Birthday Party and Pumpkins

Taylor's 3rd birthday party was a Princess party, complete with a castle bounce house and a purple cake with pink icing.  Taylor got plenty of princess items as presents, and was able to model her new princess clothes.  Claire was thrilled to get to help.

Taylor has lots of help opening her presents.

Pretty pink icing on Taylor's cake.

Cake itself is purple, but very tasty.

Jake enjoys snacks and sunshine.

John dons his Captain America super-hero duds.

Claire and Taylor also enjoy the Castle bouncehouse.

 Claire and Taylor play princess.

 Taylor and Claire had a great time playing together.

Back in Conroe, JanMa takes the kids to a pumpkin patch. Then we searched Garden Ridge and WalMart for some stick-on pumpkin decorations, to no avail.  So we had to do it the old fashioned way, cutting off the pumpkin tops and scraping out the insides.  Gross, Claire was quick to inform me.  Jake however, had a great time.

 I expected them to go for big pumpkins,

 but not so, they went with smaller ones.

The kids were very impressed with all the stuff at Garden Ridge.  As we walked down the aisles, Claire was telling me she wanted this, then that, now this over here and that over there.  Jake got into a shopping mode too, especially after he saw the inflatable helicopter and airplane Christmas decorations.  He also wanted a bom-a-ble, a white abominable snowman display. So did Claire.

 Not so impressed at WalMart, and they were very well behaved, not touching and grabbing stuff, not even asking for anything.  Ah, they'll learn soon enough that JanMa will not deny them anything!

 I used a carving tool to cut off the top of my pumpkin and started scooping out the insides.  Jake then picked up the tool and started trying to cut off the top of his pumpkin.

 JanMa did the cutting and gave the kids a pair of Mimi's grapefruit spoons, with the serrated tips, to scoop out their smaller size pumpkins. 

 I drew eyes and mouths on them with a Sharpie marker, and they took their pumpkins home!

TBall games

I went to Dallas to watch John play TBall. As I walked down the sidewalk toward the fields, I could see lots of kids (boys and girls), none taller than my armpits, running around with cleats, baseball pants and jerseys, hats, gloves, bats, etc.  Then this one little guy breaks out of the crowd running up the sidewalk toward me shouting JanMa!  John found me before I could identify him out of the crowd.  My thrill for the day...

I love the format for these TBall games.  Every kid on the team bats, runs to first. Kid then runs to second when next player bats, and so on, so every player gets to hit and run the bases one at a time and get to home.  No outs, no score is kept.  Teams change sides, then every kid on the other team bats, runs the bases, gets to run home.  They play 2 or 3 innings, 45 minutes, depending on how cold, hot, rainy whatever.

John looks the part, from his cleats to his cap.  Dad Jason is a daddy coach, explained later...

Taylor is a spectator, sometimes cheerleader.

John is playing 1st base.  The man  behind him is a daddy coach for John's team.  When the ball is hit, the player who fields it throws it to 1st base.  The daddy coach is there to catch wild throws, he then drops the ball into John's glove and John throws it home.

 John has his own bat and batting helmet.  Daddy coaches are also on the field to help the kids run the bases.  Player hits the ball, daddy coach on first yells "Run here, run to first." Daddy coach  on 2nd is telling runner on first where to go, and so on.  Some players got this part down, some not quite yet.

 Time honored end of game ritual, good game hand slaps.

 And the best of all, end of game snacks!

 While in Dallas, I also got to spend the evening with the kids while Mom and Dad went out for dinner.

Taylor has a princess mirror in her bedroom now.

John still likes playing with cars.

John and Taylor do like to play together.  John is very patient with Taylor, sometimes she does get in the middle of things, but he tries to give her something else to play with that will get her involved so she doesn't feel left out.

What a great pair of grandkids I have in Dallas.

 

 Jake is also starting to play TBall, and I went to watch one of his games. Same format so every kid bats and runs bases.

Jake has the game gear also, from cleats to his cap!

Claire will tell you she is Jake's cheerleader, 

until she gets settled in her chair and starts playing with her leap pad!

As Claire tells it, Daddy is the coacher for Jake's TBall team.

Jake hits the ball, then runs to first.  After the next kid batted, I even got to stand at 3rd base and yelled to Jake to run to me, then pointed him home.

Same end of game ritual, followed by snacks.  Oh, and everyone gets snacks, all the players and their siblings who have to come watch.

Jake gets an end of game "good job" from coach Daddy.

Just a short note, I did explain to Claire that she could play TBall if she wanted to, but she explained to me that she was a dancer, not a tball player.  That was for Jake. Ah well, I have not given up on my girls!