Baseball!!!!!

Yes, I intentionally put several exclamation points in this title. I am VERY excited about Lucas starting t-ball. Much more excited than he is, but I see some possibilities of him liking the game.

His team is called the Wild Wolverines and the kids on the team are 4 and 5yrs old. Jeff is one of the three assistant coaches and Lucas E's dad, John, is the head coach. Basically the way it works is that only the pitcher gets any action in the field, so the coaches rotate the kids through that position. And when they get the ball they are told to run to first since there aren't any 5yr olds that can consistently catch (a throw from another 5yr old). For offense, they all get to hit and stop at first base, no matter where the ball is in the field. Sounds simple, but it's been a challenge to get them all to remember this. There are a couple of clowns on the team, but mostly they pay attention, which surprised me. Lucas and a couple of other kids are really focused. Every time I look in the field Lucas is the "baseball ready" position, which is the standard hands on kneess, head up with eyes on the ball. His hitting is on par with the rest of the team's, although he has gotten some good hits in the game. When we practice at home he really connects with about 1 out of 5. He's still spinning on his front leg sometimes, so we're just working on form. One thing that made me smile was last week when we were "practicing" in the backyard. Lucas was just hitting normal, but Jeff and I asked him to hit it down the first base line (or the fence in our backyard). He said okay and closed his stance so that he could guide it down the right side of the field. That was instinct - we didn't tell him. I was tickled : )

The only thing I'm not thrilled about is that Jeff gets to coach while I entertain Ellen on the sidelines. Not to worry though, Ellen is going to be a tough little ball player herself. She came up to Jeff yesterday with a tennis ball and said, "Dada, I play baseball in the front (yard) with you." I've already told Jeff that I'll be helping coach her team.

Lucas is # 14. In the first picture he's sitting next to his bud, Lucas E. In the 2nd picture they are doing a prayer/talk before the game. 3rd picture is team huddle and 4th pic is him talking to another teammate.

I thought the two Lucas's were cute on the bench together : ) The last three pics are of Lucas's VERY FIRST AT BAT EVER. So we'll have to save this picture in case he turns out to love the game and play for years and years. At this point when we practiced at home he was still spinning around on his front foot, but he nailed the form here! That is Coach Jeff on the first base side.

Ellen has a few snacks while she watches the game with me, and then she gets ancy and we have to go to the nearby playground (where I can't see the field).

Pigtails on our lady...

I remember when I was little that my grandmother, Grandmother, wanted me to wear bows and lace. I would never do it. I thought they were horrible! I wish she were hear to see me get the same from Ellen. No bows, no ribbons. Luckily she'll still wear cute little girlie dresses. I did convince her today to wear pigtails like Karis does. They were cute!

Costume Party

Ian and his mom came over for lunch after preschool today. Ellen is no third wheel. If the boys are dressing up in costumes then so is she! Notice how she is holding Ian's arm : )

Gift from Amanda

Miss Amanda, who Ellen adores, surprised Ellen with this outfit (and two others!) this week. Of course Ellen loves the kitties on this shirt and skirt. Oh, Amanda is the person that watches Ellen on Monday mornings while I work. Their routine is to go to story time at the local bookstore : )

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny paid us a visit last night! He was in the mood for summer shoes, so both kids got a bright pair for the season. Ellen was more interested in L's than Lucas was... not surprised. They each also got one of those big chocolate bunnies. I mean, you HAVE to get one of those when you're little : )

Oh, and it looks like the bunny hid some eggs in the house and the back yard - how fun!

Ellen also got a Hell* Kitty stamp that she was eager to put to good use. We were all wearing them before the morning was over.

Lucas figured out quickly that there were eggs in the back, so off he went in his undies to hunt them!

After the excitment died down we had some pancakes... eggs shaped of course.

We wanted to be outside, so we went to the nearest greenway for a bike ride and some rock throwing...

I'll tell you what, this lady walks with attitude. It's so awesome, cute and funny! She struts. I think she walks like me, actually, but it's very cute on her. When we are walking into preschool each day the ladies that are helping out with carpool love to watch her walk in and wave to her. She usually has her bad draped over her arm and takes really long strides and moves her arms. Love, love, love her.

And I love my other babies. Even though they don't like to slow down for posed pictures...

Lucas is finally showing interest in his bike. Now we are just trying to get him on it daily to build up those leg muscles.

CURLS!!!

We had to stop and throw some rocks off of this bridge. I thought Ellen looked cute doing so...

The Sand Dunes

There is this secret little place about 15 min drive up the coast from my parent's house. We call it the sand dunes. It's where the ocean meets a river, I think, but when the tide goes out there is a huge sand bar with the remains of an old bridge sticking up (which just looks cool). Then there is an actual working bridge that is totally shaded underneath, so you can put your stuff there and be out of the sun. We stayed there for 3 hours, which was a long time considering there was just sand a water there. Lucas worked on tearing down this little sand wall for the first 30 in or so. It was serious work. And then, of course, Ellen had to assist : ) The middle pics are of my parents on the sand bar.

This expression of Ellen's cracks us up. It's her go-to expression.

Ellen was getting fussy about something my dad, who is SO GREAT with the kids, made up this game where they pretended they were taking a bath and the sand was the soap. In the 2nd picture they are "cleaning" Ellen's feet : )