Baseball for everyone!

Okay, not really...Karen's not playing baseball, and I'm actually playing softball!  Nicholas & Caroline are playing baseball with our church, and having a blast!  Caroline is actually a pretty good hitter - she had a hit in each of her first three games. Their practices lately have been 'optional for extra batting practice'...Caroline's response to that was, "Well, I am the best batter on the team, so I don't need to go..." Ha!

 



 




Nicholas has enjoyed his return to baseball after a few seasons away from it; he's back to pitching (their #1 guy), and one of the best batters.  Here's a line for you...in his last game, he threw a no-hitter, allowed 2 unearned runs (1 hit batter and 1 walk came around to score). He walked 3, and struck out 8 (3 looking). He went 1 for 2 with a strikeout and a homerun. Yep, having a good time in his return to baseball! 


I'm having a great time playing softball again - I haven't played in many years, and it's a blast! We didn't have a practice, so I didn't have very high hopes for us...I show up for our first game and I'm surrounded by guys that play year-round in various competitive leagues! Yikes! I'm the guy that everyone tolerates (translation, the worst guy on the team!)...they are good guys, and enjoying jawing with each other. One of they guys I knew from our men's ministry already, which made it even better.

Look what I found....

One rainy winter Saturday, while I was busy doing something in another part of our house, this was created on our kitchen counter.  A sweet gift from Nicholas....oh! how I love that boy!

Happy Birthday Olivia!!

Just wanted to send out a shout to our niece (and cousin for Nicholas and Caroline) Olivia!  She is 7 today!  Miss you sweet girl and wish we could be there!

The Princess & the Frog Faughter/Daughter Ball

In March,

Caroline took an elective class at her school during their spring break. The class was "The Princess and the Frog", and they studied New Orleans culture, cooking, dancing, and the movie. It was really neat!  My favorite part was the "Father/Daughter Ball" towards the end of the week (and the 'grand opening' of the girls' restaurant on the last day, where they served beignets and mint juleps!)

The Father-Daughter Ball was the first time that Caroline and I had a special time for just the two of us.  They made beautiful invitations during their class, and she delivered it to me with tremendous pride. She had her hair in curlers the day of the ball, and put on her prettiest dress. I wore my 'royal attire' as instructed, with my tuxedo & tails coat, but with a pink shirt to match :)


I lost count of how many times Caroline thanked me for taking her to her first ball, and for our Father/Daughter date...I had no idea exactly how much it would mean to her for me to spend some time with just Caroline and her daddy...an incredibly meaningful evening!  It definitely challenged me to carve out special time for my baby girl much more than I had...

It was quite simply, a magical evening with a beautiful little princess!