All About That Ball

My mom jokes that right now we are entering into the “taxi years”….where the kids have more and more activities and you as a parent become a taxi….dropping off and picking up and eating in the car and making sure all the hats and shoes and gear is available and semi-clean.  I told her that I wasn’t entering into Taxi years….it’s Uber years now.  Welcome to 2018 mom 🙂

Anyhoo….the boys are loving becoming more involved in ALL the things and especially sports.  Both Will and Weston have fallen madly deeply in love with baseball and it’s honestly the most fun thing to watch them do something that they LOVE.  Right now they are little and we know that they probably won’t ‘land’ on baseball (very rarely do kids end up playing only one sport for their entire childhood and teen years) so we are soaking up all the the best parts of America’s favorite pastime.  I fully admit that I’m not the biggest baseball fan….but I do love sports and I especially love my kids in sports so prepare yourself for a feast of Bower Boys playing baseball 🙂

Now I should tell you that we live in a baseball town.  Our local high school are the AAAA State Champs again and I think every dad in our county dreams of their kid playing ball.  We are fairly certain that Will fell in love with it because of our nephew Braden.  And then Weston just followed suite.  We actually signed both boys up for soccer first (Jeremy and I both played soccer in college but for whatever reason both boys were ‘eh’ about the whole kicking thing.)

Will played in the rec league for several seasons but once we discovered that he was getting frustrated with the situation (he wasn’t being taught real baseball because some of the kids weren’t able to catch the ball) we were okay with figuring out a different team to play on.  To be perfectly honest, I was scared for him to keep playing rec.  There were several incidents where there were kids that were just out of control.  They would be mad because they struck out and come into their own dug out and throw bats and helmets and hit other teammates.  I was not cool with it.  So when he was invited to be part of a travel ball team and got picked at try outs, we were game.

We love our little baseball family with his team and he learned a lot!

Plus, Jeremy got to help out and he really enjoyed being out there even when the ’emotional management’ part was hard.  For those of you with little boys….they generally don’t cry from striking out until they hit right around 6-7 and then there are two years of just the biggest crocodile tears.

One of the biggest perks is that the weekends are each chances to win a tournament….so instead of getting a participation trophy at the end of the season, it feels more special.  Their team did really well this year and I think that hopefully next season they will get bumped up to the next bracket.

You know they are still little when dabbing is still cool 🙂

Their team is called the Loganville Bats but the logo is like the Louisville Bats.  If you guys live in Louisville and see cool gear, let me know!

The cutest little fan there ever was!

(and yes, all her red white and blue gear got worked overtime!)

Weston played rec and it was an amazing experience.  He played last fall and he didn’t want to try anything else….just baseball again.  We told him that in the break he could do gymnastics or basketball and go to cooking school or do an art class….nope….just baseball.

He actually got picked by the same coach again and so that made it really fun.  Weston is pretty shy (it’s a mixture of shyness and extreme silliness when he knows you) so having a friend is REALLY important.

He played circle (since the coach’s pitch to their own team, circle is where the pitcher stands but you don’t pitch) and LOVED it.  He got so much better and was a really consistent hitter (just like William!).

And then low-and-behold, he made all-stars!  I think both Jeremy and I were in complete shock since he is only five and there are literally like fifty kids who try out.  UGH!  HIS CUTE FACE KILLS ME HERE!

The best part is that a couple of his buddies from his regular season team made it too.  This is Beau….who ALL my boys love to pieces.  He is a really fun kid and we were so happy that Weston had a friend on the team….it makes the shyness a little easier 🙂

Overall, the team was really fun to watch.  It’s amazing because really they are so little….I mean…most of them haven’t even lost their first tooth yet and they need help to tie shoes and all that….but man can they hit and throw!

The little boys LOVE going to the ball games – it means snow cones and dirty feet and playing with friends.  Max cracked me up because he would walk in fully dressed and come out of the ball fields with no shirt, no shoes, dirt all over and pockets full of rocks.  LJ has already told us that he wants to play baseball so we signed him up for this fall and I literally will cry seeing him in a little uniform!

It will be so fun to see what all the kids decide to play one day.  Looking back, I literally tried just about anything that I could.  I wasn’t the most athletic kid but trying out everything was part of the fun!

A big highlight for Weston’s team was winning the sub-state championship.  They went to state and got to play some really amazing teams.  But seriously….how cute are all those little boys!?  I just die.

Weston was so overwhelmed with getting a medal, he cried and told us that he didn’t want to wear it.

Eventually he came around and was excited to have it….but it was just so much emotion for him!  Poor dude!

Also this is my favorite picture to take at any kid event.  Cracks me up!

We managed to get a family photo at one of the games and it was really one of those miracle moments.  Jeremy and William had just arrived from their own tournament and walked up just in the nick of time to see Weston get his medal. We quickly threw a shirt on Max (it’s why he was sad here) and we got a friend to snap this!  I feel like this was the highlight of our summer so far!  And one rare family photo of all seven of us 🙂

All that to say….baseball is over now and we are really enjoying the freedom!  As much as we love the busy practice schedule and the constant baths and the washing of the baseball pants….it is always nice to have a break!  Of course, fall ball tryouts are this month so the break isn’t that long 🙂