We all slept somewhat late.  After Cole and I ate breakfast we played some at my house and some at his house, while Mommy and Barbara made a quick trip to Sams for groceries we needed.

My baseball end-of-season baseball game was at Trip's home.   The expected rain didn't happen so we did get to swim.  The pool was cold and the hot tub was hot, so we went from one to the other. The entire party was fun.  

We each earned a trophy.  Parents signed up to bring food. 

Mommy brought chips and a special treat for each boy.

A fun thing:  my name was left off the cake.  When the mistake was discovered, someone found a place to squeeze my name onto the cake.


Back at home I played with Anthony. 

Saturday  April 29, 2017
Every weekend until the end of school will be busy for me.
This weekend I had a baseball game and my last soccer game and a baseball end-of-season swim party.

My baseball game was at 10:30am for one hour and 15 minutes.  I played awesome.  I played first base, second base, shortstop, first base again, and pitcher.  This was the first time I had played pitcher.  The pitcher doesn't throw the ball, the coach does, but the pitcher has a lot to do.

If I remember right I made two outs at first base by retrieving the ball and tagging first base.  I hit two doubles.  I think I only had those two at-bats.  My team lost by quite a bit, but we had fun.  I think we only won one game but we all improved our baseball skills.

My fans included Mimz, Barbara, GGF, Grandma, Papa, and Mommy.  Daddy would have been there but he was out of town.   Barbara has been managing to get one of the two handicapped parking spaces and we often play on the field nearest the parking lot so GGF didn't have far to walk.

As soon as the game was over, Mommy and I had to hurry to my soccer game.  Mommy was my only fan.  Everyone else had something else they had to do.   I played with fire this game and scored two goals.  Mommy thought I scored a third goal, but actually another boy kicked it and it was over the goal line when I gave it another kick.

I played with The Gang of Four until bed time. 

Look at those tan lines... and it's not even summer yet!

Cole had a sleep over at my house.  We had to be quiet because the loud noise kids can make bother them.   We just played in my room and then we watched some TV in Mommy's room, while eating cinnamon raisin toast, before we fell asleep.  We each had a sofa to sleep on and Mommy slept in my bed.

Mommy, Barbara, and I were outside playing Frisbee about twenty minutes before the bus arrived.  That was fun. Anthony and Alyssa didn't show up until the last minute and Cole didn't ride the bus.

GGM watched me get off the bus.  Grandma arrived and took me to swim practice.  Kristan got home early so Barbara came to watch the last 15 minutes of practice.  We were trying to dive off the starting block.  Only one child in my age group can do it.

 My stomach was red from doing so many belly flops.  Practice was over at 5:15pm.  Barbara quickly took me home to eat and then dress for baseball practice.  

Right at 5:30pm Mommy opened the door and at that same moment I was ready to go, with water bottle and baseball bag in hand.   We started out playing kickball at baseball practice, then we went back to our regular skills practice.

We got home around 8pm.  Mommy, Barbara, and I sat on my bed and did things to make each other laugh.  Barbara does the best job of getting us to laugh.

Thursday April 27, 2017

After school and a little bit of after school play, Barbara took me to swim practice.  She stayed to watch. 

Daddy picked me up and took me to my baseball game.   I played really well.

The only picture taken of me today was of me brushing my teeth before bed.

I slept very well on my new foam pad on my mattress.   I slept from 8:50pm to 6:45am without waking up.  We think that might be the current answer to my complaint of my mattress being too hard.

I was ready for school and outside playing Frisbee with Barbara at 7:10am.  In a bit Cole joined the fun, then Anthony, and finally Alyssa.   Barbara said she wished she had thought to take a video of us scrambling to run to and grab our backpacks and then run to the bus stop as soon as we heard the bus heading our way.  We looked like a swam of bee going every which way.

I had a page to fill out listing my favorite gum, candy, color, drink, and lollipop.  This is for the Little Buddy/ Big Buddy swim team activity.  That will help my Big Buddy know what to get me at each of our swim meets.  Just a fun little activity.   We will turn it in today at my swim practice.  The new time for swim practice is 4:30 to 5:15pm.

Mimz met bus, helped me with my homework, took me to swim practice, and home with her.
Excitement:  GGF fell in the kitchen and cut a big gash in his crown.  Barbara and GGM took him to Tomball Regional Hospital where he was quickly treated.  11 stitches, CAT scan results were normal  Left home at 2:40pm and back home at 5:20pm

******
At 2:40pm Barbara and GGM took GGF to the emergency room to get eleven stitches in a large cut on the crown of GGF's head.  He had spilled a cup of coffee at the breakfast table and walked to the kitchen to get something to clean up the spill.  Somehow both cut his head and fell.  We don't know which happened first.  Both GGM and Barbara heard a loud noise and came to see what it was.  They met in the living room and wondered where GGF was.  Then he said, "Avis, I fell."  They found him sitting on the kitchen floor with the oven door open.  They put paper towels on the wound, but they quickly determined that they were not going to be able to stop the bleeding.  He got up mostly on his own, with a little balancing help from GGM and Barbara.  Barbara drove them to Tomball Regional Hospital, dropped them off at the emergency room door, parked, and quickly came inside.  GGF was already being treated and blood pressure being taken.  An odd thing: They asked GGM for his name, date of birth, and the name of the street he lives on.  That was it.  Didn't ask for ID or insurance or anything.  And he had never been to that hospital so they didn't have any record of him.  A couple of hours later a lady from registration leisurely came in wanting id and insurance cards and information.
They were surprised they didn't insist on insurance before giving treatment.  I guess they looked trustworthy.     They took a CAT scan of his head, numbed his wound, put in eleven stitches, and sent them home.  They were away from almost three hours. Charges: $10,000.  GGM only had to pay $75.00

A funny thing:  When GGM had dinner ready she went looking for GGF.  She found him sweeping the driveway.   We thought he should be relaxing and pampering himself, but that's not the kind of stuff he is made of.  

 I was the first child outside waiting for the bus!

 Alyssa was second. 

Cole was third.  Barbara was busy taking pictures of us.  Why she doesn't sleep late on her days off from babysitting I don't know!  I would!  The Gang of Four played tag while waiting for the bus.

I got a stamp for Super behavior today.

I played at Cole's house until time to dress for swim practice.  Barbara and GGF took me and stayed to watch.  We didn't get in the pool today.  Maybe because they clean the pool on Tuesday mornings and they weren't ready for kids in the pool.

We played kickball.   It's played like baseball but with a large rubber ball that you kick instead of bat.  I always had big strong kicks.  The only problem was if they were fly balls, the big boys could catch them and I would be out.  I am a great fielder.  I run faster than any of the boys my age.   A coach told me this was not a group of tough boys so I needed to be easier when tagging the girls or the littler kids.  Barbara noticed that, from then on, I really was gentlier when dealing with girls.

Daddy arrived just as practice finished.  Barbara gave him my baseball gear.  We realized I didn't have any underwear, so we stopped at my home and Daddy went upstairs to get me a pair of underwear.   We also picked up a water bottle and two Gaterades.

My fans at the baseball game were Mommy, Daddy, Mimz, and Barbara.  I had a good game.  I struck out once and I had a double.  I think the practice I had on Sunday with Mommy and Daddy really did help my batting.  

I mostly played first base and I made one or two outs.  My team was ahead until the last inning when we had a couple of errors and that cost us the win.  But we all did have fun.

Team meeting after the game.

I wonder if I was listening or if I was day dreaming.

First thing I did when I got home was eat a big bowl of cereal.  Then I did my Monday and Tuesday homework.  My math homework involved measuring real things with paper clips.  Like a pillow length equaled 10 large paper clips.  In this picture I'm measuring a window ceil.  I wrote my spelling words three times each.  I practiced my Wall Words.  I only have problems with one word: heard.

This is the longest my hair has ever been.  I like it.  This is what it looks like after a day of school, swim practice, and a baseball game.  It looks really nice.


As I was going upstairs Barbara told me there was a surprise for me in my bedroon.  At first I couldn't imagine what it was, but my the time I walked to my room, I remembered:  Barbara took her really nice comfy foam mat off her bed and put in on my bed.  Oh, it made my bed feel so soft and comfy.   I was asleep by 9:15pm.

I have a battle wound.  Cole accidentally scratched my check yesterday.

I was dressed before I remembered to look under my pillow.  The Tooth Fairy had come.  She left me $3 and she took my tooth but she left the little yellow treasure chest.  When I lose another tooth, I'll have the chest to put the tooth in.  I put the $3 in my wallet with the other $2 that was in there already.  I keep my wallet in my nightstand.  I don't take it to school.

I was the first child outside at the corner bus stop.  Barbara is not babysitting for four days so she was here to take a picture of me waiting for the bus.  She quizzed us kids on some state capitols and some math.   She thinks that is fun and would play like that all day if I would stay interested.  But I just have to run and be on the move.

I have started eating breakfast at school.  The rest of the Gang of Four does, and I decided I wanted to join them. Waking up at 7am gives me plenty of time to get ready and be outside at 7:30 for the bus

I looked in my backpack and noticed my Rubic Cube was messed up.  Barbara said she would try to solve the first side while I was at school.  One day I want her to teach me how to work the entire puzzle.  She will... when I will put in the time necessary to learn how.

I only had 25 minutes to play with my friends before I had to put on myjammers and head to the Londonderry pool. 

Barbara stayed to watch me practice and she took some video so I can look and see what I am doing.  Right at 5pm, when my practice was over, my dad arrived.  He was taking me to my baseball practice.  

****Yesterday and today we added pictures to the blog.... lots and lots of pictures.... going all the way back to February 1st.   We have lots of good excuses for our procrastination, like helping Grandma pack and helping with the move and unpacking.   Another five weeks of babysitting for Anna Kate and Bradley and we will have a lot more time to keep current.  You will see a difference after school is out, but we hope to never get behind like this again.  Thank you for your patience.****


Daddy fixed us a can of cinnamon rolls.  They were good but not as good as the ones I help GGM make from scratch. 
Daddy, Mommy, and I went to Benfer Elementary school so I could practice batting, throwing, and catching.  We started with Daddy pitching to me, me hitting, and Mommy snagging the balls.  My parents both told me things to improve my hitting.  Then I played first base, Daddy hit the balls, and Mommy caught them and threw them to me.  And finally we had me doing the throwing.  I improved on evry skill.  


Have I told you this before? ..... My mom's senior year her team won the Texas State Softball championship.  She played center field and she had a strong throwing arm.  The final score was 1 to 0 and my mom hit the ball that brought in the only run of the game.  It was the last play of the game.  Grandma has a video of it.  I ought to ask her to find it and show it to me.  



I played with my new friends in my dad's neighborhood.  We fixed chicken, mashed potatoes, and spinach for dinner.   After Mommy and I came home, I had to play with Barbara because none of my friends were home.  We made up a game we could play in the garage with my basketball and the colored mats on the floor.   Barbara started teaching me an old card game, Flinch.  I read my 4th quarter Wall Words. 

After I was in my bed, Barbara used a flashlight to read a chapter in my Champion Dog Prince Tom book.    Oh, something I had forgotten to do was put my Tooth Fairy pillow under my pillow.  My tooth came out at school and the school nurse gave me a tiny yellow tooth treasure chest to put it in.  Well, I put in under my pillow tonight.  I hope she come to visit me.

I had a baseball game at 9am. 

 My fans included my parents, Mimz, GGM, GGF, and Barbara.  They all were located near first base since I mostly played first base and second base some.

I made an out while on second base.  I had a great hit and made a single which got a runner home.   The final score was something like 9 to 3 and we lost but we had fun and we all keep getting better as we improve our skills.  One fun thing:  a ball bounce between first base and the fence, then it hopped the fence, and GGF (age 92) caught it!

I played with some new friends that live near my dad's house.

Mommy signed me up for Cub Scout summer day camp. She had to be at Starbucks at 5pm to get the free camp.   It will be at the same church and at the same time as it was last year.  The big difference is that next year I will be a Wolf and Wolves don't need a parent with them at every event.  This year, as a Tiger, an adult had to be with me at all times at every event.  My camp is free this summer because Bridget did such a good job selling popcorn to her co-workers.  My Cub Scout dues for next year will also be paid for and I also got a fishing rod for my popcorn sales.  Thank you, Bridget.  $1200!

Friday, April 21, 2017

Because two other children in my class and I sold enough cookie dough I got to go to a DJ dance.  One fun thing Brain and I did was swing dance.

Barbara was home when the bus arrived and of course she wanted to get a picture of the Gang of Four.

Both of my bikes had a problem.  This morning Andy came over and put the chain back on my old bike.  My new bike has a problem with the hand brakes.  He said he will try to fix it but he will have to spend more time on it at his home.

Andy was off work today but he had to take Kristan's car in for repair so Barbara babysat for him while he ran his errands.  One thing he did was take GGF to a barber shop to get a shave and haircut.  First haircut GGF has had at a barber shop since he moved here from Arkansas.  Barbara had been giving him haircuts.

 I rode bikes with the Gang of Four and some other kids until it was time for me to go to swim practice. 

Barbara and GGF stayed to watch my practice.  There were five in my class.  Only one girl can dive off the starting block well.  We all need lots of instruction and practice.

I went over to Alyssa's to swim until Mommy and Daddy came to get me.

 A funny thing:  GGM does not drink or eat after someone else has used a glass or whatever.  Not even her own children when they were little.    For a long time now, I have chosen to grab GGM's glass to get a quick drink.   Barbara used to tell me not to do that.

  I know which glass is her's because it is always different from any other glass.   Somehow she has gotten used to this happening.  She just smiles and pretends she didn't see anything. 

I think school must have been pretty routine today because I can't think of a thing we did.

After school, I played for twenty minutes, then I put on my jammers.  Barbara showed up with two babies in tow and drove me to my swim practice.  She just dropped me off at the gate and watched me walk inside, then she drove the babies back to their home.  At 5:30pm Barbara showed up to get me instead of my mom because mom was stuck in traffic.

 Bridget and Chris sent this Save the Date magnet to me. 

 I'm gong to be their ring bearer.

I hurried upstairs to change into my Cub Scout shirt and shorts because I had a meeting at Metzler.  Well, my mom had to go to a parents Swim Team meeting at 6, so Barbara took me to Metzler.  The parking lot was full of cars and inside the cafeteria was the choir having a performance.  We waited for other Boy Scouts to arrive.  Mason Roberts dad drove up and he called Mrs. Thomas.  She was surprised to her that news.  She said "Let's all meet at Burroughs Park Pavillion."  So Barbara and I carted my snacks for the boys back to the car and drove to the park.  Barbara also sent my mom a text so she would know where to find us after her meeting was over.

  We did an elective about art and music.  Mrs. Thomas brought some pictures that used a lot of lines, shapes, and colors.  We learned the type of art was abstract art. 

We each had a paper plate with three pools of colors: red, blue, and yellow.  We learned how to mix our colors to make purple, green, and orange. 

Then we painted our own abstract painting.   We then drew while listening to music.

We had ten minutes to play on the playground.   

We hurried back to pur picnic table so we could have our snack.  I handed out the trail mix to each boy and Mommy handing out bottles of Gatorade.    Then we cleaned up the area so we were "leaving no trace."

At home I had a big bowl of cereal, brushed my teeth, did my math homework, read two books, and said my Word Wall words three times.  It was 8:47 by the time I got in bed.  I had ten minutes with the iPhone, then it was lights out. 

Mimz was waiting with GGM for me to jump off my school bus.  Mimz  took me to my swim practice.  She thought I did a good job swimming.

Knox was not home so I stayed at home with Mimz.  Mimz likes that because it gives her more time with me.  While Mimz was cooking dinner I kept saying I wasn't hungry but I ate a whole pork chop, one big helping of mashed potatoes, and two helpings of green beans.   It's hard to get me to sit at the table to eat a good meal.  I want to play instead of eat if I have some kids to play with.

 Before going to bed, Mimz came into my room to check on me. 

 Bradley is 4 1/2 months old.

At school Mrs. Cat again told me my printing has really improved a lot.  We had a paper that we were supposed to do our very best printing on and I did a good job.  Mine was one of the top three papers.

Barbara brought Anna Kate and Bradley over to my home, hoping to be there in time for the bus.   She was about two minutes late.  GGM and GGF were both so happy to see the little babies.  GGF sat and watched Bradley the 15 minutes they were in the house.

Cole and Alyssa came inside to see the little kids.  They both were so surprised at how much Anna Kate had grown.  And they enjoyed seeing Bradley... maybe for the first time.  I am very possessive of Anna Kate. 

I played for 15 minutes, then I had to get on my jammers.  GGM and Barbara drove us three children to the Londonderry Club house.  GGM sat in the car with the babies while Barbara walked in with me.  We signed up for the Big Buddy/Little Buddy optional activity.

I was the first person to sign up.  Ashton was standing there and he said he would sign up as my Big Buddy.  I know him from Metzler.  He has a twin brother who looks like him, so maybe they are identical.

I enjoyed the practice.  It was over at 5pm.   I had to wait for Mommy to arrive after she got off work.  I know the rule is I can not go to the playground and I can not leave the fenced-in pool area.

We arrived home to change into my soccer practice clothes and to eat a couple pieces of pizza.  The practice was moved inside, otherwise it would have had to be cancelled.  The indoor soccer building is really nice.   I was hungry after practice so I had some McDonald's chicken nuggets.

Mommy and I went over to Daddy to do my homework.      We arrived home and I was hungry.  I had a couple bowls of cereal.  Mommy went upstairs to talk to Barbara.  When she came looking for me, she didn't find me downstairs, so she came backup stairs.  I was asleep on the sofa in her bedroom... this is my favorite place to sleep now.  I don't like the mattress on my bed.  I'm hoping I get a new one.

Today was a normal school day.  When I jumped off the bus GGM told me to put on my swim jammers and flip flops and to be ready for my dad's arrival.  Daddy arrived around 4pm to take me to swim practice at 4:14pm.  We checked in and they had me on the list, so I headed to the pool to start getting instruction.  Daddy watched me.

We are hoping they may change the time for my swim meet practice back to 4:45 to 5:30pm.   Barbara can take me and Mommy could easily get her when practice is over.
 
At 5pm practice was over.  My next event was my baseball game at 6:15pm, but before that could happen it started raining and the game was cancelled. 

Oops!  Another day I forgot to write.  If it weren't for pictures, I couldn't tell you anything about this day.

 Andy snapped this picture of this fish I caught.

 Blue teeth from eating a sucker.

 This doesn't have anything to do with me but it is interesting.  The two objects in this picture are jar openers.  The red one is from 1950 and the blue one from 2010.  GGM, GGF, and Barbara use them both.  They both work well to open a really hard- to-open jar.

Saturday April 15, 2017

The Gang of Four had pancakes for breakfast at Alyssa and Anthony's home.  Mommy brought doughnuts over.  We will have those as a snack.

At 9am we were at my houe asking for a snack.  Barbara gave us the snack we asked for: doughnuts and and a little ice cream.

We washed our bikes and rode them.

Mommy and I got ready for my soccer game.  We went over to my dad's house and we all went together to the game.

Mimz, Grandma and Papa came to the game.  Barbara had been doing housework and was so very sleepy.  She took a three hour nap and slept right through my game.

This picture is very dark but I wanted it on my blog.  Grandma looked out the window at 7am and she saw Andy and Greg floating by fishing.  They are about 1/3 of the way down from the top.


  

Today is Good Friday.  I have no school and Mommy is off work.  Yea!!!!!!!

Barbara realized she had not taken a picture since my last tooth came out.  I have funny looking teeth right now, but before long I will have my permanant teeth all in a straight row.

We noticed Anthony's bike had been parked by his mailbox all night.  I moved it to his backyard.  Then I knocked on the door to see if they were ready to play.  Alyssa was.  She and I came to my house looking for something to play.  Barbara pulled out the "resource blocks" and made a pattern with them.  Then Alyssa and I tried to match her patterned.  We did it a second time and then we were tired of that game.  Barbara thought we should enjoy playing that kind of thing all day.  She said, "Oh, well.  I guess kids have changed."

We wanted some ice cream so Barbara fixed us ice cream cones for us and for GGM and GGF.  We were lucky... we had four cones. GGM put ice cream cones on the grocery list.

 I still have a free coupon from Bahama Bucks for my All As report card so Barbara and I went there and I got a banana/pink lemonade icee.

It sure was good.   While we were there I called Andy to see if  he and Papa were at Andy's house.  There were so we went over there to visit for fifteen minutes.  There were working on Andy's sprinkler system.   We played basketball with a soccer ball and a recycle bin.  I did a great job of making the goal.

 I asked if I could ride my old police car.  Andy said sure, he had it all charged ready to ride.  It looks a lot smaller now than it was when I was four years old.

I had fun riding it up and down the sidewalk and street.

When we got home, I ran off to find my friends.

 We ended up swimming in Alyssa's pool.

 I always want to wear my goggles.  I guess I am used to them because I wear them for swim team.

 We play pretty well together.