What to title this? Baseball season?

I am probably in the minority, but I happen to enjoy my teenager.

There I admitted it.

He is responsible, funny, moody, hungry, smart, takes initiative, loves the foods I love, has a dry sense of humor and thinks I'm funny, makes good decisions, loves God, values friends, is sensitive, kind, oh my list is endless.

He is almost done with his freshman year in highschool and I am beside myself at how quickly it is going. We work hard to savor all the times we have with our kids. To enjoy everything they do.  To cherish the time we are given with them.

This spring has been totally chaotic with 4 kids in baseball.  The month of April brought us 27 games in 4 weeks. Luckily, we only needed to hire additional parents to help us out three times. Not bad. We will not discuss our diet or dining out budget. Both are shot.  Back on track this month for sure!

But spending the spring watching A-Dog play baseball was just sweet. 

He has always loved baseball. From the time he was 2 he could hit the ball. He would spend HOURS playing wiffle ball with grandma and grandpa. 

Age 4.5

He just loves the game and I am pretty sure we have logged at least 250 games thus far in his career.

You had a great season Bud!  Proud is a word people throw around loosely, but we are proud of you, and above all, you played with integrity, heart and soul and pure sportsmanship.  You a a quality teammate that anyone would be lucky to have! 

Cheers!

Bullying is fun!

During breakfast recently, a commercial about Bullying had just ended. Ya know "stop the bullying, bullying is bad" etc.

Then Monkey says emphatically "I LOVE Bullying!!!"

Agent P and I (shocked) told him bullying wasn't nice and no one should bully others.

Monkey smiles and says "But bullying is FUN!!!"

So, the homeschooling mom I am, took this opportunity to explain why we should treat others nicely and how bullying others isn't nice. My 5 minute detailed explanation was done with love and compassion in hopes that he won't turn into the house bully.

I then asked him what he thought was fun about bullying.

He told me "It's fun when you take the ball, and throw it down and it hits the pins and knocks them all over the place".

OOOOHHHH....BOWLING! Not BULLYING. BOWLING.

That turned into a different conversation.

Monkey's brain turns some words into other words...

Semi Truck was Simon Truck
Hawaii was Wahai-yee

We just repeat the right word and move on because he thinks he is saying it correctly...just something his brain has to work out apparently because eventually he gets them right.

My hope is now he understands BOWLING and BULLYING are 2 different words.

So we went BOWLING.

Monkey

Mini P

Mini P is very competitive.  This is how the first game went:

Then game 2 got all crazy. 

I'm good for 1 game then I get tired of trying to not throw gutter ball. You know, like when you ride a bike...you see a big rock and you say to yourself "stay away from the rock...stay away from the rock" and then you end up hitting the rock? I'm like that with the gutters. I think I threw about 10 gutterballs my 2nd game...out of 20 throws. Impressive right?

The kids played with gutter guards and mostly had bank shots, except Mini P who was determined to make a career of bowling that Sunday afternoon.

Then my sweet husband, had to turn it up a notch because he is competitive and apparently didn't like losing to a 5 year old. Me? I could care less...Haha!

Game 2 final score...

It was nice to be able to go bowling with the kids and not have to help them bowl (specifically the twins). They can pick up the ball and hurl it down the lane as well as they need to.  

You can see on the scoreboard that the m.p.h remained with my sweet husband, but it was actually the last ball thrown by Mini P. 3.9 m.p.h..  Not a record low. There was one thrown that was 2.4 m.p.h.

Cheers, and remember - BOWLING is fun, not bullying.

How to succeed in T-ball

There are some things you need to know before venturing out on the T-Ball field. 

First of all, you need to take the game seriously. This is no joking matter and winning is a must. Case in point:

Get your game face on!

OK, now that you are in the right frame of mind, let's get on with the basics of succeeding in T-Ball.


#1: Always be in READY position. Glove down, head up ready for the ball to come to you!

#2:  Make sure your shadow is at the game with you. You can always use the extra help.

#3: Get rid of the weeds!  The field must be free and clear of all debris.

#4: Keep your eye on the runner. You never know what shenanigans those 5 year olds will pull. This can still be done while in the 'ready position'. 

#5: Always use TWO HANDS when fielding the ball. This will ensure that you NEVER miss the ball. Ever.

#6: Focus. Focus. Focus.

#7: Perform a successful "I've arrived" pose when you arrive at the base. It must be announced with flare!

#8: When all else fails...stare 'em down, because nothing scream intimidation like a good stare down.

#9: Last, but definitely not least important, look cute playing. Your skill will never define you as a ball player, only how good you wear the uniform (and perhaps your ability to actually look at the camera)!

Cheers!

I got snubbed

So, let's begin this conversation (one sided as it may be) with the fact that I believe that at some point in the road of youth sports, kids are TOO OLD for the parents to be bringing an "after game snack". For those of you who don't know what the "after game snack" is, I will explain.

The definition of "after game snack" is a drink and 'snack' to be had after a game of baseball, soccer, softball, tennis, golf or what have you.

In our current case it is baseball.

In this specific case, it is for a team of 8-10 year olds. While Agent P is only 7, he is nearly 8 and so I lumped him into 8-10 because he is the only 7 year old on the team.

My point is, I think THIS team is too old to be expecting an "after game snack".  

SO.

The first problem: I was on-deck for "after game snack". That means, game 1 was on Wed and game 2 was on Thurs. On Tues, I was informed that I was in charge of game 2. Thus, on-deck, get it?? Baseball pun...(that was for you Aunt Laurel).

Being prepared as usual, I made a run to the store on Thursday morning.

Second problem: I have been cutting out most packaged processed snacks in our house. We don't have bags of much of anything laying around. I had no idea what I was supposed to get. Cut up fruit? Likely not.

So, in the name of trying to not load them up with sugar at 7:30pm I purchased a box of Cheez-its and a bag of pretzels and made them into snack baggies for each player. At my house this is a HUGE treat as we don't have either of those.

I should add here - I was also told to bring snack and drinks for the 3 coaches. Righty-O, 10-4. 13 kids, 3 coaches. 16 snacks and 16 drinks.

I also purchased a juice box (*GASP*), but had no added sugar.  We will go ahead and mark this "problem three" for the sake of listing problems.  Problem four will be noted as: I bought gator@de for the coaches (not kids).

After the game I diligently shuffled my sweet husband and twins off and headed for home (took 2 vehicles) and I stood with the beloved "after game snack" to hand out. 

I mildly paid attention to the comings and goings of the kids, they grabbed, they pushed in, they looked, they passed, they rolled their eyes... 

I gave the coaches their gator@des and 'snack' and they looked at me like I was nuts. I assured them I was following the rules and request stipulated by the "Team Mom". She said to bring for coaches. They hesitantly accepted.

Then it came. The final snub.

I had a coach's kid come to me and ask for HIS gator@de.  I said "oh, I'm sorry, I just brought them for the coaches".  I watched him walk back to tell his mom what I said and she looked at her coach/husband and rolled her eyes and harrumphed at me.

Yup. Harrumphed and snubbed. 

It is likely that I will not be asked back to deliver the "after game snack". I came home with 9 baggies of snack and 6 juice boxes. 3 snack baggies were forced upon coaches...so do the math - 4 kids took a snack.  7 took drinks.

Which is fine.

Cuz next time I was going to bring carrots and apples in a baggie with a water bottle :)

Cheers!

Conversations

The other night we were eating dinner at a local restaurant that sits above an auto shop.  I know that sounds pretty ridiculous, but my theory on it is that a few guys wanted to be able to just work on their race cars, motorcycles, random vehicles without their wives nagging them about how expensive that little hobby was. SO, these said fellas opened their little auto shop and put a restaurant  above it so they could make a little money. Plus have a place to eat lunch.

It's pretty sweet, one entire wall is just glass overlooking the shop and you can see what they are working on.

Anyway.

We ate there the other night.

Monkey LOVES to just smash his face on the glass (sorry to whomever has to clean that...) and look at the vehicles down below.

We were seated pretty close to the window and the restaurant was pretty empty, so when Monkey asked if he could go over and look at the vehicles, I said "yes".

Then, Mini P says "can I go over there too".

"Sure" I said.

"well, I don't really want to" she says and continues on with her coloring.

Lovely. Not sure why she asked. But that gives you a glimpse into one of many conversations we have at this house :).

Cheers!

OH MY!!! SNOW!!!

Ok, the title makes it sound all exciting and the first time it was... for about 12 minutes.

BUT, the first snow of 2013 caused ruckus. It canceled baseball tryouts. It canceled the kids last soccer game of the season. It canceled soccer team parties.  

It caused 2 loads of laundry.

Ruckus I tell ya.

It snowed a total of THREE times this year, a new record - in a matter of less than 2 weeks.

By the 3rd time, I was mostly just annoyed...and tried to discourage outdoor snow play because the 3rd snow was much wetter than snow 1 and snow 2. Is that even possible? Dry snow? How would I know?

I did so many loads of snow laundry, as we are quite ill prepared for any type of weather that involves condensation of any sort...rain or snow.I didn't even know how to properly dress my tribe for playing in the snow, as noted by the plethora of clothing that was laying around in heaps of soaking mess.

We are desert rats. We live for the dry heat.

I don't even know where our one family umbrella is. 

But they enjoyed it...

. 

And I did, to the extent that I got A-Dog to do an experiment for me...

If you shake a tree with snow on it...will it all come down on you, or just some of it??

 

Seems like only some of the snow shakes off the tree...good to know.

These shoes were made for walkin'

And walkin' in them he did.

And today we will finally say good-bye to them because...well...

What do YOU think???

The boy (Monkey) loves his flops.

(now, I just need to get them in the garbage without him taking them back out!)