The big game

Tuesday was our first Pee Wee T-ball game. We were pretty awesome. We got there 10 minutes early and saw the entire opposing team already there doing warm-ups and only 1 other Mariner there besides us. See this awesome banner? We didnt want to shell out any big bucks for a professional one so I offered to make 1 one that I printed on glossy paper. It was so beautiful, but guess what Fontana is windy and it only took a slight breeze to rip the whole thing down during the first inning!

PWT-ball is played 4 innings or a hour which ever comes first and you bat thru the entire line-up every inning. Also there are no outs, everyone runs thru all the bases one at a time.

We made it thru 2 innings.

Halfway thru the first outfield time (whatever that's called) Nate sat down on the field... it took encouragement from Uncle Joel to motivate him to chase the ball - which he did pick up a grounder once!

I think Nate's top 3 highlights of the game were:

#1 Scoring a "run" - he did this awesome 2 fisted victory dance

#2 The Team cheer at the end (but we said our team name instead of the others, whoops)

#3 Playing w/Uncle Joel's dogs afterwards

So if anyone is up for a good laugh, come see a game!

First day of Pre-school

Here's Nate all ready to go to school in his new spiderman "pack-back" and green shirt he picked out from Walmart.

Drop off was a little crazy, hopefully that's just cuz it's the first day. Nate walked right up to his teacher and gave her a hug which was surprising to her and to me too.

Zach wanted to go in really bad, he kept trying to run into the room and when he couldn't get into Nate's class he started making a dart for the other classrooms.

We celebrated the first day with lunch at Chick-fil-A after school with Hunter, Jonah & Stef. Nate said his favorite part of school was "playing games."

Meet the teacher

Tuesday Nate was accepted into Preschool, which starts 6 DAYS LATER! So on Friday we got to go see his classroom and meet his new teacher, Mrs. Neise. He'll be going in the mornings starting 3 days a week for 3 hours a day (we may add days, we'll see)

The first thing Nate did in his class was sit down at a letter puzzle and spell his name. His teacher seemed inpressed but she's a pre-school teacher, I'm sure they act excited at everything the kids do - which is good.

Prehistoric Fun

On Wednesdays the Palaeontology Museum at Webb School is free so the Reynolds invited us to check it out. It was a cute little 2 room museum with alot of Dinosaur bones and "Do Not Touch" signs upstairs.

But the downstairs had a bunch of hands on activities for the kids. Here they are digging up dino parts in this rubber pit and putting together a dinosaur puzzle.

Ahh.. brothers are so cute. That is a giant camel skeleton by Zach.

Here are some big boys stamping animal tracks on paper and some little boys stamping the floor (j/k there is a paper there)

Here is Nate being attacked by the puzzlesauras.

Afterwards Nana bought everyone an icecream cone

Ahh... messy!

Huntington Beach

We had the shortest beach trip ever this weekend to celebrate my neice's B-day. By the time we set up all our crap, sunblocked the boys, and ate lunch I think we had about a hour to play before we had to go. It's cool thou.Once again, the first thing Zach did when we got to the beach was lay down right in the sand - he's so silly!

Swim Lessons

Nate took swim lesson this summer with Coleen from church. He did not like putting his face under water but was pretty good and doing the things she asked. He's not at the point of swimming on his own yet but it's a step in that direction.

Pinkberry... not impressed.

So the other day we had a gift card to pinkberry and decided to stop by. I had heard rumors of lines out the door but aparently not that many people want it at 4pm on a Monday cuz there were no lines at all. I was suprised at the fact that there were only 3 flavors, 2 of which I wouldnt give my kids (coffee and tea) so 2 bowls of origional it was. I'm not even sure what this stuff is, ice cream? yogurt? It was sweet and tangy. Tasty but not that impressive. So I guess the big deal is not the flavors but the toppings, which in that case I think at least 1 topping should be included in price dont you? Nate choose strawberry then picked blackberry so I got 1 of each knowing he'd change his mind halfway thru.

So what did I like? I LOVE the fact that Zach is now big enough to sit at a table and eat in public with me and Nate. Just enjoying the time with my boys...

The Mariners... lookin good!

Today was picture day for Pee Wee T-Ball. Nate looks so cute in his little "uniform" (t-shirt)

This other guy is Isaiah, he and Nate we partnered last week to practice catching and they formed a cute little bond. When we left practice Nate kept saying his name was "I-Nate" and when we saw him today the 2 gave each other hugs and walked around holding hands.

Our coach bailed on the team and didnt show up for the first week of practice so 1 of the parents is stepping up as coach. This is our first "community" event so I'm excited to meet the other parents. It feels like years since I've really gotten to know people outside of my family/friends/church.

Big fun in Big Bear

Last weekend the Lanes, Lanes and Van Sickles all spent a few days at the Bates Boarding House in Big Bear (that was the name of the cabin we rented) One funny story before we got there was that 1 of the roads we needed to take was closed for a parade so we tried to find a way around it and ended up stuck on the street the parade ended on. So all the parade people had to go around the truck and sailboat. It was so funny, the boy scouts had to tilt their display at an angle to get by the rear veiw mirrors and the marching band was still playing as it passed by.

So day 1 we packed everything up for a day on the lake and as we stepped out the door of Kmart after buying a fishing licence... it was raining! Yowza! So instead Ryan took Nate bowling for the first time and he had so much fun. The bowling alley had bumpers so he knocked down pins with every ball and even got a spare.

The next day we went to the Moonridge Zoo in Big Bear. It was a cute little zoo with some bears, some bison, big cats, reptiles and lots of birds. We happened to be there as they were feeding alot of the animals which was interesting... I'm just not used to seeing buckets of dead rats and dead baby chicks laying all around.

Later we went to the lake to do some fishin' which Nate has been dying to do. So they casted the spiderman fishing pole into the water many times but alas, no fish. Nate didnt seem to care but I think Ryan really wanted to catch something. Zach had fun running up and down the dock/bridge thing we were on and just being cute.

Our third day we finally hung out at the lake... that is the women and children did but the men spent the whole time tinkering with the sailboat getting it ready to used the next day.

We also spent some time at this cute park. Nate and Mei-Mei we like peas and carrots during out whole vacation, they played together, read books together, ate together... it was awesome, like having a free babysitter!

On our last day we finally got the boats in the water. Dan & Roy were first to test out the sailboat with Nate and Mei-Mei aboard... then when they couldnt get the boat back to the shore after like 45 minutes, Ryan had to go rescue the kids with the kayak.

The ducks were crazy there! They would come right up and all around you if you had food. I even caught a couple of them while just sitting in a chair.