First Pitch Fever!

If you know Sam, you know he is a Cardinals fan. For a 6 year old it seems a bit much. He knows practically every Cardinals player's number and he is always aware of where they are in the ranking. When he does not know something about the Cardinals he knows he can go to his PaPa Bill or his daddy for the answer. Our PaPa Bill is a HUGE Cardinals fan. He grew up in St. Petersburg, FL where as a young boy he could walk to Cardinals Spring Training and once he grew up and moved to upstate NY he continued to follow the games on KMOX. Scott talks about sitting in the car in their garage listening to Cardinal games because that was the only place they could pick up KMOX! So the history of loving the Cardinals is deep in the male DNA of this family. Which is why I am here to tell this story. The story of tonight's big event...

Back in April at a CCS fundraiser Scott purchases a package including on the field batting practice, 4 box seats and throwing out the honorary first pitch at the game. Scott purchased this for his dad as a birthday gift. PaPa Bill decided that he would rather have Sam throw out the first pitch and so the practicing began!

Here are my boys at the batting practice. We thought we got there on time, but we missed most of the Cardinals batting practice. Major bummer.

Although, we did get to see this guy...

Big Mac is back!

And although these guys are no longer Cardinals, we still like 'em!

Ryan Ludwick

David Eckstein

And Ryan Ludwick proved to be extra cool because while waiting in the batting line-up he replied to a shout out from our daddy and came over to sign a ball for us-WOW!

3 happy guys!

After the batting practice we got to go back to a hospitality room where Fred Bird paid a visit. Scott got some cute video of this that I will try to post later. Fred Bird gave Sam a lot of fun love! Then Sam was handed a new baseball and we headed out to the field to get ready for the pitch.

Here he is on the big screen, approaching the mound.

Although he was told he could stand anywhere to throw we encouraged him to go all the way to the mound. I mean, when else will you get to stand on the mound??! So he went for it. And much to my surprise the ball landed just 2-3 feet shy of the plate. Good job Sam! When he concentrates he uses his tongue and you can see that in this picture. Look at that follow thru.
After the pitch he got Salas (the cardinal who caught the ball) to sign that ball and he got a picture with him and Fred Bird.
This all went pretty fast on the field. It was cool to watch them prep the field. Grandma brought Claire and Emma and they got there in time to see Sam throw the first pitch.
We purchased extra tickets so that we could all sit together for the game. It was a great game. After a streak of loses to the Cubs, the Cardinals beat the Padres 4 to 1. We will take it!

And we got to see this guy too! Although not up close. Only through our zoom lens! We love Albert.
A very fun experience that I believe Sam will remember for a very long time!

Funnies

Just wanted to update the bloggy world. School has thrown us for a loop and we are not yet in any sort of a real routine. I have not really found a good time to blog and that is part of the problem. I am struggling with our lack of routine. Scott's schedule is unpredictable and that throws me off. I pretend to know his schedule, but I really do not. I am glad when he is home. I am especially thankful for him at homework time and in the mornings. Emma has been a stress lately and sometimes I just want someone around to validate my feelings. My feelings of "yes, she really is being sassy and disrespectful." Plus he realizes that if she does it to him it is 100 times worse when she does it for me!

I often times think I should rename this blog "Adventures with Emma" however that is not fair to my other 2 kids. I definitely blog the most about Emma. She challenges me in so many ways. God is working on both of us. We had a good cry together last week. I won't tell you who cried first, but I will tell you that she made up first and that softened my heart toward her.

I have not been taking many pictures lately and the good ones I have on my iphone won't upload tonight so I have posted some funny pictures taken over the summer.

This is a picture of Sam or Samantha as we like to call him when he is dressed up as a girl! So funny!

And while I am on Sam I have to quote the funniest one liner from him tonight. We were in the car coming home:

S: We had a substitute today and we have one again tomorrow. (sounds sad)

Me: Where is Mrs. W.?

S: She is working with those people in the closet.

Me: Heeeee, Heeeee (laughing uncontrollably)

Supposedly "the closet" is where Mrs. W. is doing some assessments of kids in the class. Sam told me he had already been to the closet and that he knew almost everything! Good boy. Funny story.

Here is a picture of Emma after she had tiny braids in her hair all night and took them out the next morning. Reminiscent of a crimp iron I would say!
Today was the dreaded picture day. Don't worry this above picture is not from today! There was a mini meltdown this morning because Emma went to her bangs with some scissors about 2 weeks ago. She has been wearing a headband ever since and this morning she just could not find the right one. We practiced our smiles at the breakfast tables. Everyone got to choose their own clothes. Scott commented, "Whoever started picture day?" I thought, good question. It has been around for a long time. Even one room school houses generally had a class picture. Anyway if you want to hear a funny song about picture day check out Justin Robert's song "Picture Day" it will crack you up. If I knew how to link you there I would. Maybe someone out there in blog world could teach me how to do that. At this point I am glad just to have a new post!

And my friend Amy is contagious. Last week everything in her house and both of her vehicles were breaking and now she has passed it to me. My microwave broke and I have a leaking pipe under my kitchen sink!

And I am not contagious, but I sound like I might be. Ragweed is because of the fall. I am allergic to it. Big time. Miserable. I can hardly think about going outside or running which is bad for my training. Lewis and Clark October 3rd- be there! I feel like I am putting subliminal messages in this post.

And my girls are getting a new room. It might be post worthy. Depends how it turns out. I think it is going to be good. Scott is not so sure, but he is trusting me!

And..............

I will save it for another night.