It's a (beautiful) musical life ...

Don't have much to say tonight, so here is some creative inspiration! :)


My daughter loves to dance and sing ... and here I've scrapped about it with a pretty collaboration kit by Connie Prince and Charlize Creations! It's called Music of My Life and is NEW at Elemental Scraps today.

Thanks for looking!

~Melinda

Ring around the baseball fields ...

Friday night it felt like we played ring around the baseball fields, as another coach's mix-up caused us to have to search for another field for Blake's team to play on. After walking to another field and discovering that one wouldn't work, we ended up heading to a familiar field ... the field Julia plays T-ball on! Blake's team had a rough start, probably because of the pre-game mix-up, but came back in the end. It wasn't enough for them to win, but in T-ball they don't really focus on the score (which is great). Blake had his fair share of missed chances to stop the ball, but once again, when he was in the pitching position he got all 3 of the inning's outs! He caught the ball twice when it was hit right to him, and ran one runner out at 3rd base. He had a blast.

The only pictures I succeeded in getting Friday night were pictures of Chase playing in the sand on the near-by playground -- the only good part about Blake's game moving where it was. The sun was in our eyes because it was starting to set and so all of the parents had a hard time seeing the game. I guess it is better that it was in our eyes than theirs, but our original field might have given a little more protection from the sun.


Saturday we went to a Chinese restaurant for the second time. I'm not a big fan of Chinese food, but I DO like coconut shrimp! Yum! Tyler is more willing to try the various foods out, and he is sharing bites with the kids, so at least they are getting to try new things that way. I learned about coconut shrimp from a co-worker. I've tried peanut chicken too ... and am not sure if I like it or not. It's kind of odd - a mix of crunchy peanut butter, essentially, and chicken. Very different. Maybe next time I'll try the Honey-something chicken. Tyler wasn't that impressed with it ... so maybe that means I'll like it. (He didn't really understand the fuss about the coconut shrimp.)


Today was Father's Day. I called and talked to my dad tonight. I'm not good at talking to people on the phone. I feel so dumb, but I didn't want to let the holiday pass without letting my dad know that I love him, and that he's important in my life. He has done so much for me, and still continues to do so. I love you, Dad!

Out of Tyler's choosing, we didn't do much for Father's Day. I offered, so I can't feel to blame. We did go play catch at the middle school though, and even though the kids got a little whiny, I think it was a productive session. Tyler misses basically all of their games, and so its a good way for him to get involved. Oh! And Tyler pitched a few balls to me. Keep in mind that I am not athletically-inclined, and that I was using a T-ball bat ... I could have done worse. LOL. So, then Tyler had the bright idea of letting me pitch to him. This was after my batting practice, so he really should have known better! Ha ha. He very narrowly missed having his feet hit several times, and even almost got hit in the gut a couple of times. Oops. I haven't played softball for about 15 years! Give me a break! :)

Then we went grocery shopping, and have spent the rest of the evening at home. I got some dishes done. Next, I should run to get some laundry done ... we'll see.

That's about it for my weekend ... how was yours?

~Melinda

Thursday's game photos ...

I went right up to the fence and stuck my lense through, behind the catcher area, to get most of these shots. I was too lazy to walk down past the dug-outs, and I really like the angle I got! :)


This is the position from which Blake got all 3 outs for that inning! :) He was pretty proud of himself, and so are we! It is great to see that he is starting to truly understand this game.






It was very hard to keep Julia and Chase sitting down nearby ... until my mom pulled out the ring pops! Yay for treats that make them hold still! It worked, until Julia chomped off what was left of her ring in order to be allowed off the bench ... that smart, silly girl!



Just had to share!
~Melinda

Good game, good game, good game ...

I think that is my daughter's favorite part of her T-ball games ... the good-game, good-game, good-game part where they all give fives to the other team. :) It's cute. And then she gets her snack ... which might actually be her favorite part, lol.

Blake, however ... I think his favorite part is getting the other team out. He got to play the pitcher tonight for one inning, and he did great! It's T-ball, so he didn't have to pitch the ball, but he did get a runner out at 3rd, and he got two runners out at home base. If you did the math, you realize he got the 3 outs for the inning! :) He also scored some runs. I'm not sure how many, as I did not keep track. I got some decent pictures, but don't have my camera handy to load them to share with you yet.

We did make it to the circus on Wednesday, too, and it turned out to be a gorgeous day. It started out cloudy at the beginning of the show, and the sun came out during their intermission. It was starting to get "ouch" hot by the time the circus was done. Good thing it wasn't that sunny the whole time or we'd all have been sun-burned! After the circus we went to Mike's Smokehouse for lunch, which was yummy! I don't get to go there very often. As is true with many places now-a-days, you get a lot less fish for your dollar, but at least it tasted as good as I remembered it. Julia had a game Wednesday night, and she is getting better and better at staying on task on the ball field. It's amazing the difference a year makes! :)

Well, it is getting late and I have laundry to switch over, so I better head out. Thanks for stopping in. I will try to get some pictures posted ... maybe tomorrow night after another of Blake's games! :)

~Melinda

New blog template ...

So, last night I sat down with the intention of scrapping with one of Connie Prince's newest kits - Brain Freeze. As often happens when I sit down to scrap, I got distracted by other things. When I went to the store to grab the links to the kit I noticed that she had a new blog template. I've been using a really pretty one:



since March or so, I think.

This bright one caught my eye, though:



As you can see, I'm not using it ... even though I love it. Why? Well, I got sucked into the template designer in Blogger. LOL! I ended up spending probably an hour changing the background and colors and stuff ... eventually ending up with what I have now. Will it stick? Eh, probably not. I am a digi-scrapper at heart, and am sure that I will miss having a pretty header, and cute tags on the sidebar. The new Sunbeams & Daydreams Blogwear will probably be my new set-up. Then, I will challenge myself to pick just one of the adorable headers to put on my blog. Maybe I should set up another blog so that I can use more than one?? ;)

Oh yeah ... that scrapping. I did eventually finish a page, meaning another late night getting to bed, hee hee. Here is the page I created with Brain Freeze (and a Heat Wave Template - available at Elemental Scraps only), which I think turned out really cute!



You can see it a little bigger in my Gotta Pixel gallery, if you want a closer look.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to the circus. Well, actually we ARE going, because I already spent an obscene (in my opinion) amount of money on the adult tickets. We have free passes for the kids. When I spread the cost out between us all, though, I guess it isn't so bad ... $28 for 5 people to see the circus. I'll try to think of it that way instead. ;)

I'll share pictures on my blog if I get any good ones. Last year we went, but it was the evening program and by the time the really pretty acts came out, it was dark and of course I was too far away for my flash to be of any use. I am hoping for lots of sunshine so that I can get some spectacular pictures. I wonder where the best place will be to sit, and how early we'd need to get there to sit there, too, lol.

If you've stuck through my rambling this long, hey ... thanks! :) As a thank you, in case you've missed it, there is a Father's Day Give-Away on Connie Prince's blog ... go see it HERE! Now, I'm gonna go harrass the children about getting to sleep so that they aren't crabby tomorrow.

Have a good one,