take me out to the ball-game

Hoot's Mom invited our family to go to an Astros game last night.  We were fortunate enough to sit in a corporate suite and it was amazing.  I will tell you my children are officially spoiled now. I am not sure they will ever want to sit in regular seats again! They all LOVED it.  Well, Kate started off a little scared.  New situations and LOUD environments still scare her at first.  In fact, she hid under a table in the suite for a few minutes.  But the company of her friend, Libbie, the security of Daddy's lap and most of all the great junk food made her warm up pretty quickly.

Will loved the food.  I am not sure I have ever seen him eat so much!  He provided us all with a running tally of his intake;) That is a teenage boy for you.  He is almost 14!!!! Where has the time gone?!

Libbie amazes me.  This little girl was running around the box toward the end of the night with the big kids.  She melted my heart when I saw the look on her face that she recognizes us and knows us now.  I love this lil doll.

Harry and Hoot had a lot of fun too.

While Will is all about the food, Harry is all about the game.  He loves baseball.

Hoot liked dancing around.  He is a lot of fun!


I know he is out of focus.  He dances around too quickly for me to capture;)




One of the highlights of the night was when the sundae cart came to the suite.



Look at Libbie's eyes light up in the corner of the shot:)


Needless to say the kids (and a few of us grown-ups) really enjoyed the sundaes.





The employees at the sundae cart made it a point to tell me how polite and well mannered Will was.  What Mama does not like to hear that?  He has his Yes Sir and M'aam, pleases and thank you's down pat. (at least to other people;)

Harry cannot have ice cream, so we tracked him down this giant snowcone.



He was happy. And yes, his lip are blue.

Yesterday was apparently Jackie Robinson Day in MLB.  So all major league players on all teams wore #42 on their jerseys.


The funny thing is that Shelley and I did not even notice that until the last inning!  Think we talked more or watched the game?

After the game, we got to watch an amazing firework show at the ballpark.

According to Kate, "the only bad thing about the whole night was that the Astros lost."  She told us that this morning.  I was surprised she even noticed that it was a game let alone knew we lost. She fell asleep within 2 minutes once we got in the car. Kate had such a good time last night that she told Shelley she wished she were in their family (so she could go all the time and "because they are sweet to me") Ouch! Oh and Kate had a big time singing "deep in the heart of Texas" with quite a southern twang! Here we sing that right after take me out to the ball game at the 7th inning stretch!

THANK YOU Shelley and family!!!!

For those of you who are interested, I am finally posting all about our Disney trip last fall.  I have a bunch of posts ready and I will post one everyday.  Look below for the first one.

Harry Harry (and an update on Jeremy)

First, thank you again for all the prayers for Jeremy and Daleea and their family.  They took Jeremy off the respirator and he is breathing on his own. Please continue to pray for his healing and his family's strength.

I have not posted much about my Harry for a while so I thought I'd do a little update....

Harry is playing Fall baseball this year.  It is a laid back and short season and we are enjoying it immensely. Little League is very serious business here in the Spring but in the Fall it is more about skill building.  This is Harry's first year in total kid pitch so the games are a little slower paced too. He has had the opportunity to play 1st, 2nd, 3rd, outfield and catcher so far. He is having so much fun and playing really well too.  Supposedly, he is going to get to pitch in the next game or two.  We cannot wait to see that.

Isn't he so cute?

He LOVES playing catcher.  I think the catching gear makes him look like a turtle.



These are taken at night through a chain link fence so they are not great but I love the action shots!

He also won a silver medal in a Judo tournament this weekend.  I don't have any photos of that though. 

And today, his class put on a great play in their new outdoor classrom!  Harry was the narrator. 

 The play was based on the Dr. Suess book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

He wants you to know that he had all his lines memorized.  The scroll was for dramatic effect only;)

Like everyone else, I am juggling too many things right now so my posting might be a bit light for the next few weeks.  

bits of my weekend

A blog I really enjoy hosts bits of my weekend. And since I was too late to pull together a Sunday Snapshot, I thought I'd do bits of my weekend today:)

This is one of those weekends where I would have liked a clone of myself. We had ballet, baseball and a swim meet all at the same time on Saturday. My photos are not good...but as you will read...I was literally racing from activity to activity and just snapped when I could...

I raced from Kate's ballet to catch Will's last event. He did well and got 1st in his heat in backstroke:)

Kate and Harry cheering on Will as he swam.

Harry had two baseball games this weekend (and one practice). They won both games. Harry played great and got the game ball yesterday. His team had an amazing triple play on Friday night for the winning play. It was very exciting....not many 9 yr. old teams make triple plays!

He is not thrilled that I came in the dugout for this shot:)

Harry bats lefty but does everything else right?! Thanks to a Nikon Dad with a zoom lens for the batting shots:)

Kate had a princess party to attend during Harry's second game. So, I took her to the party, stayed a bit, raced back to Harry's game and watched the second half, then raced back to the party for another hour with Kate.

She changed princess costumes at least 5 times during the party.

And....Kate helped Daddy hang the linen sheers in her room this weekend!

I am off to meet with my nutritionist (at a grocery store) to find out all the things I can (not) eat for the next two months. Wish me luck!!!

It's that time of year again...

Baseball is serious business in our little town. I have been told that our Little League is the largest in the US and and I know that last year our seniors won the US Little League World series!!!

So, from February until late April or early May, our life revolves around baseball. Truth be told, I did not think I was going to like that. Years ago when Will was little, I remember dreading baseball. I even asked Dave if it would be okay for me to bring a book to read at the games. I grew up with all sisters and was not really into sports. But I have grown to LOVE it!!! I think I like baseball season as much or more than Harry!

Harry has baseball four times a week (2 games and 2 practices). Additionally, we have to work the concession stand (which is like a mini restaurant here--the best I've ever seen) and volunteer at the carnival, auction etc. It is quite a commitment. But these other team families become our social network for the next few months and it is tons of fun! So, if you don't see me around in blog-land as much, you will know I am cheering Harry on at the fields.

Miss Katie Ru is also busy getting ready for her Spring Ballet and Tap recital. I cannot wait:)

Ballet and Baseball

As luck would have it, Kate's recital was at the exact same time as Harry's playoff game. Since we have watched tons of Harry's games and this was Kate's 1st recital, Dave, Will and I went to the recital first. I am warning you...as a Mom...I LOVE this stuff, so there are LOTS of photos (long post).  A video of part of the recital is in the previous post.

Kate and Mom before the show.

Kate and Daddy

Warming up...

Waiting for their big moment!

Kate was so HAPPY and chatty. She could barely contain her excitement.

When the curtains opened and Kate saw us, her whole face lit up!

Part of the ballet routine:)

Flowers for the ballerina!

One of Kate's pre-school teachers came to watch the show.

Kate's Dance teacher, Miss Christina.

The moment the recital was over, we raced over to Harry's game.

When we arrived, our team was down by a few points. Apparently, they had been in the lead for the first 3 innings and then things turned around. They rallied and got the lead again only to lose by one point! This was their 4th play-off game and they were one game away from the championship game for their bracket. I am so proud of how hard they worked.

The coach saved a game ball from each game for every player. Coach is tossing Harry the ball here (the ball is in mid-air).

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Harry made some great plays last night. He was GREAT at 2nd base.

They earn stickers (to decorate their batting helmets) for all the offensive and defensive plays they make.

Great coaches.

This last picture is sentimental. After every game, the players get a free snow-cone. The boys always get their snow cone, climb the bleachers and eat them while they watch the majors play. Although it is not a great picture, it is a special ritual that will be missed.

If you made it this far, I am impressed! Kate's little 3rd birthday party is tomorrow. Her birthday is not until June 3rd but we wanted to have her party before school got out. I will post photos of course;)