T-ball

Lucy is a little too young still for the organized games (soccer and basketball start at 5, t-ball at 4) but a woman I teach with who is an enthusiastic coach organized a month-long t-ball experience for her kids and others that she knows in town.  It was 45 minutes of play with the most eclectic teams you could imagine, ranging from a 7-year-old who almost hit a pitch from Heidi out of the park, to Heidi's 2-year-old son Bryson who spent most of his time picking up rocks with Jamie and another little guy that had to be coaxed to 1st base.

When Heidi invited Lucy along, I asked if it was okay that she had no ball skills.  I think part of this is that Eric and I are not ball sports people and don't practice with her (as in she had no glove to bring to the game and had to use the extra that was goopy and covered in bubble solution) but I also get the feeling that her teen talents will lie outside the ball sports realm.  Can someone remind me of this in 10 years?  When Eric and I had a discussion about what she might like as a high schooler.  I thought she might stick with gymnastics (individual competition), he guessed basketball (more action) or swimming.  I think swimming was such a positive experience for him that he's hoping she will eventually be a swimmer but judging by the "lesson" he gave her yesterday at the pool, I'm not sure.  She really, really wants to swim, but the realities of her face in the water are just too much to take.  He'd better go after Jamie for that one. 

Lucy's at bat, being coached by Daddy who failed out of t-ball.  Apparently his eyes were already so bad he couldn't hit the ball off the tee, and didn't have glasses yet.  Lucy fared slightly better.  Notice her gray top and gray sweatpants.  She was desperate for a uniform (very big kid) and decided that the monochrome athletic-gray wardrobe was what the team Lucy should wear.

 Base hit.  Yes!

Sorry about the shaky camera on this one - you'll see that when the camera stops shaking Jamie runs over to the tee.  It's hard to hold onto a wiggler and shoot steady video at the same time.



Lucy's first catch!  Every time someone got a hit, all the kids in the field went racing toward the ball hoping to catch it.  I think Lucy almost quit before she got a ball in her hands.  She came by this one honestly, too.  A couple of time she was so crestfallen at not getting to the ball first that Heidi tried to get whoever it was that had the ball to toss it to Lucy so she could throw it in.  Not a chance in hell any of those kids were giving up the honor of throwing the ball back to Heidi.  It took Lucy about 30 seconds of celebrating at 3rd base before she'd give the ball up either.

 Jamie was working SO hard to act like the big kids.  I could see him mimicking things he saw the whole time we were there.  Not only did he follow Bryson around and pick up rocks, he also climbed the fence with Lucy.

True coach, Heidi had the kids line up by team and do the "good game" slap at the end.

Jamie, washing off the diamond dust.  This smile was too cute to not share.

Preschool's Over

Lucy's preschool graduation ceremony was on Friday, and though she wasn't one of the graduates that went on to kindergarten all kids participated and got a certificate.  It was a spring show wrapped in, and they performed several songs for us before each kid got to "cross the bridge" and walk over a little riser in the room.  Oh my, were there funny moments.  Lucy's best friend Stella kept lifting up her dress, several kids lost shoes on the way over the bridge (one even stopped to put his sneaker back on), and there were too many "Hi mom!"s from the lineup than I can count.  It was adorable.



Because Lucy is a 5-day-a-week kid she got to have 2 ceremonies.  Here she is shaking Miss Karla's hand on top of the bridge.  Miss Karla talked about how they practiced stopping to look and pose for pictures. 

 The certificate!

 Snacks at Small Wonders are always healthy(er) than party food.  Lucy was so excited she was hugging the cupcake.

 Lucy's friends at the snack table.  Lucy is sitting next to Stella, her best preschool friend.  We also have a best Maine friend, in case anyone was wondering (Stacy), and can't wait to see Chloe when we get back to OT.

These pictures are too funny - Jamie is following Deacon around trying to get his pacifier.  The pacifier was on a leash clipped to Deacon's shirt, and you'd think we had just taken Jamie's baby plug away the way he worked to get it in his mouth.  Deacon was not impressed at Jamie's persistence.

I had to take this photo of Lucy and Stella with Miss Karla as I got almost the same picture on Lucy's first day of preschool from Eric here.  At the time I had never met Stella (I didn't even know her name for sure) and was mildly miffed that she had crawled into the photo.  Now, she's practically part of our family.  I give her a ride home from school every day, and when Lucy comes running up to me on the playground Stella comes too, both of them shouting "Mommy!"  I don't know how to break the news to Lucy but Stella's family will be moving to Colorado at the end of June.  She is going to be devastated.  Stella is such a good friend and such a good kid.  We've had a lot of fun with her this year.

Miss Shireen hugging Lucy.  She's amazing and Lucy loves her SO SO much.  She appears to love Lucy right back just as much.

Thanks for the great year Small Wonders!

Garden ... again

We're certainly getting our money's worth out of the year membership, with our most recent trip on Earth Day.  Remember last year's Big Bugs?  This year they've got LEGO sculptures.  Pretty cool.

Tulip season is just about over, so I let the kids touch (read: destroy) the flowers a little more freely than I would if they had just bloomed. 

Jamie had a great time knocking petals off the stems.

Earth day - hug a tree!

 Another Lego sculpture of a hummingbird is probably 5 feet tall.  Though you might think that Legos are for kids, I think adults probably appreciate these way more.

Another beautiful day outdoors.  I was hoping to bring the kids to an Earth Day fair or event but there was nothing in our area.  The organic grocery was having an Earth Day "start your garden" seed planting on Monday night, and that's all I could find.  I suppose we could have gone swimming in the farm runoff pond I drive by on my way back from school every day.  There is a dock and a slide...

Finally, a video at Reiman to show off the incredible talents of my children: