3.14

Happy Pi Day!

In honor of Pi day, the boys made themselves celebratory Pi hats. We had a delicious chicken pie for dinner, which followed a very confusing recipe. For dessert, there was cherry pie.
Phil carved an awesome Pi pumpkin.

Opening Day

Alameda is serious about Little League. Since this was our first year being involved with it, we had no idea what our day was about to entail. We met our coach at the Little League park, and blindly sent Alex away with him for the parade. With a few of the other parents, we followed the masses and tried to find a place to watch the parade. We didn't have chairs. Or blankets. Or snacks. Well, we did find a blanket in the car, so we had that going for us after all. After much waiting, the parade of teams began. Here comes Alex's Cubs!
Somehow, Alex's hat became backward, and he is so tiny, his uniform hangs like an old timer's uniform. He looks pretty serious and ready to go.
There were so many teams. The T-ballers came by first, then settled in to watch the rest of the levels. The kids on Alex's team are 4-6 years old. The divisions go up to at least young teens, so there were a lot of teams, kids, siblings and parents.
Alex is in that mob somewhere. We were just hoping we would be able to find him again. I have no idea how the coaches managed to keep 15 4-6 year olds together for the entire time, and how on earth they kept them entertained.

After the parade, the kids said their Little League Oath, and there were lots and lots of speeches. The speakers weren't working very well, so I don't really know who all spoke, but I think it was just about every elected official in Alameda. Really, we were surprised the governor wasn't there too!

Now, we're just waiting for our first game!

Crab Cove

Alex and Zachary's class went on a field trip to Crab Cove. The kids walked around on the tide flats discovering different types of seaweed and tiny bay dwellers. Then we moved into the rocks to look for crabs.
The were told they could only pick up rocks that were smaller than their head, and crabs that were the size of a quarter.

Alex took a turn being tickled by a little crab.
Snuggling and sheltering in the rocks.
Adventuring complete, the class had a picnic, that was soon broken up by the wind and rain!

While we were out in the mud, I was reminded that last year on this field trip, Zachary wasn't able to pull his boots up out of the mud. And Alex tripped and was covered in mud. This year, Zachary was a super adventurer. And while Alex stayed clean, Zachary "forgot" where he was and sat on a dirty wet rock.

More Swimming

Zachary wanted to share a video. Here he is, showing off his swimming skills.