A Totus Tuus Family: For the Love of the Game (we give up our summers) :}

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

For the Love of the Game (we give up our summers) :}

Summer is here, and for our family that means a whole lot of baseball. Four out of five of our boys play ball, so it's become a major part of our lives and will continue to be for quite some time it seems. That means we do more sitting on bleachers eating sunflower seeds than we do sitting around a campfire eating s'mores, but it's a good life and I wouldn't trade it for another! :)

Nathanael's season ended first because his age group plays in the Spring. He loved every minute of it and his older brothers had fun being his "personal trainers." This was his first year of "player pitch" rather than coach pitch or machine pitch, and it turns out that he really loves pitching. It was quite a feat for 7 and 8 year olds to pitch in the strike zone, so there were many, many, maannny, "balls" and subsequent "walks" each game. But it was so fun to watch the kids become more and more confident as pitchers and hitters as the season progressed. Nathanael's team only had 2 wins the whole season, but they had fun and learned that baseball is more than just about winning (it's mostly about the snacks after the game) :) Here are some highlight photos of Nathanael's season:

Aren't these pin stripes the greatest!? He wore them for every game because it made him feel like a Yankees player :) He likes the Yankees. His favorite player is Aaron Judge.

Yay Natey and team Buffalo Wild Wings (aka "B-dub-dubs") :)

Joseph and Michael both made it on the same Legion baseball team this year, which was a HUGE blessing to our family---a lot less dividing and conquering and a lot more being together as a family to watch the games. The season started out a big bumpy for Joseph because he had pneumonia right when the season began and it took a awhile for him to regain his strength. He also sprained his ankle playing basketball in our driveway, which caused him to miss a practice or two. But even those "bumps in the road" were good life lessons to remind the boys that they are not invincible, and sometimes things don't go the way you had planned. I hope their setbacks will never discourage them, but rather help them place their trust in God's plan above their own.

Joseph's positions this year were pitcher and outfielder, but pitching has always been his passion. Michael also was a pitcher on the team, but mostly played 3rd base or short stop. Thankfully, one of the dads has a really nice camera with a gigantic telephoto lens and is constantly taking pictures at the games, so I am able to share some really neat photos of the boys in action:

Love this picture!

Great form, great curls, great kid!

I can't believe this catch was captures on camera!

("Thank you photographer J.B. for taking these great shots!")

Definitely going to frame a few of these for Michael!

For the last tournament of the season, the team decided that everyone should perm their hair! What a hoot! So I bought a home kit and gave Michael a perm. At first I thought his hair was going to be too short to fit in the curling rods, but I somehow made it work and it turned out great!

This is how Michael's hair turned out :)

Joseph already had natural curly hair, so he decided to straighten his hair with my flat iron for the tournament to join in the crazy fun.

Not sure if this picture shows it very well, but he looked like a frizzy 80's rock star---

it was hilarious and hideous all at the same time! :)

Is that Eddie Van Halen on the mound?!

And here is one of the boys' teammates with his crazy perm and other craziness going on

in an attempt to bring their team good luck during the final tournament :)

Unfortunately, the perms and other antics didn't help the boys win the district tourney,

but at least they had fun! :)

All in all, it was a great year, with a great group of young men!

Eager to see what next year holds for this team.

May God guide and bless each of them!

And last, but not least, little Isaiah made his baseball debut this year! And he loved every minute of it! This year was "machine pitch" baseball for his age group, which is harder than it sounds. Sometimes the machine pitches too fast, sometimes too slow, sometimes it's in the strike zone, and other times not even close. But Isaiah did awesome and almost always got a hit off of the machine---thanks to all the practice and training with his older brothers :) Here are some highlight photos of his first baseball season: