I scream, you scream...

See me eat ice cream...

See me tell you to back off my ice cream...

See me to check to see if my Mom's looking...

See me Ninjago your butt for looking at my ice cream...

See me and my super kicker foot..

See Ella in the background looking like a goof...

Kiki Josephine (yes my cat has a middle name...stop judging me)

Ella stole my camera today and this is what she came up with...

T-ball finale

Luke recently finished up his first season of t-ball.  Unfortunately, the team didn't win a single game.  I'd say he enjoyed playing but he was most interested in what was for team snack after the game.  Not really surprising, is it?

Luke got the Player of the Game ball for the first game of
the tourney.  To say he was excited to get this honor would be a
complete and total understatement. We missed the game where he was presented
the ball so I made his coach do a reenactment the next game.
That's not embarrassing at all, right?

Is this the cutest couple ever or what?  Chase on the left
and Ella on the right.

Shooting at the walls of heartache, bang bang, I am the warrior**

**I gotta admit that I like this song. 

Over the weekend, Aron and I participated in a softball tournament to raise money for my cousin's child, Grant, who is 11 and had a brain tumor removed a couple months ago.  He's being treated with chemo and is almost done with his radiation.  The chemo is going to last for another 50 or so weeks (almost another year). 

The tournament required that the men hit with a 16 inch softball (which is huge for those of you who don't play) and the women hit with a regular 11 inch one.  I'm not gonna lie...it was a blast! 

Our team, The G Warriors, was made up of family.  We had a couple people that had never played softball on the team along with a couple more that had never played organized ball and/or only played T-ball.  Our first game was against some hard care softball players.  You could tell these people played every chance they got.  We made jackasses of ourselves every chance we got and had a great time doing it.  Aron was our pitcher and did as you would expect for someone who played T-ball for 2 years.  At first, the other team waited for a good pitch from Aron to swing at it.  I finally told them that they would need to start swinging away because it was likely as good as it was going to get from him.  It was a double elimination tourney and we were eliminated in 2 games.  We laughed like fools and had a great time for a good cause.  I would totally do it again (but don't tell anyone else that).

This is me, you know, "warrioring" and what not.

Me and my sweetie, Kat.  She had to google what to wear to a softball game (true story)
but we love her anyway.

Our line-up.  If you click on it to enlarge,
you'll see that right field was shared by Jeff and
an 11 year old.  I'll not spoil it but one of them
was the star of the show.

The hubs: The Babe Ruth
of T Ball, if you will.

Robin taking a beverage break in the dug out.

Robin falling on her butt after her beverage break
in the dug out.

Hubs at bat.

L to R: Me, Kat, and my cousin, Mandy

I think you know these characters but just in case
Jeff on left, Rob in the middle, Aron in back, and me in front.

Best Damn Team In the Land
Back L to R: Uncle Jack, Shlomo (Mandy's husband), Aron, Ben (cousin),
Robin, Josh, Bob, Karen, Jeff
Front: Mandy (cousin), Liam (Mandy's kid), Grant (honoree), Jarrod (super star), Owen
Me, and Julie

More random softball pics and assorted info for her memory book

Ok, so I don't do a memory book but since that's essentially what this blog is I'll put all this stuff here.

So proud of this kid!  She worked her tail off this season!

Beautiful sky!  (Ella's on third)

She's on the move!  One thing that's fun for some people to see is how
incredibly fast she is.  She can run out a crappy hit to the pitcher faster
than they can scoop up the ball and throw it to first to get her out.
Aron has nicknamed her "Gazella" which would be a combo of gazelle and
Ella.  She acts like she doesn't enjoy this but I think she does deep down.
Reeeeeeal deep down.  Another fun thing is that she's got a gun for an arm.  I've told
her to bypass her cut-off man and throw it straight to the pitcher from the outfield.

Look, Aunt Robbie "Alligator, crocodile, let's get funky for a while."

Milestone: Luke sleepover edition

Be good or I swear you'll never eat ice cream again, Luke.

Luke had a milestone over the weekend.  He went over to a friend's house to spend the night for the first time.  Reports from the friend's Mom indicates that things went well.  No fighting, no crabby pants.  Just a lot of pretend play about Ninjagos.

Please don't notice that only half the fence is painted.

I'm so out of here, Mom.  I'm moving in with Landon.

Walking down the alley from our house to Landon's house.

Welcome, Luke.  Thank you for stopping by.

First, we're going to play Ninjagos.  Second, we're going to
talk about Ninjagos.  Third, we're going to talk about how
we played Ninjagos.  Fourth, we're going to talk about the
Ninjagos we want to buy.  Fifth, we're going to talk about
playing to our true potential.  Sixth, we're going to play Ninjagos
This is also known as the circle of life when you're 6.

Field Trip #3: Bike Trail

The crew

 The kids and I decided to get a little adventurous this week and take a little trip on a bike trail.  We chose a trail between two towns.  It was 6 miles between the towns on the trail which was partially shaded.  At the end of the 6 miles, is an ice cream shop so we made a little pit stop there before turning back around.

Thankfully, she was only semi-serious

She was serious about
her ice cream, though!

As was this guy!

Doubles, I win!

They did great with very little complaining except right at the very end.
I'll take a little bit of complaining after biking 12 miles.

Aron's civic got a workout, too!

Softball season

It's been a busy summer with quite a few t-ball and coach pitch games to attend.  I think Ella has enjoyed that I'm one of her coaches.  I can't say it's been my favorite experience so this will likely be my one and only year of coaching.  Next year, I'll just focus all my energies to my sweet little Diddy-cakes (just one of her many nicknames). 

Thank you to all of our family and friends that came to the kids' games this summer!  We appreciate it and loved having you there!

Getting ready...

...set...

...go...

...score!

*Sigh*

Sorry but you'll just have to watch this video sideways.  Luke was playing with my phone the other day at Ella's softball game and didn't realize it was in video mode.  He's such a goof.

Wet, Hot, American Summer*

*I never actually saw this movie...I just find the title interesting.

I'm having a great summer!  No longer being employed has freed up a lot of time to hang with my awesome friends.  I've been more busy in the last month or so than I have in a long time.  Something about unemployment that makes people ask you to go places!

I've been doing stuff like this:

Did a little some  a significant amount of shopping
with these lovely ladies

Dined and rocked with these lovely ladies.

Saw the legend Neil Diamond
in concert

Rocked out with Lit.

Partied with these two.

And this band.

I pretended to lick my unsuspecting friend, Cathy.

I did other stuff besides this but those things were not as bloggable.  Who needs adjudication when I'm doing stuff like this?!