Tournament Time

Summer is on the wane, evenings are getting noticeably shorter, it's the middle of August already and that means softball season has come to an end for my grandchildren. That's too bad because the young players have just started to come together and work as a team. Another couple of weeks would have been perfect timing. They are finally thinking ahead and planning baseball strategy.... and as you know, baseball is full of strategy.

But it's not quite over. Just one last blast on the town's baseball diamonds.... the highly anticipated annual Baseball Tournament!

Our family has been ably represented since June by numbers 3 and 4 on the "5 and under' Yellow team and number 5 on the "8 and under" Red team. And now it's time to challenge for the championship!

 "5 and under" Yellows played against "5 and under" Reds at a well attended 10am game on Saturday morning. Lots of enthusiastic mums and dads, and aunts and uncles cheering them on. And at least one Nana.... me.

I have no idea if the Yellows beat the Reds or vice versa, I don't think anyone was keeping accurate score, but after the game each player got a drink, a slice of yummy pizza, and was presented with a "solid gold" trophy by the coach with a handshake and some words of praise. And you have to hand it to the coaches.... they are teaching basic baseball skills to five year old children who really don't have a clue what it's all about, and the coaches do it with kindness, loads of patience, smiles and a huge sense of fun.

"8 and under" Reds took on the Black team in an early 8:30am game, then challenged the Blues for the final at 11:15am. Skies were mostly blue with some grey clouds, so we all had fingers crossed that the rain would stay away.

It was a hard fought game. Reds led from the start with some snappy fielding and a couple of spectacular home runs, but Blues came from behind in the final innings to take the game 13-12.

 After the game, a drink, a slice of pizza and another "solid gold" trophy for each player. As the coach gave out the trophies, he gave each player an individual pep talk noting their considerable baseball achievements during the summer such as memorable home runs, double plays, spectacular base running, and how each person had improved, what they need to work on for next season, and his hopes for them in the future. Hooray for the coaches of these teams, they deserve "solid gold" medals!

 And the happy recipient of a trophy. He's going to join the rep team during the winter to hone his baseball skills ready for next season. He really really REALLY loves baseball.

Note: I was surprised to find that this is blog post number 899, just one more to go for 900! Perhaps I should have saved this comment for the next post. Thank you to all the bloggers around the world who have read my ramblings since I started this blog in November 2006 and have left me comments.... Happy Blogging to you all!

Feeling Very Sad

YoungerSon has taken off with his fishing buddies on their annual ice fishing weekend in the frozen north. Personally I can think of better ways to spend a few days then sitting in an ice hut out on a frozen lake, talking about fish and cars, but they like it.
But he left three very sad children behind. There were loud tears from all of them when he left.... as if they were never going to see him again.
And after school, Max drew this heartbreaking picture to illustrate his deep feelings of abandonment.

Don't worry, Max, Daddy'll be back on Monday!

Four Towheads

What's a towhead?  According to the Oxford Dictionary; a head of tow-coloured or very blond hair, or a person with such hair.

What does tow-coloured mean? Once flax, jute or hemp fibres have been retted (soaked) and prepared for spinning into textiles or ropes, the fibres are very light in colour and are known as tow. The noun “tow” used in the fiber sense came into English in the 14th century. The word may be related to the Old Norse noun tó, which meant “uncleansed wool or flax, unworked fibre of thread.” 

Any towheads in your family?

Happy Faces

We spent a sunny day on Toronto Island and YoungerSon bought an all day pass for the kids rides at Centreville. The rides have been there for years.... YoungerSon remembers some of them from when he was a tiddler. But they are updated all the time. It was a perfect day, not crowded, not hot, nobody cried (well, not much, only when they told Emma she was too little to go on the bumper cars, and that was REALLY LOUD!), everyone had a spiffing good time.

No explanation needed for these photographs, just look at the happy faces.

Somehow Emma managed to stay on the Frog Hopper for 5 rides, she smiled nicely at the operator and just refused to get off.

Bumper bulls? That's a new one. The twins were told they were too little to ride, big disappointment.

Open Wide!

A visit to the dentist is never scary when Doctor Bob's in charge.

Attack of the Towheads!

SuperHeroes

The sewing machine came into use at Christmas. I made all three of my grandsons Superman capes for Christmas. Black with a yellow felt Superman logo.
Callum wears his to his skating lessons.
Emma got a special cape.... red with a pink felt Princess Crown on it. Max loves dashing through the house wearing the Princess cape more than his own, so Emma has to wear the Superman.
And the capes are reversible.... red on the other side with their initial and a lightning bolt. The big boys seem to like the red side best.

SuperCallum and SuperIsaac taking a break from their exhausting SuperHero activities.

Invasion of the Gingerbread Men

First you line up an assortment of sweets and candies, then you get a bowl of the stickiest, sweetest, surgariest icing that you can find, dollop some icing on your gingerbread man, and stick the candies on. And don't forget to lick your fingers.

Max has his eagle eye on whatever's going on beside him. 

He covered his gingerbread man with red liquorice, and he doesn't even like it!

Emma was very industriously decorating her gingerbread man, but it looks like part of his head is missing already! No, no, not my head! (spoken in a gingerbread man kind of voice).

Isaac made his gingerbread man into a gingerbread robot ninja. 

(He was outraged that I called it a robot.)

But gingerbread robots ninjas don't last very long, and this one was no different. 

It got eaten soon after completion.

Back Yard Barbershop

Big Boy Haircut

Little Boy Haircut

Next in line for the beauty treatment..... Tessa the Golden Doodle. Just kidding!

High Fliers

What goes up must eventually come down.......

.... and Daddy's there to catch them.

Just noticed.... this is post number 600!

365 Days

Last year about this time two tiny people arrived in my life. They made their blog debut here.

One year old today!

And now they are celebrating their first birthdays! Almost walking, and definitely talking. Happy Birthday Max and Emma! And congratulations to mum and dad and big brother Isaac for surviving the first year of the Double Trouble Terror Twosome.

Warning! Slippery When Wet

Double the trouble, double the fun (and double the diapers!)

It's a Zoo Out There!

I wish Hallowe'en had been invented when I was growing up in England, it seems that it would be so much fun to get dressed into a scary costume and go knocking on doors and being given candy and chips.... but we had Guy Fawkes Night instead, where we went knocking on doors asking "Penny for the Guy" and then building an effigy of poor old Guy Fawkes using some of dad's old clothes and then burning him at the stake (Guy Fawkes not dad) on a huge bonfire on November 5. And of course, that was Fireworks Day too. My birthday is the day before Guy Fawkes Day, so I always had my fireworks a day early at my party. I thought I was so special!

For Hallowe'en Callum was a giraffe, Isaac was a green dragon, Baby Max was a beaver (how Canadian is that?) and his sister Baby Emma was the good fairy keeping an eye on the proceedings.... sorry, you can't really see her wings in this picture, but she definitely had them.

The giraffe spent a lot of time chasing the dragon round the kitchen......

.....but the dragon managed to elude capture by roaring loudly and breathing fire on the giraffe. And laughing.

Double Trouble!

They're here!

I've known they were coming for a long time, and finally they have arrived.

One of the blue variety, and one of the pink variety, a baby brother and sister for Isaac and new baby cousins for Callum.

Introducing Max. He arrived on Saturday at 11:40 in the morning, weighing 6lb 14 oz, and measuring 52cm.

His sister Emma arrived ten minutes later, at 11:50 in the morning, weighing in at 6lb 9oz, and measuring 49cm.

Max and Emma were at home with mummy and daddy (YoungerSon and The Bride) by 3:30 the same afternoon.

There was quite a reception there to greet them.... Nana (that's me), big brother Isaac, OlderSon and The Equestrienne and big cousin Callum, and The Bride's mom (Grandma), dad (Poppa) and sister (Auntie J).

These pictures were taken when Emma and Max were only 6 hours old.

The other grandies are here... see any similarity?