Ethan's Basketball Party!

I'm in denial that my baby is turning two and so I put off planning a party for him. That and I got busy. And I'm not ready for my baby to be two this week. Regardless of the reason, we planned a last minute basketball party for our basketball loving son. My brother scored some free tickets to the Blazer Fan Fest and wasn't able to go, but we thought it would make a great birthday celebration for Ethan. So we invited our friends Pat & Katie to come up to my Mom's house for a birthday party and Blazer game.

We spent a few hours at my Mom's house where we had yummy soup and corn bread and let Ethan open his presents and we did cake. His big present from us was a big boy basketball hoop that adjusts to 6 different heights. We're hoping it will last a few years! No surprise that he absolutely LOVED it and we could barely get him to sit at the table long enough to eat a few bites. He prefers the hoop at the lowest setting so he can dunk it, though he's started throwing it in as well. He barely looked at his other gifts, though I'm sure he'll play with them when the novelty of his new hoop wears off (if that ever happens!). He got a cool car play mat and a new blue water bottle from Grandma, and we also got him a bike helmet so he'll be ready to ride in the bike trailer. Grace picked him out a ball (she knows what he likes!) and a Toy Story book.

We did cake and sang Happy Birthday and then he tried to blow the candles out and eventually succeeded with some help from his sister. It was so cute watching him try to blow them out! After cake and ice cream we piled into the van and drove to the Lloyd Center to catch the Max train to the Rose Garden. We got to the Rose Garden right at 5pm when the doors opened and it was crowded. We noticed that the doors to the far left were moving a lot faster and we got in and found seats by 5:15. The place filled up fast and was almost completely full, even in the nose bleed sections! There were a lot of kids there, probably because everyone else is like us and are willing to bring their 2 year olds to a free event but not a paid one.

We weren't sure how well the kids would do, but we figured that since it was a free event that if we had to leave 30 minutes into the game we wouldn't feel too bad. None of us thought that the kids would last through the entire game. The guys did their shopping (15% off everything!) before the game in case we had to leave early. David and Pat both scored Rip City shirts for cheap and got Ethan a Blazer jersey for his birthday. Pat & Katie got him a mini Blazer basketball which he is super attached to. He hasn't let go of it since they gave it to him last night! Seriously. He's holding it right now listening to Grace read books to him.

As soon as the players came out and started warming up for the scrimmage game Ethan was hooked. I mean his eyes were glued to the basketball court and he watched everything with huge unblinking eyes. For those people reading this blog that aren't familiar with two year old boys you probably won't fully appreciate what I'm going to say next. Ethan sat completely still and paid complete attention to the entire two hour event. That's right. He LOVED it!

I'm still amazed at how much Ethan likes basketball and still have no idea where this love for the game came from. Neither David or I are particularly into basketball, though I'm sure we'll be watching a lot more Blazers games this year! Perhaps my brother has something to do with it. I don't know. It's definitely been fun watching his obvious delight in basketball grow and I already foresee a lot of ball games in our future. Guess I better learn about basketball!