Spring became very busy with sports since we were still playing soccer, basketball and then added in baseball (two teams) and softball, oh and flag football (why not add a new sport to the mix?!)
The highlight of baseball season for our family was having Jack and Thatcher on the same baseball team which also meant these two got to see more of each other.
I mean..... happy boys, right?
Spring also meant late nights at practice, no time to ever stock the fridge and frequenting Mesa Cafe.
Pretty much.
But all worth it for this!
Samantha was drafted on to Coach Jules' softball team. How we keep getting so lucky, I don't know. But we know our time is fleeting.
I spy, my little lefty.
We spent a crazy amount of time driving all over town, up and down the 101, from field to field for practices and games.
Picture day for Dynamite.
Sam is the lead off batter again this year. Coach Jules says she throws off the pitchers.
Picture day for the Yankees.
There was a lot of this. 😊
Sammy played first base, second base and short stop.
I love this series of pictures with Thatcher and Callie. They are kind of sort of embarrassed to take a picture together.
A forced arm around her.
Hurry up and take the picture!
Our head coach, George, was at the Masters during one of the games so the boys gave him a special hello on the game cam.
And when I say George was at the Masters, he was hanging with THE Freddy Couples who made sure to keep up with the Yankees all while at the most important golf tournament of the year 🙌
Thatcher played mostly first and short stop on the Yankees.
Mateo played baseball for the first time this year.
Blue cupcake, blue snacks, blue gatorade and he probably finished a blue slurpee right before this picture.
He lived in this uniform.
And this one too. Yes, we played in two leagues again this year. Thatcher was a Mud Hen. He was the lone second grader on an all first grade team of mostly neighborhood friends. He played ONE position the entire season, short stop. The coaches planted him in that same spot each game and Thatcher got a workout being the cut-off for the outfield, chasing balls in the infield and being a mini-coach to his teammates. The team had a great group of families and kids and despite us having to let the Mud Hens down by attending only ONE practice the entire season and missing a good handful of games due to conflicts with the Yankees, our little team that could barely swing a bat ended up coming from behind and winning the championship game. Most improved team was an understatement.
Thatcher loved all his little teammates. He was twice the size of all of them.
Jack also played Pony and our Yankee friends came out to support the boys because why not play/watch more baseball?!
Sam was all smiles at her brother's games with her friends.
The softball season is short and sweet. Thatcher helped to warm up the girls when he wasn't playing baseball.
I had to miss a few games and one of the best parts of GVSLL is the game cam.
Todd knows how to be scorekeeper. Coach Jules is very particular about her scorebook with how she likes the marks/tallies/stats. I would be the worst person to do this with my attention span.
Softball teammates are the sweetest.
Shoreline became our backyard with pitching practice.
Baseball buddies and dollar bills for the snack shack.
Thatcher wanted a Yankees logo shaved into his head which shows you where his team allegiance was ⚾️
It didn't quite work out but at that point I knew he'd get a Yankees tattoo over a Mud Hen one.
Nope, can't see it. But cute haircut 💇♂️
So we can add Coach George to our list of favorite coaches that our family has had. There are a handful of special coaches that stick out to our family, and he's definitely one of them. He's funny (beyond funny, it's a whole other level), he teaches, he's patient, he's competitive but kind, he genuinely cares about the kids and he runs a tight ship at practices all while having fun.
All of the assistant coaches, kids on the team, families, EVERYTHING truly was a highlight of spring. And to top it off, the Yankees were league champs too!
The Mud Hens lined up after winning the championship game.
Coach Rusty, another coach on our top favorite coaches list, passed out the championship medals.
Thatcher's team battled Jack's team in the championship game.
No matter the outcome of the game, they are still buds.
The Mud Hens ended the season with a pizza party after our last game.
Being the team mom of a baseball team is no small feat. Alexis did a great job!
And the Yankees were not only league champs (and undefeated, kind of, there was one questionable game 😂) but also won in the post-season championship game!
End of season pizza party. We didn't want the season to end. 😢
Coach George referred to Jack and Thatcher as Thunder and Lightening⚡️
Thatcher approves. 👍
Thatcher definitely had a great regular baseball season.
And lucky for us, he got to keep going on both All Star teams. Equally lucky, Sam decided she wanted the summer off from softball so no All Stars for her which allowed us to make this work.
Thatcher was the pitcher, short stop, first and catcher for the Pony All Star team.
Games a little further south meant family could attend!
The Pony All Star team just couldn't get their groove going. There was lots of potential but not enough to bring home a lot of W's during the season.
Great group of kids and coaches!
Thatcher ended up loving to play catcher. He got a lot of extra training from his GV team because they brought in the senior catcher for the DP high school team to work with him. So, Pony got a well-trained catcher on behalf of GV.
He was super aggressive at chasing kids back to 3rd and tagging kids out. It's a position not really utilized during the regular season since it was machine pitch but now it was action packed!
Thatcher played the same positions for GV All Stars as he did for Pony plus once in a while subbing in for third base. They have very strict rules on how many pitches you can throw in a game and require rest days in between so there was a lot of rotating around.
GV All Stars stole Thatcher's heart and ours too.
Coach Nate takes a top spot high on the list of our favorite coaches too. He is intense, expects a lot from the kids, is a teacher, has productive practices and will allow a little fun but not too much. He's a former high school football coach and he knows his stuff. I was worried that our experience would fall short after being on the Yankees team and it ended up being a great extension of our regular season.
Thatcher was team captain this first game.
Dancing Grandma was our good luck charm and attended most of the games.
The U8 GV All Star team plays in one long and intense tournament. They practiced almost every day leading up to it and then it is a double elimination tournament all played in Ventura.
Above the hill where the boys played were a group of cows that would come and literally watch the game.
True baseball fans right there.
These boys, their families, our coaches—we didn't want it to end! And because they lost the first game of the tournament, every single game following we had to win or else we were out. It was so nerve-racking but it made it all the more exciting because of the challenge. They battled all the way until the final two. Unfortunately, the game we lost was full of technicalities that could have been challenged if it were petitioned within 24 hours, but our coach decided to let it go the next day and we ended the season. Let's just say that GV is a league that everyone wants to beat and they will try anything. We learned that the hard way.😕 They are still winners in our book 🙌
The GV All Stars had an end of season swim party at the Millington's house.
Graham had never pitched at a game before. We had pitched out all of our pitchers in the final games and Coach Nate was calling anyone up to the mound to give it a try. Graham emulated what he saw on a baseball video game that he plays and he was instrumental in getting our team all the way to the final two. Who knew such good would come out of screen time?! And this kid has to be the starting pitcher next season for sure!
It was perfect timing for the Home Run Derby to be on.
We were so happy when Coach Nate contacted us to keep this group practicing together. Just a couple weeks ago they met up at the GV fields for some baseball. And while soccer season is in full swing, we are happy to get out the baseball bag for Thatcher to keep in touch with this crew.
And Thatcher missed picture day for the Mud Hens because guess what, he was playing a game for the Yankees ;)
This is a long video but I love all these highlights of the season. ⚾️
