Father's Day - Baseball, Baseball and More Baseball

What a whirlwind of a weekend!  But lots of fun.  Friday night started with a Lake County Captains game (Graham's Father's Day tradition).

Dinner at the game.  I don't like hot dogs.  But there's something about baseball games...you simply have to have hot dogs.  The girls enjoyed theirs very much.

Addy ready to catch a foul ball.

Saturday we spent the day celebrating Father's Day in Toledo (see http://lifewiththelanzes.blogspot.com/2012/06/fathers-day-celebration-in-toledo.html)  And Sunday brought more baseball, with Addy & Daddy's Tiny T-ball game.  

Cora is usually a big fan, but she was so tuckered out from the weekend...

Father's Day Celebration in Toledo

Saturday we spent the day celebrating with Grandpa Johnny, Zee Zee, Uncle Jay and Aunt Carrie in Toledo.  Can you say pool party!!!

It was a gorgeous day, we played hard and ate well!  Just as any good family gathering should be.

Here's Addy chilling in the star float.  Don't you love her look - "Did you need something???  I'm relaxing."

Quite the noodle train.

Happy kicker with Uncle Jay.

Musical Theatre

So I lucked out a bit this past week with Lanz Family Summer Camp because Addy went to Carol Nursery School's summer camp.  Big fun for her - first time she's packing a lunch and going four days (9am-1pm) a week.  She's very, very excited.  This week's theme is Musical Theatre and the grand finale was their performance of "Are You Ready to Play Outside" by Mo Willems.

Our little rain cloud.

Here's a link to a video that Uncle Chad put together (little did he know when he showed up at our house for a surprise visit that he'd be going to a theatrical production!)

http://youtu.be/e6vBbmZLx7U

We didn't do many other projects at home for the week because summer camp was a very busy day.  But one afternoon, talking about how everyone was going to be a star in the preschool show, we may some stars for our favorite characters from musical theatre (which I described to Addy as people who use music to tell us a story).  So, her list included: Alex, Leah & Rachel from Signing Time, The Muppets, Mrs. Price & Dr. Brown from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, the Doodlebops, and the Greg Duncan Band.  Who's the Greg Duncan Band you may ask???  I had to ask.  Well, back in Farm Week, we got an old Reading Rainbow episode out from the library that was called Barn Dance.  Greg Duncan was the musician talking about various bluegrass instruments and had his own band that played the music for the cloggers who were barn dancing.  That's Addy - never missing a detail.

It was also Marine Week here in Cleveland and the girls and I went down to public square, taking the rapid to get there, with our neighbor to see the Quantico Marine Corps Band put on a concert.

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to see some helicopters up close and personal.

Farm Week - Video

The best part is at the end...when Cora practices her "royal wave."

Think we'll be spending a lot of time at the pool...

Farm Week

Preschool ended.  And as I thought more about the summer ahead, I decided to take some inspiration from a good friend of mine, Heather Rinas, and create some theme weeks for us.  The idea being that I could organize our activities and adventures around a theme for that week, appealing to my love of planning, and helping us avoid starting each day with a discussion over what we should do today.  The problem for us is never finding something to do - there's so much that we love to do around Shaker and Cleveland!  But now we can use our theme weeks to explore new places and revisit some of our old standbys trying to make new discoveries.  

So first up was Farm Week.  I have to admit I was excited about this idea (like I said, I like to plan).  But I never imagined just how excited Addy would be about the concept.  She really, really got into it.  In fact, as the week drew to a close, she must have said to me five times, "I wish Farm Week didn't have to end."

We started off the week with a visit to the Children's Museum, thoroughly enjoying ourselves in their Big Red Barn room.

Driving the animals safety.  You may ask why...well, according to Addy, the barn was on fire.  This is in fact the second time this particular barn has been on fire (it was during our last visit as well).  And so Addy screams, "the barn's on fire," and starts carrying animals out and into the jeep to transport them to a new barn.  At some point, Graham and I are going to have to explain to her about the whole, "you shouldn't yell 'fire' in a crowded movie theatre thing," but for now we've managed to escape with only a few strange looks.

We sang a lot of songs - many, many rounds of Old MacDonald, played some games, and did a lot of crafts throughout the week, which we then used to add to our farm-themed decorations for the playroom.  Here are our pigs, which like to play in the mud (read - girls, you get to slather them in as much brown paint as you like!)

And our fluffy sheep.

And because it's not just animals, but fruits and veggies that we find on farms, Addy decided to make some of her favorite crop - strawberries.

Part of the reason I picked this week for Farm Week is because it coincided with the first week we picked up our first CSA (community supported agriculture) bag.  Addy and I met the truck and then took turns guessing at the contents as we unloaded the bag - collard greens, radishes, kohlrabi, pea tendrils, green leaf lettuce, red russian kale and a 5 1/2 pound pasture-fed chicken.  Oh, and of course the strawberries.  We've even more greens this week already than we have the last six months combined!

We capped off the week with a visit to the Lake County Farmpark.

Cora loves, loves, loves cows.  And so the dairy barn was our first stop.  She was hooked.

6-day old baby pigs.  So cute!

Addy encouraging Cora to pet the sheep.  Not that Cora needed much encouragement, but Addy loves to show Cora the way.

Grinding grain into flour.

And riding the horses!  I'll try to get the videos up soon.  Addy, the very serious, focused rider, inquiring about the name of the horse.  And Cora, ecstatic to get on the horse (unwilling, in fact, to get off the horse), pointing to all the other animals she passed and waving to people who she saw watching her.

All in all, a great week!

Tiny T-Ball Opening Day

Today was Coach Daddy and Addy's first Tiny T-Ball Game.  There's  no score, each "inning" consists of every player getting a turn at bat, and you can swing as many times as you need to get a hit.  Good fun was had by all.

Addy was first at bat, and the fact that she walked right up to the plate and looked all those players in yellow shirts out in front of her, and got ready to swing made all of us very proud.  And then, here's what she did with her first swing!

After rounding the bases.

Some other pics from the day...
at practice before the game.

Blue team takes the field.

And what appears to be a t-ball strategy - group the kids in clusters around each base.  Increases the odds of someone fielding the ball :)

Cora's favorite spot during the game, was at the playground next to the field.  But when she did come to watch the game, she insisted on doing it in the dugout, on the bench.

Skipper's Opening Day Pitch

Saturday was opening day for Shaker Heights Little League, of which Graham  is one of the co-commissioners.  This year, Skipper, the mascot of the Lake County Captains, was slated to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at some of the opening day games.  And when the call came asking if Addy wanted to be Skipper's official ambassador to the games, well, it was an easy answer.  Here's Skipper (well, his driver) parking in our driveway after completing their duties at the first game.  Cora and I didn't go to that one, we waited at the field across from our house.  Not every day you get a minor league mascot to park at your house :)

Walking Skipper over to the field.

And showing him the way to the mound.  Addy was so, so, so excited.

And so at this point, after reflecting on Addy's excitement, it's seems to appropriate to remark on Cora's, shall we say, lack of excitement about Skipper.  The poor kid was petrified of him.  From the moment he got out of the car and started walking toward us, she clung to me.  There was screaming, there were tears, there was shouting "Daddy, Addy" because I think she feared that Skipper was going to eat them or something.  This was not Cora's way to start a Saturday morning.

Regardless, we stuck out a few more minutes and got these shots.

And Tom, the other co-commissioner, helping Addy get Skipper's autograph.

Memorial Day

This year again we marched in the Memorial Day Parade - Graham with the color guard at the beginning of the parade and Addy, Cora and I with our church.

Kicking off the parade.

It was a gorgeous day with lots of sun, or perhaps a little too much sun...it was very, very hot.  Addy made it about halfway (about 3/4 of a mile) and then decided that she was done with her bike.  Thank goodness we had Grandma Sherry staged halfway through to check in on us.  So we dumped the bike, but we all wanted to keep going.

And here we are at the end, with our friend Callie, who was so kind to Addy and helped her make it the whole way.  Callie and her mom were skipping, and swinging Addy, and all were smiles despite the red, dripping with sweat, faces.

Poor Cora after the parade...I've never seen her look so hot.  But she was a trooper and in a good mood (had her first lollipops along the parade route).  And while I was quite worried about her face when I saw how red it was, I should have had more faith in the sun block I lathered her in because she had no sunburn anywhere.  Phew.

And just for fun, here's a picture of Addy's preschool's float in the parade.  So cute.