Notre Dame Basketball Camp

Our little Eva recently attended the Notre Dame Basketball Camp.  To say she was in heaven would be an understatement.  Not only was she around the Notre Dame girls basketball team (including Skylar Diggens), but she was also able to literally spend HOURS playing something she loves....basketball.

The picture above is blurry, but I still love it.  It happened to be crazy sock and headband day and Eva was done up for the occasion!  In this picture she was running relays with a perma-smile on her face.  That's one of my favorite things about watching Eva play ball - the CONSTANT grin she has across her face.

She also loved that her cousins were at the same camp and they got to "verse" eachother (Eva's term for playing eachother)....

Another big part of the week for her was spending time with one of her favorite basketball players, Skylar Diggens....

I noticed that before Eva would run relays, or while she was playing ball she would look around to see if Skylar was watching her.  If she was Eva would smile to herself and play even harder.  I loved seeing that drive in her! 

We first met Skylar last winter when we happened to run into her at the MAC counter at the mall.  Just like the last time we met her I was impressed with her demeanor and how she would relate to Eva...always taking the "star quality" off of herself and pointing out Eva's "star qualities".  Eva just hung on her every word.  I wrote Sylar a letter letting her know how much that chance meeting at the mall meant to our little girl...and to Matt and I.  Eva was struggling with some friendships at that time and part of the problems stemmed from the fact that Eva wants to play basketball at recess, and no girls would play with her. She felt like she didn't have any friends.  I explained to Skylar that meeting her seemed to renew Eva's self confidence a bit.

At the end of camp Skylar gave me a special gift to give Eva....

Yep, that's the headband that Skylar wears during games.  A special gift that Eva will always cherish (and thus far has rarely taken off of her head).  To me, a reminder to my little girl to always be true to yourself.

In all, a special week for our little girl with memories that will last a lifetime!

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

--e.e. cummings