1st up - date night at the Adoption Option Gala. Adoption Option Council of MN (AOCM) is a non profit who's goal is to educate on modern adoption. Tracy joined the board in June, just in time for all the craziness of gala planning. While AOCM is 32 years old, this is only the 2nd gala. We are growing so fast in our support of education that we need more funds than the seed money the 4 founding mothers left us. It was nerve wracking coming into the event. The venue holds 250 and with 1 week to go, we only had 125 people signed up. It was also deer opener this weekend and it put a MAJOR crimp in our plans. But, in the end we had 200+ people, the room was packed and all but 1 of the auction items sold. I consider that a success!! Also, our very best friends joined us. It was so great to share some thing that means so much to us with the people we love like family. They bid like crazy, all went home with something .... Plus, they are dang cute...
Kay had a sleep over birthday party and was off to cheer on her team at a gymnastics tournament in Roseville. She's level 7 and these are the level 6 girls she practices with 4 days a week. Its super fun to see them support each other but I imagine she's going to be a tired mess by the time she gets home tonight. She did do her homework though so .. who am I to stop her?!
Billy had TKD practice. They are doing the 1/2 time show at an upcoming high school (Hopkins) hockey game and are going to be on TV so ... the pressure is on to look good! Saturday afternoon 3 hour practices from here on out! This was followed by a late afternoon playdate at Owen's that turned into dinner and ghost in the grave yard until 9:30pm.
Jimmy had his 1st basketball tournament in Chaska. They won their 1st game (Sat night 6:30) handily against Wayzata 64-21. Jimmy had a 3 point shot and a lay up plus 3 fouls. We celebrated with burgers at JJ's and watching the Gopher game until we were too depressed to watch any more. Sunday morning brought a tough tight win at 9:10 am - they won my 1 pt and did not look good. Seth got an elbow to the face and a bloody nose and another of our kids is out is an ice pack on his knee. This on top of 1 player having to sit out due to a broken finger from Monday's practice. Part of the issue was they had 0 warm up time and got on the court cold. By their 11:30 game, they were warmed up, looking good but ... damn, just couldn't pull out a win. It was back and forth the whole game. Mid way through the game, our player and a competitive player knocked heads and split our players head wide open.
Blood everywhere and he's off to get stiches. (Yes, basketball is a combat sport) So, now we are down to only 7 kids, only giving us 2 to sub in. They are getting tired and starting to foul. By the end of the 2nd 1/2 every one the kids was at the max # of fouls which means, any additional fouls are automatic free throws by the other team. 
AND ...they were good at free throws. As we tell Jimmy, free throws wins games and the other team did win by 10. Bummer because we could have won if we even had just 1 more kid to sub in and give the kids a break. Oh well, 4:30 game up next! This was the final game for 3rd place and bragging rights. It was against Benilde (Tom's alma mater) and we had 6 kids to their 10 due to injuries. They played their hearts out and pulled out a victory 57-53. It was a bit nerve racking as the ump seemed to have it in for Hopkins but ... fouls were going both ways. It was a really physical game. In fact, as we always say ... free throws win games and in this case that's definitely true, we won on our free throw ability - yes!!
injured team (knee, broken finger, stiches) 
On top of all this, Lucy (Wendy and AM's collie) spent the night with us. Wendy surprised AM with a trip to Bemidji to see Prairie Home Companion. They said it was a great, fast trip. Lucy is a doll and Billy (aka the dog whisperer) was in heaven. Actually they were all in heaven.
My kids and dog have it MADE!!! I want to be them...
