High School Basketball

Tonight we tried something a little different--Mom took the girls over to Waterville High School to watch the girls varsity team play Winslow.

It happened to be the last home game for Waterville, so there were lots of signs, balloons, and flowers. It was very festive!

The girls were excited and confused at the same time. They wanted to know why all the people were being introduced before the game. Mom wanted to know too, since the game ended up starting 20 minutes late. The place was packed--it was neat to see the whole community turning out for this event.Mom particularly liked this sign, which should be posted in every high school gym.Grandma and Pop Pop joined us for the fun, which was good because Mom needed lots of help navigating the bleachers with two preschoolers. The Waterville gym is pretty old and the bleachers don't have any stairs, so you have to climb over and around people to get where you want to go.We finally found some seats (and broke out the popcorn) and we were ready to watch the action.Waterville and Winslow are cross-town rivals, so the game was hard-fought. There also seemed to be a lot of hassling of the referees by the fans (despite the posted sportsmanship sign). Both defenses were playing tough so it was a pretty low-scoring affair--only 12 to 19 at halftime.The kids kept an eye on the game, but also enjoyed watching the cheerleaders do their stunts during time outs.They also enjoyed eating some game-time snacks, which Mom employed to keep the wiggling and squirming to a minimum.Emily being Emily though, she could not sit still. She sat on each of our laps in turn.Kate, meanwhile, focused on drinking water, which was needed because the temperature in the gym was pretty warm.By halftime the girls had had enough, so we got ready to leave. When we saw the cheerleaders rolling out their mats for a halftime show though we decided to stay and watch that.They were pretty good! Mom is not usually a big fan of cheerleaders, but this performance was very athletic and entertaining.Mom told the girls that when they grow up they will be able to play for the team in the black uniforms (Winslow High School) if they want to. But both Em and Kate were adamant that they prefer the purple uniforms instead. Maybe we should move to Waterville?