Baseball - The Seadogs

Thatcher has moved up to playing Pony Baseball in the Shetland league! This is a very welcome step from the YMCA T-ball which I found painful, PAINFUL to watch ;) This is the same league that Samantha played in last year however this year she decided she is retiring her pink baseball helmet for good.

We lucked out and know several families on the team Thatcher was put on which makes it more fun for us parents.

Opening day!

Here comes the SeaDogs!

We've got quite the age range of players from 4 to 8-year-olds all at various levels.  

Todd is assistant coaching and doing a great job! At the games he has been the dugout coach which may be the worse job but we are all thankful for him doing it. Trying to get the kids organized in their batting order, gear on, sitting on the bench, paying attention to the game, etc. is at times stressful just to watch.

Here's Thatcher at his first practice. He did really great with Coach Todd (a different Todd) making contact with the ball and showing some promising signs of having a pretty decent season. Last year they only hit it off the tee while this year they have four chances to hit it from the machine before they bring out the tee. Just like the YMCA, Every. Single. Player. gets to bat each inning which frankly is kind of boring but at this level of play it gives everyone a chance. I will say though that our team seems to have a lot less players than the other teams we've played so far so patience is definitely being tested in the outfield for the SeaDogs. 

And then this happened at his first two games. He was a bit of a disaster each time he got up to bat. I love how the coaches kept so positive, "good try!" "almost!" "a little high!" Honestly, he wasn't even close! He ended up hitting it off the tee each time he batted and I chalked it up to maybe baseball won't be his thing. Todd, on the other hand, kept telling me to just wait. 

Fast forward to this past week and I get a big "I TOLD YOU SO" because out of nowhere Thatcher did a complete 180 on both his fielding and batting. He paid attention, hit the ball off the machine each time he was up to bat and was making great plays in the outfield. 

What clicked?! Could it be this?

Yes, awful AWFUL skateboarding accident. Before you wonder if he had a helmet on I will come out and say right away that he didn't. BUT, he wasn't actually riding the skateboard. He was laying on flat ground with his belly on the board and basically dipped forward and caught himself on his nose and teeth. A helmet wouldn't have done much here. The good news is that his lip is back to normal, no broken jaw, nose or chin. The bad news is, he knocked the two front teeth loose and they are on the way out, one of which has already begun to turn a lovely shade of grey. Boo. This is the 3rd time he has injured his teeth so when the permanent teeth come in, you better believe he will have to start wearing a mouth guard or better yet, helmet with full face mask. 

So, he has this awful fall and is out of commission for a few days including missing baseball practice and then shows up to his game this past Sunday and has his best game yet! 

Our Coach was in the way but I did get one of his hits on video. 

We've got a long season to go but things are looking up! And fingers crossed, we finish the season with his remaining teeth. 

Student of the Month

Samantha was recently selected as Student of the Month and the assembly theme was for those students who are considerate. Oh how proud we were of Samantha! 

These are the words you want to hear your child's teacher describe your child as. ;)

Samantha was like a rock star afterwards with friends picking her up in the air to celebrate! 

I love that Jack was with us because last year he happened to be with us when Samantha was awarded Student of the Month. 

Last year with Samantha's two brothers ;)

This year. 

Last year. 

End of the Storm Season

So SO sad basketball season is over. The season is WAY too short and so are the games. 

The face off for the jump ball. 

Do not scroll up to the photo before because you will see it is a different game but wanted to show an action shot of the jump ball. I can tell you my photo and video skills in basketball frankly suck. By the time you have your phone out and ready to go, the play is over. And when you have your camera out to video your daughter making a basket, she misses. When she makes a basket, your phone will run out of memory. I just didn't have much luck.

Happy girls after a win!

Lining up for picture day.

Our team always wore wacky socks to set them apart from the rest. 

End of season pizza party!

Coach Tyler and Coach Jules (not pictured) were awesome coaches. We had quite a mix on our team of abilities and our coaches did a great job with not only teaching the game but they were fair and made it fun. We grew close to a lot of new sports families and are excited to keep in touch throughout the year and team up again next season. 

There were only four teams in our bracket with ours being the team with all first graders so we feel pretty excited that we were in a 3-way tie for second before play-offs. Unfortunately, they took a point differential to break the tie and while we outplayed both of the teams against the first place team, our point difference between the teams we were tied with put us at the bottom of the bracket for play-offs. Did that make any sense? So basically, we had to play the first place team in the play-offs and they were undefeated, taller, older and yes, better ;) 

And this is why I am going to miss basketball so much. Our games, for the most part, were so close in score with the other teams. My heart was pounding all four quarters because they were always nail biters! This video is my favorite. We were tied four to four and went into a two minute overtime. When that didn't produce a basket from either team (yes, just 4 to 4), the refs announced we were doing Sudden Death. We all thought they were joking. So for another 10 minutes or so, the girls were going up and down the court, stealing balls, taking shots and doing whatever they could do to get a basket and FINALLY our superstar player, Bailey, won the game for us! 

How bad is the blue sheet background?! We think they forgot to photoshop the background in like the individual photos or else it truly is the worst idea for a backdrop. Ever. 

President's Day Weekend

We kicked the four-day weekend off with a Thursday night Gaucho basketball game with friends.

No school Friday means doing stadiums with Mom. I'm so fun, right? 

Friday night dinner at Something's Fishy. 

They have not changed up this hibachi fire routine since I was in college. It's the same fried rice egg trick with…

FIRE!

At this point we lost the other half of our table because the family that we didn't know next to us had kids afraid of the fire so they got up and left leaving the chef with 4 additional meals on the grill.

That is dinner for eight people that he ended up dividing between the four of us! 

Food is still the same, just okay, but entertainment value for kids is a ten. I can't figure out why we came here all the time in college, maybe they were loose on ID checks because for the life of me this seems like the last place you'd want to go if you weren't under the age of 10. 

Our chef loaded all this fried rice on our plates, rice for EIGHT people. Makes me want to gag just looking at it. Long story short, we are good on not going back to Something's Fishy for awhile. 

Todd did catch a scallop in his mouth that the chef tossed to him. Yes, that happened… 

Saturday morning my parents came up bright and early to catch Samantha's basketball game. 

It was another nail biter for the Storm girls. They won 8 to 7 with Samantha contributing 2 of those 8 points. 

Post basketball we headed to the harbor for lunch. 

Brophy's!

A quick tour of the Maritime Museum that we discovered the week before (which by the way, you don't need to go to this museum two weekends in a row, once is enough) ;) 

Later that afternoon, we headed to Hammonds Beach for an early evening Valentine's Day beach picnic/surf session. 

Todd bumped into Russ in the water which is funny because I always wonder what guys are saying as they are floating in the water waiting for the next wave most likely next to people they don't know but it turns out Todd DID know someone ;)

Going in one last time before dark.

See Todd waving!

I tried to lighten the picture a bit. 

This is how we really looked ;)

Such a fun night!

Here's some video of Todd catching some waves.

The next day we did the exact same thing at Mesa Lane. 

On Monday, Todd had to work so I took the kids to Padaro Grill. 

And then to Leadbetter since I wanted to keep the beach theme going ;)

Lolly looks thrilled to be carried by Thatcher...

Honestly, Lollipop can be kind of annoying at the beach because she sneaks away when we aren't watching to steal food from the other beach goers, so actually Thatcher is doing me a favor by removing her for the umpteenth time from raiding our neighbors food bag. 

Here's the kids running towards me excited because these people were walking with birds.

Meet Coco, the parachute cockatoo! 

No Thatcher, we are not getting a bird. Ever. 

You are not getting one either, Samantha. 

And finally, the holiday weekend came to a close with some sushi. 

Our idea of a GREAT weekend!