Baseball's Done

Connor's baseball team had the best record in their leagure for the regular season. They didn't fare quite so well in the end-of-season double elimination tiurnament. After coming back through the loser's bracket after a disappointing preiliminary game, they arrived at the championship game the hard way. They were ahead for the first half of the game; then the rain came. First a drenching that temporarily halted the game. Then, after a short re-start, prolonged lightning and thunder that postponed the continuation of the game until the next day. The guys played hard the first day, and probably would have pulled out the victory. They just couldn't maintain that level of play and entusiasm for a third day in a row.

Coming from the loser's bracket, they had to play several games in a very short period of time, using up too many pitches for our top pitchers. Unlike in softball, Little League baseball has a strict pitch count and pitchers get used up very quickly in a multi-game week. On the bright side, Connor got to pitch in the last game of the year. He did very well, allowing no runs, but leaving a couple guys on base that eventually got home to tie the game up. Connor pitched a lot last year, but he didn't want to do it this year, until his coach had little choice to put him on the mound.

Anyway, they wound up with the second place trophy and that's not bad. Next year, Connor moves up to the next age group, Junior Boys (13-14). It's good to see him excited about baseball again.











Here's Connor pitching, before the rain came.









Here's the rainbow that appeared before the re-start.

Here's Connor and his trophy, another one that can go on the trophy shelf.

School's Out

On Monday, we had our semi-annual homeschool review with the county Board of Education. This closed our fifth year of schooling at home. The meeting only took about five minutes for all four kids to prove they did sufficient school work since our last meeting in December. The county uses homeschoolers/former teachers to do this, so it's a fairly simple process. Everybody kind of knows what everybody else is doing so the whole thing turns out to be little more than a formality.

Connor and Kenzie still have some History to finish up, though. They do a ton of Language Arts during the year, so if they're not finished everything by Review Day, I usually let them put it all aside until next school year. But I like the History stuff they're doing so I'm making them finish that up this year. I also keep all the kids doing a little bit of math for the whole summer. I can't stand completely idle brains for extended periods of time. We wind up taking some time off for the summer, not never a straight two months.

Alex is a little peeved this morning. His History class had scheduled a field trip to the Spy Museum in D.C. today. But, his baseball team has been scheduled to play in the championship game today. Recent rain-outs have wreaked havoc on the schedule so this conflict was not in the plans. We told Alex he was not to miss his field trip. He has only played in two of his 19 games, and we're quite confident his playing time would not be increased today, so there is no way we would put a baseball game above this trip. His teacher is also giving extra credit to students who dress up as a spy. Alex was wearing shorts and t-shirt this morning when I told him, at Vicki's behest, to get his spy suit on. I got a really interesting look from him at that point (not my first one of the day). Besides, I told him I never want to see him wearing to school what he had on this morning. Just because it's a "tag day" (where they are allowed to wear something other than their uniforms), you still need to dress nice: not like you're heading outside to practice sliding into second in thunderstorm. Ugh. I admit I have very little fashion sense, but Vicki would have been pleasantly surprised that I caught that one.

We had about 5 or 6 inches of rain over the past few days, topped off by some really strong winds. On Mother's Day, at Vicki's parents' house, the kids did as they always do, and climbed the purple leaf plum tree. The next day, some of that wind blew this tree down. Now they need to convince Poppop to buy something else they can climb on.

Finally, here's some pictures of Kearsyn at the park the other day.

Champion!

Tyler's all-star team had their championship game tonight. They won! Here's Tyler with his trophy. Think he's happy? Too bad the major league Orioles can't do as good as this one.

Tomorrow starts another round of softball tournament play in Salisbury. Tay and Ty's regular coach-pitch team will finish up their season back home. Connor's team is still in the end of season tournament, but they now have one loss. One more and they're out, and done for the season. Connor is pitching tomorrow. I know he'll do well, especially since I won't be there. He always does well, but seems to do exceptionally well when I miss his game. We're also waiting for results from his soccer tryouts for the travel league. He's played travel soccer for several years, but took the past year off, for various reasons, and wants to get back into it. He's an extremely good goalie and defender so I don't doubt he'll get the job. If (when) he does, he'll have to choose between baseball and soccer next Spring, since travel soccer is year-round and will conflict with baseball in a major way.

And Now, For the Sports:

As you may have guessed, with all our kids, weekends can be consumed by childrens' activities, especially sports. Our kids play, primarily, baseball and/or soccer. That'll change a little bit this coming Fall with the addition of flag football, but we'll deal with that when it comes. This time of year is especially interesting because, as the baseball season nears its end, tournament play begins. Tournaments always carry a little more weight than the regular season because this is where the rules change so that they match "real" baseball more closely, and the score counts. Winners move on, losers go home (which has its own appeal at times). the exception is travel ball (like Kenzie's softball), which is played at the competetive level all the time. I have to admit that these games are more fun to watch because of the added suspense caused by the fact that 'these games count', and they eliminate many of those stupid 'modified rules', which, in my opinion, only serve to confuse the kids by training them the wrong way to play the game. The bottom line is, I try to get to as many of them as I can, whereas I don't mind so much if I miss some of the more boring (ok, there, I said it, boring; it's sad, but true; who likes to sit there for two hours watching some kids daydreaming in the outfield, while the coach spends forever trying to hit each kid's bat with the ball), regular season games. Ok, enough introduction.

Tyler was chosen for the All-Star team at his, Coach-pitch, age division. His first all-star game was yesterday, at 9:30 am (be at the field at 9:00 am). Kenzie had a softball tournament in Easton, basically the home field, only half an hour away. She had three games, 9 (be there at 8), noon, and 1:30. Connor's dividion also started their tournament yesterday. His game was at 1:30.

My day went like this. Up at 7. Vicki takes Kenzie to her field at 7:30. I take Ty to his game at 9. I have all but Alex and Keary with me. Alex kept Keary at home until later. After the game we rush Connor to a friend's house (also one of his coaches) so he gets to his game on time. I rush home, pick up Alex and the baby, and head to Easton. We arrive about fifteen minutes late for Kenzie's game; luckily they are also running 15 minutes late. I watch Kenzie's second game, and spend a small fortune on lunch at the concession stand. I rush back to the Island, heading straight to the park to help coach Connor's game. We are 30 minutes late; luckily they were 20 minutes late starting; didn't miss much. After the game, we come for showers. Vicki and Kenzie arrive home, and we go to church. I'm assuming everyone grabbed something to eat for dinner as they got hungry beause I don't remember making anything.

This was a crazy day, but worth it. Game results: Tyler's team won! Championship game under the lights on Friday night. Kenzie's team won 2 out of 3! Their first win on the season; very cool, except her head coach was at a wedding in Seattle. Connor's team won! and advances in the tournament!

Now it starts again, as I head out the door for day 2 of softball.

Another Kenzie Gush

As you've probably read here, Kenzie is on a regional, travel softball team. This means we practice twice a week, about 40 minutes away from home. It's a pain, but worth it for the joy she gets from playing, and learning, the game at a high skill level, not what you see in a regular recreational league. Well, last night, a guy (Mike) I've coached baseball with (his son and Kenzie have been on the same team) for a couple years called me. I told him over the summer that I wouldn't be coaching with him this year because of Kenzie's softball. There would be huge schedule conflicts, and travel softball would take priority over recreational baseball. Mike insisted that, in his opinion, having McKenzie play part time on his team would be better than having most of the boys her age play full time. I knew that ;o), but it was nice to hear someone else say it. I told him I'd talk to Kenzie, and call him back. Kenzie took about a half second to decide she'd love to play baseball with the boys again. I half-jokingly asked her where the money's going to come from for her to play in both leagues. Without hesitation she said she'd pay for it from her Christmas/birthday money. Okydoky. I called Mike back and told him he can have Kenzie. Of course, that also means I'll be coaching baseball again. At least this time I'll only be an assistant, not the manager like I usually am.

I think if you did a search of my blog, you'd find Kenzie mentioned more than anything else. I feel a little guilty talking about her more than my other kids, but I really can't help the fact that she does so much stuff, and does it well. Alex, Connor, Tay, Ty, et al, also do what they do, well. They just don't do as much of it.

Oh, I can mention the fact that Alex joined an indoor soccer team yesterday. It was a last minute thing, and I still haven't even gotten him officially registered; thankfully, the coach is a good friend of mine (Godmother of two of my girls) so we could work around the technicalities. Without even going to a practice, he scored a goal in the first game of the season. Yeehah!

I hope to soon get to topics here that can include some pictures. These long, picture-less, blogs are going to get tedious, and I may start losing some of my vast audience. Hang in there, please.