All-Star Games...Time for a Break...

Now that All-Star week has come and gone, it's time for a much needed break. I'm certainly not complaining though, I enjoyed ever minute of it. Especially, while experiencing the excitement through Evan's eyes...he truly LOVES baseball! He begs to play catch and/or hit with his Daddy almost everyday.

Evan's team finished in 4th place (I won't mention that there were only 4 teams...lol) but that's fine. Evan did great and played his little heart out...he even played his last game sick.

He had the highest batting average on the team and his MVP moment was amazing!! With bases loaded and 2 outs, he caught a very high fly ball to end the inning!!!

Way to go my All-Star we are so proud of you!!!

Baseball Isn't Over Yet!!!!

Though the season has come to an end, baseball has not...Evan made the ALL-STAR team!!! We are so proud of him! Evan is one of the younger players because he won't be 6 until the end of the month so really this is the first year that he could have made it. Later that night, Evan said, "Finally, I made the All-Stars. After all this time."

You can see the joy on his face in this photo that I took right after Clay told him, he was so nervous while he awaited the news.

So we've begun the hectic schedule of All-Stars...practice every night this week and a game every night next week (hoping we go all the way)...but we ALL love it!!

Way to go Phillies!

We finished out our season in 2nd place in the stacked division! Our record was 11-3!

Way to go Coach Clay and the Phillies!!!

I love this picture of Clay and Evan! You can see such excitement in both of their faces!!

Evan did a great job as always and had loved playing 2nd base...he made some awesome plays!

Thanks to Amma and Ampa, the babies were able to come to all of Evan's games. Elijah has already started picking up on the rules of baseball. We have this little Fisher Price baseball toy that belonged to Evan. The ball is attached to the arm of the toy, Elijah hit the ball with the bat and started running!! It was too cute!!

Don't they all look cute in their baseball uniforms!?!?

Cake for the team swim party...

Game Ball!!!

Evan is having such a great time playing ball. Here are a few shots from last week's games...

AND THE GAME BALL GOES TO.....EVAN!!!!!

Evan was 4 for 4, threw out someone at 1st baseball, and hit a ball all the way to the fence!

I love this dirty, sweaty little face.

Evan crushed this ball!!! It went all the way to the fence! He was so funny...the child didn't run...we were screaming, Run Evan Run...he thought it was a home run so he was in shock! I think he got an ear full about not running from the first base coach. LOL

The ball fields are right next to a lake. The ducks there have become so tame for being around all of the kids. Ampa brings bread to lots of the games for the babies to feed the ducks. They say their quack quacks and enjoy feeding them.

What a face!!! Ampa told her that the bread for the ducks to eat...not her.

She can be so dramatic!! LOL

Batting 1000!!!

Evan is having such a great time playing baseball this year. He's had a blast each year but this year is like none other...I don't know if it's because of all of our wins so far or if it's because he's a stud on the field this year...maybe a little bit of both!! lol Evan switches up between short stop and pitcher and loves both positions! Of course, Clay is coaching again and gets way more nervous before the games than Evan does. lol GO PHILLIES!!

Here are a few status and scores thus far...
**We've won ALL of our games so far, that makes us 5-0!
**Evan is batting 1000...he's been up to bat 17 times and made great hits each time. Plus (knock on wood) he's the only one on the team whose hasn't gotten tagged out this year.

Our Wins..
**Rangers 10-7
**Cardinals 8-1
**Nationals 14-0
**Cubs 24-13
**Angels 22-21

Last night he crushed the ball and got an in the park HOME RUN!!!! We were so proud! He slid into home plate just in time! Last night was an awesome game! We won with 2 outs, bottom of the last inning by an in the park home run!

Our next game is Saturday morning at 9 and we're hoping to hold on the our winning streak...we play a tough team so it should be a great ballgame.

Proud Evan...after last night's game!!

Last Game

Well, another season of baseball has come to an end. Evan finished up his season last Saturday. The Twins came in 3rd in the division and were 5-9. Evan had a lot of fun playing baseball. Clay coached him up so that he could play in the 5 & 6 year old league. We ended the season with a team party at our house with hot dogs and an inflatable slide. Here are a few pictures of the season. For blog photos from the beginning of the season and some super cute ones of all three Es in their baseball gear (in case you missed them) click HERE.

GO TWINS!!!

Geared up for the first game of the season and ready to go!!! Clay is coaching again this year and Evan asked him if they could be on the "Twins" and guess what! We are!! How fun!!

Last year we took the same picture of Evan standing by the front door ready for his first game and it was amazing to see the difference is Evan's height. I'll try to post it later. (Right now, I'm posting these from Mom's house b/c of our issue with Wildblue so I don't have it)

Of course...the twins had to have "Twins" uniforms to match Big Brother! We ordered them from Major League Baseball.com. They even have on Twins booties which looks exactly like Big Brother's hat.




Before the first big game!

A Sweet Smile from Ella...see her pretty bow?!

Their Twins blanket with a teddy bear playing baseball...

yes maybe Mommy went a little overboard.

READY....

And...he crushes it!!!

Evan did Awesome!!! He went 3-4 and stopped the ball in the outfield. We played the Dodgers and WON 12-6!!!!!!!! Evan was thrilled to get the game ball!

Evan and Coach Daddy posing with the game ball!!!

On a side note...Just after we found out that we were having twins, the day after to be exact. The Hodges...family of 3 were sitting on the beach and Clay asked Evan what he thought about the Twins (obviously meaning the ones in Mommy's belly) Evan replied, "I like them okay, but I like all teams the Braves, the Mets, but the Braves are my favorite." Just a funny Evan-ism that we will always remember.

More Baseball

March 2007

Evan had so much fun playing baseball this year. Here are some pictures of my little athlete.

My Baseball Star

Evan had so much fun playing baseball!!! He did so well and was the youngest one on the team by far. Every time he would go up to bat he would tell us, which Brave player he was going to be. He would say, Kelly Johnson, Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, or Jeff Francoeur, etc. It was so cute! Though one day, I asked him who he was going to be and he replied, "I just wanta be Evan" How cute!!

Evan and Coach Daddy...notice Evan has the game ball!!

1st Game...Cubs Win, Evan 2-2

They don't keep score in Wee-Ball, but we certainly beat the Astros!!! Evan did great and played very hard. He went 2-2 and hit the ball all the way to the fence both times for 2 triples! The second one would have been a HOME RUN but he tripped rounding third base and ate a little dirt...but he didn't cry, he popped up and was ready to run. Wesley will officially be our Bat-Boy now, which is too cute!

Coach Daddy was proud!

We told him that if he played hard at his first game that we would take him to Wal-mart to buy a toy. What do you think he wanted..."A WRESTLE MAN"

To clarify for those of you who don't know...Melanie saved all of Clay's Rubber Wrestlers from when he was a kid and Evan loves them! We even bought him some more from e-bay. His favorite thing now is to play, "Wrestle Man" with his Wrestlers and Ring that the Easter Bunny brought him. Clay Tivo's Wrestling now on Monday nights and Fast Forwards through the many inappropriate moments the next day for Evan to watch some of the matches. He knows all of them and "what they do." He loves to show his moves on the floor with Daddy. I guess it's a boy thing!

Team Mom to my little Cub

Evan is on his first baseball team…The Cubs! Clay is coaching and of course I am TEAM MOM!!

Evan is very excited about playing but certainly has his 3 year old moments. He technically isn’t old enough to play but since Clay volunteered to coach they are letting him. We haven’t had any games yet but most practices that we have had Evan has done great. He plays his little heart out and does his best...most of the time. LOL!

One practice, he busted the ball into the air (a pop-up for sure…those are the ones that he is most proud of because they go “high in the sky”) after practice, he asked me if I saw him and I told him that I was so proud of him. He replied with, “That ball went so high, that God almost could have caught it.” Oh, how funny! I love to hear the things that he comes up with and the reasons behind everything. He converses so well and his teacher seems to think that his vocabulary is much larger than many three year olds and that he articulates the words much better. (Okay, that has nothing to do with baseball…sorry…I just thought about that proud boastful Mama moment and could not control myself.

So, back to baseball…a few of the practices Evan has not wanted to play. It hit us the other day, that every one of those practices were practices when he did not arrive to the field with his Daddy and once he got there…Daddy was already playing with other kids. I guess he is a little jealous when it comes to sharing his Daddy.

Team Mom…To many a hassle or a necessity maybe, but to me it’s a title of worth and joy that I am oh so proud to adorn. If I could, and if they existed, I would proudly wear my sash just off my shoulder and my crown on my head like a beauty queen who just won the Miss. America pageant. I was so excited about the “mandatory” team mom meeting, ordering uniforms, but really just being called, TEAM MOM! I will proudly wear my Cubs T-shirt to every game and sit in the dug-out to keep the kiddos in line…missing the fun conversations with the other moms in the stands. I thought of having Team Mom put on the back on my shirt but I thought that might be as cheesy as actually wearing the sash and crown! HA HA

One job of Team Mom…assigned by the Recreation Dept. is to have the players sell Cokes to raise money for the Rec. Dept. A mom of two, also a mom on our team said to me, “I guess we’ll sell these since you asked us too, but our oldest never sells. You'll see that after you have to pick up all of the cokes and organize everything you’ll never do it again.” I will gladly load cokes with a smile on my face, thinking of her and as I do, and in my head to the tune of Frère Jacques I’ll be signing, “I am Team Mom, I am Team Mom, Yes, I am, Yes, I am.” LOL!

I know Clay feels the same way about coaching as I do about my position as Team Mom.

Our first game is coming up Friday, April 13th. I'll try to post how it goes.