LIttle League's Opening Night

This season, Elijah decided to try baseball.  For now, we're encouraging Elijah to play some sport each season.  Team sports seem to be a good balance for our cerebral boy.  At first, Scott and I were a little skeptical about Elijah's choice.  We weren't sure if he really wanted to learn a new sport -- he'd just learned soccer.  But, it looks like Elijah made a good choice.  He's much more interested in baseball.  Ever since he got the game ball (more on that later) he wants to practice baseball every chance he gets.  He's still nervous when he bats at the games, but his skill set seems to be more suited to baseball.  When he's not nervous, he has great hand/eye coordination for batting and he's made some good plays in the outfield.  We've all been enjoying baseball quite a bit (not the least of whom is Dendi who couldn't be happier -- she's a baseball fanatic!)  Our first night of real baseball excitement was opening night. 

Besides being opening night, it was more importantly the first time he put on his uniform.  I don't think there's anything cuter than a little baseball uniform!  When I was going back over these pictures Elijah was looking over my shoulder.  When I labeled this first picture in my notes as Elijah with a serious baseball player expression, he corrected me and told me he was pretending to be Captain Barnacles from Octonauts.  Apparently, Keira is pretending to be Quasi from Octonauts, too.  Octonauts is Elijah's favorite show on Disney Jr., and besides Toy Story 3 it has been his favorite thing to watch all summer.  Here are our little Octonauts.

 

 

I love that he's on the Athletics, I think his authentic-looking uniform, of the team I grew up with, makes me love seeing him in uniform even more.  I continued to snap away on the camera, determined to get a few pictures of our baseball player smiling.

 

 

After putting on their uniforms for the first time, all of the teams lined up to march into the stadium.  Each team had a sign to hold.  After waiting a while, Elijah ended up holding the sign as they marched in with their team.

 

 

Elijah got to choose his number, sort of. Daddy called to ask him what number he was interested in when he was signing Elijah up for baseball.   Elijah told Daddy that he wanted the biggest number he could get, as his favorite number is 1,000. Of course, the only options were two digit numbers, so 99 was it.

 

 

Once they marched into the stadium, Elijah stood with the sign and his team for the ceremony.





Labor Day Weekend, Part II -- Elijah's First Lemonade Stand

By far, our most exciting adventure over Labor Day weekend was Elijah's first Lemonade Stand.  He's been hounding us for months to have a Lemonade Stand, since he saw some neighborhood girls open one this summer.  We were trying to find the right time, a weekend when we weren't too busy, and Labor Day Weekend gave us the perfect opportunity.  Scottie did an amazing job breaking down every step of the process to Elijah and coaching him through it.  He also emphasized that since it was his business and his profits, he had to do the work, too.  It turned out to be a great learning experience for Elijah who loved every step in the process.  First he painted the sign.  Scott helped him plan his sign, then Elijah designed it in pencil and Scott helped a little with the painting.

Next, they made the lemonade, as the sign said, from scratch.  Elijah helped by cutting the lemons in half, measuring and stirring the sugar and water and squeezing some of the lemons.

Then, once Daddy set up the sun shade, came the most exciting part --  selling his lemonade.  One of his most eager customers was his sister.  She loved helping us buy our lemonade.

 

 

After getting comfortable with the process by helping Daddy and I with our purchases, she decided to venture out on her own and buy a banana muffin.

  

She wanted to continue being a customer, but we'd all bought plenty so I convinced her to buy pretend muffins and lemonade.  She loved it and practiced buying pretend muffins and lemonade over and over again.  Although selling pretend products wasn't quite as exciting for Elijah.

 

During the slow times, Elijah practiced one of his new favorite skills -- Origami.  At the beginning of this summer, Elijah made every paper plane design he could get his hands on.  Then, around The Fourth of July, he started to design his own planes by combining elements of his favorite planes.  Towards the middle of the summer his interest in paper planes morphed into an interest in Origami, as they are intricately related.  Now, he's made countless Origami designs and it still continues to be a favorite activity.  These pictures show him making Origami bows.  Once he found this design online, I encouraged him to make it since I figured we could reuse them, instead of just accumulate them in bags, as we have with the rest of his creations.

 

Finally, here are photos of the two lemonade signs, hanging up on our sun shade.  We increased business a bit on the second day by also posting a sign in the nearby traffic circle.

 





Labor Day Weekend, Part I -- Waterslide!

We had a fun-filled Labor Day Weekend this year. Elijah's old enough now where he really appreciates a three-day weekend. The kids kicked off the fun with a spirited water sliding session.

Boosterthon

Running seems to be an ongoing theme for our family this year.  Every morning, I've been waking up at 5:45 to run before the boys leave for school.  Scott's been running a little, too.  Now, Elijah's joined the Running Club which meets every morning during morning work time, at 7:20.  The kids walk or run around the track, they get marks on their hand for each lap they do and they can earn prizes.  They try to make it fun by playing popular music and having a festive environment.  And, before Running Club, the running theme started for Elijah with the Boosterthon.  This year, as a fundraiser, the school held a Boosterthon.  As with all fundraisers, I was a little skeptical.  But, this turned out to be fabulous.  Elijah got pledges for each lap he ran, and they estimated that the kids would run between 25 and 35 laps.  Keira, Dendi and I came out the morning of the Boosterthon to cheer on Elijah.  As I said, I was impressed.  They made it so fun for the kids.  They played fun music, had themes for the different laps to keep the kids motivated and even made warming up silly.  Elijah ran almost the whole time and ran all 35 laps.  Awesome.

Elijah's First Day of First Grade

It's hard to believe, but Elijah's been in first grade now for more than a month.  Fortunately, he's had a great beginning of the year.  I think his teacher, Ms. Harris, is a perfect match for him.  She's laid back, low key and incredibly sweet.  She even admitted to us parents, at Back to School Night, that she's probably a push over.  All of this is fabulous for Elijah since he's so personally rigid and motivated.  I think his Kindergarten teacher was a little old school, and while a lot of kids need that extra discipline, it made Elijah worry even more.  Elijah seems calmer and happier this year.  It could be that he's getting used to this whole school thing, or it could be that Ms. Harris is a great match for him.  Realistically, it's probably a combination of the two.  Here are some First Day of School photos.  Again this year, I took a few photos of him sitting on a rocker on the front porch.  I plan on doing that every first day as a way to chronicle his growth over the years.

Summer Rain Babies

As my last post about the summer, I wanted to document our kids' love of playing in the rain.  Truly, it's Keira's passion, but occassionally her enthusiasm has rubbed off on Elijah and he's joined in on the fun.  I was about to skip this post as it's so difficult to get good photo documentation, but Keira just came in from playing in the rain a few minutes ago and she happily waited for Elijah's rain delayed baseball game by splashing in the puddles, yesterday.  I realized it's too signifigant of a pastime to not include. 

As you can see from the pictures, Keira is happy to play in the rain, in her kitty rain coat or not.  But, the kitty rain coat definitely keeps her warm and prolongs the experience.  Keira LOVES jumping in puddles, the higher, the better.  Both kids love to play in the deluge that's created by the water spout.  Fun, fun, fun!

Lake House with Everyone, Part IV -- Out on the Town

As the lake house is fairly far away from any "civilization" we rarely venture out, but each trip we usually do go into town for at least on meal.  This time we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate Hayden's birthday.  We were all happy with our meal, especially our kids who love any excuse to stuff themselves with chips and queso.  Keira brought Maisy who she practiced undressing and dressing during any down times in the meal.  Grammie took a picture of me, Keira and Maisy.

 

 

Grammie snapped some more pictures of Keira and I outside of the restaurant, while we were all loading up into our respective cars.  Keira was cracking both of us up with the "licking game."  Somehow this game started during our various times waiting at Disney World.  Both kids would surprise me with little licks which I would shriek and say "Gross!" which they loved, they'd giggle and do it again.  If nothing else, the game is good for some good grins and giggles.

 



Lake House with Everyone, Part III -- Boat Rides

While Keira loved the water front, Elijah loved the boats. He enjoyed the water front, too, but by far his favorite way to enjoy the water was on a jet ski or on Babo's Boat. He wanted to go on the jet ski at least once a day, and to his delight I even took him out on the jet ski on this trip. Two parent drivers meant double the jet ski possibilities.  Hayden was a huge jet ski enthusiast as well, so he joined Daddy and Elijah on a couple of adventures.  As for me, it was such a treat to zoom around the lake, squealing with laughter with my boy.  On this trip I felt much more able to leave Keira while I enjoyed some special Elijah time on the lake.  We had a blast!

 

 

As usual, besides the jet ski, Babo's Boat Ride was also a hit.  For Elijah, the highlight of Babo's Boat Ride was riding on the tube.  And, again, I even got a chance to go tubing with my boy.  Although we didn't get any pictures of Elijah and I on the tube, maybe next time.

Keira's favorite part of the boat rides were swimming off the boat, in the middle of the lake.  I had a great time swimming with my silly, squealing, gleeful girl. 

One of the nice things about going on a boat ride with so many family members was that Scottie and I even got a little time to enjoy a cuddle and watch our kids standing at the gate on the bow.

 

 

Finally, for the kids, no boat ride is complete without a trip to the Marina for a treat.  Elijah looks spaced out and tired in these pictures from a busy day on the water.  But, obviously he's never too tired for chocolate!