Marlow turns 2

Marlow had her second birthday. We had a little birthday party for her and invited over a few little girls she knows (most of them conveniently had older brothers for the boys to play with). The kids played in the yard in our little pool and on the slip'n slide. At one point I looked around the yard and there were kids in the sandbox, some kids swinging on the tire swing, a game of tether ball going on, kids in the pool, some playing on the swingset and a couple kids in the tree house. It was nice to see the various play areas of the yard being used by a fairly large group of kid so well. We played and ate dinner outside. We used our new large picnic table Joseph built (sorry, I forgot to take a picture), and it held the crowd pretty well. I made a big taco salad, big fruit salad and hot dogs for the kids. It was pretty hot out so we came in for cake and ice cream and opening gifts. Marlow had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed the attention. When we set the cake in front of her and started to sing she just beamed and then started to sing along.

She has learned from the boys that it is special to get to lick the candles off after you blow them out and she was very happy to lick her two candles.

And just so you don't think I am giving my little girl "boy" stuff -- I bought party hats that just said "Happy Birthday" and I also got out the left over Justice League hats from Asa's birthday for anybody who wanted one. And Marlow, being the little sister of two boys who play "guys" all the time, wanted a superhero hat.

The hats were actually quite a bit of fun, all the boys were trying to see how many they could get on their heads. Asa chose one of each. Marlow thoroughly enjoyed her birthday party and is eagerly looking forward to her next one...anytime she sees cake she says "My birthday cake." And I have to tell her, "No, your birthday is over until next year." It is kind of a tough concept to get, she just says, "Oh" and looks a bit confused.

Superhero Rappers

I thought these pictures of Ezra, Asa, and their friend Alex turned out funny. I look at it and imagine them busting out a rap about superheros... sounding something like the Beastie Boys, perhaps...

Ezra as "Spider-man", Alex as "Batman", Asa as the "bad guy"

Black-eyed Asa

I used to be really nervous about throwing the ball to Asa, because I didn't want to hit him in the face. He has been so determined to improve his catching skills, he probably put in a good 2 or 3 hours of practice time just tossing the ball with me or Amy over the weekend.

He was getting so good at catching that I became comfortable throwing straight to him rather than a little off to the side. He kept asking for me to launch them high into the sky... and so I did... and he caught a lot of them! But alas, one did not make it into his glove...

Asa proudly tells the story of how his Dad gave him a black eye...

5 & 6 Baseball

Ezra and Asa have had a busy summer of baseball. They hadn't seen Alex (Ezra's friend from school) all summer. So when he came over the other day, they were catching him up on their summer and proudly pointing out their collection of tiny plastic baseball trophies. Impressed, Alex said, "Wow! You won all those trophies?!" To which Asa replied, "No, we got 'em 'cause we lost." (Sounds like sarcasm, but he actually was being serious.) Ezra followed with, "Yeah, we've lost like a hundred million games."

It is kinda confusing the way the participation trophies are handed out. In the all-star tournaments, everyone who plays gets a trophy. The winning team gets a bigger trophy (or so I've heard). The tournaments are usually double-elimination, so immediately following the game in which a team is eliminated, they line both teams up. The losing team gets trophies, and the winning team gets... nothing! (Until they lose two games or make it all the way to the top.)

And Ezra does have a point. They have lost a lot of games. I am amazed how good some of these 5 and 6 (and 7) year olds play. Ezra and Asa have come a long way from when they started in April. They've had a lot of fun and have made new friends, but I think they are ready for a break from baseball. Our final practice tonight will bring us to a grand total of 12 hours of practice for this week. The Dizzy Dean World Series (Dizzy Dean's "world" is comprised of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee) starts this weekend and then we are done with baseball for the summer. Does this mean... free time? More time to blog, perhaps? We'll see...