Easter 2013

The best part of Easter this year was the neighborhood party. Brian and I volunteered to hide eggs first thing in the morning so we left the kids at home and went down to the Merc for a quick breakfast before heading to the field to hide (literally) thousands of eggs. While we were there we were visited by the neighborhood red fox. He has an injured leg and limped around the area, coming as close as 10 feet of us and ultimately stealing a couple of the eggs we were hiding, going back up on the hill, breaking them open and eating the candy inside. Clever little guy. We went home and  brought the kids down so they could see him and also so they could  help  with the rest of the set up. They had a very important job of “Bunny Wranglers”. There were 4 bunnies set up in a hay bale arrangement and they kept trying to escape. We knew Faith would be all over that job!

In addition to the Easter Egg Hunt there was face
painting, a bounce house, craft stations, a sack race, and a tug of war. We all had a really good time hanging with friends and playing together as a family.

Easter morning brought the traditional Easter egg hunt with too much candy and the written clues in eggs leading to a fun present (Alan Family Tradition). The clues this year led them to a water mister system for the trampoline. Since they always want to pour water on the tramp in the summer, we thought a mister might be fun for them and allow them to bounce even in 90+ degree weather.  Nana gave them a trip to the movie theater to see The Croods (we were supposed to go Easter Day but Nana was sick so we postponed it for another weekend).  A trip to the “REAL” movie theater downtown is always a treat!!

It was a gorgeous weekend- 70 degrees and sunny. And, once again, I was amazed by how wonderful the first beautiful, warm weekend of spring is after a long winter. The Hefeweizen came out, lawn chairs were dusted off, and the yard work began.  The kids played outside from morning til night (when we had to drag them in to get them ready for bed). This is just a sample of things to come in the months ahead. I love it.

Leading off and playing 2nd base.....

Another baseball season is underway. Jake is playing AAA again this year, while Tanner has moved up from TBall to Pitching Machine. Faith decided mid way thru last season that she really didn't like baseball and didn't want to play again. I think she's too much of a free-spirit for the stuctured game that baseball is. 

I am also on the board of directors this year as the information officer. It has been an eye opening experience how much work goes into playing a kids game. As the information officer, I am responsible for the league website, all the schedules and scores, all the league communication and database and this year I handled our registration as we tried to re-build the process to make it easier on the parents. Needless to say this is a lot or time and work. But I am a big believer in the power of youth sports to shape character and baseball in particular that it feels good to help out by giving back. I have met a bunch of great people and made some great friends in the process of getting the season started. I am the division director for Summer Baseball as well, which is a skeleton program so it's basically just  me and I can do what I want. This year I am going to let Tanner play up and he and Jake will be on the team I coach, so that should be a lot of fun also. But in the immediate future, I am the Pitching Machine Division coach for Tanner's Yankees team. 

His team is the Yankees (at Tanner's insistance) for the third year in a row. It's a few of the same boys from last year, with a couple of additions from the Y Basketball team I coached this last season, plus a couple of new kids. We have just had practices so far and games don't start until next week. Tanner is playing catcher and loves it so far. He did take a pitch off the arm the other night and it hurt. He is number 8 and his new favorite player is Yogi Berra (also a Yankees catcher who wore #8). Proud dad aside, he's also the best player on the team by a long shot. I thought it would take him a bit to adjust to the machine, but the first time up he was driving balls back up the middle and into the outfield on the fly. He's going to have a great season, but I can already tell that this is going to be his only season in Pitching Machine. Next year he'll move up to AA kid pitch. 

Jake is in AAA again this year. At 10, you have to try out for Majors, which he did, but you have the option of requesting to stay down in AAA. I know a couple of the Majors coaches and he would have gotten drafted up if we wanted to, but that likely would have meant less playing time, against bigger pitchers and a lot of bench time, just given his age and size. By staying down in AAA, he'll play more, he'll pitch more and he'll be one of the better players in the league. The only downside to this plan is he got drafted by a team that's not very good. Our first game was the other night and we lost 8-0. But Jake got to catch, play shortstop and close the game out on the mound. He played the entire game and did really well. His team may not have such a good season, but he will I think. 

We had our opening day yesterday. As a board member I was at the field ALL DAY helping with the festivities, but I really enjoyed it. We are talking about making a bunch of changes next year and I will be one of the few returning board members, so I am trying to get some new ideas up and running. I love baseball, and I love little league. 

If you would like to see our league website and what I do, click here . You can also see the schedules and follow Jake's team in the scores and standings. Tanner is the Rookie (Pitching Machine) Yankees and Jake is the AAA Rockies. We'll get some photos posted soon. Until then, PLAY BALL!