Ellie's Birthday

Wow, it's so hard to believe my girl is 11. I remember so clearly the day she was born. We had a great day on June 17. She woke up and opened her gift from us and Grammy. It was just what she was hoping for, an iPod touch. At 1:00 she had 3 friends come over. We went to the Kroc Center for over 3 hours of swimming fun. Then we came home for mani/pedis, singing, dancing, pizza, cake, talking about crushes, opening presents and movies past midnight. The girls had a blast and best of all Ellie was so happy. I couldn't even begin to express in words how proud I am of this little girl. She is an amazing person and I am so lucky to be her mom! I love you Ellie!

Antonia, Kassidy, Ellie, and Madi

Jack meets Jacquizz

Look who walked into the Ram for dinner. We go to the Ram on Sunday nights at least once a month. Kids eat for $1. So we were sitting there and in walked Jacquizz Rogers(star of the OSU football team and Jack's favorite player). After some discussion if that was really him, and yes it was me who insisted it is him! The older ladies in the group told us it was Jacquizz and Jack could get a picture and autograph. They asked if we knew which professional team he was playing for and of course Jack knew. He had been following the draft to see where Jacquizz was going, Atlanta Falcons for the record! What an awesome day! He was so excited. We printed a picture that night and he took it to school the next day to show all his friends!

Civil War Baseball

Last year we went to Civil War Baseball in Corvallis, this year it was Eugene. Eugene has a beautiful new stadium with a great area for the kids to play, but the weather wasn't the greatest. I guess it could have been worse, it did stop raining after the 2nd inning. So the kids still had fun. We ran into some Salem friends who are Beaver fans like Jack so he had a good time with his buddy.

Softball season

Ellie played AAA softball again. The season started a little hard because several of her friends made it to majors and she had to play AAA again. In the end it ended up being a good thing because she got to be the star on her team. She also got a ton of playing time, only sitting out 1 inning in 1 game. Big fish in the little pond, I already taught her that saying. She mostly played catcher which she loves and is very, very good at. When someone else caught she played all around the infield. At this level she can play any position. Her hitting made great improvements and I think this year was a major confidence booster for her. She absolutely LOVES softball!

Jack plays baseball

Jack played AA baseball for the first time this year. He made great improvements. As always he was constantly paying attention and listening to directions. He is very small for his age so this puts him at a disadvantage for strength in throwing and hitting. He is also a perfectionist so he gets down on himself very easily. I missed at least 5 full games and part of a couple of other games because he and Ellie would play at the same time. It always seemed like something great happened when I wasn't there :(

He got into a strange habit of tucking his shirt under his armpits this year. Not just in baseball, hmmmm kids can be odd.

I think eating sunflower seeds is half the fun of baseball. Here he is going for his back pocket stash.

Awesome 3000

So this post pretty much sums up my life at the end of spring. No, we don't spend all our time at races. But the Awesome 3000 was the first weekend in March and here it is the middle of June before I am blogging about it. Hopefully I will catch up on the last month and half quickly. But yes the kids ran again. And even though Ellie comes in at the back of the pack she has so much enthusiasm and keeps asking me to sign her up every year. Jack is a very good runner but he will tell you he is only out there for the medal. Funny how different they are.