the play place.  We liked the Exploration Place enough that we bought a year membership.  Thank you Phoebe for a fun and learning date.