baseball buddy

so it was soccer night at the loons game the other night...and as we have four soccer players, we were afforded some great opportunities to participate in special events at the game...

first, molly's team played a little game on the front lawn of Dow Diamond...

does the girl know how to strike a pose, or what?!

while she was playing out front, i ventured inside with Porter, who was selected as a Baseball Buddy for the night....



we checked in at guest services and he got his special 'baseball buddy' tshirt...he had a little bit of time to relax (so we watched some of Molly's game out front) before he had to report back and get his 'instructions'...

he ventured down through the grounds crew entrance to the field, and i was directed to the best picture taking spot...and i didn't know how perfect it would be until later...

he had a bit of time to wait in the tunnel, but apparently there was plenty for him to watch...

and then they moved out in front of the dugout...where he had a much better view of...well...the dugout!

and the bullpen!

and at one point, the catcher missed one of the balls...and it rolled RIGHT TO PORTER. and he picked it up. and he threw it back to the catcher. and i swear i thought he was going to wet his pants. he threw a ball to a professional baseball player.
and then another pitcher from the bullpen made a little walk to the dugout...and he high-fived the baseball buddies on the way.

and then it was time....the starting line ups!!

i had no idea who Porter's buddy would be...but they had the kids all lined up in order...and then suddenly the announcer says
"PORTER BAKER AND FIRST BASEMAN, #36, JAMIE ORTIZ!"

first base! the closed position to picture-taking zone...the shortest run (that poor left-field baseball buddy....)

(and being soccer night, all the players were 'superimposed' in Manchester United uniforms, etc...which just so happens to be our fav professional soccer team)

porter chatted jamie up (though i'm not sure how much english he speaks...) porter was swinging his arms like he was up to bat and had lots to show his buddy...i asked him later what he talked about and he said "i told him how hard i could hit the ball"...

porter stood relatively patiently during the star spangled banner...but he is 6...and a boy...AND WAS STANDING NEXT TO A PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER ON THE FIELD...so, there's that. the camera man did include him in a bit of the 'big screen montage'...however, one camera-happy mom can only focus her lens in one place at a time...

and the moment the national anthem was over, you could tell that he followed directions to immediately exit the field. unlike some of the other kids who shook hand, or high-fived their buddies before taking off, i think porter just wanted to show jamie his speed.

as luck would have it...jamie hit a home run at his first at bat...we later discovered that he was drafted by the dodgers in 2006 and played for the Loons in 2008. this was his return to this team and his first game with them this season.

porter's soccer team was next up for soccer night duties as they were 'assigned' to lead the singing of the famed 7th-inning stretch along the 3rd baseline...well, a small group of 6 year old boys is not necessarily fit for that, so Jason (and our head coach, Doug) recruited all of our kids (and a friend or two!) to join along...

and some new, strange twist this year is that the 7th inning stretch ends with a 7th inning dance party...which the girls thoroughly enjoyed...and the video of Jason and Doug dancing will provide me years of enjoyment.

another great night at the ball park!

fowl fourth xxviii

and so another fowl fourth has come and gone....

there was some good godfather/godson bonding...

and i will never forget the dreams that came true at the annual softball game...if only i'd had the video camera on for porter's first 'at bat'...which quickly turned into a home run!

girls young and old entertained each other on the playground during the game...

and lots of fun was had at the 'port-o-potty' lake...despite the color!

and the recent adult entertainment addition to the festivities....


the pictures are 'blurry' to protect the innocent and the guilty...and i only have two words - plum cordial....

we also got in some geocaching, in a larger family group, which was fun, too!

molly found her first geocache all by herself....she's not proud, or anything!

the kids in their 'camping shirts' having a light lunch before the family potluck dinner...

and some unusual sightings as well...


over the course of twenty-eight years, this event has changed very much....from a tent city with our backyard pool and a screened-in garage game room that was open 24 - 7 to family camping throughout the Great Lakes...and while it isn't the same as it was when it began....it's still the same great people who gather and have fun as a family...and this is one tradition that i wouldn't change or give up for the world...

indy 500

it's not quite 500 miles to indianapolis from here (though driving with 4 kids it can seem like it is!) but we packed into the car for a road-trip weekend to visit my aunt and uncle. it had been a few years since we'd spent some time there, and the kids had a four-day weekend (conferences), so it seemed like a good time to skip town...and man oh man, did we have fun!

our first adventure was the children's museum...holy smokes, you could spend DAYS in there...lots of great things to do and see...


the dinosphere...full of dino bone replicas...and the sphere has 'storms', which molly will be quick to tell you about...and an excavating area...really cool.

and the lego exhibit - we spent a great deal of time in here, too...great lego castles and games to play...and, of course, building with legos!

how did she know to sit there?

the comic book display was also really impressive...lilly is flying through the sky.

other rooms with water tables and learning to juggle and race cars and stilts and miniature rooms and a really cool water clock...and well...it was cool.

if you find yourself in indy, you should get yourself to the museum. even without kids.

our remaining adventures were confined to my aunt and uncle's property....lots of movies (i bought twilight the day it came out) and kicking the soccer ball or throwing the frisbee...


'tractor rides' - i think porter might ask santa for a tractor for christmas...of course, most of the fun came when uncle doug decided he would switch from forward to reverse without porter knowing!

or making 'erasers' - they're not really going to fulfill their erasing duties very well, but they sure are cute!

and well....we were all pretty tired by the end of it all!

memories

i have very few memories of my great-grandma Reichard. in fact, in my mind, it's a few tidbits all associated with one visit with her, though i don't really know if they are all actually from the same visit.

i remember visiting her in her assisted living apartment. she had just gotten one of those recliner chairs that can lift you to help you get to a standing position.

we ordered pizza for dinner and she made a joke about how her doctor didn't want her to eat it, but because we were there, she was going to anyway.

she had a rosary on a table next to her TV watching chair. i remember asking her what it was and she explained it to me.

and...unfortunately...that's about all i remember.

but there is something i've never had of her...a picture.

i've only had the memories in my mind...and the visions of her from photos that other family members have displayed in their homes.

the most 'famous' of those is one that was a professional photo, taken with her and my great-grandfather...of whom i have no memory at all (i was extraordinarily young when he died).

and the other day, a most generous gift was bestowed upon me. i know the giver probably has no idea how much i appreciate her thinking of me as the new owner of this picture.

to have an actual photo now, to go with my memories...it's priceless to me.

as a scrapbooker, i record my memories through photos...and it is the hope that the photos and written memories together bring out that prism of our lives - once presented to me by the ever-impressive Stacy Julian - our memories alone are white light...but combine those memories with photos and meaningful words about them...and it becomes a prism. the true beauty that is our lives...whether you're scrapbooking a new baby, or just the contents of your refrigerator...or the limited memories of a great-grandmother that might otherwise go unrecorded...without the image that goes with it.

thank you, aunt elyce, for passing along this picture to me.
it means more to me that you will ever know.