Caden has been playing basketball this fall and Mike has been the assistant coach. Their team is the “Rattlesnakes” and is through i9. They have had a great time this season!
Here are his “official” basketball pictures
Caden participated for the first time in the Grand Canyon State Games. This was a 2 day tournament that was held in the Northwest Valley. From their website: “The Grand Canyon State Games is a multi-sport Olympic Festival for Arizona amateur athletes of all ages and abilities. The Games is organized by the Arizona Sports Council and is affiliated with 47 other state games throughout the United States. It is sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee through the National Congress of State Games. The Games seeks to provide Arizonans with an avenue for personal development through sports. In 2010, over 30,000 Arizonans participated.”
Caden participated in both the singles and doubles tournament. Another girl who bowls in the same league as him wanted to do the doubles tournament so she asked Caden if he would bowl with her. We were a little nervous that he would make it through 6 games in one day, but he did great! The first day was bowling to qualify. The second day would determine who went home with a Gold, Silver or Bronze Metal.
There were only 2 that qualified for the Singles Tournament: Caden and an older boy. Caden had the benefit of having a higher handicap while his opponent had the benefit of being older and more experienced. It came down to the last frame. All Caden had to do was make a spare. With everyone biting their nails, Caden came through with a spare in the 10th and won the Singles Tournament for his division. Next was the doubles tournament and it turned out that there was not another team to oppose them, so they automatically won the Gold Metal.
We are so proud of Caden for winning the Grand Canyon Games Bowling Tournament!
For those who do not know, Caden has been bowling in youth league for about a year. This league does a lot of different things, including paying for each kid to bowl in 2 tournaments a year. So, A couple of months back, Caden bowled in the USBC Youth Pepsi Finals Tournament. I’m not sure he knew exactly what a tournament is, but went anyways and had a lot of fun. After about a month, we received word that Caden took 2nd place among all the kids 11 years and younger! Today he was awarded his trophy and scholarship money! He loves the trophy and the money is put into an account held by USBC until he graduates from high school. He then can use the money for college tuition, books or even bowling lessons!
This was the first year of Easter Egg coloring that both kids could participate in. I only did a dozen eggs since I wasn’t sure how much interest Connor would have. I did the traditional egg food coloring and looked up some creative colors on McCormicks website. Caden could do the coloring on his own with no help for me. Connor loved putting the eggs in, but wasn’t vey careful about it. So, we only had 1 casualty egg which is pretty good. I think we’ll have to do more than a dozen next year.
We went to see the Easter Bunny this year. Connor was not happy….Caden was excited. After the picture they each got a free book from him! Happy Easter everyone!
Caden’s school had it’s 2nd annual Christmas Program. This year they decided to hold it at an elementary school’s gym to accomodate all the parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, aunt, uncles etc….you get the idea. All of the classes (except for the infant room) had their time in the spotlight and sang a few Christmas Carols.Â
Caden got all dressed up and his teacher’s grandmother knitted each of them a beanie hat. His class was definitely the loudest out of all the classes.Â
They entertained the crowd with:
Santa Claus is Coming to Town (As Santa was coming in to greet all the families)
Jingle Bells (Desert Edition). This was a cute rendition. Here are the lyrics:
Driving through the sand
With his jeep well in command
Over the rocks and brush
Santa’s in a rush.
Most towns have white snow
But Phoenix has hot sand
But that won’t stop ole santa claus
Four wheeling is his plan
Jingle bells, lizard tails
Hot and sunny day
Santa’s here in desert town,
But he cannot stay.
Jingle Bells, lizard tails
Hot and sunny day
Santa’s jeep is packed with toys
So everything’s okay
Santa rounded out the evening and water and cookies were available for all. All of the grandparents came and saw Caden.  This will be his last Christmas Program with Goddard, but next year will be Connor’s first!Â
Caden has been taking swim lessons for a couple of months. There are so many people in AZ that have a pool (my father-in-law included) that I really felt that Caden was unsafe by not knowing how to swim. After much research and contemplation, we decided to put him in EVO Swim School. The introduction class was called the “Otter” Class.
The first few weeks were stressful and full of tears (Mom had a couple as well).  However, it was in Caden’s best interest to learn to swim. After 2-3 weeks, the tears were gone and Caden went from not even being willing to go in the water without holding on to someone with a death grip to gliding through the water to the instructor. Before we knew it, he was swimming from the wall to his instructor, Larry, and rolling on his back twice. It was simply amazing how much progress he made in the short period of time.Â
So, now he continues on to the “Seal” Class. After the seal class, he will be considered a safe backyard swimmer. After Seal, it will be up to Caden if he wants to continue or not. I’ll just be happy that he will be able to go in the pool and have fun with his cousins or friends.. Of course, supervision will always be required, but at least I don’t have to get in the pool with him if I don’t want to.
Here is the link to Caden’s graduation announcement on EVO’s website along with a picture of him and Larry:
It was hat day at school. Caden wore a Diamondback hat and Connor wore a Marquette hat.
Caden’s teacher wanted to start challenging him a little more. So, she started giving him spelling words to memorize on Monday and have a written test on Friday. We are so proud that he got a 100% on his first test!
Caden’s coaches at bowling came to us saying they thought he might be ready to move up from bumper bowling to no bumpers. We decided to take Caden bowling to see how well he could do without bumpers. The goal was to get somewhere around a 30. Surprisingly, Caden surpassed our expectations and got a 37!. So, he has officially moved up to a fully sanctioned league bowlier!
