This is what late April and May looked like:
Softball practice, softball game, keep smalls engaged without getting into poison ivy or falling off bridge into creek or blowing $30 at the snack stand or losing my mind, softball practice, softball game, run into field after bolting toddler, redirect, redirect, redirect. Repeat. Girls' Minors' Coaches were awesome, they all learned a lot about the game and true sportsmanship. Softball players are boisterous, cheering, chanting little ladies and it is a joy to watch their togetherness. I love when everyone cheers for everyone.
And our First Year Majors Player, "Bulldog." Some of the kids' games were at the same fields, at the same time, or only an hour overlap. Some games were at the same fields, but hours apart (which in parent terms, means your whole day is F'ed anyway, because you're either getting ready for baseball, waiting for baseball again, or recovering from baseball). And some fabulous-o games were at DIFFERENT fields at the same time. These were terribly fun. Chase made some great plays in the outfield this year and enjoyed being on the White Sox with a super-fun coach. Majors Baseball Players are serious about their game, they have mad skills (most of the just-for-fun kids have dropped out by now) and make some really awesome plays from all angles of the game. At the end of the season, the team went to one of the coach's Karate studios, and Roger drove them all in the bus, which either made us the Cool Parents, or the Really Weird Parents, we're not sure...
But the crazy baseball season was worth it....
Because, in June:
"WE.... ARE..... THE...... CHAMPIONS.... MY FREH-END..." Sing it, Freddie!
Yeah, both teams won big. Very exciting stuff.
A few other things happened in May:
Our peas and other things started to grow. This made us very happy. We watered them everyday, since none of that stuff was coming down from the sky at all...
We tried (and tried and tried and tried) to patch our animal-in-the-shed-eaten pool. The kids enjoyed the 10 inches of water for a while before we gave up.
We grilled. Until the grill caught on fire. Then we nabbed another one out of someone's trash. Then we caught that one on fire, too. There's usually a reason when people throw their grills out.
There was some of this. I would tell you what "this" was, if I knew...
We played in mud. Okay, correction, THEY played in mud. I just got stuck with laundry duty. For the ones wearing clothes, that is. That RJ, he's just so thoughtful...
This one pottied his heart out, and his pee and poop out. He's completely independent some days, and doesn't care at all on other days. All this time I thought that was a hat on his head, it appears to be a pair of underwear... I have no explanation.
And in early June (besides a shit-ton of play-off games and bringing home 2 championship trophies):
We supported by brother's non-profit by participating in the 2nd Annual Glo Run in Harrisburg, which raised money to replace street lights in the city. It was a late night for us with the race starting at 8:40 (so we could all GLOW, duh!). Riley at 4 was the youngest runner and got a time of 66 minutes. She ran some, she walked some. She stopped to watch the fireworks three times. She stopped to watch the band play. She stopped to make it echo under the bridge. I guess we'll have to work on continuity...
