I can't believe it's the end of April already. The kids only have four weeks of school left and spring has officially arrived. Baseball is in full swing and even though it makes week nights kind of hectic we are all really loving it. Even Faith. She spends most of the games on the playground finding friends to play with, creating "cities" in the tanbark, practicing on the bars, etc... Tanner meets his friend, Gus, during Jake's games and the two of them play catch for hours on end. Brian coaches Tanner's team and is helping with Jake's team doing whatever needs to be done. Usually it is first base coaching and field prep. So our lives these days are governed by baseball- which in my book isn't such a bad thing.
Also on the sports front….the Warriors are in the playoffs for the first time since Faith was born. I vividly remember watching the playoffs with Auntie Sue and Mary here and holding my little baby girl in my arms. That was six years ago so having the Warriors in the playoffs again is pretty fun. Game 5 is tonight and the boys will be able to watch at least some of it before bed this time since it starts at 6. They all love seeing Uncle Eric on the sidelines and watching Curry- who Jake got to meet when he turned 8 (we still have a picture of the two of them together) hit his 3 pointers.
Faith is still loving Kindergarten and is an avid reader. She is reading chapter books now- crazy- and will read for long stretches on her own. I got her a "reading pillow" for her bed so she can sit up while she reads each night before going to sleep. Her latest favorite is the Princess Posey series. She is ready for first grade.... but I'm afraid I am really not ready to move past this Kindergarten milestone. She is still doing gymnastics right now but I finally had to bite the bullet and let her sign up for Optimist Cheerleading for the fall. This is the third year she has asked me to do it and I finally had to let go of my bias against cheerleaders and let her give it a shot- even though in my heart I really think it is silly. She will be cheering for Jake's team- the Blue Thunder. She loves art and doing crafts and bouncing on the trampoline. She likes to spell and write notes and recently I found this sign posted on her bedroom door: “No boys alowd! (ecept Dad)”.
Yesterday Faith's best friend, Abby, gave her a BFF necklace. So cute. Faith didn't even know what it meant so I had to explain it to her. But she loves the necklace. She and Abby are inseparable. In fact, she had Abby spend the night a few weekends ago. That was her first sleepover and she loved it! She is growing up so much- she is getting so tall and so independent. She is still her mama's girl, though, and loves snuggles and kisses and tickles. This Saturday she is going to the Merc's annual Father Daughter Dance with Brian. I took her out to get a special new dress and shoes for the event. She is really excited. They will have pictures first, then dinner with fancy drinks, then the dancing begins with a live band. I wish I could be a fly on the wall. I know they will be so cute together.
Talk about independent.... Tanner has really grown up a lot this last year. He has his core group of buddies and they are like the Three Amigos. They are always together. Lately he is into playing kickball and comes home with the absolute dirtiest knees you have ever seen. I guess he slides a lot. But, seriously, I can't keep up with the dirt. He often comes home from school just filthy from head to toe. I let him ride his bike to the Merc and the library this weekend. It was the first time I let him do it without an adult. I made sure Jake knew the rules: wait up for his little brother, stop at all intersections, and walk your bike across the streets. In a weak moment of "helicopter parenting" I have to admit I got in my car and watched from a few blocks back to make sure they were being safe. But after seeing that they were following my directions really well I regained my senses and went home. They never saw me and never knew that I was checking up on them.
He, too, is an amazing reader and reads every night at bedtime. Lately he likes the books by Andrew Clements (Frindle, The Report Card, etc...). Brian is reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe out loud right now and he is really into that story, too. Last week he won the character trait award for the first grade: Perseverance. Two students from each grade are picked to win and they are given an award and some cookies during a little after school celebration.
He loves math and art and baseball and bouncing on the trampoline. He is loving playing on the Yankees machine pitch team this year. His group of buddies are all on the team for the third year in a row and Brian says he will keep coaching them until it no longer works for Tanner. Jake stopped being able to be coached effectively by Brian around age 7 but so far Tanner seems to really like it still. Their team is so good- all the boys can hit and most can field. They are turning plays at first and second on a regular basis. It's so much fun to watch because he just so obviously loves it. He decided to play flag football in the fall and he is excited to give that a try. He spent two years watching Jake play Optimist Flag and has been anxiously awaiting the day when he would be old enough to join. That's going to make September and October REALLY BUSY with both boys playing football and Faith cheerleading. Wow. I'd better start gearing up now!
Jake only has four weeks left in fourth grade. Fifth grade just seems SO OLD and it is killing me. He has had a great year at school and has loved his teacher, Mr. Borjian. He still loves math and while he is a great reader, it is hard finding books that he likes. He's still not into fantasy but has at least branched out of just sports books into realistic fiction and is willing to listen to some fantasy when we read out loud. His anxiety is mostly behind him at this point (keeping fingers and toes crossed). Mostly school for him is social, though. He has his group of friends and it's a round robin of who is his best friend any given week. They all play kickball together and, from what I can gather, talk about which girls they like. He is still quite the ladies man- he gets notes passed to him from girls all the time telling him how cute, funny, and nice he is. It is so funny to me to see these girls with crushes on him and I am loving the fact that he will still share it all with me. Oh, my… I know we will have our hands full with that one in just a few years time. (Oh, wait... our hands are full with that one NOW... just not with regards to dating and girls yet!).
He is really enjoying playing AAA baseball again this year. I am so glad we encouraged him to stay in AAA instead of moving up to Majors. He gets to play all of every game in key positions: pitcher, short stop, second base, catcher instead of playing right field for a few innings every game like last year. He is definitely a leader on the team and it is great to watch him rally his teammates, cheer his team on, etc... A lot of the games are held up here at Hidden Springs which makes it easy and fun since Tanner and Faith can have the run of the school playground and keep themselves entertained during the games so I can actually watch. He won't play All Stars this summer, but will play Summer Ball, coached by Brian in late June and July.
Summer is coming up fast. The kids will spend 15 hours a week with Emerald and her family. We are so lucky. Emerald is the mom I always wished I would be but rarely come close to approximating: She does cool arts and crafts like paper mache and lets the kids get the house messy and muddy and takes them to the creek and plays game after game with them all. She is the mother of 4 boys and my three love hanging out there with them. She makes things for lunch like Kale Smoothies (and they actually like them!). We all love Emerald and those 15 hours a week help Brian and I keep our sanity while trying to work from home full time and have all three kids off school. In addition to Emerald’s we have lots of little trips planned. In June we will go to Sun Valley for five nights and stay at my boss’ house. In July we are heading to Redfish Lake Lodge for two nights with Sheila, Wayne, and two of their grandkids. In August we head to CA for a Giants game, Train concert, my b’day, and Mary’s 70th bday celebration. In between we hope to take our boat out for Happy Hour and Sunday trips to the lake. I already know how fast the summer days are going to go by and am already trying to figure out ways to make them last and last and last.
So we played our last Spring game last night. Tanners team lost, only their second loss of the season. Probably a game we should have won. Our first loss was to the division directors team. She is a great coach and had a bunch of good kids (we will get to face them next year in AA as both of us and most of the boys are moving up). But last nights game was a frustrating way to end a great season. We just didn't hit and made some fielding errors that we normally don't. Oh well. We went to Sonic for the end of the season party and like it does for most kids, ice cream eased the pain. 
Jake had a very Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of season. His team stunk on ice this year. He had too many boys who hadn't played enough baseball, where things that should be ingrained by this age weren't (IE. when you pick up the ball in the outfield you don't stand there with it while the runner is rounding third etc.). There were some much better teams and they just got pounded on. They could play some good baseball but not consistently enough or for long enough stretches to keep themselves in games. HE on the other hand played played lights out. He pitched (and was the best pitcher on the team - I think he started every game he was eligible), played catcher, 1st, 2nd and short (no outfield this year) and hit well (not strongly, but consistently). He also played EVERY PITCH of EVERY GAME. That was the big key for him this year. He could have moved up, but would have seen a lot of the bench. Staying down gave him the chance to play all the time, shine a little bit and get his confidence. He just loves baseball so much, all the other coaches and parents say to me all the time, 'Is that your kid? I just love watching him play.', which is great to hear. 
That doesn't mean the BASEBALL is over however. The league is in the middle of All Star craziness (Jake ISN'T playing this year), hosting a District Tournament, getting Summer Ball up and running and trying to re-fill board positions and chase down volunteers for next season already. I am one of the few returning Board members for next year and am trying to change the league into more of a year round commitment for people so we can continue to grow. THAT is taking a lot of my free time these days. I'm sure it's the same in all all-volunteer organizations, but 20% of the people involved do 90% of the work. We have some creative solutions that we are working on, but we are still struggling to get parents to realize that you don't get to just drop off your kid and NOT get involved. For boys anyway, the Little League experience is such a touchstone as they grow older, it's important to make it as good as we can, for as many kids as we can. 
