Lucas's 9th Birthday Party

This past Saturday, Lucas had his 9th birthday party at the recreation center located about 5 minutes from our house. There's something to be said for parties that are close and easy to get to. All but one of the invitees go to his school so it was convenient for them as well. We're just all-around great hosts!

Anyway, it was a sports party so the kids got to play for an hour in the gym, before retiring to a party room for snacks and cake. Lucas's first choice of activity was dodgeball.

This one is a little blurry, but I thought it was funny to see him bean his buddy Carson.

They followed that up with a rousing game of soccer.

Finally, they wrapped things up with floor hockey. The birthday boy pouted a bit at the team selection until the helpers relented and let him play on Carson's team. It should be noted that Carson played in a higher division of hockey than any of the other kids last season so Lucas wanted that advantage. And it definitely showed...until me and one of the helpers joined the opposing team to even things out.

I like how the Red team looks like they are marching in this one.

Reveling in a goal, apparently.

After that, the kids headed to the break room where they lined up for snacks.

The birthday boy approves.

Happy Birthday!



A picture of Marilu's cake. She could explain it better, but it was essentially ice cream sandwiches under a layer of chocolate pudding/frosting, covered in Oreo crumbs, Quite tasty, I can say from experience.

Let the feasting begin!

After the cake, we had the kids do a few challenges where they could win prizes. The first was a darts competition (won by Kyle), then a hockey shooting contest (not surprisingly won by Carson), and finally musical chairs (tie between Carson and Deavon). The kids REALLY enjoyed this part of the party, which made us think that next year's party will be nothing but challenges. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of this portion of the party since I had to help out with the various events.

Last but not least, I had the kids pose for a picture, which has become something of a tradition over the last 3 years. One normal photo followed by goofiness.

And that's all, folks! Hope you enjoyed.

Through the years

Although I've done a retrospective with the Christmas Eve photos, I was surprised to realize that I've never done one with pictures of Lucas on his birthday. So without any further adieu...

2007 (0 years old)

2008 (1)

2009 (2)

2010 (3)

2011 (4)

2012 (5)

2013 (6)

2014 (7)

2015 (8)

His 9th birthday party is tomorrow afternoon so I'll add a photo from that once it's over. Hope you enjoyed!

Incidentally, I ran across this one from Father's Day 2010 that I liked so much, I decided to repost it for the hell of it.

9 Years!

Lucas is 9 years old today. Unbelievable! It seems like he was just popping out of Marilu last week, and now he's only a year away from double digits. Here's a picture of him from this morning posing with his gift from us, a Sphero Ollie (think 21st century remote control car).

Changes are afoot

I just wanted to give you a heads up that major changes are coming to the blog soon. Due to some little shitheads at Lucas's school finding the blog and teasing him about pictures of him in the bathtub when he was only a year or two old, I decided I'm going to make the blog more private.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do yet since Blogger is an all-or-nothing blog, meaning it's all private or all public. I've read where people maintain two blogs, one public and one private, so I may do that since I'm comfortable with the Blogger format. There are also other blog sites such as Wordpress that allow you to make specific entries private. That's the more elegant solution, but I don't know that I feel like switching to a whole new site.

Either way, in order to access the private stuff, you'll need to login, and I'll need to give you access. I honestly don't know how many people read this blog past immediate family so if you want access to the next incarnation of the blog, email me or add a comment to this post, and I'll be sure you're on the guest list when Deal Blog 2.0 opens.

That is all.

4 on 4 Tournament

Yesterday, Lucas had a cross-town tournament with his 4-on-4 team. "Cross-town" refers to the fact that there is a 4-on-4 league on the west side of town (at the Bell Sensplex) and one on the east side (at the Richcraft Sensplex). I'm not sure if they alternate who hosts it, but this year, it was at Richcraft so we got to go for a 30 minute drive early in the morning.

Each division had 5 teams in it, which meant each team would play 4 other teams. Then the top 2 teams at the end of the day would play each other for the championship. In Lucas's division, there were 3 East teams and 2 West teams (including his team). They did remarkably well in the round robin, going 4-0. They didn't even get scored on until the 3rd game.

In the finals, the game was extremely close, and the game ended as a tie. Lucas's team scored with less than 2 seconds left to tie it up so it was about as exciting as a game can get. Unfortunately, they then went to a shootout, which in my opinion is the most anticlimactic way to finish a hockey game, According to the rules, the shootout order is done by player numbers, starting from the lowest to the highest. This put Teal at a distinct disadvantage as the other team's two best players wore their lowest numbers and Teal's best shooters both were high numbers. As a result, Teal lost their first game since Lucas joined the team a month ago.

As expected, the kids didn't let it affect them too much. It probably didn't hurt that the only reward for winning was taking a picture with a big trophy. They didn't actually receive trophies or medals for the win so it didn't feel like they were missing out on much.

For what it's worth, Lucas played pretty well. He had two very pretty one-timers, and I was lucky enough to get the second one on video, which you can see below. It's a little hard to see, but he's #55, and he is the kid planted just to the left of the goal. The video's a little slow since the play is mostly in the corner, but it pays off at the end.



Here's a goofy photo Lucas posed for prior to one of the games.

2016 Massachusetts Trip #2, Part 5

I've still got another couple of months until we hit the 1 year mark on our second Massachusetts trip from 2015, but I wanted to get the last post in now, lest I forget. In my defense, I have been updating on more recent things, but it's true I really need to clear out the backlog on the stuff from 2015 sooner rather than later.

There's not going to be much text in this post since I'm tired and ready for bed. So enjoy the pictures. The first batch is from our ride on the Indian Princess, an old-fashioned paddleboat on Webster Lake (or Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug, if you're a native).

And the second is from our visit to Purgatory, a state park in Massachusetts that has a bunch of really cool chasms and caves. Lucas was nervous at first but was having a ball by the end of it (and making ME nervous).

And that's it for Massachusetts 2015!

Victoria Day Weekend

Lucas's baseball team had another big win tonight, and Lucas had his best batting performance to date. In his first at-bat, he got 4 balls, which usually means a walk at the pro level, but in their league, after 4 balls, they hit off a tee.

Lucas has hit off the tee at least once before, and it was a relatively soft hit into the infield, which I think got him a single. I was expecting more of the same tonight when--CRACK!--he knocked it well into the outfield. The end result was his first double. Woohoo!

His second at-bat wasn't quite as impressive, but he popped up and it dropped between the pitcher and catcher. At first, I thought it was a foul ball, as did all the kids, but then the coaches started screaming at him to run (and the opposing coaches shouting for their kids to throw the ball to first). Lucas was able to outrun the throw and got his second hit of the game, a single.

So 2-for-2 on the night. Not a bad showing!

Last weekend (May 21-23) was Victoria Day weekend in Canada, and we kept pretty busy. On Sunday, we were invited to go fishing with some friends on their boat. It was a really fun time, made all the better that we had some success. I caught a crappie (worst name ever for something you can eat) and a sunfish while Lucas caught a bass. Ed, the owner of the boat, caught a pike, which was cool since I'd never seen one in the wild (i.e., outside of an aquarium). The bass was out of season so Lucas had to throw it back in--or rather I did, since he wouldn't touch it--and we didn't keep the sunfish, but Ed kept the crappie and pike for eating. Here's a few pictures from that experience.

In addition to that, on Sunday, we went downtown for the annual Tulip Festival. Here's a few pictures from that.

While going through my pictures last night, I realized I need to finish posting the vacation ones from last year since we're closing in on the one year mark. I have been updating with other stuff so not everything is behind, but the vacation-related stuff is just woeful. So I'll get on that posthaste!

A New Position

A couple of things to note about the Padres game tonight. They had their first loss of the season, losing big to one of the other undefeated teams. It looked worse than it actually was though since Lucas's coach let kids who haven't pitched before try out the position. If the regular pitchers had been in there, it probably would have been a bit closer.

Speaking of that, Lucas pitched in the first inning, and he did a really good job for his first time on the mound. He faced 3 batters: one of them hit the ball but got thrown out at first, and the other two got 4 balls and hit off the tee, but they were also thrown out. So technically, he threw a no-hitter! :) Despite the walks, he did have at least one strike against all 3 batters so it was a good start. He's pretty accurate when we play catch, so I think if he works at it, he could definitely be a pitcher more often. If he wants to. He also had a nice hit off the tee in his one at-bat, but unfortunately, it was caught by the second baseman.

I would have liked to have gotten more pictures, or even a video of him pitching, but I wasn't sure if that would stress him out so I tried to stay out of his field of vision. I did get a couple of pictures of him warming up before the game so you can look at these and pretend there was a batter there. :)

And here's his at-bat. I am usually the first base coach so I was able to get a better than normal angle for this shot.

Baseball Photos

The Padres had their closest game of the season last night, winning 12-10. I wasn't even sure they had won until I saw the official score posted to the website this morning. It was the first time they didn't score 5 runs in an inning (which automatically ends the inning) and the first time the other team DID score 5 against them. Lucas had 3 at-bats with 2 strikeouts and a walk. Despite that, I was happy with his performance since he struck out swinging and not just watching strikes fly by. So he wasn't scared of the ball like in the previous 2 games.

As promised, here are some pictures. First off, here's the top part of his uniform. I may have said it before, but I'm really impressed with their uniforms. In hockey, everyone has the same Blazers jersey, and then the kids pick a name that typically has nothing to do with the Blazers. Here, they have a team identity right off the bat. I realize hockey jerseys are considerably more expensive than baseball ones, but still, that's just styling right there.

Here's a couple of him out in right field between pitches.

And finally, a couple at bat. This is the first year where the kids do the pitching as opposed to a coach. If a pitcher throws 4 balls, rather than getting a walk, the batter hits off the tee. That way, the kids get both hitting and fielding practice, regardless of the pitcher's skill (or lack thereof).

All of these photos were taken with my iPhone at one of the first practice/exhibition games. Hence their not being all that close up or clear. I plan to bring the Nikon to a game soon so once I do, you'll see some better photos.

Enjoy, and have a good weekend!

Baseball and Hockey Updates

It turns out the trade between the Gold and Teal teams in 4 on 4 hockey worked out for everyone. If you recall, I said Teal (Lucas's new team) would be playing the same teams this week as Gold (his old team) played last week so it would be a good comparison of the teams. First up was Purple, who they tied last week 2-2. This week, a 7-1 win! Woohoo! A win, finally! Then they played Silver, who destroyed Gold 16-0 last week. Teal avenged that loss with a 6-5 win, which should have been 6-4, but the scorekeeper made a mistake since they thought a goal went in when it didn't. Either way, I'll take that win!

As for Gold, they finally got in the win column in their first game and only lost the second game by one goal. I was happy to see them do so well since they were a good group of kids that just needed a "star" player to match up against the other teams who already had high-level players.

On the completely opposite side of the coin, Lucas's baseball team continued their early season domination last night with an 11-2 win. It looked like it was going to be a closer game than the first one since the other team's first pitcher was fantastic, preventing any runs from the Padres. However, I think pitchers have to rotate after 2 innings and once he was out, our big hitters took over. According to the standings, the Padres are in first place since of the four 2 win teams, they have the biggest run differential (+24 with the next closest team at +13).

Lucas had one highlight and some definite lowlights during the game though. For the former, on his third at-bat, he got his first official hit, a single. He'd been on base before, due to walks, but this was his first "legitimate" time on base. As for the lowlights, he cried THREE times during the game. Once after his first at-bat, a strikeout; the second was when he got hit by his own teammate's ball while running from 2nd to 3rd (which resulted in him being out), and the third was after he scored at home (this was after his hit). That last one was apparently because he was so happy he got a hit that he was overcome with emotion.

I think a big part of it was that Marilu was at the game. He doesn't usually act that way around me, but when she's around, he tends to be a momma's boy. I've already told him Tom Hanks's wise advice from "A League of Their Own" ("There's no crying in baseball!") so hopefully he'll be better next game. Also, we went up to the park and practiced his hitting for well over an hour earlier tonight so that should give him an extra boost of confidence at the very least.

Because of quirky scheduling, the next hockey game isn't until next Saturday (the 28th), but he'll be back on the baseball field tomorrow night. I promise to have some baseball pictures up by this weekend.

Ch-ch-changes

This is my second post of the day so if you missed the one about Lucas's first baseball game, keep scrolling down after you finish reading this one.

Just wanted to give you a quick update on hockey since there have been a couple of big changes today. First off, Lucas's team FINALLY didn't lose a game. After losing their first game of the day by a huge margin (16-0?), they managed to tie their next game 2-2. Woohoo! A 0-9-1 record!

The big news, however, is that we just received an email that Lucas has been traded to the Teal team, which was undefeated as of last week. His friend Matthew is also going to Teal, which is a good thing since he was the top scorer for Gold (around 10 out of their 13 goals). Hopefully, Teal isn't giving up all of their best players for them. :)

Interestingly, Teal's next 2 games are against the teams Gold played today so we'll be able to tell immediately whether the change is an improvement or not. That'll be Monday so I'll let you know how it goes.

Play Ball!

Lucas's baseball team, the Padres, had their first game yesterday. The final score was something like 18-2 or 22-2, in favor of the Padres, so I'd say it went well. I'd like to say Lucas was a big part of the win, but as he's one of the youngest players and still learning the game, his contribution wasn't huge.

Lucas had three at-bats, starting with a strikeout and followed by 2 walks. He was visibly nervous at his first at-bat, not swinging at all, but he did swing in his next at-bats so there was some improvement. He didn't have too many fielding opportunities, thanks in large part to the pitchers. The Padres first pitcher, who was in innings 1 and 2, had 5 strikeouts!

For most of the positions, the kids get rotated, at least at the beginning of the season. If I remember right, Lucas played LF, CF, and 2B, and sat out one inning (they have more than 9 players). He had one play at second where he was a little lost, but in the last inning, when he was in center field, he stopped a grounder, and threw it to second before the runner got there. It would have been an out, but the 2B didn't realize he had to tag the other kid out. Oh well, they're all learning!

Most importantly, he had a fun time and can't wait for his next game so that's all that really matters. I didn't get any pictures since I was asked to be the first base coach, but I asked Andrea (Zach's mom) to take some photos for me. Hopefully, I'll get those from her soon since I know she takes great shots.

Until next time...