Wednesday night I took Eric and one of his buddies to see the Harlem Globetrotters play at the Utica Auditorium. The weather was horrendous. Kathryn was sick and couldn’t go so we invited Eric’s friend, Sawyer. We had great seats, 3rd row on the floor at mid-court. We were close enough that one of the Globetrotters ate some of Sawyer’s popcorn. The Globetrotters put on a good family show. The boys really enjoyed it.
Eric celebrated his 8th birthday with a bowling party for him and his buddies followed by cupcakes at home with family and friends.
Chim Char enjoys sleeping on Eric’s bed. He enjoys the company.
The team got together for picture night and then went out and played a great game, beating the previously undefeated red team.
The Northern Community League had an opening ceremony for all the Little League teams. Below Eric’s team gathers in preparation. One by one all the kids were called out by name (a long process). Eric was 1st for his team.
Eric greets his team mates as they get called out to join the lineup. The field ended up being filled with all the teams represented by a multitude of uniform colors.
At 4pm Eric’s team had a game. He played pitcher and did a good job of fielding the ball.
Eric was 1 for 3 hitting.
Eric and I got our hair cut on Wednesday night. Kim spruced up Eric’s hair with some red hair gel. He thought it was pretty cool and wanted to wear it to school the following day so he could freak out his teacher.
Eric decided to play Minor B Little League this year, primarily because his pal, Jack, was playing baseball. In Minor B there are called strikes, coaches on the field and a coach pitching. After 3 practices they had their 1st game. Eric was tagged as catcher for the game. He said he didn’t like the position because he got hit with the ball a lot – even though it didn’t hurt. By the end of the game he was catching a few of the pitches / tips.
Eric batted 6th and in his 1st at bat came up with bases loaded and two outs. He made contact; a slow roller down the 1st base line. The 1st baseman picked up the ball, stood up and was mesmerized by all the kids running. His coaches, parents and spectators were yelling for him to step on 1st base. With all the chaos he froze and Eric beat it down to 1st base safely. Over the 1st two games Eric has 5 hits for 6 at bats. You got to love playing on stone dust, because once the ball is rolling it carries out of the infield.
Each spring we get trees through Oneida County Soil and Water Conservation District. We have mainly planted spruce trees as windbreaks, but also some white birch and lilacs. This year I ordered 50 spruce trees, 10 lilacs and 10 red oaks. The trees came in on Saturday morning. I traveled to Schoharie on Saturday for our High School reunion meeting and left for Bellevue, Nebraska on Sunday morning. Kathryn ended up planting all the trees with a little bit of help.
Our weekend began on Thursday evening. Eric had his final swim lesson at the Holland Patent pool. He is doing basic strokes; crawl and backstroke. He is jumping off the diving board. He is treading water and learning to dive off the side of the pool.
From the swim lessons I took him to his 1st little league baseball practice. It is playing Minor League B in which the coach pitches to the kids. He played short stop in the field and took his cut at batting and made a 3 hits out of six or seven pitches. The practice was cut short due to lighting. The next practice is scheduled for Tuesday night.
We continued our home remodeling. I removed the TV sliding tray from our entertainment center moved all our computer equipment into the entertainment center and co-located it with the desk in the living room. We working on getting the layers (and layers and layers) of wallpaper and plaster from the foyer.
I removed nails from all the molding and wood which had been pulled out of the house. Eric and Trevor sorted through the wood pile claiming boards to use for their log cabin.
We did two coats of paint, ceiling and walls in Eric’s room – Barely Beige on the walls and one wall of a dark, brick or Spanish red. Saturday night Eric slept on the coach and despite the room being finished on Sunday night the fumes were too much to have him sleep there Sunday evening. His closet is opened up and is the last item to be completed. Yet to be completed is the painting, installation of the shelves and drawer unit and the sliding doors.
Eric has been in Tiger Cubs this year. It is the earliest year of Boy Scouts. Right after the den started meeting, the den leader quit. The overall coordinator asked if any of the parents would take on the role of den leader. I declined but offered to lead for a month and/or help out in portions of meetings. In the confusion some of the boys bolted to the Floyd den, but Mitchell, Josh, Janaru and Eric stayed.
With a small group we were able to complete all five chapters of the Tiger Cubs handbook and thus the boys will be earning all beads/badges/awards for this level.
Last night we took a nature walk along the nature trail which parallels Cincinnati Creek in Trenton Town Park. We found and discussed thorn apple trees, white pine trees, and pussy willows. We saw mallard ducks and red-winged blackbirds. We looked at skunk cabbage, beaver chew and old golden rod. We discovered last year’s bird nests and Janaru detected minnows. After wards we made a picture frame which will contain a picture of the boys taken right before the hike.
With Little League baseball and AYSO soccer soon to start I am glad Scouting is winding down. I had a better time doing the activities with the boys than I anticipated. The small group size helped.