Hot, Hot, Hot

The temps were topping 90 degrees today and the Phillies were hot too!

Molly had good solid hits each time she was at bat and her teammates brought her around to score each time too. Each kid gets 4-5 pitches from the coach before having to hit off a tee. With 48 at-bats for the whole team, they only needed to bring out the tee 3 times. Not bad for a group of 6 & 7 year olds who have only had 45 mins of practice all season!

A Baseball Natural?

Molly plays on a co-ed baseball team with her classmates.

She seems to like it but I'm not sure if she's a natural or not.

Here she is waiting not so patiently in left field. . .

Her friend Francesca has some moves at first base though . . .

Molly's still waiting . . .

Francesca covers her base . . .

Molly wants to know, "What do you want from me?"

Bridget ready to knock one in. . .

But wait . . . Molly appears to be catching on to some of baseball's unwritten mannerisms . . .

Yup, she's a natural all right!

Finally a decent shot!

She did a great job at this first game on Sunday getting a few good hits. Fielding for this group needs some work however. That will be something to capture on video though since still photos can't do justice to the funny parts. At one point in this game Molly yelled from the field to me "Hey Mom! Didn't that look just like the thing on America's Funniest Home Videos?"

The parents from both teams were in stitches laughing - because she was right!!!

Playing Tourists

We love living in DC. It's an amazing place for the girls to be growing up. But one of the best things about visiting Nana and Papa is that they also live in a great city to explore. We all love Boston! Even though I grew up here, I learned so much about the city by taking friends around while in college and then through visits with my own kids. It's very true that you often take for granted what's in your own backyard.

Today we grabbed Papa and went on one of the famous Duck Tours. It was a lot of fun and the tour guides are really funny. The whole thing lasts for about and hour and half - well worth it!!

Family

As much as the girls love hanging with their cousins and grandparents when we're in Boston, these two folks are also big-time favorite playmates. Uncle Don and Auntie Kristin sure do hold a special place in our hearts!!

My girls are the only kids on this side of the family and they have only nephews on Kris' side so I like to think these gals are special to them too!

Kathryn Maeve

Her folks don't know it yet but we're taking this little monkey back to Maryland with us. Boy did we have fun with her (and her big brothers!) yesterday. My girls love having cousins to play with here and each time we visit is more fun than the last.

7

My baby is 7. Hard to imagine but true nonetheless.

Easter

We've come to Boston for Easter and Spring Break.

Luckily the Easter Bunny always finds us here. Somehow I think he always leaves a little bit more than usual when we're at Nana and Papa's actually!

One of our favorite things about being here for Easter is getting to see some of our cousins on Easter morning. We go across the street to Uncle George's house and he helps us all make "bunnymobiles" from Twinkies and Peeps. The kids really enjoy this tradition and I like hanging out with my cousins before we all head off to dinners at other houses.

Here they are - it's getting harder and harder to fit them all on the couch (and keep them there!) each year.

Camping

It was finally Molly's turn to get to go camping with the Girl Scouts and boy was she excited!



We took her troop of 1st and 2nd grade Brownies to a camp about an hour away in Virginia for one night. They had a ball! We spent the day hiking on Saturday and then were able to get a small lodge that night in since it really was a bit to windy to have first time campers staying in the glen shelters. It was bad enough that they had me up 4 times through the night to take them out to the latrine! There was a tiny bit of homeseickness from one of the little ones (first time away which I know I couldn't have done at age 6 so I give her credit!) but I was able to distract her and she managed just fine. And these girls weren't nearly as loud as the Junior girls (Brenna's troop) when we took tham back in January.



Overall, I'm thrilled with how things went and I'll be excited to take them again.

Although hopefully there will be fewer latrine runs in the wee hours of the night next time!

Huh?

Molly's best friend came to the office today to be dismissed for an appointment. Her mom Deanne and I were chatting and we noticed Francesca had something brown all over her mouth. The conversation . . .

D: What's all over your face?
F: Oh, Molly's Oreos.
D: Why were you eating her cookies?
F: Because I ate her grapes.
D: That doesn't make any sense!
F: Molly didn't want her grapes so she said if I ate them she'd give me her cookies.

Huh? I'm not sure what Miss Molly stood to gain in that exchange.

The oddest part is that I had given her grapes the day before and she specifically told me they were good and wanted them again. Then when all was said and done she was out the grapes as well as the cookies. And to know Francesca is to know she's a bottomless pit who never needs to be bribed into accepting extra snacks.

Oh well - Francesca said both the grapes and the cookies were awesome so at least I made one little girl happy!