Baseball Season is here!

Last night was our first baseball game of the season.  Whew!, yesterday was a whirl wind for M.E. trying to finish all the loose ends, hemming pants, upload info to the league website, gathering supplies, etc.  It was a crazy day.

It was Buddy's team to play.  I didn't manage any pics because I was keeping score and its alittle harder this year with counting pitches and kiddos stealing bases.  We would lose 5 -15.  They were a good team and we just don't have the experience they had.  Buddy would bat once and dribble the ball back to the pitcher for an out a first.  65 foot base runs are long. He wasn't happy. But in the top of the 3rd he'd take the mound to pitch.  I was so nervous.  He faced 6 batters.  Threw 30 pitches with 8 of those strikes, walked 3 and gave up 3 hits.  I was very pleased and so was he. 

The Man was happy with our effort and so we begin our weeks spent at the ball field. 
LG has a tee ball game Wednesday and Thursday, and Buddy plays again on Thursday. Busy, Busy, Busy!

Spring Break Photos

Spring Break was another wonderful vacation for our little family.  I managed over 700 photos. I'm so proud of myself for making an extra effort to capture my family this brief moment in time. I actually even took notes of our trip another helpful tool when trying to document/scrapbook what the boys like and did.

WARNING - there's a lot of photos!  It may take them awhile to download. 

We started our trip with a weekend on the White River in Arkansas like last year.  Such a wonderful start to Spring Break. Just 4 hours away and fun for the whole family. 

Highlights included - staying in a cute cabin, playing with mad libs on my iPhone (this was seriously some of the best fun we had. Making silly stories about "poop" and the like. LG had M.E. crying with laughter), playing in the sand & rocks, many walmart runs, watching the NCAA tournament (Go Wildcats!), building & building again with legos, fishing with the guide HotDawg, searching for a cafe for breakfast (there wasn't one, LOL), and catching lots of Rainbow Trout. 

 Babe was so pleased to be able to run around outside with out M.E. constantly hollering at him to stay close.

 If this guy doesn't become an airplane driver, he would certainly make a great engineer.  

His lego creations are fabulous and well thought out.

 I had so much time to just sit on the deck and relax with my boys.

 LG got to go out in the boat with the Man for the first time and enjoyed about an hour and a half of fishing before he decided he was done.  He got many rainbows and even brought in a brown trout all by himself. Buddy then took his turn and landed two brown trouts and many rainbows. I think he said he caught 25!

 I think he had fun.

 We'd leave with a dozen rainbows, Yum!

Of course, Babe wanted his picture with the catch.  That's our guide HotDawg with him. 

We'd move on after fishing to Kentucky, Yay!

Highlights included - Babe vomiting in the van about an hour from Mamaw and Papaw's, seeing the new house, sitting in the porch swing, walks on the property, Aunt Jean's suppers, getting our taxes done (we actually will get a little back), picking up Sman early from school, playing in the yard, jumping on the trampoline, getting our van brakes fixed (they were pulsing and making scarey noises), going into town with my Mom, lots of army guy battles, seeing Mere and her family, hotwheel races, finding lost pacies, glowstick spillage (should we call poison control? we didn't and everything was fine), laughing, laughing & more laughing, Buddy driving, ice cream eating and Dairy Queen stops, storytelling, running (lots of running), LG's make-up homework, Aunt M's supper and farm, storms and most importantly being with the family.

 LG had a week's worth of homework to do after missing so much school last week for the stomach virus. He's not a big fan of doing homework.

 These two are so close.  It makes my heart smile.

 I think this will be an annual picture.  I love it.

 Babe could not have been happier with all the stuff to get into and run, run, run.  He didn't get to drive the lawn mower but he wanted to.

 Speaking of driving, that's Buddy behind the wheel.  I told the Man to take Buddy driving and so they made several trips back and worth on the farm. 

Buddy had a blast.  He said his max speed was 31 mph and it was really hard to go straight.  

Ah, a memory he'll have forever. 

 While Sman and Aunt Cream got to skip school and work for two days, the other days the boys had to fill their time until they got home. This meant lots of jumping on the trampoline.

 Quick stop at DQ for ice cream, we don't call her Aunt Cream for nothing.

 Tired boys!

 The Man at my Aunt M's and their dog, Dixie.  We love visiting Aunt M's farm- its a slice of heaven. 

 The Man and M.E.

 We always have to walk the property on her farm. 

 I love the hills, green grass, budding trees and seeing the cows.

The views are spectacular.

 Babe running with a muddy bottom.  It had rained off and on most of the day, so there was a bit of mud everywhere, but it was still fun.

 One of my favorite pics from the day.  That's Abby the dog, Uncle, my Uncle D and Papaw.  Such a classic moment of farmers walking and talking.

CHEESE!  This pic sums up so much for Buddy. He was so happy this whole trip. 

And now for my overall favorite picture from Spring Break. 

 

That's LG back lite by storm clouds mixed with sunshine. 

I'll be getting this one printed and enlarged. 

Also during Spring Break, we celebrated the life of my little cousin Raven, who lost her battle with cancer the previous weekend.  We were able to visit the funeral home and see family and friends.  Its so sad to bury someone whose only 18, and just as sad when that person was beautiful, sweet and genuinely good. 

We love her and know she will be greatly missed.  

Please remember her parents and grandparents if it moves on your heart.

We also received word during our trip that Gramma Beach suffered a massive heart attack. Thank goodness, she's still with us and working on a good recovery.  We love you and wish you rest and good health.

Happy Spring Break!

Got a Germ!

This Little Guy is sick!

He wasn't feeling well yesterday and laid low all evening. 

He woke M.E. up at 5 AM with an upset stomach.  

He proceeded to vomit, then have diarrhea for the next 3 hours.

He's now resting fine on the couch watching tv. 

He said,"Mom, I got a Germ in my stomach".  

Yep, LG you do, but I think you are on the mend.

Pine Wood Derby

The Annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Race was held yesterday.  

 Buddy was alittle worried.  He and the Man didn't put as much time into the car this year as year's past and the Man was out-of-town.  

So it was just Buddy and M.E. finishing up the weights and graphite for the wheels.

He and his friend pre-race.

 Buddy started out strong.  Winning his first 10 races.

You'd never know it from his expression.

 But we managed a smile at the end, winning 18 out of 20 races to take first place in his Den - same as last year. We'd return an hour later to compete again against the top four cars of the pack. 
Unlikely last year when he won the grand championship, Buddy came in 2nd.  He wasn't very happy, but he quickly got over it.

We'd return yet again to school at 6:30 PM for the Cub Scout Banquet. 

 Buddy and I getting his Bear Patch and pin.

 Buddy being "knighted".

 Buddy and his first place trophy.  Thanks D for taking the pics.

The winning car and trophy. 

Do you remember M.E. saying.....

That Babe likes Hats!

Case in point - if it can go on his head, it is a hat!

 He got an empty cereal box and put it on his head and wore it for a while. 

That's our Babe.

OKC Basketball Tournament

March Madness hit our house early!  Our middle school teams all competed in the OKC basketball tournament this weekend, and of course we had to go.
We loaded up Saturday morning to make the day games and cheer on our friends. We arrived just in time for the 11AM 6th grade girls game.  They had won the night before, so this was their second game. They lost by 8. It was a really tough team and they were undefeated, so we didn't feel too bad.
The second game we made it to was the 8th grade girls.

 LG loves his new sunglasses and being goofy.

 The day was gorgeous sunny and upper 50s. And of course, Buddy had a blast watching all the games.

 Babe finally had to give it up and take a much needed nap around 2 PM.

 Unrelated to basketball.  Buddy and one of his classmates, whose sister is on the 8th grade team, weren't sure about socializing.  They would sit close together to talk, then slide way apart to watch, then slide back together to talk, then apart again to watch. It was funny.

 Basketball action. 

So the 8th grade girls lost, but never fear there's the losers bracket. 

We then head to our third game to see the 6th grade girls again and this sweetheart.

They played really well and won.  We unfortunately couldn't hang around to watch the next game.  We'd been to three different school and seen more of OKC than I'd ever seen in my four years living in Oklahoma.  I was exhausted from chasing Babe nonstop and so was the Man. 
We got home about 7 PM.  I sure was fun though.

Finals - 6th grade girls placed 6th overall. 8th grade girls placed 6th overall. And the 8th grade boys placed 2nd overall.

baseball practice

Our little family is finding itself practicing baseball a minimum of four days a week.  Fun, Fun.
Here's a few snapshots from this week.

 Babe has no idea he's only 1.

 LG has really wanted to practice with Buddy's team.  However the Man has been alittle hesitate about putting him out there.

The boys pre-practice warming up. 

The weather has been so wonderful, we really haven't minded all the practices.

Babe has an opinion!

I realize I posted a total of three times for February, so I'm hoping to do better in March.
I also realize one of those post was about yogurt and today's post is also about yogurt. Hmmm.

Just trying to focus on the little things in life so the big things don't overwhelm us.
Back story - 
 As you know, Babe loves yogurt, i.e. see the fourth post down.  So about a week after that post, Buddy had standard testing at school. And during standardized testing as his school, the homeroom moms are responsible for collecting money, buying snacks for each day of testing and delivering those to school - brain food.  As one of Buddy's homeroom mom, the mom with this duty was M.E. I emailed his teacher for a menu and one of the days was frozen gogurts - which is yogurt in tubs that you put in the freezer.
I've see these things on tv and in the grocery but they are expensive and quite frankly, I thought they were too full of sugar to give the boys, hence I never-ever had bought them, even after much begging in the yogurt section of the grocery.

Bare with M.E., my point is coming.

So I bought these for the class and had three gogurts left over - perfect one for each boy.  OMG! (oh my goodness) all the boys loved them and Babe flipped out.  He loves yogurt and to have it in this frozen but still very soft edible state that doesn't make a mess, he was thrilled.  And so was I.

So I bought a box (make that two) the next trip to the grocery, threw them in the freezer and the next school day for Babe, I put one in his lunch, so that by lunch time, it would be nearly thawed.  His teachers reported that he screamed when it was finished and screamed "mo".  So we now have a constant supply of gogurts.    And they just aren't plain yogurt tubs, they are nickelodeon inspired. 

This week Spongebob.

 This morning, Babe was still asleep when the brothers ate breakfast, so he had to eat after school drop-off.  I asked him several questions about what he wanted to eat. He said, "no, no, no" with head shaking and hand waving. 
Finally, I suggested a GoGurt. 
"es" he said and a word that sounds nothing like gogurt, but I knew that's what he meant.  He runs to the freezer.  I reach in and pull out a random yogurt tub and hand it to him.
"nooooo", he screams and hands it back to M.E.
I'm like what?, its a gogurt, you wanted one. 
He says, "pa-kick".
I'm thinking seriously? Really? I look at the tub and his has squidward on it. 
I ask, "You don't want the squidward one you want patrick?"
He says, "pa-kick".
I had a major decision to make, let him take or leave the squidward tub or reach in for a patrick.

 I gave him the patrick and he was very happy.
Who knew that at 22 months the Babe could know or care which spongebob character is on his gogurt tub? Apparently he does and pa-kick is all the rage!