Little League Opening Day

Baseball season is underway, and this past weekend the league Logan plays in celebrated with an opening day parade and celebration.  Mom and Robby cam out for the event, and the six of us had a great time.  It was colder than usual, but sunny and blue skies and as the day went on we warmed up. The boys enjoyed all the free amusements at our local baseball park.  Play ball!

Here is Logan's team, the Iron Pigs, in red shirts.

 

And the boys during the singing of the national anthem, Logan is #2

 

 

 

 

 

This one was hilarious.  The logs came around and tried to knock the kids of of 'tree stumps".  They both had some great wipe outs.

 

 

Dylan got his clock cleaned this time!

 

 

Iron Pigs, Season Opener

Logan is a baseball kid, its just part of who he is and what he loves.  He can watch it on TV, play it in the yard, collect cards in an album, read book after book about players and stadiums, go to a game and play it on the baseball field.

When we found out his team would be named the Iron Pigs this spring, I laughed out loud.  Iron Pigs, I love it!  He will play 13 games this season, and after a few practices, his had his first game this past weekend.

He is at the Instructional Rookie level which basically means the ball is coach pitched about 6 times and if the kid doesn't hit it they can switch to a tee and hit it from there.  If the first practices and game are any indication, I don't think he'll be using the tee much since he usually whacks the ball on the first or second swing and then runs like lightning.  Its exciting to watch him play and joyful to see him having so much fun playing and enjoying himself.

12 games left, with the second one being tomorrow night.  We might take off this spring and summer from taekwondo with so much baseball action, and soon swim team season will be heating up.  Busy, fun spring!

10

10.  My baby boy turned 10.  I am now the mom of a boy in double digits.  How, oh how did this happen?  He was just three feet tall, taking bubble baths and looking for earthworms in the backyard. 

Dylan, in some ways, is 10 going on 16.  Independent, social, kind and sometimes a little awkward. All about his video games, his friends, and his video games.  He's not a kid who comes home from school with drama, or has problems with other kids.  He's our laid back, easy peasy one.  Nothing is every really a big, huge deal with him.

I don't have much luck giving him a huge or kiss in public anymore.  But at home, in private, we'll share a special look and I can feel his love.

His birthday was this past Sunday, but we let him celebrate the weekend prior by inviting 8 of his "bro's" over for a slumber party, dude style.  When you get a group of 10 year old boys together, you only need a few things to make it a success - lots of cheeseballs and pizza, orange soda, Nerf guns, iPads and some fart jokes.

My baby is 10.  And yes, he will always be my baby.

 

 

Easter 2013

Easter this year was a little more low key than usual.  I downscaled the amount of junk in the Easter baskets, and we had a nice French toast breakfast and quiet morning at home.   I think we were all still mourning the loss of Bella.  Plus the weather has been so cold, I knew we couldn't do an egg hunt outside.  In fact, it was rainy Easter morning and we all slept in!

During the afternoon, we headed over to my Mom and Robby's to join my brother, stepsisters and their families for an Easter egg hunt and dinner.  We don't all get together very often so its always fun to see how much everyone's kids have grown and spend time visiting.  We also celebrated birthdays for my Mom, brother Chris and Dylan (who turns 10 on April 14th).

Here's my Mom and sister in law, Jess..

 

 

Some great family friends for years and years, Betty, Leo and David..

 

 

Logan gives Maya an Easter smooch...

 

 

 

Jasmine and her boyfriend Wayne..

 

 

 

 

My brother and Jay..

 

 

My brothers fancy homemade delicious fruit tart...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jay and Heather's adorable 19 month old daughter, Violet.

 

 

 

 

 

My Mom makes the most incredible homemade cards! This one is Minecraft, the boys current obsession.

 

And fancy, yummy Easter cookies from Grandma Celia that we shared with the crowd.

 

 

Hope you had a wonderful Easter.  Its time to bring on Spring!

Bella

Last week, we lost our sweet Bella.  She gave us 13 years of unconditional love and loyalty. 

Bella, you were such a good dog.  You were sweet, smelly and fun.  You were a part of our family, and we'll miss you a lot. I hope you're in dog heaven, eating all the peanut butter you want and running for miles.  We will always love you, girl.

Meet Me At the Sock Hop!

We look foward to our schools' spring dance every year. The kids run around like crazy, and we get to see a lot of our friends.  Its a win-win for everyone!

The teachers get way into it, too.  This is a 4th grade teacher dressed as Elvis!

 

Dylan's homeroom teacher, she is so wonderful!

 

Dylan and his friend S.  Dylan danced for three straight hours, he was so sweaty!

YMCA!

 

 

Logan goofing off with his friend N.

 

Dylan and his friend R

 

The guy in the "52" Ravens jersey is our incredible PE teacher, Mr. C.  Every year, he DJ's the event and hosts a dance off challenge between him and some students who sign up to show off their moves.  Its hysterical!

 

 

Such a great school, and a fun event!

catching up ..... again

I've been slacking on this blogging thing, that's for sure.  Lets go backwards.

It all went downhill last week when Logan came down with the flu.  Type B.  Six days of lethargy on the couch.  My boy didn't move, except when he had to go to the bathroom.  Today is Day 10 and he still isn't eating much.  He went back to school Monday, after missing all of last week. 

Then on Thursday, I started feeling the yuck come on, and I've been fighting an uphill battle for 8 days now.  Not quite the flu...more like massive head cold/respitory nastiness.  I had to miss a couple of days of work training, and returned today trying to soak in some more medical assistant knowledge as I get acclimated to my new job.

On Friday of last week, on top of all the plague in our house already, Dylan came down with strep throat and missed Friday and Monday at school. We got him on antibiotics right away so he was well enough (kind of) to attend his all day Odyssey of the Mind competition.  He's been working with his team (which Andrew has co-coached) since October, so this was a "can't miss event".  That day we also had to sandwich in a birthday party for Logan to attend, summer swim team registration (which has to be done in person for swim suit try ons), and a teacher vs. teacher basketball game.  Needless to say, we all collapsed Saturday night and slept for 10 straight hours thru the spring ahead time change.

Here are a couple of photos from Dylan's team, the "Flaming Fury":

Team Shirts representing our school...

 

Dylan the lion tamer (which is actually our leaf blower in disguise)

 

 

 

The whole team with Lucia (head coach) and Andrew (co-coach)

 

 

The big performance..

 

 

 

 

And here is Logan later that day at our school teacher vs. teacher basketball game -  halftime student free throw

 

 

 

 

So, before we all got sick last week what else has been happening in March?

 

Well, Dylan had his Webelos I Blue and Gold Banquet in late February. He's been having a lot of fun with the boys in his den, and this time next year will cross over to Cub Scout as long as he sticks with it.  This year there have been lots of focus on physical fitness, craftsmanship, and outdoors skills.  We have a family Scout camping trip coming up in mid-April, and a hike coming up this coming weekend.  Whew. See why my head spins around sometimes?

 

The week after that, it was time to send invitations out for Dylan's little birthday slumber party.  He wants the same party as he's had the past few years... inviting a few boys from school on a Saturday night in April for a pizza party sleepover at our house.  He wanted a 'cool' shot of himself to be part of the evite. 

Here he is, my big boy about to turn 10 on April 14th.  I can hardly believe it.

The first weekend in March, we had a nice treat.  Mom and Robby took the boys for the weekend, and three of my dear high school friends came out for the weekend.  Ronda, Liza, Angela, Andrew and I put in a full afternoon of wine sipping as we toured them through some of our area's vineyards.  They all live in Maryland, so they had never been to visit any of the Loudoun Vineyards. We had time to fit in five, and we had a blast.  We're hoping to do it again once the weather gets warm!

 

 

This is after visiting the first several vineyards.

 

 

In case once wasn't enough...

 

 

 

I think that one about sums up that day.  Pure joy with friends you've known forever and love, love, love.

And finally, somewhere in between all of this last week, we had a kind of, sort of snow day.  They scared us into thinking we'd be snowed in for days but fortunately it didn't out to be quite the storm they thought.  Just enough for two little boys to enjoy for a few hours.

 

 

My two monkeys.