Basketball is over, but does that mean we have a free Saturday? Ha! Today's activity was the Awana Games. David and Drew participated in the Truth n Training games held in Decatur. The day started very early since the team members were supposed to be at the games by 9:15, to insure plenty of prep time before the games began at 10:00. Our important prep time was taken up by a lot of sitting around waiting for 10:00 to roll around. All of our waiting was worth it when the games began promptly at 10:33. It was kind of disheartening to realize that I could have left my house at 9:30 instead of 7:45 and still not missed a thing. We had 3 teams on our circle, Riverside Baptist from Decatur, Bible Baptist from Rantoul, and us, East White Oak from rural Carlock. Right from the start it was obvious that the competition was going to be between Riverside and EWO. The first event was the bean bag relay, where one boy is in the center of the circle and 4 others are outside the circle. The first boy tosses a bean bag back and forth to each other boy and then they run in the middle of the circle to get the pin. Drew was the first one in the middle for us, and he did a pretty good job and we won that heat. David was one of the outside boys for the next heat and I think they won too. The second event was the sprint relay, which is 3 boys running 1 lap each around the circle. David ran the anchor leg of that race and we finished third. Third, bean bag grab. Neither of our boys participated so I'm not sure how we did. Fourth, bean bag bonanza, where we have 5 boys on the outside of the circle and there is one bean bag in the middle and we have one bean bag on the outside. Each boy takes a turn running in and exchanging the bags and then relays it to the next boy. Both boys were in that event and we won again. Fifth, the sprint race, where one boy does 3 laps around the circle. Our guy was leading the race when on the last lap he knocked over a pin. Disqualified. That could be costly. The sixth event was the marquee event - The Four-Way Tug. This is Drew's event. He was in the first heat with his partner, Waite. We had to do well in this one, I mean really, the kid's name is Waite!! They really put a good effort into the event. Drew pretty much carried the event, pulling most of the weight (and the Waite!), and he was the the one who picked up the bean bag. That's right, we won that one too. Our next heat was even less of a challenge. We took the lead over Riverside. The seventh event was the balloon volley. Riverside kicked our tails in every heat. Eighth was the marathon relay, 3 boys running 2 laps each. I don't remember who won. Ninth was the marathon race. Again, I forget. The final event was the balloon relay. Both David and Drew participated in this one and guess what? David won his heat! Drew's team didn't do so well. They were disqualified for stepping on the line. Riverside won the heat Drew was in and they were DQ in David's heat, so we split that event. The crowd knew it would be close, so we anxiously awaited the final score. Rantoul Bible came in third with 50 points. In second place, with a total of 61 points was EWO. Finishing in first place with 62 points was Riverside Baptist. They knocked us off by a single point. If only Kevin hadn't knocked over that pin, if only Drew's relay team hadn't been DQ, if only we had pulled out one heat of the balloon volley, if only, if only. Both David and Drew proudly accepted their second place ribbons, although David thought second place deserved better than a simple ribbon. The EWO girls team also finished in second place behind Riverside. During the girl's heats on our circle, two of the EWO moms sitting near us kept yelling at the girls to spit on their shoes. The EWO girl's coach repeatedly instructed the girls to do that during practice to gain traction. It became a sort of rallying cry for them and a point of humor for us. We had a good time, the boys both had fun participating, and they both performed well.
