Little Things

Here's a catch-up on some of the smaller things I want to remember from the last few months.

Nate made this in school for Thanksgiving and had it hung up in his room for awhile.  I loved it. :)

No mention of Dad, though.  I don't know what's up with that. :)

One lazy Sunday evening we came up with a fun game.  Joe and I were laying in the hammock and we'd throw a nerf football to the kids and they got points for catching it in the air or on the ground.  It was a lot of fun, although certain children got a bit competitive.  It was still a golden night I want to remember.

I started hiking more in the hills by our house.  There are lots of great places to hike nearby.  One hike, in particular, I could finish while Eli was at preschool and I'd hardly ever see a soul. 

The view from the top:

I love how Nate arranges his stuffed animals on his bed:

We had a fun afternoon one day.  I took the kids out of school a little early and dropped the boys off with a friend while I took her two girls and another girl from the ward to drive across the bay and go to a book signing.  It was one of our favorites, Shannon Hale, along another favorite author/illustrator Le-Uyen Pham.  We were so glad we went!  We got there early and the authors did too since they ended up having to leave early.  The way it worked out, we got our books signed right away and Le-Uyen Pham even drew a picture of Elizabeth and Natalie in her book Big Sister, Little Sister.  

We will treasure that forever!  They gave a great presentation and then we grabbed some food before heading home.  While I was driving home, I get a call from Joe saying that a client of his finally came through on a promise to give Joe Warriors tickets and they were for that night! It was a little tricky to figure out logistically but Lizzy was nice enough to stay home from YW and babysit for us so we could go.  I hopped on BART and made it there just in time.  

It was amazing!  We had seats in this luxury lounge with tons of amazing food.  We got free shirts and I even saw Daveed Diggs in the lounge (Jefferson/Lafayette in Hamilton!).  It was a 2nd round playoff game against the Jazz.  It was a once in lifetime experience for sure.

Pre-game pyrotechnics:

Even though we're bandwagon Warriors fans, they sure are fun to watch!  Some of Curry's moves to the basket just amazed me.  The Jazz didn't stand a chance, sadly.

Also in May, Katie had her book launch!  I was so excited to get it in the mail and see her name on the cover and her picture inside.  It was so surreal!  I read it so fast and loved it! It had me crying at the end. It was fun to notice some references from our childhood in it.  I was one proud sister.

I drove to Modesto one afternoon on my own to go to her book launch at the Barnes & Noble there.  It was so fun to see her answer question so confidently.  She didn't look nervous at all!

That was a fun night. 

Natalie loves to make delicious food for us.

Here's one example:

I finally managed to get some pictures with the kids on Mother's Day.

Unfortunately, Eli decided he didn't want to and wouldn't take any more pictures.  The stinker. :)

We got to babysit Luke again so Mary and Andrew could get a few nights away before their new baby comes.  The kids always love having Luke around!  He's so much fun.  He especially loves the trampoline!

Eli sleeping:

I went for a run by the lake one day and these little ducklings thought I was their mama!

Natalie finally got to have a long-awaited play date with her best friend from school, Daniella.  They made slime and went to Icicles for ice cream.

We were shopping at the mall one day and Nate spotted this hat.  He loved how soft it was and decided he had to have it.  Since he doesn't usually care much about clothes, I got it for him.  He proceeded to wear it every day for school, no matter the weather.  He also loved this red jacket so much and was so sad when I finally threw it away (you can see the red peeling off in this picture).

We had a fun beach day with the Ashby's in Alameda.  We'd never been to that beach before and we had a lot of fun.  The water was warmer since it was the bay and the boys loved that there weren't big waves.  It was fun watching people kite surf, too.

Can you spot the girls swimming?

Natalie, the squirrel whisperer.

Joe and I went on a date to an Indian restaurant that our Indian neighbor recommended to us.  The kind of forgot about us and it took forever for them to bring us food or water. Once they did, oh man, it was amazing!  So delicious.

So, even with the terrible service, we'll be back!  It was that good.

One Sunday evening we took a family hike in the hills:

Joe, Eli, Natalie and Nate went a bit further up:

They regretted going off the path, though, since they got burrs all over their shoes and socks.

I'll finish this long post off with this picture I snuck of Joe while we forced the kids to watch Rudy one night.  

He loves that movie. :)

Baseball

Both boys were in baseball this Spring.  Nate had his first official year out of t-ball and Eli had his first year of t-ball (or any sport or activity).  It was a great season!  A bit exhausting, with two sets of games and practices, and with Joe helping out as a coach for Eli's team, but it was a good experience for both of them.  

Nate had tryouts before his season started.  He had two friends playing, too, but they are a few months older and a grade ahead of him.  He didn't quite make it into the same league as them, which was disappointing at first.  We got comments from a lot of people after the season started that he probably should have, but by then he didn't want to switch.  Luckily, he had a great coach who worked with him a lot, one-on-one.  And, he had fun being one of the oldest/tallest/best ones on the team.

Here he is practicing with two other boys and his coach.  I was so impressed that his coach would hold multiple practices a week so he could work with them in small groups and help them improve.

That's Coach Paul up there.  I wish I'd gotten better pictures!

They mostly played on the grass field but occasionally they got to play on the real dirt field with a scoreboard, an annoucer and everything.  Nate loved that!

We got a front row seat to watch the beautiful green hills gradually turn brown as the season went on.

We got tons of video of Nate's hits.  He very rarely struck out and often hit doubles.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures since I was so busy videoing.  He also got really good on defense as the season went on, too.  He was often on first base and he made a lot of great outs--including one he caught in the air!  It was sure fun to watch all the kids improve over the season.

Eli's season started out a little rough.  His team name was originally the Timber Rattlers, which he was excited about, but then got changed to the Lugnuts.  Not as exciting. :)  He complained about that for awhile but got over it eventually.  He was sometimes difficult to motivate to get to practice, but he didn't complain about the games.  That was entirely because of the snack shack tickets.  Every game day, they got to use a ticket to go pick out food from the snack shack.  It was all he talked about! :)

I couldn't help but sneak pictures of Eli in his first uniform:

A little catcher:

He hated that and refused to do it again. :)

It was funny to watch the t-ball games, sometimes with just as many adults as kids on the field, trying to get them to stay focused and stand up.

Playing first base:

I got a video of him getting an out right after that! 

He loved getting the ball and playing defense, but he would also get mad and sometimes throw tantrums if someone else on his team got it first. 

I loved these pictures of Joe and Eli in the outfield:

Before we knew it, the season was over.  We had the end of year parties and the boys got their trophies.  I forgot to mention that I signed up to be the team mom for Eli's team.  That was sure a lot of work in this league!  I don't know that I'll do that again.

Here's Eli with his coach:

Nate with his coach:

Marsha got that second one for us since she took Nate to his party while Joe and I were on a trip.  

It was a great season!