Field Trip to Winterthur

Zach's kindergarten class went to Winterthur Museum today and I took off from work to help chaperone.  I've gone on plenty of field trips before but this one was interesting because for the first time ever I had 5 boys in my group.  Boys are much different than girls!  None of them wanted to look where our guide wanted them to look so I had to constantly redirect them.  That was a very long 1 1/2 hour tour!  Plus boys (at least the ones in my group) didn't really care how food used to be prepared or what beds used to be made of.  Now they did like the children's room where they were allowed to touch things.  First they went to the pretend store where when Zach couldn't pay for the plate he wanted he had to sweep the floor:

Then they learned how to make butter and even how to mold butter into pretty shapes.  They even used sugar snips to make the sugar smaller.

The last thing they did in the children's room was to have a tea party and I would have loved to have gotten a picture of the 5 boys sitting at the table having "tea" but our guide rushed us through that one.  They ended the tour by listening to a story where each child got to participate by bringing whatever object was in front of them up front when it was mentioned.  Zach's was a "buzz saw," a toy that boys used to play with.  When the story was finished we went back to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the class and then went to the cafe to eat our lunches.  I've got to say that I enjoy the field trips so much more when the kids are a little older.  Right now it's nothing but work!  Even so I'm glad I got to go and spend the morning with my Zach (and 4 other little boys!)  

Soccer Game #7 and T-ball Game #3

Soccer Game #7

Lauren finally had a challenging game on Friday so it was a good game to watch.   She played almost the entire game except for a couple of minutes at the beginning of the second half.  She asked to stay out after halftime so she could catch her breath for a little longer.  Other than that she played mostly forward with a little bit of center mid when the coach shifted players around.   

A player from the other team was hurt so the game stopped for about 2 minutes until she came off (she was fine.)  Lauren took that time to chat to some of the girls near her.  When they were little all the girls would take a knee when someone got hurt, those days are gone!

After the game Lauren said she played terrible but I think she did pretty good.  She didn't score or get any assists though, that would have been nice.

She just did a header in this picture.  She said she got a little dizzy afterwards.  Oh no!

At the half they were winning 2-0 and then scored another 2 goals in the second half to make the final 4-0.  They have a lot more challenging games coming up.  They got all their easy games out of the way early.

Mets team picture
After Lauren's game I went with Zach and Paul to watch them get their team picture taken.  I only did that so I could snap a picture of them.  It came out okay.  I'm sure the one I paid for will be better.

T-ball Game #3
There's not much improvement in Zach's fielding.  He doesn't pay attention to the ball and usually plays in the dirt.  He says it's boring out there!

He does like to fight other kids to the ball though.  The other kid got this and Zach was trying to take it away from him. 

He also pulled his hat down so he couldn't see anything!

For as unattentive as he is in the field he does do a good job when he's at bat.  Except for in this picture, he swung and missed.

He hit it on his next attempt and ran to first base. 

Kristin and Lauren came to watch their brother play.  Lauren had already left before I took this.  Since Kristin has rarely been on my blog lately I thought I'd include it.

And that's the end of the sports for now.  We're not even halfway through the season yet so there will be lots more pictures to come!

T-ball game #2

Zach's team played the Braves tonight.  Here's a few pics from the game.

Paul was helping Zach with his glove, not sure what was wrong with it.

I wish he was as interested in the game as he was the dirt!

He was just too cute standing there, I had to take his picture!



Zach batted last tonight which is an automatic home run.  Since there's 3 innings he got 3 home runs tonight.  Way to go Zach!  Here's the first of his home runs and it's very comical since he passes one of his own players. 

Soccer Game #6

Lauren had her first night game tonight and what an exciting game it was!  Lauren has her old position back, forward, so I couldn't wait to see her score a goal.  She didn't disappoint either and scored the second goal of the night.  I had my camera ready and captured the moment.  Ready for it?  Here you go!

Awesome isn't it! (In case you don't get the sarcasm, I'm just kidding.) The girl behind the blue #5 girl is Lauren and the ball does end up in the net.  It's a crappy picture though.

She had a couple of assists too with one of them being caught on camera.  At least you can see her in this picture (she's the one in white in case you don't know).  She crossed the ball in front of the net and one of her teammates kicked it in.

That's about it for pictures since Lauren's team scored 9 goals within minutes of starting so then they just played keep away the rest of the game.  I said this was an exciting game at the beginning of this post, once again, just kidding.  This was absolutely the most BORING game I've ever watched.  I'm glad she scored though!

Little League Opening Day and 1st Game

The teams paraded onto the field in the morning as part of their opening day ceremony.   Zach's part of the "Mets" t-ball team, here they are waiting before the parade.  Zach's in the middle row on the left.

Waiting in the outfield for their team to be announced:

Zach's #10, the only one not facing forward.  That's Paul to the left of him.

Later that day Zach had his first game, it was against the Giants.  Here he is at his first time up to bat:

And after he ran to first base:

It looks like Zach is getting ready to catch the ball but he's not.  It had already rolled past him!

He's wearing a helmet because he was in the pitcher's position.  I can't say he was the pitcher because the kids hit off a tee.

This was either his second or third time up to bat.  (There's only 3 innings.)  I love the look on his face!

Another picture of him attempting to catch the ball.

It looked like he was really into it right?  Well he was but he also had moments like this one where he would just lay on the grass (and this was while the game was going on!):

Or this where he would draw and play in the dirt.

I thought the game was over but they ended up playing a 4th inning because there was time left.  So here's my little man right before it's his turn to bat.

Now only 15 more games to go!

Zach's 1st Scrimmage Game

His team looked so cute dressed up in their uniforms!  I'll start this with pictures and end this with some video I took.  Here's my little man warming up before the game.

This was as he was running from 3rd base to home.

The second time his team took the field he played 1st base (he was left outfield the first time.)  Paul helped him put his helmet on.

My cute little first baseman checking to see if his mommy was watching him!

His first time up to bat.  Paul was putting the ball on the tee for them.

This is him running from 1st to 2nd base after his teammate hit the ball. 

Of course I had to get a little bit of him playing 1st base. 

 It was cute to watch and I'm excited to see his upcoming games.  Opening day is this Saturday!

Longwood Gardens and Lunch with Paul

Kristin had an orthodontist appointment today at 10:00 so afterwards we stopped by Longwood Gardens.  My pass is going to expire soon so I might as well get some more use out of it.  It was a little chilly and windy so we headed straight to the conservatory so we would be inside.  The children's garden is always the first stop. 

We went through the rest of the conservatory and took lots of pictures of pretty flowers (and kids!)

Next stop was the outside children's garden. 

We saw pretty flowers that were in a patchwork design that we checked out.

We then saw the Chimes Tower and the waterfall.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend there since we were going to Paul's work to have lunch with him.  We haven't done that in a long time.

That was what we did on our first day of spring break.  Exciting wasn't it?