Embrace the camera

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Early last week, I got the unfortunate news that one of my cousins's sons died.  23 years old.  Too young.  So sad.
I hadn't seen my cousin since our last family reunion in July 2010, and I had seen her son since the 2006 family reunion, but I knew I wanted to go to the funeral, to pay my respects and show my support. So on Thursday morning we packed up the car and trekked over to the Show-Me state for a few days.
We decided that while we were there we should take advantage of the nice weather and the few days off work...so we took our funeral lemons and made some sight-seeing lemonade.
First up: I took my boys to visit my grandma and grandpa's grave. She's been gone 9 years now, and I still cry every time I visit her grave.

Then: We took the boys to the zoo with my Aunt and my cousin's kids.

St. Louis has a fabulous zoo, and y'all should go because it's free admission!  You just have to pay for parking and any extras you want, like the train.  Speaking of the train...  My boys can't see a train and not want to ride it.  

Then we took the boys up in the Arch.  While we were waiting in line, I took a moment to explain to Thing 1 and Thing 2 that their grandpa was one of the electricians that helped build the arch, and that their uncle worked on it's construction too.  They weren't that interested.  But they'll think it's cooler when they are older, I'm sure.

It was all smiles until the tram actually started moving up.  Then there were a lot of seriously concerned faces.  (Oh, and Thing 2 refused to look out of the windows at the top.  Or let anyone pick him up.  Or walk.  That was fun.)  (P.S. As soon as we got back to the bottom, he wanted to go right back up. ?!?!?!)

Then we ventured down to the riverbank and dipped our toes in the mighty Mississippi.  A first for all of us, even me, and I lived in St. Louis for a few years when I was a kid.

Finally, a trip to St. Louis wouldn't be complete without taking in an afternoon Cardinal's game.

Thanks to Stubhub.com for the amazing $7 tickets!  I about died when the box office said all they had left were $50 tickets.  Uh, no way!!  Not with two 5 year olds that may or may not sit through a whole game!

On stubhub I was able to buy 4 tickets plus tax and fees for $38!  And they stand by the authenticity of their tickets.   I will be using them again.  (No, stubhub did not pay me to say that.  But they should! ;)

This was the view from our seats!  Gorgeous, right?

  

Batter Up: 2nd Inning

Thing 2's baseball quilt is now all pieced together.

Next step: quilting both quilts.

Warning: this is going to take a while. :)

Batter Up: Update

After seeing the first draft (pre-quilted) version of Thing 1's quilt, Superman insisted I make one addition.

And when I say he insisted, I mean he insisted.

At first, I just thought he was kidding.  But then he made it very clear that he was 100% dead serious.

So I made the addition.

Batter up!

Most of my craft projects lately seem to be projects I'm doing for somebody else.  Either because they are paying me to do it (Yay!) or because I'm making it as a gift.

So I'm happy to take a break and work on a project for me (well, really for my kids, but still...).

My twin sons will be turning 5 in June.  And their room is still decorated using the theme we chose for their nursery.

We have finally decided the time has come to update their room to a little more mature theme.  We (with their help) chose: baseball.

A few months ago, I started looking for baseball linens for their bed, but I was disappointed that I could only find either a specific team or general sports together (baseball, basketball and football).  But I wanted something that was just general baseball.

It was also around this time that I started making t-shirt quilts.  So Superman, being the brainiac he is, suggested I make them t-shirt quilts using all baseball shirts.

Ding-ding-ding!

I started by raiding his closet.  Then surveying shirts that Thing 1 and Thing 2 had almost outgrown (unfortunately I'd already given away all of their smaller size shirts).  Then, I hit up our local Goodwills.  Multiple times.

And finally, I had enough t-shirts to make two twin size quilts.  So this past week, after I finished Laya's quilt, I started cutting and laying out both quilts.

So far I have only sewn together the top for Thing 1's quilt:

Next I will work on Thing 2s.

And then, my favorite (for creativity) and least favorite (time-consuming) step: quilting.

Take me out to the ball game

Our town has a mini-baseball season for the three and four year olds.  It consists of six Saturdays in Spring, and the first two are just practices.  The last four are "games".  Though I'm sure they won't even keep score.

Part of me felt like a stage mom signing my three year olds up for tee-ball.  I mean, what can a three year old really get out of it?  Will their chances of making the varsity baseball team in high school really hinge on whether they started little league at three or five?  I highly doubt it.

But, since Superman and I both grew up playing ball, we have been buying them ball caps, reading them books about baseball, and teaching them "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" since they were little, little babies.  So while I don't expect them to have perfect aim after six short Saturdays of tee-ball, I am hoping they will get excited about baseball and it will help develop their interest in playing it as they get older.

Their first Saturday consisted of meeting their coach and teammates, doing some stretches and jumping jacks, running the bases, hitting off a tee, and catching some ground balls.  Thing 1 had a blast!  Unfortunately, Thing 2 was benched due to a case of Toxic Synovitis.

Tomorrow, they'll be getting their jerseys and taking team pictures.  And Thing 2 should be up to running around like normal.

But as fun as watching them run around and doing jumping jacks was (and it was fun!), I am sad that my parents don't get to see them play.  No, they aren't dead (thankfully!), but they live about 700 miles away, so a quick trip in for a tee-ball game is not really on the agenda.  I grew up on the ball field with my dad in the dugout and my mom in the stands.  Sometimes them living so far away just sucks more than others, and this is one of those times.  I just really wish they were able to be on the sidelines to see my boys learn to love the sport that they taught me to love.

I am happy though that my good friend, let's call her "The Godmother", will be coming into town to see them play their first game.  In fact, I can't believe it, but she is actually skipping her cousin's wedding for the occasion, because she says seeing a game is so important to her.  Which is a nice reminder once again that family comes to you in many forms.  Sometimes family is made through blood and birth, sometimes it is made through wedding vows, and sometimes family can be made by having really awesome friends who really love your kids.

The Easter Bunny Threw Up

I'm proud to say that we actually only bought three of the things on the table.  The Bambi video and the baseball gloves.  That's the best thing about having really young kids, they don't remember that they got all of this other Easter crap for the last three Easters.

We've known for months now that we wanted to get the boys baseball mitts for their Easter baskets, especially since their first tee-ball practice is next weekend.  The only problem...we still don't know if they are right-handed or left-handed.  We've been trying for weeks to pinpoint, even enlisting their teachers to help us out, but we still aren't 100% sure.  Thing 1 seems to prefer his left hand for writing, throwing, and eating, at least most of the time.  But not all of the time.  Thing 2 seems to prefer his left hand for writing and eating, but throws with his right hand.  But again, most of the time that is true, but not all of the time.

Superman is really rooting for them to be left-handed.  First of all because his dad, Papaw Train, is left-handed and he (Superman) has a serious case of daddy-worship.  Second, because he has big dreams of the boys being Major league pitchers one day, which they'd have a better chance of if they were left-handed.

I personally would like Thing 1 to be left-handed and Thing 2 to be right-handed.  That'd make a perfect pitcher/catcher team!

For now, we bought three mitts.  Two left-handed and one right.  We are pretty sure Thing 1 is left-handed, but we got Thing 2 one of each, and we'll see which one he prefers and return the other.