The Season Has Begun

Saturday, March 25th, marked Opening Day for Tecumseh Area Little League (TALL), which meant that we spent about 7 hours at the fields! This year Violette and Zane are on the T-ball team A's, and Tom is the assistant coach.  Max is playing machine pitch and is on the Hooks team.

Max had his game first at 10am.  He was very nervous and tears streamed down his face when we arrived.  He was unsure what to expect and what to do.  Tom and I hugged him and walked away.  He stood at the fence for a bit, then joined in playing catch and warming up with his team.  I was relieved he had calmed down.  He was not the only one in tears, as crying faces could be spotted on both teams during warm ups!  

The game started and the players regained their composure.  Although I didn't get to watch a lot of the game, due to the constant complaining of another little boy due to the extreme cold.  I did get to see him have an awesome hit and some great fielding plays.  Once he settles in, his natural ability comes forth and I can see that he will be just like his Dad! 

Max will have two games per week until the second week in June.  The first half of the season, scores are not kept, the second half they start to keep track and at the end they have a tournament against the other teams.  He will even be traveling to some other cities to play their teams.  I think much growth and confidence will be gained during his inaugural year of Machine Pitch Baseball!

After Max's game we had to take team pictures and individual pictures for all three children, then the league had their opening ceremony.  Then Zane and Violette got to experience their first T-ball game of the season!

Zane was still in recovery from a nasty stomach bug that hit him Monday night.  He was exhausted and freezing and begging not to play.  Violette was also super cold and both children played in their winter coats.  Key words are that they did indeed get on the field and play and they had a great time.  T-ball is not as structured as Max's next up league.  There was a lot of dog piling on the ball and games of tag in the infield.  They will learn, and it's cute to watch.  Tom patiently informs the kids of what to do and helps those whose attention span isn't up to waiting so long.  

Zane hasn't had much interest in our backyard wiffle ball games.  He doesn't want to play catch with us, and you could tell on the field.  He'll decide to play at home when he's ready.  For now, he looks forward to his next game and decided that T-ball was, in fact, fun!  

Although Noelle isn't playing she tagged along with us and had fun playing on the playgrounds and seeing handfuls of her friends during the day! 

I also have to document Tom and I's FIRST night without the Foursome of Terror!!!!!!!!  Yes, our first official night ever!!  It was glorious!  I was informed of this wonderful hotel about 50 mins away called Belamere Suites.  Literally, everyone we know has gone there.  It's a quaint, unassuming building that houses these fabulous suites for 2!  Each suite has it's own garage!  You pull right in and enter your oasis, complete with swimming pool!  Yep, our own swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi tub, two tvs, and all the amenities available for a lovely getaway.  It was beyond words.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  My sister watched the children, and they were able to take the day off of school on Monday to soak up as much time with Aunt CC and Maizey as possible.  

Zane woke up Monday night (when we were back) and decided to reward us with explosive diarrhea, on the carpet and projectile vomit in our bed.  His stomach bug continued the rest of the week with multiple episodes that required much cleaning on my part.  It was a long battle, but (knock on wood) no one else seemed to come down with it!!  I'm thankful this occurred when we were home and Charlotte wasn't left with the mess!  

For the next moth and a half we will be at the ball fields every night at 6pm.  Let's hope it warms up and we can finally put away the winter jackets!!!

Update

My phone was synced with blogger.  It was wonderful.  I could easily post pictures.  Something happened.  An update, or a child messed with things.  Now the two are not synced and the majority of pictures I take from my phone, became a big hassle to upload and my bright idea of posting a picture a day became too difficult to keep up with.  Chalk it up to laziness, or just being exhausted from raising children.  I'm going with the latter because, well, raising children is difficult and time consuming and energy draining and energy sucking.  Yeah, you get it.

So let's backtrack a few weeks to the end of March.  Noelle, Max, and Violette performed in the school's annual music concert.  Violette, being in Kindergarten, had hers on Monday the 30th, with just her class.  The intimate setting of the school's gym let parents see up close, their adorable, and engaged children.  That evening, before going, Violette expressed her nervousness to me.  Her big green eyes filled with tears as she stated she didn't want to go.  I hugged her and got excited for her and tried to downplay her feelings.  By the time we arrived at the school, she was ready and not a hint of nervousness was visible!  She performed so well and we all watched on with smiles permanently planted on our faces due to the cuteness overload in front of us!

Tuesday, the 31st was Noelle and Max's turn to present their material.  Max was up first with the other 1st and 2nd grade classes from Sutton.  He was his typical self, performing all the moves with a very serious and solemn expression on his face.  It is a look that resembles pain, but as his Mother, I know he truly is happy on the inside, but outside the expression tells a different story!

Before the concert he was all smiles with his buddies though!  Smiles and just a little bit taller!

Noelle's concert was after Max's, in the same location so we kept our seats and waited for the 3rd and 4th graders to take the stage.

Noelle got another speaking part this year and with much pose and articulation she nailed her part.  She also had a serene and serious face, but I knew she was enjoying it!

Concerts were complete and Spring Break commenced!!!

The first order or business on SP was Violette losing her FIRST TOOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The bottom tooth was hanging on barely and she decided to pull it our herself!  Why did I not take a picture?  She didn't really want one taken, as it was hard to tell she lost a tooth due to the rather LARGE adult tooth already fully in behind the lost tooth.  Oh well, I've marked it down and she I'm sure there will be more pictures of more lost teeth in the very near future! 

Onto Easter Celebration at the Todd House!  The sun was shinning, the weather had a warm breeze that took a bit of the chill out of the air.  My sister has a lovely piece of property that allowed us to get outside and enjoy it!  The 29 year old four wheeler that was given to me on my 2nd birthday, is still kicking it and the children enjoy taking rides and flooring the little 50cc engine!  It's amazing that thing is still going.  It's amazing to see my children get as much enjoyment out of it as we did for many, many years growing up.

We hunted eggs, flew planes, and genuinely enjoyed the outside weather.

Maizey was recovering from a long bout of a stomach bug, so she was exhausted and worn out.  The tears and three year old drama were still very cute, especially since it wasn't my child ;-)

We left with hearts and stomachs full!