The Hyde Park Mariners

Since we haven't posted any video of Henry's baseball games this year (and his last game is next week), here you go:

Henry's Awesome Double Play:

Henry's Infield Single:

Henry had a much better hit during this game, but he made me promise not to post it because it turned into an out. He hit the ball into the outfield but wasn't paying attention to the third base coach and was thrown out at third. As he said, he tried to "stretch" his hit into a triple. It was a good hit, though. He's had one home run this season, but I don't have a video of it. Too bad - he was awfully excited about it.

Baseball ends next week for both boys. They've really enjoyed it and learned alot. It's kept us busy during the week, as we've had games every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night during the month of June, but it's been fun. It's hard to believe that July is just around the corner.

It's All About The Pink

Before Tessa came along, I didn't realize how much the color pink was marketed towards little girls. I mean, I knew that pink was the predominant color in baby girl clothes; I felt somewhat victorious when I found something cute for her in a nice, bold, primary color. But I somehow thought she might be immune to the pink obsession that seems to plague most little girls. She played with her brother's toys alot and, trust me, none of them were pink. Actually, now that I think about it, the boys seem to have a natural predisposition against pink, not to mention the fact that there are very few pink trains, trucks or dinosaurs floating around. Anyway, we never had alot of pink in our house, even as Tessa got bigger. It was closing in on her second Christmas (she was about 18 months old) and Jay said, "shouldn't we buy her some girl stuff to play with?" So it's not like she was inundated with pink stuff from birth. But, let me tell you, she caught on fast.

She has pink toothpaste and prefers to have her teeth flossed with a pink flosser. When she gets to choose her shoes, she generally heads for her pink flip flops. She loves pink shirts and dresses (and if they are princess themed, all the better). If you ask her to name her favorite color, she enthusiastic shouts "pink!".

So I couldn't resist the pink baseball mitt and ball. She has been begging for a mitt of her own so she can join in the games of catch that go on around here. She loves to play catch with Henry, who is remarkably patient with her. The only problem is that William doesn't like to play catch with her because "I'm not a big fan of pink". I think we'll all be feeling that way in a few years. Until then, we'll play along. I don't think we have much choice.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! Jay is a great dad and we love celebrating the fact that we have him in our family.

He really proved what a great father he is this past week. I traveled to Mississippi Monday night for my Uncle Larry's funeral and Jay was on kid duty from Tuesday through Saturday. They had a great time. They played baseball and basketball. They went to Salt Lake City twice - once on the Front Runner and once to the Hogle Zoo. He took all the kids to all the baseball games that we had this past week. He did laundry and kept the house clean and did some projects around the house and the yard. It was so nice for me to go spend time with my mom and grandmother and my uncle's wife and know that the kids were well taken care of.

There were a few missteps. Tessa got lost briefly in the grocery store (she and William were fooling around - she told a nice lady who was trying to help her that her dad's name was "Daddy") and William swallowed a dime (don't ask). But I think the kids had a great time spending the week with their dad.

So Happy Father's Day, Jay. We love you!

The Fun Roller

We spent Saturday in Ogden, celebrating our niece Kate's first birthday. It was too wet and cool to do the planned Slip n Slide/water activities, but thank goodness Nana had a contingency plan. She let the kids paint in her garage (on the walls - her garage is now full of the grandkid's artwork) and she broke out The Fun Roller. As you can see in the video below, the name is an accurate description of what you actually do with it:

Note Tessa's propensity for screaming at her siblings as they run past. She does this alot. Sometime's it's warranted (as in the video - obviously having the boys jump into The Fun Roller while she was trying to play with it was annoying to her) but sometimes it's not (as when she screeches at them for walking past her in the family room).

Anyway, we had a fun Saturday with the family. Thanks again to Nana for purchasing The Fun Rollers. They had fun and rolled. It was a very successful Saturday.

Willow Park Aviary, uh, I mean Zoo

We don't have a zoo in the classic sense here in Cache Valley. Oh, they call it a zoo. But it's really not. It's mostly a lot of birds - ducks, geese, pheasants, doves, peacocks, etc. They even have two ravens and a couple of creepy looking vultures. I'm being a little harsh - they have other animals besides birds. They have two coyotes, two bobcats, a few monkeys, a couple of wallabys, some turtles and a boa constrictor. But when I think of a zoo, I think of a lot more animals than we have here and so it's hard for me to take the "zoo" designation too seriously. Still, it's a fun outing, it's cheap (only $1 for adults and 50 cents for kids and you are on the honor system to pay your entrance fee), and it passes the time.

Here are a few pictures from our recent outing:





They even have fish food (which the ducks come over and beg for) that you can buy for 10 cents a handful. And afterwards you can stroll over and play on the playground. Definitely a fun thing to do with the kids on a late spring morning.

The End of an Era

It is the end of an era in the our house. Today we took the crib down and set up Tessa's big girl bed. It's the first time in almost 8 years that we don't have a child sleeping in a crib.

It's time. I'm sure some of you are thinking, "but....she's 3" and you would be right. And in the past we have moved the kids to a twin bed at about 2 1/2, but it's always been because we had a new baby and needed the crib. Tessa has been sleeping great in the crib and has never tried to climb out, so we figured we'd just let her stay in it as long as possible. But lately she's just seemed to be too big for it - when she stretches out she almost touches the end of the crib and she moves around enough to get uncovered with the smaller blankets we have been using. So we bought her big girl bedding (a dark pink comforter and pink polka dot sheets that match the pillowcase that I made her for Christmas) and today Jay took down the crib.

Tessa's bedtime buddies - the wombat and koala from Bev and Max, the doggie blanket from Grandma, her two baby blankets, and Tasha:

The big girl in her bed:


I'll be honest, it's a little bittersweet. The baby days are officially over for us and although we are excited to watch the kids grow it's kind of hard to lose that sweetness that comes when they are so small. Oh wait, she's still not potty trained. I guess the baby days are still with us, at least for a little while longer.

Now Batting....William Wright

Tonight was William's first T-Ball game. He plays for the mighty Hyde Park Red Sox. Here are two videos of his T-ball debut:

This is William's first at-bat. Notice that he bats left-handed. We're not sure why. He seems to do OK and be more comfortable in this stance, so we just go with it.

Here is William playing defense:

I'll be honest. T-ball isn't the most exciting game to watch. Basically all the kids bat. If they strike out or are thrown out, they are out but neither instance happens that often. They play an hour, which basically works out to be 3 innings. It's fun for them, though, and at this age that's all that matters.

William plays games every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 7 pm in the month of June. If you are in our neck of the woods, let me know. There are worse ways to spend a summer evening.

Henry J. Wright, Esquire

Can I just start by asking how in the world did Jay and I end up with a child turning 8? Finishing 2nd grade? Seriously, I don't know where the time has gone but he sure seems grown up lately. He can tie his own shoes. He's losing teeth. He can call a friend on the phone. He takes out the trash and recycling. He reads the sports section of the newspaper in the morning before school, for heaven's sake. And if you know Henry, he's more like 7 going on 25 alot of the time, as evidenced by the account below.

Today in Henry's 2nd grade class they had Author's Day. It was a special program where the kids in his class all read something that they had written during the year. Most of the offerings were short stories about a myriad of things - puppies and kitties, ducks, secret agents, that kind of thing. Some of the kids wrote about their lives - sports, skateboarding, playing with friends, going to Disneyland. Not our Henry. He wrote about U.S. State Records. Apparently he was inspired by the 2008 World Record book he was reading and decided to research some of the more interesting facts and share them with the class. If you want to know about avocado production in the state of California in 2008, look no further:



His presentation was just so Henry. After complimenting him on his essay and buying him (and William and Tessa) a half price slushie at Sonic to celebrate, I asked him if he enjoyed writing fiction. He grimaced. That's OK. The world needs researchers.

He's had a great 2nd grade year with a wonderful teacher. We are so proud of him!