Life is good... Happy Birthday Billy!

And yes, another basketball win! Team Dynomite won 17 to 11 today. We played the same team that we played on Tuesday. Thankfully we had 6 players today so we could substitute instead of everybody having to play the entire game. Kyra scored 4 of the 17 points. I keep the scorebook for our team and before the game, Grace said I might as well go ahead and write "222222222222222222222222....." across the page by her name because she would be scoring big today. Well, she was right; she scored 10 points for us.

After the game, I took Kyra to Sophia's birthday party at the bowling alley. She had a great time with her friends for 2.5 hours. After picking her up, she asked if she could invite a friend over to play. It was 3:15 p.m. and I told her it was too late to be calling someone to invite them over; and besides, she just spent the last 2+ hours with a lot of her friends anyway... She argued with me, so I stood even firmer. NO.

Well, guess what happened... We arrived home the same time our across-the-street neighbors were pulling into their driveway. Kyra said she just wanted to shoot hoops outside, which was fine with me. Next thing I know, there are 7 kids in my driveway playing basketball, riding scooters, drawing roads/parking spaces, etc. Even Toby, a golden retriever from down the street, was in on the basketball fun! Although I thought it was too late to be calling someone to invite them over, I'm glad the kids came over anyway. (It turns out that the girl Kyra wanted to invite over was one of the ones that came over.) I love it when this happens! I watched them all playing from the window while cleaning the kitchen and smiled remembering playing with my neighbors when I was her age.

Several hours later, while I was on the phone with my sister, I looked out the window to see Kyra riding her tricycle from the end of the driveway back to the garage. I've kept her smaller trikes, bikes, scooters, etc. for the occassion when younger kids come to play. Kyra has way outgrown this tricycle and I had to laugh, wishing I had my camera. When I got off the phone with Laura, I went outside while Kyra was continuing to put away the toys that the kids had drug out into the yard/driveway. I snapped the photo of her on the car that her Grandma Marion gave her for her 1st birthday. (I can't bear to part with this car since it was the first and only birthday present she would receive from my mom.) I then asked her to get back on her trike so I could capture that moment as well. There have been many times when I've considered emptying the garage of toys that are too small for her use now, but times like today remind me why I haven't. They still occassionally get a good use. Life is good!