Back on the Field

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan had his first tournament as part of TRPD this morning.  He had to be in Taylor at 8:30 this morning.  It's about an hour away so we left at 7:15 which would give us a bit of time to stop at Donut Taco Palace.

The warm up on TRPD is quite intense.  They hook up bands to stretch their arms.  They have to do a whole series of exercises and stretches to get ready.  They also bring wrist/ankle weights to help loosen up their arms.

In the first game, the team was losing 6-0 and the opposing team had runners on second and third.  I didn't find this out until later, but Evan told the coaches he was a closer.  So they brought Evan in to get out of the inning.  He quickly got ahead 0-2 on the batter.  Then he threw a change up to get strike three.  TRPD scored 4 in the top of the next inning and Evan came back out.  He got three quick outs throwing all strikes with the exception of just 3 balls.  If you ask Evan, they were all strikes and there were three bad calls.  Unfortunately there was not enough time to start the next inning so they lost 6-4.  I think everyone felt that if we had gotten another inning, we would have won.

In the second game, Evan played some outfield and third base.  He knocked down a hard shot at third base but unfortunately over threw the first baseman.  He had a couple nice plays in the outfield.  Evan has some room to improve in hitting and fielding, but overall it was a good first day.  Evan had fun.

Noah drove with Evan and me in the car.  He had come up with Rachel.  We stopped at 7-Eleven on the way home and got Slurpees.

For dinner, we went to Evangeline's Cafe.  The food was good, but the service seemed slow.

Evan plays again at 11:30 tomorrow morning.

Until next time...

Roller Skating

This morning we took it easy at home.  I went for a run.

We had lunch at home and then I took the kids roller skating.  They had a good time.  At first, Noah was very timid on the rink.  Avery skated around with him a lot of the time and he made some progress.  Evan didn't want to leave.

We stopped off at the Domain to pick up discount Schlitterbahn tickets.

We also made a stop at 7-11 for Slurpees.

We met Morry and Allison on South Congress.  We had Home Slice for dinner and then walked around a little.  We all bought candy at Big Top Candy Shop.

We are home now.  The kids are playing on their ipads.

Soon, they will get ready for bed.

Here are some pictures from today.

Outside

Today was a beautiful day.  The high temperature was 86 degrees.  We spent a lot of time outside.

Late morning, we met Deborah and Christina and her kids for a hike.  We went to McKinney Roughs Nature Park near Bastrop, TX.  We hiked about 4.5 miles with many stops.  We spent some time at the creek skipping rocks.

On the way home we got Slurpees at 7-11.

We took it easy at home for a little and then Morry and Evan went to baseball practice at 4:30.  After the practice they picked up food for Lizzy at Petco.  Then, Grandma, Papa, Noah, and I met them for dinner at Backspin.  The food was good and the boys ate well.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Here are some pictures from today and yesterday.

Basketball and Zayde

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan had an early basketball game today at 8am.  We stopped at Donut Taco Palace I before the game and got donuts.  That seemed to perk Evan up.  He still is not feeling 100%.  Evan seemed to play better as the game went on.  He and his team played really great defense the whole game and won again.  Evan grabbed a great rebound and somehow ended up on his back. Then he made a pass while laying on the ground.  It was a very athletic play.

From there, we came home and Evan played more basketball with Nathan in the cul-de-sac.  He started getting tired and we agreed to go home and take it easy.  I put a movie on while the boys ate lunch.  Evan developed a cough at the end of his stomach bug.

It seemed to get bad this afternoon.  I'm not sure why.  We had him sit in the shower for a while.

For dinner, we were going to pick Zayde up and go to a Colombian restaurant, but due to a kitchen fire it was closed.  We went to Texas Roadhouse again.  Evan was acting ok, but the moment we got to the restaurant, he started to complain about not feeling well and refused to eat.  He wanted to go home.  The food was very good tonight.

When taking Zayde home, we saw a 7-Eleven.  Evan wanted a Slurpee.  So we stopped and got he and Noah Slurpees.  After that we dropped Zayde off at his house.

It seems that the Slurpee did wonders for Evan.  He was in a good mood by the time we got home.  I think in general he's not feeling well, but I think he actually needed food to eat as well.  He can get cranky when he's hungry.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Evan's First Full Game

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We really didn't do anything this morning.  I got up around 9:30 and came downstairs and played with the boys.  Rachel came down a bit later.

Rachel did some work around the house and I did a bit of my own work.  Then we had lunch.

After lunch, Rachel got a text from Cole's mom inviting Noah over to Cole's.

Evan and I went to the fields a bit more than an hour before we needed to be there.  We practiced a bunch.  I hit lots of groundballs to Evan and we worked on some hitting as well as fielding at first base.  While we were there, one of the boys from Evan's team in the spring last year stopped by and said hello.  Evan really appeared to perk up when he saw him.

The game went well.  Evan's team won.  In the first he grounded into a force out, but in the third inning he ripped a line drive that easily got between the left-center and right-center fielders all the way to the fence.  When the coach saw how fast Evan was running around the bases, he sent him home figuring that they weren't going to have a play at the plate.  He was right.  One of the boys picked Evan up and squeezed him.  He was very excited.  Evan singled in the fifth and scored the final run on a nice slide home.

I had promised Evan that he could get a Slurpee with a sour candy straw if he hit a home run.  I kept my promise and we stopped at 7-Eleven on the way home and got one for each boy.

We had dinner when we got home and now the boys are both in Evan's room for bed.

Until next time...

Evan's First Practice

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We did very little this morning.  Rachel and I woke up around 9.  The boys were downstairs playing Wii.  We just decided to take it easy.

Evan had his first baseball practice of the season today.  We thought he'd be drafted by one of two former coaches but he was drafted by someone that I didn't know.  I think he was a bit nervous about it though he didn't come out and say it.   We got to practice early and Evan was all about starting to play baseball.  They had hitting practice first and Evan seemed to do well. I helped out.  The coach came to talk to Evan and me.  It turns out he is from Pittsburgh and is a big Pirates and Steelers fan.  I think this actually made Evan feel more comfortable.  After hitting practice, they worked on fielding.  They had Evan begin at shortstop.  He had some excellent throws over to first.  And he showed off his hustle by running in and barehanding a ball in the grass.  The final drill was baserunning and Evan showed some speed.  That's never really been part of his game.  The finished off practice with a relay race.  One team started at home and the other team started at second base.  The team that got all their players through won.  Evan was one team captain and the coach's son was the other captain.  Evan's team won.

Evan made me stay after practice to practice some more.  He wanted to pitch to me.  Then he wanted me to throw to him while he played first base.  And finally, he wanted to go out into right and make throws to me as if I were a third baseman covering the bag.

On the way home, we stopped at 7-eleven and got Slurpees.

At dinner time, I had to go back to the fields to pick up equipment for my team.  Then the boys and I went to Austin Pizza Garden for dinner.  Rachel wasn't feeling 100% so she stayed home.

After dinner, Evan told me that he wants to start playing baseball when he wakes up and doesn't want to stop until it's time for bed.  We'll see how that goes.

Noah and I have our second practice tomorrow.

Until next time...

Evan's Birthday

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, I woke Evan up as usual.  He didn't seem that excited about his birthday, but he was pretty tired.

We let Noah sleep in a bit.  He's been going to sleep so late.  We took him to school and then went to Donut Taco Palace I to pick donuts up for Evan's class.  It's this little place but the donuts are really good.  Evan wanted us to bring donuts for his class at lunch.  Then we went to Sam's Club and picked up cupcakes to give out to Evan's baseball team after their game.

We came home, and dropped things off.  Then we went over to Evan's school.  Evan was very excited to see us.  All the kids wanted their donuts, but we waited a few minutes for the kids to eat their lunch.  Evan seemed to be having a good time with his friends.

Rachel had to leave a bit early to go tutor.  She picked Noah up on her way home.

Noah and I went to pick Evan up from school while Rachel went to tutor another student.  He raced his friend Jesse from the school all the way up the trail.

I worked when we got home.  Then we played Super Mario Bros and some football outside.  We came in to have dinner for the boys and then we left to go go Evan's baseball game.

His team had some great warmups and Evan was hitting well.  It translated well early in the game as his team took a big lead.  Unfortunately, the defense and hitting fell apart in the second half of the game.  Evan played well.  He had a pair of singles and he recorded an out while playing third.  But the team lost in the bottom of the 6th.  Evan was distraught.  He was really crying.  He wanted to win on his birthday.  The team sung happy birthday to him but he didn't seem to be in the mood.

During the game, Noah played with the brother of a boy on Evan's team.  Noah had a great time with him.

After the game Evan, Noah and I went to 7-Eleven for Slurpees and then we drove home.  Evan was pretty tired and after reading some of one of the books Zayde got him, he went to sleep.

Until next time...

Evan's Zoo Field Trip

Today was Evan's first class field trip.  They took school buses to the zoo.  Evan was excited to ride on  a school bus for the first time.  I was not able to go because they did not allow siblings.  Evan told me he had a good time.

Noah and I went to 7-11 because Noah said he wanted a Slurpee.  I needed to run some errands, so I thought it might help him get through those few errands.

After 7-11 we went to Sunflower for some groceries, then to the library to drop off some items.

There's a nice little park by the library that we call the Old School park. It has a lot of the equipment you don't see much any more.  There were see-saws, a merry-go-round, jungle gym, big slide, etc.  Noah was very excited to try the merry-go-round.  He liked it.  We had a picnic lunch there and then played a little bit more.

Noah stayed at home while I rode my bike to get Evan from school.

I tutored one student this afternoon and Morry took both boys to Evan's baseball practice.  I stopped at the practice to pick up Noah on the way home.

I got dinner ready while Morry and Evan were at baseball practice.   We had leftovers from last night.

The boys are ready for bed and Morry is reading to them.

Here's a picture from Evan's field trip today.

Evan's Birthday

This morning we all walked Evan to school. He seemed very happy to have all of us with him this morning.

We planned on meeting Evan for lunch and bringing him lunch and donuts for the class.

Evan's class eats very early, at 10:30am. The restaurants Evan likes were not serving lunch at that time. We tried Little Caesars and McDonalds. Little Caesars wasn't open and McDonalds was not yet serving lunch at 10am. We had no problem getting donuts though. Evan asked us to get coffee for Mr. V too. I'm not sure why, but that's what Evan wanted.

We ended up going back home quickly to get lunch together to bring to school since we were not able to pick up any lunch food.

Evan was happy to see us at school. Noah enjoyed sitting with the class in the cafeteria.

Noah had his sports class today and had fun in there.

On the way home we stopped at HEB.

When we got home Grandmom was there. Noah stayed at home while I got Evan at school.

Evan had a baseball game at 5:45 that we all went to.

For dinner, Evan wanted Little Caesars. We got that for him and Blue Bamboo for the rest of us.

For dessert, Evan choose to get Slurpees from 7-11.

The boys had a bath and now they are in bed.

Here are pictures and video from today.

Early Start

Evan needed to be at his football game at 8:30am this morning. I got up really early to get in a run before we needed to leave. I met a friend and ran 8 miles this morning.

We all went to Evan's football game. Evan was sort of sluggish today. I think he was tired.

After the game we came home for a little bit. The boys played outside while Morry did some work.

Around 3pm we headed over to the first flooring place to look once more at the two different samples we had picked out. They were both pretty similar. We are waiting for one more big and then will decide which place to go with.

On the way home we got Slurpees from 7-11 and got food for Lizzy.

The boys were pretty cranky and fighting a lot this afternoon. We decided to eat dinner at home and then get ice cream out. We had pasta for dinner and went to Freddy's for frozen custard. The boys were well behaved once they got their custard.

Morry is reading to Evan and Noah now.

Successful Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Rachel got up with the boys and let me sleep. She got them all ready and went for a run. While Rachel was running, Evan asked to get out and run with Rachel. He ran along side Rachel for a mile...all while only wearing Crocs to run in! Rachel said they walked a tiny bit but for the most part, he ran a mile today. He was really proud.

We decided to run a number of errands today. The first place we went to was Academy Sports to sign Evan up for the NFL flag football league. Noah is just a bit too young for it. Next year, I'll be able to sign him up.

After Academy, we drove up north to go to a flooring place. Our carpet is builder grade carpet and 7 years old. It looks terrible, especially downstairs. We've been talking about putting all new flooring in the downstairs. When we got to the flooring place, they said they had a play room with video cameras in it. All over the store there were monitors so you could look into the playroom. We spent a long time there looking at all of our options. The woman is going to come to our house and measure on Thursday and we'll get a better sense of how much this might cost.

From there, we decided to go to RunTex. We had a gift certificate and I needed new sneakers. But before we went there, we stopped at 7-Eleven for Slurpees. The boys were very happy. They had been really good at the flooring place and deserved it.

We weren't at RunTex long but I did get shoes. I told the salesman that Evan had run a mile and that he'd be needing running shoes soon. He recommended a place by our house called 1379 for kids running shoes. We decided to go by there.

It was a good thing we went to 1379 as Evan is now wearing a size 1 (he was previously a kids size 13) and Noah had to get a size 9.5 (he was previously at 8.5). It seemed like a great store and the boys really enjoyed themselves there. They were having a huge sale and we got some really nice sneakers for the boys for 50% off. Rachel was also able to find some running shorts there.

For dinner, we went to Carino's. The boys were really good there and Evan ate all his food. Noah ate some calamari.

Rachel is giving the boys baths now while brownies are baking in the oven.

Until next time...