Brownie Time

Today Kyle spent the night at a friend's house so Kevin was an only child. After we went to Burgermaster for dinner we headed to Fin-n-Bone for dessert. It's Kevin's favorite. While we were waiting Kevin said he was so hungry he could eat my nose. I laughed at him so he tried to eat my nose. His little teeth are sharp!


Here's the favored brownie. It's a flourless chocolate brownie served hot with ice cream and covered in chocolate syrup. It is sooooo gooood.

Kevin is now happy that he has his brownie now, just look at that grin. I was able to steal 2 bites and then he ate the rest.

They Made the Local Newspaper

Kyle's baseball team made the local paper for their performance in the Tournament of Champions for their district. They even used a couple of Chris' photos so he is now a published photographer (about time). One of the photos is of Kyle pitching, how cool is that? Our league's All Star teams are also doing well as they have been consistently beating their opponents with great playing.

End of Year Carnival

The boys school had an end of year carnival. There were bounce toys, a climbing wall, games and lots and lots of food. We all had a fun time.

Kyle with his popcorn (and the baseball hat, always with a baseball hat).
Kevin as he is putting his shoes back on after playing on one of the bounce toys.
Chris and Kyle with Josh Brown, former kicker of the Seahawks, now with the Rams. A very nice guy who talked with the kids and took a couple of pictures.

Kyle - End of Year Pool Party

Today was Kyle's end of year pool party with the entire 5th grade class from school. It was a perfect day, great sunshine and warmth, FINALLY!

The kids played for 4 hours in the pool, had lunch, snacks and took pictures. The parents had a good time talking and getting some sun too. Thanks to everyone who made it a success.

Here's Kyle in the pool.
Kyle and some of his buddies.
Kyle's class at school.

Kevin - Cub Scouts

With all the baseball games and end of school events, I did not get time to post Kevin's end of year Scouts picnic and bridging from Tiger Cubs to Wolves.

We had a fun picnic with his entire pack and then we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. Kevin has 12 or so Tigers in his den and now they are Wolves. Yea! Oh yeah, we sang Boom Chick a Boom, our traditional end of year song, with about 8 versions to include Valley Girl, Mr. Roger's, and janitor style. Thanks Mike!

Here is Kevin with one of his buddies. They are good friends.
Right before Kevin gave up his Tiger neckerchief, bridged over and received his Wolves neckerchief.

Kyle's 5th Grade Awards

Today was the awards assembly for Kyle's school. So I'm going to brag on him a bit. Besides what else is a blog for??

He received certificates/awards for:
Outstanding Math Student
38 Perfect Weeks - All Assignments Completed (that's all assignments for the entire year.)
Student of the Month for June
Technology Team
Student Council
Music Achievement
Band
Safety Patrol
President's Award for Educational Excellence (I think he likes this one the most. It has President Bush's signature.)

Kyle before the assembly chilling out.
The only real picture of him that turned out okay. My camera did not like being so far away from the subject in the gym and he moved a lot and would not look at me.

Tournament of Champions - More Pictures

Team photo...

With the coaches this time...
Both Cardinals teams - Winners!

Tornament of Champions - Final Game

Well, tonight was it, the Championship Game! Renton Little League was well represented as the Cardinals of the Triple A (Kyle’s team) and the Cardinals of the Majors both played the Championship games tonight! And the best part was that Renton swept the series at both levels!!!

Kyle’s team went up against a tough South Highline National LL Marlins. An absolute nail-biter right to the last play. Final score was Cardinals 7 and the Marlins 5. After two scoreless innings we broke it open with a run, followed by a GRAND SLAM from Matt to put us up 5-0, the Marlins didn’t give up though and came back at the bottom of the inning for 4 runs of their own. Thanks to some great hits from DJ, Spencer, Calvin, Matt and Ethan N. and some super tough defense we held them off. One big defensive play, the Marlins hit to first and the runner beat the ball to the bag, the runner at second tried to steal third and Calvin fired it right back at Kyle who made the tag on the slide to nail the runner. And in the acrobatic catch of the night, DJ made an awesome diving catch into a roll out in left field to make the catch on a high line drive. This game went right down to the end as the Marlins, down by two runs, 2 runners on base, two outs and the last batter for the Marlins popped up towards third and Kyle was there to make the game ending out!

My grandmother (Kyle’s great-grandmother) got to attend the game tonight, and was thoroughly impressed not only by the game itself, but the boys themselves, their sportsmanship, camaraderie and enthusiasm and they truly are a very special and awesome bunch of kids and I think all of the parents would agree that you couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of kids and it made for a truly enjoyable season for all involved! Combine that with the fantastic coaches (Dave, Greg, Scott and Bob) and an awesome group of parents that made this season a true blast and one that the kids will remember for a lifetime!

Go Cardinals and major kudos to the Renton Little League!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post written by dad (Chris)
Photos taken by dad, posted by mom before dad could touch-up :)

Boys congratulating each other on the final out...
More celebrating...
Look at that sea of red...
AAA Cardinals receiving their trophies...
Kyle with the "big" team trophy...

Graduation Time

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we had received our niece's graduation announcement. Well, she officially graduated on Friday and we are very proud of her. She is planning on going to community college in the fall near us. We will get to see her much more often.

Here's her picture, isn't she beautiful?

Kyle Tournament of Champions - Game 2

Wow, I’m still so excited I can hardly type. Game 2 of the Tournament of Champions put the Cardinals up against the Diamondbacks from the West Seattle Little League. The DB’s came in UNDEFEATED and as last year's defending district Champions! The Card’s not only came in strong, but thanks to some fantastic pitching yet again from Tony and DJ with Austin taking care of the last few batters. Follow that with some great hitting right when it was needed, including two HUGE hits from DJ, and the Cards go on to not only win, but shut out the Diamondbacks, 9-0!!

This puts the Card’s up tomorrow at 6:00pm for the district Championship against the winner of the 3:00pm game today. Win or lose, they kids have had a truly fantastic season, and certainly not enough could be said for them and the coaches. Each and every kid on the team is in it for the team, they all have great attitudes, and they are all great friends amongst themselves (Kyle, DJ, Calvin and Spencer have all been best buddies since kindergarten and Kyle played two years ago on the same team with Matt, Austin and Tony so they have some history together). The weather this season may have been the worst spring on record (even by Seattle standards) but it has been worth sitting out in the rain all season long to see the kids take it to this level.

GO CARDINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post written by dad (Chris)

Kyle during warm-ups.
Cards warming up with the whiffle balls.
Look at that sunshine!
Kyle taking care of 3rd base.

Kevin's End of Year Baseball Party

For Kevin's end of year baseball party, we went to Shakey's Pizza with the team. We had a fun time eating pizza and playing the video games. I think the boys only sat long enough to eat the slice of pizza the parents made them eat before they were off and and playing the video games again.

Kevin with two of his four coaches getting his trophy.
Kevin's coaches gave each boy a baseball they had each signed. The coaches said some nice things about Kevin.
Me and my boy...isn't he cute.
Kyle and I. Does he ever take the hat off? Only when he sleeps, is at school and at church...he collects baseball hats everywhere he goes.

TOC Game 1 - More Pictures

The boys during practice before the game.

The boys with their coaches waiting for "the speech".
Whiffle ball practice - boy do those balls go far.

Tournament of Champions - Game 1

Wow….. What a game for the Cardinals, playing a tough team from the Pac-West Little League (the Red Sox) who were 10-1 on the season. The Cards led off in the field - Austin pitched close to 40 near perfect pitches holding them to one hit and no runs, and put on an amazing display of pitching! Kyle came in as the first relief pitcher. Kyle just started pitching near the end of the season, but has come on strong. Kyle came in at the top of the third inning, and his first inning as pitcher, one grounded out to Kyle, and two struck out, Kyle came back in the fourth to strike out two more and walked one (who later got tagged out stealing third, in a perfectly executed play!) to end the inning. Curtis came in to finish the last two innings matching the performance of Austin and Kyle. Thanks to a solid line drive into the 1-2 hole from Spencer, good for 2 runs, some fantastic work behind the plate from DJ and Matt, and a fantastic overall performance from the Cards, they went on to SHUT OUT the Red Sox, 5-0 in 6 innings!!

The Cards move on to play Sunday at Noon in what should be another fantastic game!!! A win Sunday would take them to the Championship game on Monday evening!

This post written by dad (Chris).

Kyle at bat....

Kyle as pitcher...
Kyle stealing third...

Kevin's Last Baseball Game

Today was Kevin's last game of the season. We had fun watching although we were bundled up with blankets as it was COLD. After we were done, we went to Dairy Queen with the team and had ice cream, more cold.

Ready position...
SMACK that ball...
Run it out...

Is It Summer Yet??

Many of us Washingtonians have been complaining of the miserable weather we have been having this past May and beginning of June. Normally it's not real hot here but at least it's sunshine and 60-70 degrees. The video below was taken at 8:45 p.m. It's about 48 degrees and super windy.

Graduation Time

Today we received the announcement for our niece's graduation. Included was her picture, she is such a beautiful young woman, a far cry from the little freckled redhead she was not long ago. We are very proud of her.

Tournament of Champions

It's official, Kyle's baseball team made it to the local little league Tournament of Champions where they will go up against the best teams in District 7. Their first game is Friday night, June 13th. It is single elimination so if they win, they get to play Sunday, June 15th at noon.

We will post pictures of the game.

Little League Day at the Mariner's

Today was Little League day at the Mariner's. All the little league players were able to walk on the field. It is a sure a different view. Here are the boys in front of the logo in right field.
Here's the boys as they are eating their cotton candy.
Kevin cannot ever eat his cotton candy without everything becoming the color of the candy. Today, it was blue. Our family photo on the field.