Summer Vacation

What an amazing vacation.

To leisurely hang out with my family and my best friends for an entire week is priceless.  But of course, it came and went so quickly that it all seems like a blurr.

We were all so excited to see our kids play together - finally!  Too much time passes until we realize that our kids barely even know each other.  Well, we took care of that on this vacation.  The kids (with the exception of Ellie) all slept in the same room, piled into two bunkbeds almost every night.  They whispered and giggled well past their bedtime, but we allowed them the childhood experience.

As for the adults, we stayed up way past our bedtimes too and then had to tend to rowdy children at the crack of dawn every morning.  We certainly did not enjoy that part of the vacation.

Every day was beach then pool and finished off with an amazing home cooked meal.  We managed to leave our beach house to spend a few hours at the water park one day, but our mutual goal for the week was to relax and hang out - I think we succeeded.

Here's to an annual trip!

Orioles Baseball

We have finally reached the point that all dads (and many moms like me) have been waiting for the moment they heard those exciting words, "It's a boy!" - SPORTS!

We registered Evan in the Summer Coach Pitch Baseball League and have been so excited to get the games underway.  I think it's even possible that we were way more excited than Evan - in fact, I know we were.

I need to preface my gallery of game pics by saying Evan's enthusiasm for baseball is a bit lackluster.  We haven't yet determined if he's playing to please us or because he really wants to.  I believe he genuinely enjoys the camaraderie of his team, but when it comes to actually hitting the field, he could take it or leave it.

We have definitely seen some improvement from the very beginning.  He has yet to hit a ball from the pitcher, but he is hitting off the tee a lot better.  His fielding skills are a mystery because he refuses to attack a ball or catch a ball.  He leaves that up to his teammates.

All in all, we've decided to just follow his lead.  If I learned one thing growing up, it was that you can't force a child to do anything - at least not if you want them to be happy.  All we want is for Evan to be happy and to have fun!

Evan's #1 fan

The Graduate

Evan has officially graduated from preschool and will be entering kindergarten in the fall.  What?!  Did I really just type that?! 

Time has certainly flown by, but we couldn't be more confident that Evan is ready to move forward.  He has grown so much over the past year and we are excited to see him take this next big step - not to mention, he gets to be with me! :)

The graduation ceremony was precious and definitely brought tears to my eyes.  We beamed with pride as we watched Evan walk across the stage to receive his diploma.  It was a bittersweet moment for sure simply because it's sad to see him growing up so fast, but exciting to think about what lies ahead in the future.

Congratulations to our baby boy!