Watch out,Michael Haugen Jr.

My nephew, Noah, had his fourth birthday party yesterday at the bowling alley, so Izzy and Sophie got their first try at knocking down the pins. I probably had more fun watching them than they did playing, but Izzy amazed us all by walking up, picking up the ball right, and throwing the ball right down the alley with fine form.

Fine and very, very slow.
Sophie also carried her ball up with much bravado.

What she lacked in fine form, she made up for in cuteness. And slowness. So slow, in fact, that her ball got stuck halfway down the lane and a bowling alley employee had to come save it once.

When the employees were busy, my niece Maddie came to the rescue. She's Sophie's idol. When we were leaving, Sophie asked, "I go with Maddie?"

"No," I told her, "You have to go wth mommy and daddy."

"But Maddie's my friend!," she told us, so dejected.

We brightened her mood by going to Maddie's basketball game later that night. It was a blast! Maddie is such a sweet, calm, girl, but get her on the court and watch out! Defense is her middle name. Over breakfast this morning, Sophie smiled up at me and said, "I watched Maddie play basketball."

"That's right," I said, "Do you think you'll play basketball too one day?"

She shook her head definitetively: "Yep!"

Yesterday was a blast all the way around: Noah's birthday party, bowling, Maddie's basketball game, and then the whole family went to Mi Pueblito's for dinner and I got to eat a heaping plate of vegetable fajitas. Yum! Of course by the end of the evening, I was imagining Izzy to be one of the pins and I the bowling ball, but that's par for the course lately.

If the kids are ever good again, we'll have take them bowling. Seeing as how my all time score is about 60, being five or six months pregnant shouldn't affect my game at all.