Military Day at Capital City Stadium

There was a huge Army celebration at the stadium yesterday. Apparently it was the Army's 235th Birthday. We made it in time for the second game that night. Adam looked forward to tossing the ball with the players. He also takes his glove because he keeps hoping that a foul ball will come his way. He desperately wants to catch on. But we had to move down from the bleachers to make room for the soldiers that were piling in. I also made arrangements to Adam to race Blowie the mascot around the bases but he didn't want to so they let Clarissa do that. They also needed someone to be the play ball kid but he didn't want to do that either. So Molly stepped up to the job. Now we will be going back to watch another game on Tuesday and Adam will work as the bat boy for the team. He's pretty excited about that one. It was extremely humid but we had a really good time. I love going to the baseball games here.

Columbia Blowfish

Before the start of the game, Adam had a chance to play ball with the Columbia Blowfish Team. He was too shy to let them sign his ball or to have an individual photo with his team player. But we've signed him up to work as bat boy this coming week. Maybe he'll get some autographs while he's in the dugout with them.

The girls wait patiently as Adam plays ball with the team. Whatever they can get into before the game starts.


Molly gets a chance to shine in front of the crowd.

Clarissa gets ready to race Blowie around the bases in between the innings.

The race is on!

Pocket the Palmetto Hospital Mascot is Molly's favorite. She has been begging for a hug at every game and she finally gets the chance. Seconds later she and Clarissa chased all the mascots across the field. Don't even ask what happened to me as I tried to keep up with the girls and take photos at the same time. No, I didn't fall but it still wasn't very pretty.

A couple of Samoan soldiers getting the crowd worked up during the game. Just a little reminder of some of the experiences we will have in Hawaii.

Puppy Sitting

Holy Mole! What were we thinking?! We decided to puppysit a big boxer for some friends while they were on vacation. Todd has promised Molly a puppy when we get settle in Hawaii. So I thought it would be nice to see how our family could function with a dog. Although I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of another pet I have to admit it is a lot of fun to watch all three kids take such good care of our new friend "Bella." She is a lot of work and very, very stubborn. I pray that our puppy will not be that stubborn. It takes close to 30 minutes just to get her to go potty outside. She's quite particular about where she places her heiney. A true girly girl, I suppose. Walks were quite exhausting in the beginning but now the kids are able to comfortably walk her without fear of being dragged down the street. Even Molly was holding her leash unattended as they walked about the cul de sac circle. She still becomes EXTREMELY excited when she sees people and even more so with other dogs. She loves being the center of attention. But she obeys very nicely when told to sit and stay. I just don't think I want something so big but Bella is very adorable. She has brought some fun to our day!

Baseball 2010

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What a season! It is always so sad to see it end but we're also relieved that we aren't as busy anymore. Adam did a fabulous job this season. He gets better with every year. This year we met with an up and coming MLB player who is expected to be drafted this year. (Watch for Matt Branham!) He is a pitcher and we had private lessons with him to learn what we need to do to improve Adam's form. It still needs quite a bit of work but he did a phenomenal job. He threw 27 pitches in 2 innings during our last game. He walked only one player and no runs were scored during his time on the mound. We were so proud to watch him and can't wait to get started again in Hawaii. In fact, every time he was on the mound he quickly finished up the inning. His pitch is a little slow so our opponents would get hits off of us but half the time it came right back to him. In which case he would catch it for the out. The other half of the time our infield would scoop it up for the easy out. How we ended up with such a bad record I'll never know. Well, I know....our coach was the best. He didn't contest a lot of bad calls. His goal was for the boys to improve and have fun. He succeeded in both goals. It was hard to see them lose so much but they didn't really seem to be as bothered by it. They loved the game and loved hanging out with each other. It was a great season!

End of School Year

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Molly's Successful Year

Our Molly, what can I say... she is definitely the life of any party. She shared her name with another little girl and she was referred to as the "talking Molly." She certainly is not shy in any situation. She ended the year quite successfully despite the many changes in teachers she had to adjust to. In the end we had DJ Lance Rocks, I mean, Mr. Ron and a true sweetie, Miss Emilee. She enjoyed her time with them and they took very good care of her. I love the Jeep Rogers Preschool program. I pray we will be able to find something just as wonderful when we move to Hawaii. She loves being part of a group so I know she will fit in anywhere.

Y-E-L-L, Yell it Out! Let's Go Cougars!

Clarissa ended the cheerleading year with an adorable recital. The school is run by a dear friend of mine that I met while Adam and her son played baseball together. And I was so happy to be able to support her. Clarissa had a great time learning how to cheer. They even learned how to do stunts. Clarissa was on the top of one of their pyramids and that was awesome! There was also a dance to the recital and that girl can shake her groove thing, no doubt about that! Every week we go to Adam's baseball games and so it was wonderful to be able to go out and support her. We made a great day out of it. I took her to get her hair and nails done before the recital and then we went to her favorite restaurant (Red Robin) to celebrate a great performance. She even got to order a sundae! We were the best parents ever!! (Well, until later when we told her it was time to go to bed. But who could blame her....some nights I don't want to see end either : )

Cottle Strawberry Farm

Clarissa's class went to cute little farm that produced her very favorite fruit: STRAWBERRIES! She had a blast picking her own basket of fruit. What I find very lovely is that her favorite part of all is knowing that she provided something for the entire familiy to enjoy later that evening for dinner. She took great pride in sharing her harvest with us. And ate up all the compliments we gave her on how she picked the biggest and juiciest fruit of all. It was a great day and I am so glad that I was able to go. Which was also a big highlight for her. I got to ride the bus with her. She loves having her mommy with her. Definitely one of those moments that reminds me why I love being a mommy in the first place. She is so beautiful and I love watching her shine when we get to be so close.

Happy Birthday Adam!

I had a lot of fun preparing for Adam's big birthday. He is now two digits for goodness sakes! I'm not sure how the time flies by so quickly. I'll admit that it wasn't anything spectacular. But that wasn't my goal. All I wanted was to let him know how special he is to our family and how much fun he is. We all wanted him to have a great time. So while he was away at school I decorated the room for his party. Two boys were coming home with him for a sleepover. (Two more were to show up later.) I even had a big Happy Birthday sign for him hanging in the van for him to see when I picked him up from school. He really loved that! He wanted to have a Star Wars Legos theme. He received some really great Star Wars sets from Aunt Kim and Abby which he shared with the four other boys. They had a great time rotating around. First they'd play with the Legos. Then they'd play on the drums. Next they'd go jump on the trampoline. Finally they'd go out with the light sabers and beat up on each other. I think only one boy actually fell asleep that night. The rest stayed up the entire night. Or at least that's how it appeared when I woke up and made the last check up at 4am! When Molly demanded breakfast at 7:30, there were then two boys asleep. I really don't think Adam slept at all. And the crazy thing is that he had a terrible time falling asleep that next night. I think he was up until 11pm and then had to go to church. Bottom line, he said he had a really great time. He was thrilled to have a sleepover. That made me happiest of all. (But if you ever decide to have sleepovers for your kids in the future let me give you one piece of advice: have a pickup time for the next morning. : )