more basketball and a birthday celebration

We started the weekend with some exciting basketball! Haleigh had her first game, and it is quite enjoyable to watch 1st and 2nd graders play ball - they are just beginning to learn the game. It is fun. Haleigh did fantastic. She scored 12 points for the team in her 2 quarters of play. Mark's dad and his wife were able to spend the day with us to watch some b-ball and celebrate Haleigh's special day. Here is Morgan and Twala (Grammie) at Haleigh's game.

And Jacob and Don (Popop) at the game as well. Jacob was a bit giddy all day since there was so much excitement - we had a long but fun day!

Haleigh is #3 (blue jersey). I have a hard time getting my camera to take a good picture inside a gym. This setting is the sunset setting, but it was the only one that would lighten up the shot. If anyone has a suggestion of what setting to use inside a gym with bad lighting please let me know. I have tried the sports one, the automatic one, the sunset one...no success so far. I thought it turned out kind of cool though. She played great, and so did her team.

Morgan's team played an awesome game too! They won, and they were so excited. They had two great practices this week, and they really did well on the things they practiced. Morgan didn't make any points, but she had some really critical defensive plays! She did great. We played in Springtown this week, and we will finally get a game in Decatur next weekend. Morgan is the blur at the top of the key in the blue jersey!

After the games, we had Haleigh's birthday party. She is turning 8 on Tuesday, and we celebrated a few days early. She had friends come to the church building to play in the youth room. There's an air hockey table, a pool table, a video gaming system, basketball, etc. She had a great time.

Here's the silly birthday girl!

She had a great time opening her gifts, but there was something that she was really wanting that she didn't get - well, Popop and Grammie pulled out an extra "surprise gift". She's trying to rip open the box to see what it is...it's tough work!

I guess you can tell by the look of delight on her face that she got exactly what she was hoping for...the raccoon webkinz. Haleigh is obsessed with webkinz, and she has had this raccoon on her "wish list" but we could never find it. Well, Popop and Grammie found it and really made her day! At this party she received 4 webkinz, so she was quite happy with her successful party!

Haleigh shares a birthday with our good friend Shelly, and Shelly's favorite place to have a birthday lunch is Red Lobster. So, after church today we all drove to Denton to have their birthday lunch together (just a couple days early). Here is our waitress letting the kids "play" with the lobsters in the tank. If you'll notice, Jacob is nowhere to be seen in this picture - he was frightened by the lobster once it was out of the water! It was funny to see him take off in the other direction when she lifted it out of the tank.

Haleigh loves crab legs, so that is what she ordered at Red Lobster. Well, the manager happened to be walking by our table and noticed that Haleigh was having trouble cracking her crab legs, so she stopped and helped her. She spent about 15 minutes at our table helping Haleigh get out her crab meat - as soon as she would get it out of the shell for her, she would gobble it up and be waiting for more. It was so sweet of her to do that - the manager is allergic to all shell fish, but she still helped her (with gloves on)!

She got a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and ice cream. Shelly got cheesecake! (I didn't take her picture though).

She has had a great weekend of birthday celebrations, and it's not even the actual day yet! Happy birthday anyway Haleigh! For her birthday (from us) she is getting ballet and tap lessons (they go together). She will be starting Tuesday, so I will hopefully get some pictures of that to post. She can't wait!