Oscar had his first all-star game today. They won 20-9 in the first game, but fell 17-18 in the second game. We gave up 10 runs with two outs in the 2nd inning that really hurt. These boys are so much fun to coach. I love how Oscar just plays and enjoys it.
Oscar played the first two innings at pitcher.
I gave the boys a pep talk before the start of the 3rd inning. The pep talk worked in this game, but definitely not in the 2nd game. I just can't imagine 5 & 6 year olds not really listening.
Oscar moved to center field for the 3rd inning.
It's a really big deal to me that they have good sportsmanship when they shake hands.
First swim meet on the season tonight. The kids did great. Oscar made it a whole lap in each of his races...a giant improvement from earlier in the week. Unfortunately after 80+ events, our team lost by two points.
Oscar's All Star team is named the Phillies (I picked the name, thank you), so the boys dressed up in their Phillies gear for a little practice in the cul-de-sac.
I guess they were tired. They both fell asleep on the way to Oscar's baseball practice Wednesday night. Elizabeth was asleep within a mile from the house.
Oscar & Elizabeth went to Marietta National Cemetery with me today. We walked through the cemetery while the annual memorial was happening. I showed them all of the different wars that had soldiers in the cemetery (we found five wars) and they were surprised to learn how old some of the headstones were; most are from the Civil War. Oscar had his camera in tow too. He wants me to help him start his own blog now.
We had such a wonderful time at Henry's birthday party. Grandmom & Pop Pop came to visit from PA. Ma, Big Daddy, Memaw, Brian and Fran came from Athens. The Davis' (god family) came over as well.
Henry made an incredible mess. He easily outdid the other kids. When Beth washed him off in the kitchen sink after he played with his cake, the water looked like antifreeze. The kids are excited that we get to celebrate his "real" birthday on Saturday.
Practice meet tonight, but a meet nonetheless. It was cloudy with drizzle...generally miserable, but the show had to go on.
Michael won the 100 individual medley, Elizabeth won the 25 freestyle and the freestyle relay. Oscar, well, he's not quite up to the standards set by his sister and brother. He came over after the backstroke and said "I got last place!"
Oscar's Target class performed a play today that they called Slinkerella. It was the class' take on Cinderella using teachers as characters. Oscar was Prince Mathis (named after Michael's teacher) and was so cute when he asked the princess to marry him.
Beth has been so supportive of my hobby. She Beth gave me a scrapbooking/photography book to read to help me learn how to create more interpretive photographs of the kids using lighting, and capturing emotion and catch lights.
I finished the book today and wanted to give it a whirl. I hadn't taken any pictures of Henry in a couple of weeks, so he got very excited when he saw me get the camera out.
Big Daddy came over this past weekend to see the kids and to work on the yard. He sure does some amazing work!
Friday night we went to a japanese steakhouse to celebrate Beth's and Big Daddy's birthdays. The kids have been asking to go so they could see the chef make a volcano. Michael also wanted to go because he loves shrimp; he sure can put it away.
This is quite possibly the coolest picture I have ever seen. The space shuttle silhouetted against the sun. Just amazing! From the photographer: "In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo Credit: (NASA/Thierry Legault)"
No rest for the weary. Baseball ended on Sunday, swim practice started Monday. The water is freezing cold and it's not really all that warm out, yet the kids are already having fun.
Michael's coach Steve and his wife Ashley invited the kids over to play after baseball this afternoon. We ended up staying for dinner and didn't leave until 9pm. The kids were really pooped. They all said their legs were too tired to take a shower when we got home.
Michael's team won their opening round playoff game today 12-4. Unfortunately I missed the game since Oscar was playing at the same time, but Beth took some pictures.
I actually looked over at his field during this at-bat. Michael hit a hard line drive to left center, but the outfielder made a really good catch.
Michael came running over onto the t-ball field after the game to tell me he scored the winning run...so exciting!
Oscar's t-ball team got trounced right out of the playoffs today 21-10. We had a great season though. I really love coaching them.
Oscar gets to play for a few more weeks in the in-park all stars, basically a t-ball all stars tournament within the park. There are 24 t-ball teams at our park, so they can get eight all-star teams pretty easily.
We are so proud of how much Oscar has improved through this t-ball season. We were kind of worried that he wouldn't pay a whole lot of attention, but he's been into it every pitch (well almost every pitch; sometimes he has to play with the dirt).
He plays primarily first base on our team since he is one of the few kids on the team that can catch the ball. We're even getting 4-5 outs per inning now.
He likes baseball so much now that he wants to play in the fall instead of playing soccer. I'm thinking about coaching his team in the fall. He is truly a joy to coach and has asked me to keep coaching him. He even calls me Coach Andy. As a matter of fact, he has never called me Dad whenever I have coached him. I love it!