T - Ball

This year we signed up for a different league of t-ball for Aria than we have done in the past. She gets to be on a team with all girls her age! And the best part is that Daddy is her coach! So far they have only had two practices, but she is already having a blast! I think Daddy is, too. Aria is thrilled to tell people that he is the coach. And having Dad as a coach is proving to be quite effective. So much for the 'T' in t-ball...

Don't worry. I haven't got ahead of myself. I know the tee will still be needed at times, but I am blown away by her growth in hand-eye coordination and ability to do the different skills needed for t-ball. It's not like we worked on hitting all winter in the basement. It is really fun to see her excited about playing, enjoying herself, and working hard to accomplish a more difficult skill. Plus, she is excited about her Daddy's favorite activity. It makes for great bonding for the two of them!

Now, for a way to convince the dog NOT to chase the ball. :)

Hoop It Up

Aria had her last Hoop It Up basketball last night and she definitely went out with a bang!  When we started out, Aria was the youngest and smallest player in the group.  She did not know how to dribble.  When she shot it, she could barely get the ball up to the net of the 7 foot hoop, let alone the rim.  And she had never heard of a bounce pass.

Little by little, each week Aria improved.  She quickly picked up on the passing techniques.  She instantly knew the correct terminology.  She went form not being able to dribble at all to being able to keep it going for 5 or 6 dribbles in a row.  Aria had a great time and always looked forward to going to basketball, but she was still the smallest and the youngest.  And she was not even close to making a basket.

Back up a week to our conversation on the way home from basketball after week 6 of 7.  Aria told me she had fun playing and liked basketball, but she did not want to do it again.  It took awhile to get it out, but her reason was because she could not make a basket.  I felt bad.  I felt like I put her in a situation where she was destined to fail.

I didn't really know what Hoop It Up basketball would entail when I signed her up.  She was excited to try it, so we did it.  In hindsight, I don't know that I want her experiencing sports with boys 2 years older than her, but oh well.

However, I don't think failure was our case.  While she was frustrated she didn't make a basket, she still loved going and had a smile on her face and tried everything with all her might.  She loved the games they played.  It was easy to see how much she improved throughout the session and to encourage her because of that improvement.  We were also able to praise her for working hard and listening to the coach.  Let me tell you, my girl is a rule follower and if the coach said to stand on the red line, she did not move from that red line.  And speaking of lines, she always knew her place in line and didn't allow any budging!

After all that, you can only imagine our excitement when on the very last night, during the game they played near the end, Aria finally made a basket!  Of course I cried.  It's what I do.  First, Justin and I both yelled really loud.  But then we had to hold back our cheers because Aria does not like it when you cheer like crazy and praise her a lot for things.  We didn't want her to cry so we just smiled and clapped and gave her a thumbs up.

The game was when your number is called, you run out, grab the ball, dribble to the basket and shoot.  You are trying to make it before the kid on the other team at the other hoop.  I was recording the game and I have all the 6 or 7 misses leading up to the big shot, but of course the camera stopped recording right before she made it.

The coach knew Aria was close to getting it to go in, so she kept letting her have more shots to try and make it.  Aria actually made her basket before the girl on the other end.  Everyone in the whole gym cheered for her.  It was really fun!  She did have a big smile on her face, but she also had this look of 'what's the big deal?  That is what you are supposed to do.'

I haven't asked her again if she thinks she would like to do Hoop It Up next year, but I think making the basket definitely boosted her confidence.  I'm sure we will be doing plenty of hooping it up at our own house between now and then.

So I Thought Blast Ball was Cute..

Now she is playing my favorite sport!

We called the rec department and asked for a special favor to join Hoop It Up basketball even though she missed the age cut off by a little less than two weeks.  She may be the smallest kid out there, but she doesn't notice.

And of course the only possible option to wear to Hoop It Up basketball is her basketball uniform.  This is the replica of my college uniform and what our flower girl wore in our wedding.

It just doesn't get much better!

First day comes along and Aria asked me if she would have to take turns and sit on the bench sometimes like Jaime did.  Then she said she would be number 25, not 24 like Jaime.  Then she asked what my favorite number was.  25.  What's yours?  25.

So we go to Hoop It Up basketball and I figured I would stay on the court and help her out.  She can't quite get it to the basket when she shoots and there are balls flying everywhere, but she was not one ounce afraid.  After we practiced a little bit, she says,

"Aren't you going to go sit on those chairs and watch me?"

Well okay then.

She had an absolute blast running around, trying to dribble, learning the bounce pass and the chest pass, and shooting.  She got hit in the face with the ball and didn't flinch.  She didn't come close to making a basket, but shooting was her favorite part.  I couldn't believe I was watching my girl play basketball, even at this very entry level.  I now have a glimpse of what it was like for all those parents to sit in the stands.  What an experience!

And when we got home, "Dad, will you come downstairs and shoot some hoops with me?"

The enthusiasm is beyond anything I've seen yet!  Wooo hooo for basketball!

Pegump Pumpkins Year 4

Every October of Aria's life we've had a great time decorating pumpkins.  This year was a first in that Aria designed and helped carved her pumpkin herself.  She was super excited about it and poked plenty of holes in her pumpkin with the little carving tools.  This was also the first time she touched the guts of the pumpkin and enjoyed it. 

Aria wanted to make a face in hers.  Justin and I tried out free handing our own designs.  You can definitely tell his is a G for Green Bay.  The St. Louis was challenging and I cut out a chunk I didn't mean to, but we weren't going for perfection.  Most of all we had a blast and spent time together as a family! 

Cardinals-Dodgers

Tonight is game 6 of the NLCS Cardinals vs. Dodgers, the perfect series for our house!  We are guaranteed a team to root for in the World Series.  We are mostly girls against boy on this one.  I started early...

We've heard "Go Cardinals" and "Go Dodgers" in the middle of the night as Aria dreams about baseball. 

This is the only sport where we disagree, so it is fun to share a little banter back and forth.  #housedivided

PS: Aria's shirt is circa 1980s from my closet.

PPS: The good team is winning!

Vacation --The Little League World Series

Okay.  This place is so. incredibly. cool.  I mean, we walked through the gate and it took both of our breath away.  There was a story in the official program about how you can watch the event on tv and think it is wonderful, but then you come and experience it and you are blown away.  So very true.  My pictures won't do it justice, but look at the fields:

Volunteer Stadium

Lamade Stadium

They were pristine, major league level cared for, just absolutely beautiful.  And it is done by volunteers!  It doesn't cost anything to get in and most of the people there are friendly and lovers of pure baseball.  The whole complex is just amazing and it is all for 10 days of World Series for 11-13 year old boys from around the world.  Around the world.  Baseball loving boys all over this planet dream and work for their chance to come to this place.  Take a look at how many miles these teams traveled:

I mean Perth, Australia, 11,490 miles and a whole hemisphere away.  It is currently winter there.  They had their regular season back in December.  Can you imagine the travel arrangements and the jet lag and culture change for these kids?  But they come because they love baseball.  And do you know what?  So do the kids from Newark, Delaware who only traveled 146 miles to get there.  Isn't it incredible that all parts of the world and many different languages can be brought together for the love of baseball?  It just doesn't get any better than that!

Thursday was the first day of action and we arrived early, in time for Opening Ceremonies.  We parked in a lot across the street from the complex for $5, which was 100% donated to the American Cancer Society.  There was a sign that said they raised $152,000 for the American Cancer Society at last year's World Series.  So very cool.  Anyway, for the Opening Ceremonies, first they brought out young kids carrying flags for each country and state represented at the World Series.  It looked like this:

Then, each team was paraded out and everyone cheered wildly for them.  Even the umpires got good cheers!

Next came the Little League pledge (which begins with I trust in God) spoken by a Little Leaguer in each of the languages represented and also the parent/coach pledge spoken in each language.  That was really cool to hear.  The mayors of Williamsport and South Williamsport both spoke and there was something from Kelloggs Frosted Flakes, the major sponsor, and a ceremonial first pitch from Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry.  It was all really fun to watch.  Of course, Aria liked Tony the Tiger the best.

Finally we got to watch a game.  The first one we watched was The Caribbean vs. Latin America, aka Puerto Rico vs. Panama.  It was just so fun to watch the kids play, especially the international teams.  We were sitting next to this guy who used to play football and coach at Michigan State.  There was also a family from Michigan who were Michigan fans.  And there we sat as Iowa fans in the middle of Penn State country.  It was just fun to chat with those people about the Big Ten and sports in general.  Like I've said, pure sports.  We let Aria pick one treat per day at the games.  Day one was cotton candy.  She had a lovely cotton candy beard and moustache.

Panama ended up blowing the game open a bit so we left a little early to get a seat in the other stadium for  Texas vs. Washington.  Well, there weren't any seats, so we headed to the infamous hill to watch the game.  This is how Aria took it in:

This was our view.  It was an interesting perspective from the hill.  It was very steep and hard to sit on, but we managed.  People had plastic chairs with the back legs practically sawed clear off to account for the slope.  We didn't get any home run balls, but we were right next to an ESPN camera.  Not sure if we ever made it on tv.  California ended up beating Texas pretty soundly.  We called it a day after that game and headed back to the hotel for more swimming.  :)

On Day 2 of the games, the game we wanted to see the most was Iowa vs. Delaware, which was not until 8:00 pm.  We had a lazy morning and didn't head to the complex until the afternoon.  Our first stop was the Little League Museum.  It was a lot of fun to see all the memorabilia and history of Little League.  It really is incredible how long it has been around (1930s) and how many people have been a part of it.  It was an interactive museum and I think Aria's favorite part was "running the bases."

It was just home to first, but there was a timer to see how fast you could go.  She was on a loop with it for awhile.  Thankfully there was no other kids wanting to do it.  We also sat in a model dugout and Justin attempted to "catch a fly ball."

After the museum we went down to the fields to take in some games.  The US game that was going on that afternoon was packed.  We didn't really see a place to sit, even on the hill so we decided to just find a seat in the other stadium for the Japan vs. Czech Republic that was soon to start.  We ended up sitting in there next to the grandparents of the boy who was pitching for Iowa that night and his little brother.  The kid was really nice and gave Aria a Bomb Pop pin.  Needless to say her treat of the day was a Bomb Pop.

It was incredible to hear about the Iowa team and how much it took for them to get to the World Series.  At the beginning of the series that had not been home for more than 2 weeks.  That means it would be a month of travelling for baseball.  They also told about all the things given to the players like bats, shoes, uniform, etc and some of the sacrifices parents had to make.  For example, one hour after the Iowa team qualified for the World Series, the parents had to commit to a hotel room, probably $200 + a night for a minimum of 6 nights.  Of course they could have searched for their own lodging, but if they wanted one of the rooms in the block reserved for the Midwest team, they had to reserve right then and there.  Crazy.  It was fun to meet those people and we were able to watch the US game on a tv while we waited for the Japan game to start.

Japan, wow!  They were like a machine.  They eventually became the champions and we could see why.  Their infield before the game was phenomenal.  At one point the second baseman backhanded a ball and flipped it from his glove to the shortstop and the shortstop turned the double play.  It was as smooth as butter.  The crowd cheered for that play and it was just in warm up!  The Iowa boys were lodged next to the Japan team and they learned that Japan practiced 3 times per day for 2 hours at a time, ran up to 4 miles per day and had time in the batting cages.  Unreal.  They were definitely fun to watch and they did seem like they were having a lot of fun getting to play there.

Part way through the Japan game I went over to Lamade stadium to reserve our seat for the Iowa game.  I sat there for 2 hours so we could have a good seat near the Iowa crowd.  The stadium filled up so fast.  Because it is all free, general seating, you have to get there early.  Even though we didn't know any of the people, it was fun to cheer for our state.  It was also fun to be there for the prime time feature game of the evening.  We finally got to see Dugout the mascot bear and all his antics like dancing with players, coaches, umpires, and volunteers.

We were bummed that Iowa lost that night and even more bummed that we were headed for home the next day and weren't going to see any more baseball.  I definitely could have stayed and watched the games all 10 days.  To this baseball fan, it was that cool.

One more cute quote from Aria, of course they sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the 4th inning stretch of each game.  She picked up on the song and enjoyed singing, "Buy me some peanuts and pepper jacks."  Pretty adorable.

Whew!  What a fun experience!  We will definitely be back.  I don't know when, but I could see, when we are retired, Justin and I going out for the whole 10 days.  If you love baseball, you just have to go.  There is nothing like it!

Vacation Part 1

Last week we went on an amazing week long vacation to Niagara Falls in Canada and New York and to the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  It overwhelms me to think about describing the whole thing in one post, so I think I will do several little posts instead.  Here is an overview of our week...

Friday night: Travelled to my parents' house to cut out an hour from our long trip on Saturday.  Enjoyed a great time in the pool at hotel Grandma and Papa's.

Saturday morning:  Aria woke up around 5:45, which wasn't too big of a deal because we could get ready and get on the road.  We left a little before 7:00 am Central Daylight Time to head for Canada.

Saturday lunch: We actually drove for a little more than 4 hours without stopping all the way to a state park along Lake Michigan in Michigan.  It was good to knock out such a big chunk of driving right away and the scenery for lunch was amazing!

The water was super cold and Aria was nervous about the crashing waves, but we had a blast along the beach for a couple of hours.

Saturday afternoon/evening: We headed across Michigan for Canada.  When we planned this trip we went back and forth and back and forth about whether we wanted to get passports and go into Canada.  We finally learned about passport cards, which allow you to travel by land or sea to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean and decided to bite the bullet and get them.  So very glad we did!  We stopped for supper right before we crossed into Canada.  Here is what it looked like:

Customs really didn't take too long in this instance.  We sat there about 20 minutes.  Aria only needed her birth certificate for identification.  It was really easy.  Then, we were in only the second country we have ever visited!  It was Aria's first time leaving the US.  It didn't really look a lot different other than this:

I don't know why, but it just looked so strange to see the Canadian flag flying everywhere.  And, of course it was weird to adjust to kilometers.

Saturday night: We arrived at our hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada around 10:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time.  It was a long day of driving, but Aria was a trooper.  We heard a lot of Dora from the Leap Pad and listened to several books on cd.  She also took a nice long nap.  I am thankful for a husband who prefers driving, which meant I got to read a lot!

Sunday-Tuesday: We spent these days in Niagara Falls, on both sides.  The only time it was frustrating to go back and forth across the border was when we sat for about 90 minutes waiting to come back into Canada to our hotel one day around 5:00 pm.  I will share more about this part of the trip in another post.

Tuesday night-Saturday: We travelled to Pennsylvania for the Little League Baseball World Series.  Why, you ask?  We are sports people.  Justin is a baseball person and I have inherited the trait over the past 12 years.  Most of all we like pure sport without all the business and cheating.  You don't get much more pure than Little League.  We always love watching the LLWS on tv and put it on our bucket list to go someday.  We decided this was the year.  And it was incredibly awesome.  I will write more about this part in another post, as well. 

We did the same insane driving when we came home on Saturday, only it was a little bit farther from Pennsylvania.  We left around 7:30 am Eastern and got home around 10:30 pm Central.  It was a haul, but I'm glad we just got it over with in one day. 

Best random quote about our trip, "Pennsylvania!  Why is it even called that?  They don't have any pencils there."  Gotta love the literal mind of a three and a half year old.

Oh, and I kept 479 pictures from the trip.  Don't worry, I won't put them all on here.

Alumni Volleyball

Basketball has far and away always been my favorite sport.  There was little doubt from a very young age.  However, I played other sports all throughout my childhood and high school.  In my town, volleyball was huge.  We had a great coach and great tradition.  I remember watching the high school volleyball players when I was a young girl and I wanted to be like them and get to do the cool stuff they did.  I also have a lot of really great memories from when I was in high school and all the volleyball games, practices, and summer workouts and camps we did. 

So, this past weekend, some people from my hometown put together an alumni volleyball game as a fundraiser/benefit for a woman with cancer.  She was about 7 years older than me, but I knew her because our parents were friends and it was a small town, so everyone knew everyone.  She played volleyball and so did her sister, who was a senior when I was a freshman.  Our coach, who left after my junior year for a bigger school, came back and hosted a camp for younger players and helped organize the alumni game. 

I can't even describe how awesome the evening was.  It was kind of like a class reunion, but a whole town reunion.  There were so many people there I haven't seen for many, many years.  There were about 30 women who played in the alumni volleyball game.  I got to play on a team with the exact same starting line up from my senior year.  It was so fun!  I haven't played volleyball since high school, but it was amazing how quickly it came back. 

The really cool part was just the support for Sarah, the lady with cancer.  She no longer lives in the town, her parents moved away, her sisters moved away.  But so many people came out to support her; travelled several miles to support her.  It speaks volumes for small town community and for our former volleyball coach.  I wish I was able to put in words how wonderful it was.  I don't go to my hometown anymore because my parents don't live there, so it was extra special for me to see people I grew up with.  It was fun to see everyone's kids, especially to pick out who belonged to whom as they ran around the gym.  Aria had a good time playing with the girls of one of my very best friends from my whole childhood 0-18.  It was quite nostalgic to watch them play together.  Super awesome event!  Kudos to those who made it happen.  I'm not sure it could ever be duplicated!

Yes I Am Going to Post About Blast Ball Again

Because...

Minus the car seat she looks like she's about 13 with her pony tail and head band.

And because they learned how to field a ball last week.  One batter hits the ball to one fielder.  Batter must run to first base before fielder grabs ball and yells Blast Ball. 

Those were her mad fielding skills.  She definitely wasn't the loudest Blast Ball yeller, but I don't mind that so much.

And there's these, too.

 

 

I really do love watching her get into these sports!