Who Is That??

Last week was VBS and the boys had a fabulous time (as always!). I signed Emilia up and she was all excited to go! Oh, if only you could have seen her on the first day. She popped out of bed, put on her favorite outfit of the day and said, "They'll love this outfit!"

And then she added the accessories, as only Emilia can do: multi-color flowered high-top shoes worn with Santa Clause socks and fishnet fingerless gloves, one turquoise, one hot pink. The multi-stripe handbag pulled the whole outfit together.

She was soooo excited!




And then I found out she wasn't really old enough.

Thank goodness my cousin Emily was working on the administrative end of things and volunteered to have Emilia in her "class." So everyday I packed up a little bag of crafts and goodies for Emilia to do in her "class." Although it wasn't really what Emilia was wanting, it worked out pretty well and I'd say overall she had a good time. One day when I picked her up, Emily told me that Emilia had been pretty grouchy. I asked Emilia about it. She was busily painting in her paint-with-water book and without looking up and in a nonchalant way she said, "Yeah...well...it happens." She is wise beyond her years.

One day I sent a pair of goofy glasses in Emilia's "craft bag." From the sounds of it she had a great time wearing them around the church and I know they've been a huge hit around our house! I meant to post these pics on Friday for my "this moment" but that moment got away from me and I never found the time. So here they are now!

Done

Well, guys, they did it! The Braves won the championship!

In a fantastic come-from-behind win, the Braves finished the tournament undefeated and became the 6 & under t-ball champs in Knoxville.

This is big time! :)

Seriously, though, I'm really very proud of Micah. God blessed him with such a fabulous attitude and spirit that all of the things that bugged me about this season went right over his head and he was able to just enjoy playing the game (and turning pirouettes in the outfield...and throwing dirt...and rubbing said dirt on his white uniform shirt). And I've thanked God more times than I can count that Micah was on this team and not Josiah or there would have been more issues because Josiah has a VERY different attitude. Josiah, in fact, has been giving Micah pep talks before the games with several comments thrown in about winning. All that just rolled off Micah, though because after winning last night, he was happy they had won, but he was also happy that it's over because he's ready to move on to swimming for awhile. Yay for summertime!

Since there's nothing like a few pictures to commemorate an event:
Micah with his championship medal (and still playing in the dirt)


The team posing under the scoreboard
Micah is in the front row, far right...and the score was 23-31

In the Running

Micah's baseball team finished the season in 1st place in our league. This past weekend they began playing in the city tournament and tonight is

THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.

Whoa.

I am constantly shocked by how seriously some people take t-ball. I mean, yeah, it's fun that he's in the tournament and it's pretty cool that they're in the championship game...BUT IT'S T-BALL, FOLKS. At these tournament games, there has been name calling, yelling insults AT THE KIDS, cursing, and to top it all off, the cops have been called out to the fields TWICE (that I know of). I mean, am I so off base (haha--no pun intended) by thinking that these people are taking this too seriously?

When I signed the boys up it was with the hope and expectation that they would learn about the game, how to play different positions, more about teamwork, how to run the bases, how to play their best at all times and to meet some new people. But above ALL of that, I wanted them to have fun. After the season started I realized I also want them to learn to have fun even when they aren't winning. I want them to learn that playing the game is fun, even if they lose sometimes. I want them to learn to be a good sport even when they lose.

While I realize that baseball is a competitive sport, I'm thinking that t-ball is not the place to put such an emphasis on winning. These are 5 and 6 year old boys who don't even understand all the parts of the game, do not have the mental capabilities for the analyzing and quick decision making that is necessary during play and have much shorter attention spans than the 2+ hours that they are out there. The entire game is filled with coaches, parents, other players shouting, yelling and screaming directions at the kids on the field to tell them what to do. And they get yelled at even more if they can't distinguish the right voice to listen to.

Personally, I'd much rather see them learning the game at this point and saving most of the competition for a level when they are able to really PLAY the game, not just follow directions from the loudest screamer.

But anyway. Tonight's the night...as long as it doesn't rain!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

Holden Beach...Day 7

Our last day.

But what an awesome day it was!

After an early morning breakfast, we snuck in a few last minutes on the beach with the Isaacson clan.


I've got to put this on here--check out these handsome boys!


Aunt Jenny wrote all the kids names in the sand...


After we'd all waved goodbye, the kids loaded up for a bike ride with gramma. The big kids, that is. Audra went to bed for a nap!



While all of the kids were otherwise occupied, John and I took the kayak out into the ocean. It was awesome! We only flipped 10 or 12 times. :) But flipping or not, riding the waves into the beach was AWESOME!!!






But it gets even better...if you look closely at the second to last picture (you may have to click on it to make it bigger) there is a dark patch in the water just behind us and to the left. It was a school of fish and you know what was swimming around the school of fish and eating? No, not a shark. I wouldn't have been so excited about that! I'd have FREAKED! No, there were DOLPHINS!! (Or were they porpoises?? Well, for simplicity I'll call them dolphins) Tom (thanks for taking these pictures for me, by the way) saw one RIGHT THERE while we were climbing back in after we flipped following picture #3. We missed it because we were focusing on not flipping again :) I got some pictures later, though, because those dolphins hung out with us all morning! AMAZING! I loved it! I've never seen dolphins at the beach before!!

In this one, you can see Emilia's head in the lower left corner, the dolphin is over on the middle right side.


Don't look where John and Josiah are looking, they're looking the wrong way! The dolpin is diving in over on the left!

This is a crop of the last picture. It's blurry but you can see the dophin diving back in the ocean.

Everyone waiting...looking to spot another dolphin

Once again, the dolpin is on the upper left. They look so far away in these pictures, but I'm telling you--they were RIGHT THERE!

This is a crop of the picture with Josiah and Micah. Seeing the dolphins was AMAZING!!


Audra having snack time with daddy.



Extended snack time with the kids :) In a pink chair, no less. Hahahaha!




After dinner we went for one more nighttime walk on the beach. Theoretically to look for ghost crabs, but I don't think anyone looked for them for more than 30 seconds. Really, it was just a fun walk on the beach playing with glow sticks--a good time for all of us!








Whew! What a fun trip we had to Holden Beach! Thanks, gramma and grampa for taking us! We had such a great time.

Holden Beach...Day 6

Today was Justin, Daniel, Matthew, Jen and Paul's last day with us at the beach. Justin is on an All-Stars baseball team (Yay!!!) and they have practice tomorrow night, so their crew is leaving a day early. (BOO!!)

So we crammed in as much as we could today.

Tom and Paul went to play golf this morning and the rest of us enjoyed some more beautiful beach time.

A little pink chair for Audra--she was so happy!!


Justin and Josiah playing baseball on the beach


Daniel and Micah taking on the ocean


Emilia jumping waves with Daddy


Love some Daddy-daughter time! :)


Have shovel, will travel


Today was the day of the big "Battle of the Sandcastles."
John worked very hard on his entry. And when I wasn't chasing kids and taking pictures and boogie boarding with Emilia, I helped him some.


This is Justin, Daniel, and Jen's entry. The powers that be declared a tie!!


This is Micah, riding a wave all the way to the shoreline. There's nothin' like it!


Emilia got to fly the kite with gramma today. She loved it! She struggled at first because every time she looked up the sun was in her eyes, but once she stole my sunglasses, she was golden. :)


After dinner we all made the annual trip to Treasure Golf (I think that's the name of it...) for a fiesty round of putt-putt. And let me give you all fair warning--watch out for Emilia, she's a MANIAC out there! She was all over the place swinging and swatting and chopping at the ball. She chased it all over the green so fast the ball (most of the time) never even stopped rolling!




And then there's Audra. She'll walk past you, pick up your ball and drop it in the hole for you. Guaranteed hole in one, if she's your caddy :)










We all had a great time, followed, of course by more ice cream!! Micah spotted his flavor for the night right away--TRASH CAN. Who knew? Not me, but Micah highly recommends it.




And just so you all know what I have to work with here...I was trying to take a picture of Emilia and Uncle Paul (because she INSISTED on eating her ice cream with him) and this is what I get...I ask for smiles, she scowls, smiles, scowls, smiles and it is up to me to time the click of the camera at the precise moment when she is smiling...I forgot to keep track of Paul's eyes at the same time.



Tomorrow is our last day. How does a week go by so fast??