First day of school

Dad with Emma and Will before our first class day of Classical Conversations today! Ready to go and it even "felt" like school...a beautiful fall day!

Leap!

Blueberry picking

Every year we go to Lockbriar Farm to pick blueberries...they are the best!


Will mostly picked liked this.






Emma did a great job!


Beautiful! So much fun!

A week of fun at VBS

Emma had a blast going to VBS at our church for the first time this week! She did a great job with her class and came home with lots of stories and memories each day.


Will desperately wanted to go, but he was just a little to young for us to be able to swing it this year. He did get to participate in the giant water slide the last day! He and his buddy, Dean, we're the first in line.


Which also meant they had to wait for the 50+ other kids in their group to go before they could go a second time! It was hard fought-for patience experience for both of them, and they did great :)


Emma didn't nap all week; she seemed to thrive off the excitement from VBS each day. But Friday evening it all caught up to her. We drove to a local creamery for ice cream and she fell asleep on the way...and was un-wakable!


We unbuckled her, tried to wake her while we ate our ice cream, and even put some on her mouth and she was just out. She went right to bed when we got home!

A nap-less day

Will didn't nap then other day, and it caught up with him VERY quickly :)

Reading on the couch after dinner, he was sacked out by 6:30.



And didn't budge when we got up and left him. And not an eye opened when we took him upstairs and put on a diaper. Twelve hours later he was awake!

Afternoon pick-me-up

Cup o' joe and cup o' cookie...


Mmmmmmm :)

Buddies

Will and his friend Ella are great buddies when they aren't trying to shove each other over. Thankfully, they have been much kinder to each other lately!

Naps

Summer has finally seemed to catch up with these kiddos. Emma has been catching some afternoon Z's once in a while again.


And they have even been napping at the same time (all three of them!).


Now, if only I could snag a nap too one of these days ;)

A morning at the library

Will maneuvered the ocean animals and trucks through the doll house.


And Emma spent nearly an hour on this construction.


The finished product! A castle? Nope, a library! And she did the whole thing herself. (These connectors are going on our Christmas list.)

What's that burning smell?

Mmmmmm...yellow crayon in the toaster!

A portrait

Emma recently produced this note for me.

"Mommy, I drew you and Daddy at your wedding. See I made Daddy taller than you!"

Emma, it looks like I'm taller than Daddy.

"Well, you are fatter than Daddy!"


Oh boy, thanks Emma!

More hiking

Sometimes they fight like cats and dogs, and then sometimes there's these sweet moments:

Rugsby

Will loves dogs, even when the dog is the size of a pony!

Watermelon

Broken

I snapped a drumstick playing at church on Sunday...no small feat on an electronic kit!

A recent hike

These two have turned into pretty good hikers!

Excited

Someone sounded out a whole sentence! It was "Al had a bat."

Spider-boy

At the ball field

One of the perks to having a righty and a lefty...no one has to leave their batters box during BP :)

Date with Mommy

Will was thrilled to have mommy all to himself...


and pick out his special cake pop!

Future guitarist?

The band in training

"What Steven Curtis Chapman song do you want to play next?"

Mail helper

Someone is getting a special piece of mail very soon!

Special visitor

Sticky

One of the perks of helping make marshmallows...licking the mixer whisk.

Game 1

In honor of the Orioles Opening Day, I want to share something I wrote after going to a playoff game last fall. It was the Orioles' first time in the playoffs since 1997, and the first playoff game that I ever attended.          

  Brick warehouse. Tall, wrought iron gates. The late afternoon sun will soon be gone. A slight mist falls from the cloudy sky. The crowd is brimming with orange and black wardrobe choices. I blend in perfectly. Snake through the crowd with ticket out, then through the gate. Ushers hand out orange rally towels and fans BUCKle up for Game 1.

            The cool mist turns quickly into a downpour. I eat my hotdog faster. The flood of people shuffle slowly down the ramps, accelerating at the bottom and moving rapidly across the bronze hero-strewn courtyard to take shelter under the grandstand and out of the rain.

            Frequent choruses of “Let’s Go O’s” echo through the sea of slow moving fans. We look for an open place to stop and talk but it’s hard to find. I yell over my shoulder, “This is how it always used to be!” Just three months previous the crowds were half as large.

            Senses are heightened, mine and everyone else’s. The cold night air seems fought off by the collective body heat of the masses. Ballpark scents drift above our heads – barbeque, popcorn, and plenty of cigarette smoke. Shuffle along some more, moving through the crowd and glancing up at section numbers…76, 73, 69…close enough. Squeeze out of the river of people and join the smaller group moving through the concrete tunnel to our section. The lights get brighter; emerge into the open night air.

            My stomach tightens and releases almost simultaneously. Is this real? Playoff ball returns to the Yard, and I’m in the stands? The buzz of people is quieter out here in the open, but even more electric. Across the stadium I hear distant cheers, nearby shouts of excitement and high-fives exchanged.

            Sixty-eight, almost missed our section. Row 19…stairs…26, 25, 24…. don’t trip, don’t trip…20…19. Check the ticket, seat 13, wet from the rain, and mine for the night. The rain has stopped, 30 minutes to game time. It’s really happening! Take some photos, big grin.

            A slight mist begins again. It’s still surreal, trying to take it all in. Without warning I hear it, slow taps become rapid drumming. As the heavens open we join the mass exodus up the stairs to hide back under cover again. I guess I dried off my seat a little too quickly.

            The game will be delayed; the rains come harder. The crowds buy more beer, eat more nachos, smoke more cigarettes. Now it feels cold. A biting, stinging wind hits my face. Legs grow stiff. Hands grow cold. Nearly two hours past game time. Fears of a cancellation start to creep in. Then a cheer erupts from inside the stadium. Back to the seats, it’s just misting now. Tarp still on the field but the grounds crew is waiting just undercover. They race onto the field to thunderous applause. A new game time is announced. We’re going to see some playoff ball tonight.

            The fans are beyond excited. This team has nearly erased 15 long years of disappointment and embarrassment. The true test starts tonight. The hated Yankees always seem to work their sorcery. Yet this year the numbers came out even.

            The packed house of orange and black cheers every strike, stands for every out, and celebrates each solid at-bat. It’s passion, no doubt. Passion that even the two New Yorkers behind comment about, “This is legit. They don’t cheer like this in the Bronx.”

            A close game was expected, and so was delivered. Two runs a piece. Every heart beats quicker. Legs start to ache from standing on tiptoe to see over the standing crowd. Hands sting from clapping. The night is quite cold now. A double to start off the bottom of the eighth ends up being wasted and no run tallied. If we can just hold them here we have one more shot. Or even force extra innings. I like our odds in extra innings this year.

            Our closer comes in; he’s the best in the game this year. He’s got this. The first batter of the ninth connects, high fly ball down the line, down our left field line. Stomach lurches, watch the ball. Left-fielder goes back but has no chance. Not 50 feet from me the ball lands in the stands. They’re up, we’re down. Overeager fans throw two balls back on the field. It doesn’t’ matter, the run still counts.

            Then suddenly the game goes from bad to worse. Five runs score. The fans are speechless, stunned. Down one run was bad enough. Can this team come back with five?

            Groundout. He’s only 20, what did you expect? Strike out. So much for all those late season homers. A double with two down seems more like drawing out the loss than a last chance rally. Strike out. It’s over. Game 1 loss in the books. Midnight came and went. Realization of the hour, the cold begins to dawn. It’s a somber group of orange and black that walks back past the same concessions that once kept them warm as they anticipated victory.

            It’s a loss then. It’s another “what a waste” just like 15 years ago. But it’s not. This was just Game 1. This team has shown their stuff when backed up against the wall. They’ll be back tomorrow night, ready to pull the series even. The fans have seen magic happen too many times this season to let one defeat ruin our dreams.  Something’s happening in Baltimore. These Birds will be back.

Baking

Will's love for cooking is not limited to helping out in the kitchen; he's been cooking on his own!


His oven, with a full tray of cotton balls:


Just add a little tea while they are baking.


Make a few adjustments with the tongs...


Perfect!


Ok, it's hot so I need the hot pads.


Mmmm, looks what I made!


It smells so good!

Little writer

Emma's favorite pastime right now is copying words and practicing her writing. Her penmanship has improved a ton, just in the past few weeks. She really enjoys writing notes to each family member and usually she asks me to spell whatever she want to write. (My oral spelling skills have improved nearly as much has her handwriting!)

On this particular day she had me spell "Mommy I love you" and then handed me the note. I took a quick glance and thanked her, then did a double take:


OMG! Diva LOL

Apparently she was also copying words from a set of stickers that somehow ended up in our sticker bag. Cracked me up! But we also had a nice conversation about words she doesn't understand...and I need to take a closer look at the stickers!