T-Ball. The End.

I apologize for the 1980's 110mm-quality pics.... The lighting is so weird in this place, plus zoom - it's hard to get a nice, crisp shot.

Daddy-O encouraging B-Bee to participate at T-Ball, retelling him the instructions in a very specific manner. Okay, maybe not. I hope it wasn't just a "you can do this" pep talk. Yes, he usually has this deer-in-the-headlights look for most of practice. You know he just stood there when all the other kids ran. It was a good experience for him though. Best of all, that he got one-on-one daddy time every week. We'll try another sport next time.

Little Miss Nellie, however, we couldn't keep her off the field. She SO wants to do whatever the big kids are doing. She kept going for the balls and throwing them. This MAY be her thing. She is already showing athletic tendancies desires.

Playing the shark game. That was more fun!

Goofing off with his friends in line was the most fun. Btw, you never see so many blondes together in our neighborhood. ...and as you can see, there's Nellie again.

She took it upon herself to put the balls on the T for everyone. B-Bee's like "Okay, I'm standing here. Now what?" Just don't tell him to "keep your eye on the ball", because he will literally.

But he did bat and he did hit it and he did run the bases!   Baseball's not my thing either.

So now I'm debating what to put him in this fall: gymnastics, soccer, swimming, ice skating.... He says ice skating. He did well in swimming so I'm kind of leaning towards that - plus there's no gear to buy. We'll see.

Swimming & Baseball, Done.

Picked up a hat to adorn with a beautiful flower. In my opinion, this is a yellow peonie - what else would be so huge? - but it could just as easily be a fully open rose. Either way, it and it's vintage pink sister are my favorites. Both are available as hair clips or on headbands. I'm not sewing my own hats yet, but can pick another one up if wanted. Anyways, was so excited about this hat that I took pictures of Nellie wearing it until she started getting into trouble. So I took pictures for about a minute. I may have been especially lucky that day and gotten 2 minutes of trouble-free Nellie.

Yes, I know swimming has been mentioned a time or two here. B-Bee's 2-week session finally came to an end, just as he was beginning to like swim lessons. The instructors brought cookies for the kids' last lesson and they got to take their animals (rubber duckies) with all the stickers home. He will have to do this level again, but he's more comfortable in the water now - will attempt a backfloat with assistance, will go underwater, and now hangs on the side of the pool....and we know he can get in and out by himself. It was a good experience for him and he got a few more lessons at summer camp later on in the month.

The T-Ball session came to a thankful end. Daddy-O enjoyed taking B-Bee, but it just wasn't his thing. It seemed to bring out all his "spectrum tendancies". We would like to put him in something this fall, but are having trouble deciding what: gymnastics, soccer, ice skating, or more swimming lessons? B-Bee's most consistent inconsistent answer has been "skating". He likes to rollerskate - but rollerskating lessons are at the same time preschool is.

Is there such thing as a "puzzle team"? Like the chess team, which I was on for 1 year. It was a middleschool "boy thing"; I can barely play chess. He's loves puzzles and is pretty good at them too. He even helped me put Nellie's birthday present together. I told him it was a puzzle.

Know we will be busy with preschool this fall and I don't want to over-schedule my kids. Now that he's old enough I would like him to be able to try one thing at a time. Perhaps find an activity that he really likes and can be passionate about. Opinions? Ideas?

Pre-4th

Before launching into the fun we had over the 4th of July weekend.... Greg McBoat has Nellie's 1 Year Pics ready! Even though it was a difficult photoshoot, they're awesome! Oh my serious child. :D

We started our weekend off with a babysitter and a baby shower. Our friends, Mike & Steph were in town for their baby shower. Zaza babysat for us, since it was scheduled for prime naptime. One of the coolest gifts they got was some of Steph's baby clothes (believe a baptism outfit included) and quilts. We gave them Good Night Denver, so they can read to their baby girl about their old stompin' grounds. I'm also making them a purple tutu. Mike sized?

In January I won the lotto to buy Rockies tickets for Opener and the 4th of July fireworks games. Little did I realize that even with the lotto system, Opener was going to sell out so quickly. There went Daddy-O's birthday present idea.... We got tix for Saturday night's game. Nellie sported her Rockies onesie & birthday tutu. As soon as we sat down, she started eyeing up everyone around us' food - especially the boy sitting right behind us, just about grabbed the nachos right off his lap.

B-Bee didn't quite get "watching" the game. It's okay though, every Rockies fan knows that it's more about the experience of going than actually watching.

Was a game worth watching!

I wanted outfield seats so we would get to go sit on the field for fireworks, but it was nice to not have to move. Nellie loved the spirit that filled the stadium with the win!

Unfortunately, B-Bee & Zaza spent most of the fireworks in the bathroom.... Nellie did really well with them. She kept pointing at and trying to grab the fireworks. Wouldn't even let us cover her ears. "Don't contain me, Mom!"

I should mention, there was some good sleep had by all that night. PLUS early (and restful) naps the next day!

Garage Sale 2011

Why is it that when you bring stuff out to the garage sale, the toys that they've had no interest in suddenly become the best toys ever? We participated in the community garage sale last weekend, which was EXHAUSTING. Something about being outside all day? Thankfully, Daddy-O a vacation day on Friday to watch the kids. Then my sister came over Saturday to help out. We did fairly well for not having any big ticket items. Everything was priced to sell. We had a lot of clothes and most of them were priced 25 cents to $1. Think we'll probably do a one day sale in September since we have a lot of cold weather clothes. It's hard to buy a big sweatshirt or coat when it's 90+ degrees out.

The dogs chilled / baked outside with us for most of the day. I couldn't believe how well behaved they were, specifically how they stayed in our yard. Eventually they just found a spot to nap, Woody under the table in the garage and Charlie in the shady grass. Look at that big smile! ...as you can also see, he's getting old and gray.

Zanna made a big sign for my Ellie Grace products and we had a table out for it. Didn't sell many, but there were a lot of people interested. Had I had tutus premade - instead of just Nellie's out as samples - I definitely would have sold a few. Next time, right? I just have to find the time to build a tutu inventory. Am working on that. Btw, I've also added clips to my product line. So now there are headbands, clips, leg warmers and tutus.

The kids were fairly happy to hang outside as well. Nellie kept wanting to go crawling around the garage floor and I learned that she has an ability to go from sparkling clean to absolutely filthy in 0.4 seconds. Yeah, that onesie got bleached.

B-Bee had T-ball in the afternoon and again he was tired before he even got there. Daddy-O bought him a soda for lunch to pep him up and he made it through. I know, bad parenting. There must be another T-baller that lives in the neighborhood, because shortly after he got home there was one of his buddies shopping at our sale. We joked that he must have followed B-Bee home. Daddy's been taking him to T-ball every Saturday, it's good daddy time. I guess he's starting to do better and can run the bases like a champ, especially 3rd to home (which was a struggle the first day, this was a struggle the first day because he's so literal and ran to the exit when told to run home). He does like to take a detour path, via the pitcher's mound to first.

Learning the Mishaps of T-Ball

B-Bee had his first T-Ball practice today. Think there may have been more parents on the field than kids, Daddy said there weren't many helicoptor-y parents though. Right off the bat B-Bee had his first collision while doing runs back and forth across the field. He ran head on into a little girl. They both fell down. She got up and kept running. He didn't know what to think and, nicely put, he was a little more sensitive. While getting bedtime kisses tonight he was sad and kept talking about how he didn't run. Told him it's okay and that we would try running again next time.

It was a lot for B-Bee to take in, on top of being tired already, and he had a hard time focusing and following directions. Then, he being our very literal child.... Well, when he was on 3rd base they told him to "run home". So he took off for the Exit. I'm sure that's a story he hopes I forget before he gets married someday.

Nellie watched her big brother with me from the sidelines, behind the plexiglass - decked out in her Twins onesie (B-Bee got to choose between Rockies or Twins, so Nellie matched him) and tutu. The cutest thing was the baseball on the butt of her onesie, especially since she does the "monkey crawl" all the time now. (She's SO close to walking!)