Playing Catch-up

It would be overwhelming to post pictures of the year I've missed on the blog. So I am just going to ignore the fact that 12 months have gone missing (we'll blame it on user error--my inability to juggle too many things at once).
Here are a few pictures from the last month or so.

Norah at Kindergarten Promotion!

Toby played a month of post-season little league!

#18. He played every position, but pitching. He liked catcher best.

Toby got baptized on June 8th!

Carmel River State Beach--I had just dropped Toby off for a day at summer camp when I snapped this picture. I was a little jealous of his 2 weeks at summer camp!

Norah at open house, where we went on a tour of her classroom. She worked so hard this year!

My Spring Time Activities

While the Philosopher has been working up in San Francisco this week we've been keeping busy at home, enjoying Spring.

On Tuesday we went to the beach after school.

 

 

On Wednesday we dined at Luca, stuffing ourselves on pizza, spaghetti, and gelatto. The kids shared their window seats with some friends, Ozzie and Little Dog, and they shared bites of their gelatto. It was determined before we ordered our meals that Toby would have chocolate and Norah vanilla.

 

We pulled out a box of old toys to have some quality block-building time.

 

And on Thursday we cheered on Toby at his game in Carmel Valley. The weather was just wonderful. (This was a picture of his last hit of the day.)

 

My Little Slugger and My Little Mudder

At baseball today Toby got three hits, and one was a double! It's so cute because he is still learning the rules of the game and how to make plays. I apologize for my craptastic video skills, but the sun was in my eyes while I was filming this so I missed my little guy running for first, as well as the first base coach telling him to keep going! But hopefully you get the idea.

And while Toby was swinging away (the nice thing for these kiddos is that the coach pitches until the kids get a hit), Norah was digging away in the mud.

My First Baseball Season

Playing catcher at practice.

A pause in the line up.

Opening Day practice inning.

Playing catch with teammates on Opening Day.

Toby is a Carmel Volcano! He has a buddy from class on his team (whose dad is the coach), and he loves to hit, throw, and play catcher. We're looking forward to a good first experience with baseball (although we're already lamenting the loss of those slow Saturday mornings!). Here's a video of his first hit in his game last week:

My Weekend Should Always Start with a Beach Day

We had such a busy weekend! The Philosopher was philosophizing at a conference and we booked ourselves solid for the whole weekend.

On Friday we went straight from school to the beach. It was such a gorgeous afternoon. We found a little spot in a cove that blocked the wind and we hung out for hours. The kids dug holes (we really need some good shovels) and played in the trees and the moms just chatted. 

Then we came home and "enjoyed" some homemade pizza. I am working on my 2013 goal to eat pizza as often as possible, but I am on a mission to find a good dough recipe. I used a no-knead recipe and one from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They both turned out really dry. I'll have to keep experimenting. Just because the dough was dry doesn't mean we didn't eat almost all of the pizza, though!

Saturday was completely booked. We made crepes, then ran errands in the morning (Toby needed cleats for baseball as well as uniform stuff and a batting helmet), which led into a birthday party for his classmate in the afternoon. The kids had so much fun!! The birthday girl's family booked out the entire Carmel Youth Center and so the kids could play games, do crafts, and even watch a movie in a mini-theater!

Once the kids were loaded on popcorn, soda, and cupcakes we went home for a brief rest before going to another friend's house for a really neat house concert. Some (newly) local musicians played folk-Americana music for a few hours, and there was even a babysitter for the kids.

On the way home from the concert Toby said, "I am so tired I just want to brush my teeth, get in my pajamas, and go straight to bed!" He heard no complaint from me!

Sunday was full of relaxation and chores-catch-up in the morning and baseball practice in the afternoon.

Some weekends are so busy that we (almost) look forward to a slow and easy weekday routine!