Take me out to the ballgame!

See the ball on the middle-right of the pic?

Play ball!  Front Royal Little League kicked off the spring season Saturday!  What a beautiful day for opening ceremonies and our first expedition game of the year.  Nick played great and had a ton of fun.  Check out that batting form! 

Note:  Royal is pronounced 'Rool';  rhymes with cool.  And, you say it fast - Front Rool Little League.  That is lesson #1 learned at opening ceremonies last year.  This lesson was reinforced 101 times during opening ceremonies this year.

More in baseball in a bit...

Lauren got back to gymnastics Saturday morning after a few weeks off.  We only have 1 more lesson left.  I'm a little sad it is ending, as Lauren really has enjoyed it.  After completing this beginner course, she can pick up the intermediate course in the Fall.  In between the courses, Lauren has her sights set on taking ballet.  I'm on a mission to find my sweet girl a class, a tutu, and ballet slippers.

Saturday evening/night ended with a visit to the Swiger's for a Mexican 35th birthday party for Daniel.  Adults and kids had a fun time all around.

Ride home from shower.

Sunday morning, Ryan, Nick and a bunch of the guys loaded up canoes and hit the river for a float and some fishing...first float of the Summer!  It was a gorgeous day - Sunny and 85!  While the boys basked in the sun, Lauren and I went to a friend's baby shower.  I have 4 good friends getting ready to pop out bouncy babies, and it is a riot to see them all pregnant together.  Lauren was disappointed she didn't get to go floating (I felt with only 1 parent on the river, only 1 child should accompany Ryan).  But, she turned on the sweetness and little girl charm quite nicely for the shower.  She even let me pull her hair back, put a bow in it, and she wore a dress with pretty white sandals!  This is quite the accomplishment for my typical biker short/tshirt/headband wearing gal!  (and yes, those are blue biker shorts underneath the dress).  2 minutes before I took this picture of Lauren in the car, she had asked for a pencil to write on her new flower post-it note  (party favor).  Sound asleep and drooling....

Back to the ball park...Last night officially kicked off our first game.  The game ended TIED in the middle of the bottom of the 7th inning.  We didn't get to finish our last batting order because it was too dark to see the ball.  :(  Had we finished our time up to bat, I'm optimistic we would have won, cause those kids were playing hard and great!  Nick had the BEST hit of the night with a pop up out to center field that sent in 2 runners and landed him a DOUBLE!  I was so excited for him!  (this hit was caught on video, but it is LARGE and taking forever to load into the blog...my screaming and jumping up and down add to the excitement).  He also did great playing Short Stop all night and assisted in team plays for numerous outs! 
Lastly and not to be overshadowed by athletics, it is VERY IMPORTANT to highlight Nick received all O's on his report card yesterday!  Nick's grade school career thus far has been nothing less than straight O's and we are very pleased.  Nick had an S for Satisfactory in Science at mid-terms.  Nick stepped it up and pulled out an O!  (Note:  2nd grade starts the standard A, B, C grading scheme).  This report card may hurt my budget this weekend, but I'm happy to splurge for a much earned and deserved OUTSTANDING boy!