Jay played kid-pitch baseball for the first time this Spring! It's definitely getting more competitive, and I'm not sure Jay likes that aspect. In fact, he's asking about football for a change of pace. *blink*
Thank you to our friend, David, for once again taking pictures of Jay for us. David is a talented sports photographer, and it's a treat to have such great pictures of Jay!
Such a handsome, sweet boy. He makes his mama's heart melt!
Mom joined us for one of the daytime baseball games. The sunshine felt wonderful!
Isn't my tank top cute? I saw one on another fan, and Erich sneaked away to buy one while I wasn't paying attention!
The Mariners lost, but we didn't care. (Well, we didn't care too much.)
Oh, you gotta love watching baseball legend Ken Griffey, Jr. up at bat! This is the game Felix Hernandez pitched -- a shutout! (We were happy they won 1 of the 4 games we saw.)
Our last game. Goodbye, Peoria and good luck, Mariners!
Sunshine sought, and sunshine found! We had temps in the mid-80's all week!
Here's a picture of Mom and I in her backyard next to the pool. We're standing in front of the little waterfall, so you can't see it. I should have taken more pictures!
Our first Spring Training game! It was so much fun just to be in the stadium! The first game we attended was on St. Patrick's Day. The Mariners wore bright green hats, and many people in the stands wore green -- including me!
I'm a huge fan of real kettle corn. (The stuff that's really made in a kettle -- not the stuff you buy pre-bagged in a store. You get extra points if it's still warm!) Erich went to buy some, and this is what he came back with:
They made it green for St. Patrick's Day! :o)
More pictures to come. What a treat to see Felix Hernandez pitch, and to see Ken Griffey, Jr. at bat! (Uh, not simultaneously. Obviously.)
Thank you, Mom, for inviting us to stay in your home. Thank you, Gary and Linda, for caring for the children and beasties while we were away. Thank you, Lord, for safe travels and beautiful sunshine!
Erich and Jay have enjoyed going to a few of our local city team's baseball games this summer. The team offered a clinic for young players one day in June, so Jay met up with his Parks and Rec team before the game and participated in the clinic. Jay was asked to sweep the bases (an advertising gimmick) after the 6th inning, so off he went!
The mascot gave him a thumbs-up. Good sweeping!
After sweeping home plate, he had to sweep the umpire's shoes!!
They're off to another game tonight with a couple of neighbor boys. Have fun, guys!
A GREAT combination!!
Jay is playing machine pitch again this year. He's had the same coaching team for the past 3 seasons, and we love them! Next year we're hoping to follow his coaches to (drumroll please...) KID PITCH!!
He's starting to get the bat on the ball pretty consistently. It's fun to watch him hit! I'm a little worried about kid pitch, though. Am I the only mommy who wants to put a suit of armor on her son when he's facing another 9-year-old throwing not-so-consistent fastballs...? *gulp*
Nope. Nothin' beats baseball in the sunshine. The only thing that makes it better is watching JAY play baseball in the sunshine! Love you, Jay-Man!
Last night we attended a concert at the middle school. It's thoroughly enjoyable to watch Summer play violin, and great to hear how much they've improved since the last concert. The 6th grade orchestra played songs with a lot of different harmonies, and they sounded wonderful. Summer was definitely concentrating the whole time. She barely looked up at all!
Jay's 9th birthday is on April 6. We planned to have his party on Friday the 3rd, but it turns out several of his friends will be traveling during Spring Break. Some are actually skipping school and leaving on Friday. Bummer for Birthday Boy! After a few phone calls, I discovered that ALL of the boys on his guest list would be able to attend if I moved his party up a whole week. That gave me 3 days to plan his party! I'll have about 10 boys here tomorrow (Friday) at 4:30. Here's hoping I can pull it off! Most of all, I want Jay to feel super special, super loved, and I want him to have a super fun time!
On another note, Jay had his first baseball practice of the season on Wednesday! (The same night as Summer's concert. Sometimes I wish there were 2 of me. I digress.) We LOVE to watch Jay play baseball. He's such an active, athletic guy -- totally in his element on the ball field. Also, we're delighted that Jay gets the same coach he's had for several years! Chris is a FABULOUS coach, who encourages the boys to have FUN and to be a TEAM.
Signing off for now. I'll be up and at 'em early, since I still need to create some sort of Lego cake out of the 3 different sizes of lemon cakes I baked today... They're in the freezer, wrapped in Saran Wrap, while I wait for inspiration to strike. I'm thinking lemon butter cream frosting and cupcakes are in order. I can pull of a "giant Lego" look with cupcakes and lots of frosting, right? I guess you'll find out the answer after I post pictures! :o)
Wow, TypePad has changed their "compose" page. Hope I can figure it out without too much trouble.
On Friday night, our friends David, Michelle, and Jordan (and their exchange student Ken!) came out to watch Jay's baseball game. David is a photographer, and he takes pictures of our kids' special events when he is able to.
Here's David's business website: http://www.caughtonfilm.org/
Here's their family blog: http://willoughbyadventures.blogspot.com/
I hope those links work. Like I said, TypePad has made some changes and the "link" button doesn't seem to be working. I just copied/pasted the links into the body of my blog.
Without further ado, here are just SOME of the awesome pictures David took of my boy:
I like that the games at this age are not competitive. The kids are still learning, and the main goal is for them to HAVE FUN while they're learning the game.
"I got it! I got it!" (He didn't "got it," but this is still a great picture!)
The pitch was low (obviously), but Jay can whack a ball out of the dirt and still get a single. Nevermind the fact that the kids almost 100% of the time overthrow first base. :o)
He's really poised to whack the ball here. I can see it in the way he stands.
Another hit! Woo hoo!
Every time Jay crossed Home Plate, he lifted off his batting helmet and announced to all of us (who were cheering and screaming like mad, of course), "I made it home! I made it home!"
The game on Monday night was rained out. I'm glad I didn't have to sit in the torrential rain for 90 minutes. Yeesh. Jay's last game is on Thursday. It's a good thing, because everyone is gearing up for the maniacal "end of the year hurry up and cram everything in before school is out" rush. Our calendar is loaded with class performances, field trips, musical performances, Ski to Sea, birthday parties, and I can't remember everything else right now. Lily's last day of preschool is on Friday! YIPE! Guess we'll have to go get pedicures or something in celebration.
In other news, Erich is on vacation next week! *happy dance* The kids and I are looking forward to our individual "Daddy Dates!" I think Daddy is looking forward to our dates, puttering around the house, and GOLFING! :o)
(OK, the links work, but why are my pictures and text spaced out all weird? *sigh*)
Well, I wanted to surprise my grandma and her new husband with their wedding gift, but it's taking me longer than I thought it would. I'm creating an 8x8 digital scrapbook of their wedding! I've been working hard, learning a lot, and having fun. I am more comfortable trying new things, and wearing out the "<ctrl>" and "z" keys. (For those of you who don't know, <ctrl>z is "undo.") Thanks to Hilary, the digi-scrapping goddess, I'm playing (not fighting!) with templates. And liking them! *gasp*
I hadn't figured out how to add drop shadows to features on the existing template when I created this page. I will probably go back and add drop shadows before I send it to print, because I want it to look better next to the facing page, which has drop shadows:
While I have been working long and hard on Grandma and Merl's wedding album, we've had a lot of other things going on this week. Lily came down with a cough on Sunday while we were visiting Erich's parents. (Sorry, Gary and Linda...) I kept her home from preschool on Monday (she missed a field trip to Little Caesar's!), but took her out to Jay's first baseball game that evening. I thought if I kept her warm, she'd be OK. Well, she pretty much dozed in my arms the whole time. She was still really sick. Tuesday she was definitely worse. She missed school again on Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon she was well enough to play with Elijah for the afternoon, and Friday she went to school.
Jay's second baseball game was last night. We sat on frozen metal bleachers in the snow/rain, but fortunately it stopped precipitating after the first inning. *shiver* Lily's preschool friend Natalie has a brother on Jay's team, so Lily and Natalie ran around and played, happy as two 4-year-olds can be!
In addition, the van (which croaked on our way home Sunday night) was in the shop until Thursday night. Erich got rides to work every day, but needed us to pick him up after work every night. He had some really long days, which meant it was almost bedtime when we left the house. One night we left early and hit Dairy Queen for baby cones, so it wasn't so bad. :o) The mechanic never did find anything wrong with the van. It wouldn't act up for him, even on extensive road tests! He thinks it was a fluke clog in the fuel lines. The fuel filter was old, so he replaced it. The spark plugs were worn, so he replaced those. Parts were less than $100, which is awesome, but you don't even want to know how much we paid for labor. Apparently, "extensive road tests" means "we drove it a lot at and charged you $75 per hour." *wince* OUCH.
Here's to a better week this week! :o)
Another new category: BASEBALL!
Jay has been playing baseball (well, he started out with tee ball) since age 5, and he loves it. This year he's on a machine pitch baseball team, as he was last year. For our practice last week, the coach rented a lane at the local batting cages! Last year Jay was JUST getting his timing down when the season ended. This year he got the bat on the ball every at-bat! His eye/hand coordination must be improving as he matures.
We love to watch Jay play baseball. We also love to watch the Seattle Mariners play baseball. :o) Live is best, of course, at Safeco Field, but tickets are expensive and at-home Saturday games sell out quickly.
Here's a shot of Jay whacking a ball at the batting cages:
Since Jay's birthday was only 2 days after practice, we brought treats to share with the team:
It's hard to see in the picture, but I just made address labels on the computer. They say, "Happy 8th Birthday, JAY! Go Mariners!" (His team is called the Mariners this year.) And, of course, I chose Baby Ruth chocolate bars. ;o)
