Meanwhile...a smattering

I need to do a better job of keeping up with my own life here. I figure the moment I slip too far from the current time, the ol' blog may be doomed. Sadly, the lack of blog-keeping mostly has to do with the fact that we've been crazy busy...and that means we've done all sorts of blog-worthy things.

Take this for instance:

Smunch's school has a special night with the local High-A league baseball team. They do this every year and we usually go because it's really a lot of fun. I didn't know until this year that before the game, some of the players hold a clinic for any kid 10 or under for free. All you have to do is be there at 4:30. I'm all about exposing Smunch to real baseball players. He had a great time running around and catching the ball with them. Too bad Daddy forgot to pack him a mitt, huh? I was at a PTA convention (er, um) all day and just met them there, so I'll take no blame on that one. Not one to be left out, Mam was out there too, having a blast with the baseball players. They played way out in the field where I couldn't get any photos, but here they are, all running back in before the beginning of the game.This was Mam's first baseball game experience. I've never dared take her to an entire baseball game before, but she loved it. Don't get me wrong. She was bored. She fidgeted a lot and repeatedly asked when it would be time to go home. But when it was all over, she announced that she wanted to go with us again next time. Too bad I only had 3 tickets for our next major league game. Still, it's a little expensive to take her to a major league ballpark anyway. She may love it, but I still have to put up with her.If you haven't noticed before, take a minute to appreciate her new purple horn-rimmed glasses with heart cutouts in the corners.

And then there's this:These are pictures from a birthday party Mam went to for one of her preschool friends. Yes. It's a bunch of 4- and 5-year-old girls bowling in fairy wings and tiaras. It must have been one of the most hysterical things I'd ever seen. They were so funny! I didn't stay for the whole shindig because I had errands to run and Smunch had a baseball game, but it was worth the drive to the bowling alley to see this.Face painting was not included, but was a side-effect of our morning trip to the Klutz Benefit Day that morning to assemble a new stash of birthday presents. We donated a bunch of money to Smunch's school that day. That's how I like to think of it anyway.

After attending her fairy party, Mam was forced out into the sweltering heat to endure one of Smunch's last games of the season. With temperatures in the 90s and plenty of blacktop to go around, we were all suffering out there. In fact, at the end of the 4th inning the coaches turned the field hose on all the kids just to cool them off.

Way back when my dad and I first started doing a little bit of field preparation before games, someone warned us about this particular hose. Nothing wrong with the hose itself, but the metal pipe of the hose attaches to PVC pipes underground and if you leave it all connected and you're not very careful, the PVC will get broken and you'll have a geyser. Then you have to call the city out to turn off the water and get the pipe repaired. Guess what?Have you ever seen more unadulterated joy?When the guy from the city finally arrived, his only question for the coaches was, "Are you sure you want me to turn this off?"

Happy Mother's Day!

It's late, but I hope all you mommies out there had a happy Mother's Day and got to sit back and relax a little. Turns out, I'm not that good at taking it easy. I've always got too much I want to get done.

My day started with the flowers in the photo above. And continued with breakfast at a local restaurant that has one of my very favorite breakfast dishes...banana french toast with caramel/brandy/pecan sauce. Yum!!! Daddy took the kids out to play a little baseball while I dug around in the garden after breakfast. Unfortunately, Smunch came home with a bloody, fat lip after fouling a ball into his own face. That took a little sparkle out the day and out of the Smunch for a while. BUT, it meant he got to have Jamba Juice for lunch and well, what's better than that?

We picked up Jamba Juice and headed out for a few hours of really unsuccessful letterboxing. I don't think my record of finding letterboxes has ever been worse than today, when I found just two out of five. Bleh. At least one of them was pretty cool and had a fun clue. The lost ones were drowned in puddles, lost in abundant foliage or just plain missing, as far as I could tell. Still, it was a beautiful day and we were outside. I couldn't complain that much.

On the way home, we stopped for some free bowling. I signed the kids up for this awesome program called Kids Bowl Free. It started at the beginning of May and runs all the way through the summer. They can bowl two games a day from now through mid-September for free, including shoes. And, because it was pretty cheap, I bought a family pass so Daddy and I can go with them as often as we want. This was the first time we'd used the program and it was flawless. Daddy and I had fun and the kids had a blast. Maybe by the end of the summer, Mam won't be throwing her bowling ball straight at the kiddie bumpers anymore!

We wrapped up the day by Daddy fixing a lovely dinner of fettucine with garlic chicken. It was yummy and the wine was good. The season finale of The Amazing Race was on tonight...a great way to settle into the evening, even if my favorite team didn't win. At least it was my second favorite team.

As you may have noticed, I left my camera at home today. Sometimes, its nice to go out and experience a sliver of life without feeling the need to record it all in pictures for posterity. I guess that was my way of taking it easy today!

Bowled Over

The day after the day after Christmas (no, that's not a typo. I mean two days after Christmas), at a loss for something to do, we decided to try out the new, swanky bowling alley at one of the local malls. Did you ever think you'd see "bowling alley" and "swanky" in the same sentence? Neither did I. This one is called Strike and it's part hip, new bowling alley, part night club. You know this because the place is so poorly lit, all the bowling pins glow under black light and no one under 21 is allowed in after 9pm.

But it was the middle of the afternoon, so we didn't have much concern about that. Turns out, we should have been concerned, but more about the astronomical price of bowling than the clientele. Actually, the hooker-esque Santa dresses on the female employees were pretty suspect too. Very short, very low cut, fishnet stockings. Between that and their fabulous "holiday pricing", we should have turned around and high-tailed it out of there, but the kids were so excited to be there and we're suckers...even at $35/hr and $5 for each pair of shoes we had to borrow and that'd be...uh...four. Right. No pro bowlers around here.

Each lane even has its own waiter to bring you doubtlessly overpriced food while you play. Besides, if you have to eat, it'll take you longer to play. Cha-ching!

Honestly, the kids' enthusiasm almost made this very expensive little venture worthwhile. And the place has some really cool features, like retractable bumpers on the lanes that you can program to come up only for certain players (like the kids) and a portable "chute" that the kids can roll the ball down to get it moving in the lane. They loved that. And Mam jumped up and down like an insane whirling dervish every time she knocked even a single pin down.

Smunch was similarly thrilled...especially since he kicked all our butts with an astonishing 168 score. So, he had bumpers and a chute. So what?

We'll be going back to our regular, dirty ol' bowling alley next time around. I'm still blown away that we paid $50 to bowl for 45 minutes. We won't go back and I won't recommend Strike to anyone else, but it was fun.