Category Archives: Sports

Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Spring Sports are Done!

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Accomplishments, Family, Sports

≈ Comments Off on Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Spring Sports are Done!

Yes, soccer and baseball are finished for the spring.  Now, a short respite until summer.  We would have liked to continue baseball for one more week, as our oldest lost in the second round of the playoffs.  But, it was a tight game to finish out their season.

So, this will be the last post for a while that is sports dominated:

  • We had 6 baseball games and 3 baseball practices.
  • We had 6 soccer games and 2 soccer practices.
  • Our oldest went to the 5th grade track meet.
  • Our oldest had a few extra baseball lessons.
  • Our oldest went on the 5th grade camping trip.
  • We had our last Math Morning.
  • I went to a retirement party for the preschool director.
  • I also met the incoming preschool director.
  • We had a preschool play date.
  • I had a doctor appointment.
  • We attended two birthday parties.
  • It finally warmed up so we went to the pool.  Our preschooler spotted a bunny.

IMG_6493

  • The warm weather must have been exhausting because multiple people fell asleep on the floor.
  • We thought a sky scraper had sprouted in town, especially as the first time we saw it, it was a dark and rainy day.  In actuality it is a church steeple wrapped in scaffolding, which is a bit easier to see in this sunny day picture.

IMG_6472 cropped

Spring Schedule 2017 – A Week at a Glance

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Family, Sports

≈ Comments Off on Spring Schedule 2017 – A Week at a Glance

Tags

,

IMG_6333

This is not last week; it is the week of May 7.  But, this is a typical spring week for us.  I’m going to focus in on the 5:30-8:00 hours because, in elementary school, this is when everything happens.  All the parents are home to coach/drive/etc. and the fields are available after the middle school and high school programs are done with them.  Yes, its terrible for dinner.

Sunday

11:30 – 1:30        D: birthday party
6:00 – 8:00          A: baseball practice

Monday

 

5:30 – 8:00          A: baseball game
5:30 – 7:00          A: soccer practice (skipped in favor of baseball game)
5:30 – 7:00          B: soccer practice

Tuesday

5:30 – 7:30          D: baseball game
5:30 – 8:00          A: baseball game
7:00 – 10:00        I had a twins club meeting I skipped.

Wednesday

5:30 – 8:00          A: baseball game
6:00 – 7:00          I had the 5th grade camping trip meeting.  I got a babysitter.

Thursday

2:30 – 3:45          A,B,C: bike club
4:00 – 4:30          D,E: skating class
5:30 – 7:00          A,B: soccer practice

Friday

6:30 – 8:00          Little League night at the high school baseball game.

Saturday (Thankfully not during dinnertime.)

8:45 – 10:00        D: soccer
11:30 – 1:30        A: soccer game
1:00 – 2:30          D: baseball
2:30 – 4:00          B: out of town soccer game

Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Another One Bites the Dust

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Accomplishments, Family, Sports

≈ Comments Off on Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Another One Bites the Dust

This past week we parted with quite a few pairs of pants, including this one.  There were also a few socks, but mostly pants.  Frankly, I’m surprised this pair lasted the winter.  Gymboree athletic pants have not held up well for us in the past.  Thankfully its spring.

IMG_6351

  • We’ve only had 5 baseball games so far.  4 have been rained out.
  • We’ve had 3 baseball clinics.
  • The baseball players went to the opening day parade.  I made a banner for their team.
  • Soccer games were also affected.  Over two weeks we had 4 and 2 were cancelled.
  • Only 1 soccer practice was cancelled.

The rain policy for both baseball and soccer is age dependent.  It’s also often hard to get enough kids to play a rescheduled game.  I’m not sure how many of these games will end up getting rescheduled.

  • The 5th → 6th grade transition has begun.
    • I went to two meetings at the middle school.
    • We registered for middle school classes (foreign language & music choices).
  • I went to meetings at both the elementary school and preschool.
  • We had two weeks of bike club and skating.
  • We had 1 doctor’s appointment.
  • We had 1 playdate.
  • We went to 1 birthday party.
  • I got out the next bin of clothing for the baby to see what we had for summer / next size.  Turns out we’re in good shape for everything except tops so I’ve been doing a little shopping to fill in that hole.  It’s been tricky finding non-pink (all the bottoms are pink) onesie tops with sleeves, but we’ve managed.

 

It has Been Especially Busy

27 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by in Family, Sports

≈ Comments Off on It has Been Especially Busy

I’ve noticed recently that this period where fall activities are overlapping with winter activities is taking its toll this year.  Some of the winter activities are before school, while the fall activities tend to happen around dinnertime, making for very long days.  This is part of why blog posts have been a bit random of late.  We have one more week of this overlap and then things will wind down rather rapidly.

I’ve written about our busy schedule in the past, but here’s the annual update.

Mondays:
7:30 5th grade math morning (1)
8:00 other elementary kids (3) to the bus stop
9:00 preschooler to school
1:00 preschooler comes home
3:45 all elementary kids come home
5:30 first kid to soccer
6:45/7:00 swap kids at soccer
8:00 pick up second kid from soccer

Tuesdays:
8:00 all elementary kids to the bus stop
3:45 all elementary kids come home
4:45 swimming lessons for middle kids (4)
5:30 home for dinner
7:00 often a meeting or activity – Tuesday is the most popular night for such things

Wednesdays:
7:45 5th grade sports morning (1)
8:00 other elementary kids (3) to the bus stop
9:00 preschooler to school
1:00 preschooler comes home
3:45 all elementary kids come home

Thursdays:
7:30 3rd grade math morning (2)
8:00 other elementary kids (2) to the bus stop
12:45 all elementary kids come home
2:30 bike club for the oldest three until 3:45
5:30 one kid to soccer until 7:00

Fridays:
8:00 all elementary kids to the bus stop
9:00 preschooler to school
1:00 preschooler comes home
3:45 elementary kids (4) come home
5:30 one kid to soccer until 7:00

In between all of this during the week is some homework (thankfully still quite manageable), any special items, meals, and sleeping.  Thankfully this morning -> evening stretch is basically limited to the month of October, though it will repeat in the spring.

img_3593

Saturdays: 3 soccer games

Sundays: 1 baseball clinic

May Accomplishments

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by in Accomplishments, Family, Sports

≈ Comments Off on May Accomplishments

At least I’m caught up on this one!

May is always super busy around here.

  • We’re juggling two soccer teams + three baseball teams.  This usually means 8 games + 4 practices per week.
  • We went to three birthday parties.
  • I got moving quotes.
  • I met the new elementary school principal.
  • We settled paint colors, tile, & countertops.
  • The older boys went to a New England Revolution game.
  • We got the broken window fixed.
  • Everyone went to the dentist.
  • Skating, drawing class, bike club, Before School Sports, and Math Mornings all finished for the year.

IMG_4574

April Accomplishments (belatedly)

31 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Accomplishments, Family, Home, Sports

≈ Comments Off on April Accomplishments (belatedly)

I feel like I’m catching up to real time, finally.  Though, I still have to go back and update the grocery shopping and spending updates for the past couple of months.  April was the start of spring hecticness, with kickoffs for both soccer and baseball.

  • We sold our house! Yeah!
  • We had 3 dentist appointments.  Everyone got their hair cut, except the baby.
  • We had parent-teacher conferences for the older three.  We got spring reports for the next two.
  • We hosted one birthday party.  We attended another.

IMG_4467

  • I made more tile and stone decisions.  Neither of those are our actual cabinets, but they are the correct colors for those that will be nearest these stones.
  • Over spring vacation, the older three participated in a mock revolutionary war battle which everyone seemed to enjoy.
  • We went to a Red Sox game using free tickets.  The weather was accommodating and taking the very small ones was not as bad as I had feared. (We would not have done this except for the free tickets.)

Baseball Season = Baseball Cleaning

13 Friday May 2016

Posted by in Home, Product Reviews, Sports

≈ Comments Off on Baseball Season = Baseball Cleaning

Tags

,

By definition, baseball season involves a lot of dirt.  Since it took me a while to learn how to deal with this, I thought I’d share.

First, get a boot/shoe dryer (DryGuy Wide Body Boot and Glove Dryer).  This will not get rid of actual dirt, but it will dry out their cleats and substantially reduce stink buildup.  Note, this is true for any kids footwear.  Our dryers are in use year round.

Second, buy baseball pants.  Baseball pants are relatively cheap for their durability, especially the elastic waistband ones.  And, the grass stains come out of them better than general purpose athletic pants.

Third, find OxiClean gel sticks.  Oxi Clean liquid is pretty easy to find; the gel sticks less so.  Target should have them; your grocery store might.  If you can find a coupon that helps as, in my experience, they almost never go on sale.

IMG_4560

Fourth, liberally pretreat the pants.  I do this right before I put them in and start the machine.  I don’t think there’s a need to catch the stain early or let the product soak in for a great length of time.

Fifth, add the OxiClean liquid to your machine and run it.  BEFORE transferring to the dryer check to see if the stain is gone.  If it is proceed to dry.  If not, hang up the pants to air dry.  This will prevent the stain from setting.  Wear the pants for another game (where they will inevitably get further stained) and repeat the process.  The second pass should clear up the original stain.

Note, OxiClean doesn’t pay me to advertise for them.  I’ve just found their product to be much more effective for this type of stain than Resolve/Spray ‘n Wash.  Personally, I find Resolve does better with most stains – like food.  But, OxiClean does better with dirt and grass.

Back in the Saddle Again

10 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Accomplishments, Family, Home, Sports

≈ Comments Off on Back in the Saddle Again

Apologies for disappearing for so long.  It has been a hectic few months.  New baby, buy a new house (make that build which is fun but exponentially more complicated), sell current house, and keep track of normal life are a lot of tasks to do simultaneously.  Specifically, selling our current house occupied an extra hour a day getting ready for showings & open houses so there went my blogging time!

But, I did keep up with the grocery picture taking and receipt tracking.  We did continue doing stuff.  And, now I have new topics to blog about.  Over the next few months I’ll get us all caught up on how our grocery spending went and I’ll use some of our activities as inspiration for new posts.  I’ll also write up some of the things I’ve learned about building and selling houses, as well as moving, to hopefully help someone else.

Thankfully, we’ve entered baseball season on the heals of getting our house sold.  I’m not sure I could have added another super time consuming task to the list.

Here’s the hat display for this year.  I’ve written about the hecticness of the schedule before.  This year we’ve got 4 kids involved for a total of 3 baseball teams plus 2 soccer teams.  That gives us 13 baseball events plus 4 soccer events each week, including 9 each Saturday.

IMG_4535

We did get the Dodgers again.  But instead of a California theme we have royal blue.

Total Control Ball

22 Friday May 2015

Posted by in Product Reviews, Sports

≈ Comments Off on Total Control Ball

Tags

With many kids we have a lot of sports equipment.  These are a new addition for us and came at the recommendation of a teammate’s parent.

IMG_3223

They’ve been everything advertised.  One can pitch to the kids from a few feet away; they take a full swing with a real bat; and they feel the result, see the result, all while everyone stays safe.  Tonight we also put them on a tee to work on hitting through the ball for power.  Our yard is small enough that our oldest can easily hit a wiffle ball out. No issues here.

As you can see we got a few.  They seem to come in batches of 6 or 12.  We’re glad we got the dozen as one can hit them all and then quickly go pick them up since there’s really no chasing.  You can also see that they’re a bit larger than a baseball.  I’m not exactly sure why that is, but it doesn’t affect either throwing or hitting.

We’ve been very happy.

Where is Spring?

19 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by in Sports

≈ Comments Off on Where is Spring?

Spring officially starts at 7ish tonight.  About that same time we should see snow start falling again, if the Weather Channel is to be believed.  Right now the sky is grey and it just feels like snow.

Spring sports are getting underway here.  I saw on the news that some of the high schools are practicing inside because their grass fields aren’t clear.  Their games start in two weeks.

We need the grass fields ready by April 11.  It looks like there is still about a foot of snow on grass surfaces today.  Even paved surfaces that weren’t religiously cleared over the winter still have a good dose of snow/ice on them.

I did see them clearing one of the turf fields.  I assume they will clear the second one also.  But, we only have two available (admittedly this is better than other towns), which will not suffice once all ages get going.  Wondering if/when it will melt (and dry out) has replaced wondering when that last bit of snow will fall so we break the record.  Either way, I think we’re in for a very muddy spring and I hope they make the date decision for elementary sports sooner rather than later.