Spring Training Game

Happy Spring Break! We flew with the kids down to Melbourne to spend the week with Mimi and Papa. We started off the trip with a bang. We landed in Melbourne Friday afternoon and by early Friday evening, we were at Space Coast Stadium watching the Washington Nationals play against the Miami Marlins in their second-to-last spring training game. The kids were eager to see the Nationals again, as we had gone to a game of theirs when we visited Washington DC last summer. I had forgotten about the great access to players at spring training games and was reminded of this fact when I saw people lining the fences during warm-ups with the hopes of getting some autographs. The park did not have the middle-of-the-fourth-inning Presidents' Race that the kids loved so much in D.C., but Eleanor, Hayes and Ben still had fun watching a great game.

Night of the Arts

This year, Morris Brandon held its inaugural "Night of the Arts" to showcase the artistic talents of the Brandon Bees. Each of the students in the school had one of their pieces of art hanging in the hallways. Eleanor, Hayes and I enjoyed walking through the school while viewing all of the individual masterpieces. Hayes's painting of a vase with flowers brightened up a stairwell. Eleanor's work, a colorful abstract of interlocking hands, was displayed outside her classroom. It is the piece just above her head. They were both very proud of their work, and I was quite happy to see their creativity on paper.

When I Grow Up . . .

These three hams are often discussing what they want to be when they grow up. What are their current thoughts? Ben wants to be a taxi driver. Hayes wants to be either a policeman or someone who works in a restaurant. Eleanor, staying consistent with her past responses, would like to be an artist or a singer.

Sprained Ankle

Hayes had his baseball season opener on Saturday of last week, and he played his second game last Monday night. For his second-at-bat of that game, after hitting the ball hard to the shortstop and racing towards first base, Hayes and the first baseman collided. Unfortunately, Hayes came out of the fracas with a severely twisted ankle. We brought him home shortly afterwards, once Hayes (and Thomas) realized that he could not walk on that ankle. He stayed home from school the next day. That afternoon, after a visit with our pediatrician, she ordered some x-rays as she thought the ankle was broken. Literally, just two hours after getting home from the hospital and still awaiting word on the x-ray results, Hayes was asking to play basketball out back and getting into the mix of a kickball game in our front yard. Thankfully, the next day, we learned that his ankle was just sprained, and we sent him off to school.

He had to stay out of his sports (both baseball and soccer this spring) for a week, and then he was back at it. He was a little nervous returning to play his first baseball game back and especially concerned about running to first base. In the excitement of the game though, he sprinted to first after making contact with the ball and then proceeded to make his way around the bases without any problemsafter some of his teammates' hits.

Here's to the rest of the season being injury-free!

Preschool Days 2012 Version

This year, Ben's preschool held its annual Preschool Days on a Sunday afternoon instead of the traditional weekday morning time slot. So, in between church and birthday parties, we ventured to the Preschool to watch Ben and his class sing some of their favorite songs that they have learned in music this year. They sang, according to Ben, "Fish", "Snowman", "The Mail" (o/k/a Mail Myself to You), a song about friends and a few songs about birds that Ben can't recall. Ben spent the program looking from me to Hayes to Dad to Eleanor and then back to me to start the cycle over. He rarely took his eyes off of us all the while keeping a smile on his face and singing the songs. (Ben's buddy Charlie was the total opposite as you can see him in the Boston Red Sox shirt below. Ben has been in class with Charlie the last three years and he has acted the same way at this performance each year - he does not sing and does not move his hands. It is hard not to laugh at his consistency!)After the 30 minute performance was over, Ben kept asking us how proud we were of him and his performance. We assured him that we loved watching him sing and that we were ALL so happy that we were able to see him and his class perform. Then, after getting E to her birthday party, we came home to find the ice cream truck driving by our house. What a way to cap off a great musical extravaganza -- with some ice cream for our two hams!

Pajama Favorites

Over Christmas, the kids were finally exposed to The Muppets when we took them to see the 2011 version of The Muppets movie in the theaters. They quickly all picked out their favorite characters and laughed at some of the puppets' same old tricks that Thomas and I laughed at when we were kids. For Christmas, Ben got some Kermit flannel pajamas, and he wears them nearly every night. He absolutely loves them and begged me to take his picture tonight because he thinks he "looks cute" in them. So, for Ben, here you are . . .

Ice Cream Before Spring

The weather here has been so warm this weekend that the ice cream truck was out making its rounds. The kids had spent the afternoon having water balloon fights (yes, it officially does not become "spring" until this upcoming Tuesday) so the ice cream sounded very refreshing. They even used their own money to pay for the ice cream which made it taste even better. I think Ben was a happy camper!

Weekend in Kentucky

The kids had an early release day on Friday of last weekend so we took advantage of the shorter school hours to drive up to Kentucky for the weekend. The kids had not been to Parrish Hill Farm in over two years so the trip was long overdue. We stayed with my Aunt Robyn and got to see all of the extended Roach family while we were there. The kids especially enjoyed the chance to meet their new third cousin, Parrish, who was born last May to my cousin Hallie and her husband Drew. Once Hayes met Parrish (here he is dressed in his Kentucky blue), he never left his side for the rest of the weekend.The kids had a ball on the farm. The timing of our visit was perfect as a foal was born in the early morning before our arrival and another one was born while we were there. The kids got to see these foals when they were hours old and that truly is a special treat. In addition to seeing all of the horses, the kids (especially Ben) loved Robyn's two dogs, Sophie and Chauncey. We had beautiful weather while we were there and this enabled the older kids to play football and hunted for some crawdads in the creek lining the edge of the farm. Saturday morning was spent at the Kentucky Horse Park, a place where my grandmother always used to take us whenever we visited her for any extended time. There, we saw Man O' War's statue and grave site. (He is considered to be one of the greatest thoroughbred racehorses of all time.) The kids got a chance to "ride" a horse too while we were there, and I think they enjoyed their roles as jockeys. We also watched a lot of March Madness basketball, especially since it was the weekend of both the SEC and ACC tournaments. Finally, we ended our visit with a quick FaceTime chat with my cousin Amanda who lives in England. Thanks Aunt Robyn and the rest of the Roach clan for a fun visit!

NCAA Tourney Picks

It is that time of year . . . March Madness Time! As we have in years past, we each filled out our own NCAA Tournament Bracket. Here are our selections:

Ben, filling out a bracket for his first time, selected (with help from Hayes) Kentucky, Ohio State, Murray State and UNC as Final Four participants with UNC winning the National Championship. Hayes chose Kentucky, FSU, Murray State and Kansas as his Final Four teams with Murray State winning the National Championship game. Eleanor picked Syracuse, Murray State, Kentucky and North Carolina as her Final Four teams with Kentucky finishing up as the National Champion. I chose FSU, Michigan State, Kentucky and UNC as my Final Four teams with the Tar Heels bringing home another NCAA Title. Finally, Thomas selected Kentucky, FSU, Missouri and UNC as his Final Four teams with UNC ending up on top. To the victor go the spoils!

City of Refuge Donation

Late Tuesday morning, Thomas, Ben and I took Hayes down to the City of Refuge to personally deliver his $250 donation to the organization. As you might remember, as the winner of the 2012 College Bowl Pool, he was supposed to donate 20% of his earnings to a local organization. The charitable organization Hayes chose was the City of Refuge. He has been reminding us constantly since we got the winnings back in January that he wanted to go down there personally to give them a check. We were frankly a little surprised by this request, but ran with it since we thought it was a great idea!When I picked Hayes up from school to drive him downtown that morning, he could not contain his excitement. I asked him why he seemed so happy, and he said, "Because I can't wait to go down there." The visit ended up being rather uneventful, probably more so for Hayes. He was able to present one of the staff members with a check, and we had a quick photo op but they then had to start checking-in a busload of homeless men and women who were arriving for a free lunch. Hayes had thought that the young boys and girls he had interacted with one Saturday back in November would be there on this day too. When he asked where everyone was as we were loading back up in the car, I reminded him that Tuesday was a school day for all boys and girls, not just for him.

Two days later, Hayes received a very sweet note from Bruce Deel, the founder and director of City of Refuge thanking Hayes for his gift. I thought the note was significant enough to be deemed a "keepsake" and have added it to the box of significant treasures we keep under Hayes's bed.

Getting Punched for St. Patty's Day

Poor Ben! First thing he said to me when I picked him up from school today was, "Mom, my teacher said that I have to wear green or else I'll get punched!" Sensing his anxiety, I had to mask my chuckle after quickly grasping his mix-up. Right away, I realized that my three-year-old did not know what the word "pinch" meant though he was very familiar with "punch" due to all our "Punch-Buggy" games in the car. I explained to him the St. Patrick's Day tradition of wearing green so that one does not get pinched. He then asked me, "What does a pinch do?" I grabbed behind my car seat, found his leg and pinched it to convince him that it is a fun game, not something to worry about all week. Now that he understands what a pinch is, he keeps reminding me, "I can't wait until St. Patrick's Day when I can wear my green Baxter shirt (see photo) and no one can pinch me." Let's just hope that Eleanor and Hayes follow the St. Patty's Day "rules" and stay away from Ben's green!

Homage to Dr. Seuss

Prior to celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday at school last week, Hayes went searching for all of our Dr. Seuss books. It turns out that we have quite a few. Since locating them all, he has not let me reshelve them and has kept them stacked together in a pile on top of his bookcase. Last night, though, he changed his mind and paid his own individual homage to Dr. Seuss. It is Hayes's version of Christo-like public art.

Crazy About a Book

Ben Carroll first heard of the book "What Dad's Can't Do" back in January when his class was busy preparing for Dad's Day. He came home from school the day they read the book in his class and would not stop talking about it. He kept saying how much he wanted that book and that it was the best book he'd ever read. Since he hyped it up so much, I began my quest to find this book. I tried to get it from our preschool library but all of the teachers were reading it in their classes. Then, I got on the wait list for it at our public library for what was expected to be an 85 day wait! I was sure that by the time 85 days passed, Ben would have forgotten about this book.

Well, as our luck would have it, only about 20 days or so passed, and then we were able to get the book from our library. Ben was beyond excited. Once we brought the book home, he jumped with it in his hands all around the house, singing songs about it and just shouting words of joy. It was hilarious (as is this picture above but it truly captures his love of this book)!

Unfortunately with library books, there comes a time when they need to be returned. Ben came up with the idea that we "keep" this library book because he loved it so much. I told him that that was not how the library system worked. I then gave him the idea that the Easter Bunny might bring Ben the book in his Easter basket.

Ben ran with this idea and has not looked back. Each and every day he asks me, "When are we going to tell the Easter Bunny to bring me 'What Dads Can't Do?'" I explain to him that the Easter Bunny can read his mind and just knows that Ben really, really wants this book. That seems to satisfy him, at least for now.

Easter Bunny, I hope you can read my mind too because we really, really need to see this book on Easter morning. If you bring it, we will have one very happy boy in our house.

Valentine's Surprise

For Valentine's Day, Eleanor's third grade teacher decided to surprise E's class. Each student in the class created a heart and then wrote the answers to the prompt, "Why I love my family." The kids knew that when they walked into school on Tuesday morning, February 14th, their hearts would be displayed for all of the school to see on one of the front bulletin boards in the building.

What the students did not know was that Ms. Lane emailed us, the parents, asking us to create a similar heart that would have the theme, "Why we love our child." She then hung our hearts next to those of our children on the same bulletin board. I sure would have loved to have seen their faces when they saw all of the hearts from the parents on that bulletin board Valentine's morning!