April Madness.

A basketball tournament fit for a TEN year old.

Every year we give the kids a choice for our present to them. They can either have a friend party or presents from us. Since we have tons of family that shower them with gifts on their birthday, they almost always choose to have a friend party as their gift from mom and dad.

This year, Zeb wanted to have a basketball tournament. He invited 15 boys and made 3 teams of 5. He randomly chose the team captains and then they each chose their teams.  The games were 10 minutes long and they each played each other.  Then they had bracket play. 

(as a girl, I just nod my head and pretend to know about the bracket and the seeds.)

(just smile and wave)

We invited some older boys to be the referee for the games.  Not every call they made was perfect, but they sure did enjoy the power trip!  It was fun to watch them engage the younger boys.  We had a couple of upset boys after the ref's called something a foul, or missed calling something else a foul.  But all in all,  it was pretty fair.

Even little sister was included in the day!

The competition was fierce, but team black swept the tournament!

The boys played with such intensity that Skip had to keep reminding them that this was a fun thing.  He called a huge team meeting after the championship game was over just to make sure there were no hurt feelings and that all the boys were still friends.  Skip did a good job about reminding these awesome kids that it's OK to be competitive, but our character always comes first.  This group of boys is really special and I pray that they will stick together as they grow up.

After "the talk", they were rewarded with hot dogs, chips and a giant cookie cake.

This was the easiest party because Zeb did all the planning.   It was neat to see him process through the plan.  He made a five page booklet of party notes, layout, brackets and schedule.

I think he might have a career!