champion 2: the re-championing

Liam is unstoppable this summer! First the sweet, sweet tennis victory, and now his baseball team has come in first for the regular season! They were presented with their trophies tonight at the start of the season-ending tournament. Then they won their first-round game quite handily, 11-0. Go Diamondbacks!

The first thing Liam said to me after he got his trophy? I'm so glad you asked. It was, "You're going to have to get me a trophy case!" Later on he said that Grandpa Kevin gave him the idea ... which in turn give ME the idea to put it on Liam's wish list for a Christmas gift. :) 

and when they get home from school...

...there is still plenty of summer fun to be had.

the most wonderful time of the year

It's the first day of school again! The long, boooooooorrrrrrring summer of having nothing to do (you know, except for play video games, go on vacation, see ballgames, play ballgames, go for walks and bike rides, and pet stingrays) is FINALLY over.

At least that's what you would think they would say given the number of times this summer that they complained about how bored they were. Sheesh. What Mike and I wouldn't give to be that "bored" for a while! But I guess we'll settle for a nice quiet house during the day instead.

saturday in the (ball)park

Another night with tickets to the Silver Hawks, and this time we got smart and left Henry with my mom and dad and took cousin Jimmy in his place. (Henry gets bored easily and gets tired before the game is over and lets everyone know how very unhappy he is.) This time, we explored a little more of the park, including the kids play area, the bubble machine, and many, many stands with foodstuffs. We also found the storage area where they keep the veggies for the veggie race. The head of broccoli was shoved right up against the window, and the boys had a fine time being creeped out by its sightless eyes. Anyway, it was a fun night, and now we are ready for hockey season to start -- maybe Mike can overcome his distaste for all things Notre Dame enough to take the boys to a free hockey game. 

stingrays and starfish and science

For us, Sunday morning is the perfect time to head into the city. A lot of people are at church, or hung over, or just having a lazy morning at home, which makes it an ideal time to go visit someplace that's usually really crowded, like the aquarium. For this trip, Klaudia came along because she wanted to touch some stingrays. The stingray exhibit is also generally really crowded, but the first Sunday of each month they have a special members-only hour before they open it up to the general public, so we were able to take advantage of that and not feel crowded or rushed at all. We hung out with the stingrays pretty much that whole first hour, then headed inside to see some starfish and dolphins and generally just wander around for a while.

After we had our fill of sea life, we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was not as big a hit as the aquarium with the kids (and really, who could blame them?) so it was a short visit but we hit most of the high notes, including Mike's favorite (the model train exhibit). And it was just starting to get crowded by the time we left to get some lunch and head home. Perfect timing!