Baseball Fun!

We all had a lot of fun this spring and summer watching Jack play Pee-Wee baseball for the first time. He got pretty good at hitting and fielding, too! But his real love is running the bases. At one practice, the coach timed all the kids as they ran around the bases, and Jack had the fastest time of all: 14 seconds! He was thrilled (especially since he wiped out on his first attempt...he was really cookin'!).

When Jack signed up to play baseball with the ACC league, he officially became a member of the Indians' Knothole club. He got to participate in a fielding clinic held by the Indians, which was a lot of fun. He actually got to go on Victory Field and work with one of the minor league players. He had a ball! It was a very cool event...the Indians players divided all the kids into age groups and then took them to different "stations" to learn cool stuff. Jack's player, an outfielder named Raoul, taught all the kids how to catch fly balls against the left field wall. Jack had a lot of fun slamming himself into the padding. Later, during the game, Raoul hit a homerun! But, the highlight of the season came at the end when Jack was awarded the "Charlie Hustle" award. We couldn't be prouder of our little man!

Sam also enjoyed Pee-Wee baseball. The ballfield where Jack played was adjacent to a nice playground, so Robin and I took turns pushing Sam on the swings when he got bored with all the action. Sometimes, though, he was content to just sit on the bench and watch the kids play (but not often). We have also discovered that Sam is quite a slugger himself! He likes to have someone (and that can be anyone, Jack included) toss a ball to him and he swings just like a big boy. Then he runs like the dickens all around the yard. He likes to be chased...well, sort of. He likes to be chased UNLESS you actually catch him. Evidently, that's just not as much fun. ;-)

Now that we (finally) have a fenced-in yard, we play baseball in the back quite a bit. It's a lot of fun to watch the boys play together. Sam likes to play the outfield and shag balls after Jack hits them, and then chase him down. It's a riot!