Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

We took Elizabeth to her first ever baseball game on Sunday -- a MLB game, no less (she only goes first class!) Pittsburgh v. Detroit.

A few things of note: Throw back day to 1909 -- not a good thing! No music, no video board, no additional scoreboards (so you can keep up with other games), no mascot, no 7th inning stretch...a bit of a snooze-fest, IMHO.

Traffic was ridiculous. Not completely because of the game, but the Pittsburgh Arts Festival is going on, too...and the way the signs directed traffic from the Interstate was not well thought out. We sat in traffic for much longer than we typically would have, so we didn't get Elizabeth as much time on the bouncy toys as we would have wanted.

Reid kept score, like he and his Dad would do at games they attended together. Some day he'll be able to teach Elizabeth how to keep score at a game.

It was a beautiful day...very sunny...quite hot for early June. I sprayed both Elizabeth and me down with SPF 50. She managed to darken her tan. I burned my shoulders, not painfully though, a bit on my legs, and a bit on my face. I'm so thankful that Elizabeth has Reid's complexion...it's an awful lot of work to stay as white as I am!

A huge thrill for us was the introduction of the Pittsburgh Penguins -- with Sidney Crosby carrying in Lord Stanley's Cup. Woo Hoo! Let's Go PENS! What a treat for E's first game!

Although Elizabeth didn't watch a lot of the game, she was sooooo good. And she got a couple of "surprises" for Papa in the gift shop during the 2nd inning. (Although she may have let the cat out of the bag yesterday evening on the phone. We'll see if Papa can get an Oscar for his acting surprised in a few days...)

The Pirates won, making it a very bad weekend to be a Detroit fan. Elizabeth is now a fan of the Pirates, too. (No worries, Papi, she still says that the Red Sox are her very favorite.) She was disappointed that she didn't get to see Baseball Papi. I tried to no avail to explain that Baseball Papi plays for a different league...

One of Elizabeth's highlights was getting to run the bases after the game. It is really neat that they let kids down on the infield to run the bases on their Sunday home games. Elizabeth, like many of the kids, was a bit disappointed that she didn't get more than one trip around the bases. However, later in the evening, when we were eating dinner at Cheddars, E saw a picture of PNC Park behind our booth. She told us, "That is where I ran 'round, and 'round, and 'round, and 'round the bases."

Shame on Daddy

Elizabeth doesn't like to be shamed on. She doesn't really mind being in trouble. She doesn't care if we tell her to stop doing something because she may get hurt. But shaming on her -- that she wants no part of! (See Blog entry from January 12, 2009: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2009/01/nearly-forgotten-elizabeth-funny.html).

We were having an indoor picnic lunch today when Reid started playing with the left-over popcorn kernels. I told him to stop since I didn't want Elizabeth to pick up on this. (He does listen, so he stopped.)

But ever the Daddy's girl, Elizabeth said to me, "Don't tell that to Daddy."

To which I, ever the one to egg on, said, "Shame on you, Daddy. You shouldn't do that."

Then Elizabeth moved from sitting beside us both to sitting as close to her Daddy without being on his lap and told me, "Don't shame on my Daddy! He's a good boy!"

He didn't offer to buy her a pony for taking his side, but I think we're going to "the Oglebay" in a little bit to go swimming. And he just got us tickets to go to the Pirates game tomorrow. It will be Elizabeth's first MLB game (sorry, kiddo that you won't be watching Baseball Papi and the Red Sox!) It looks to be a pretty neat day for her first game -- there are a ton of promotions going on: Players at the Gate - where all players & coaches (excluding the starting pitcher) will be greeting fans at the gates from 12:00 noon - 12:30 p.m.; Turn Back the Clock Day - The Pirates and Tigers Turn-Back-The-Clock at PNC Park to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the 1909 World Series matchup that saw the Pirates defeat the Tigers for their first World Series Championship. In honor of this anniversary, both teams will wear their 1909 uniforms as the Pirates replicate the turn of the century ballpark in-game experience.; Kids Day - Sunday home Pirates games are Kids Days! From the Giant Eagle Kids Fun Zone on Federal Street before the game to after the final pitch when all kids are invited to Run the Bases right down on the field, Sundays are for the youngest Pirates fans. (Pre and post-game activities are subject to schedule and weather.); and Kids Ice Cream Bowl - Kids 14 and younger get this ice cream bowl.

She is sooooo excited to go to the game tomorrow! I hope she does #2 in the potty so she can eat the ice cream out of that bowl tomorrow... We shall see!

Where Is It?

With just about 4 minutes to go in the nail-biter that was the Game 6 of the Stanley Cup (Go Pens!), Elizabeth begins the quest to find her paci.

"Where is it, Mommy?"
"Where is it, Nana?"
"I don't want that one, Papa."
"Daddy, where's my paci?"

This is basically all we heard for the final 4 minutes of this ridiculously tight game.

There are 26 seconds to go in the game when Papa asks Elizabeth, "Where did you have your paci last?"

E replies, "In my MOUTH!"

She's too darned funny!

Let's Go Pens! It would be too sweet to see Crosby lift that 35 pound cup...

Alex is TWO!

What a great time was had at Alex's 2nd birthday party! Alex is one spoiled two-year-old, and I had nothing to do with that ;-)!

To guide folks into the party, which was held at Alex's second favorite aunt's (Aunt Jane Freshour) home (I'm, of course his favorite aunt!), I made this huge-ass sign -- getting good use out of my Sesame Street font cartridge for my Cricut:

And then there was a smaller Big Bird sign at Alex's Grandma & Grandad Wine's house...with the final sign at Aunt Jane's house. If you couldn't find your way to the party, you were pretty blind!

Alex's Aunt Cheryl said that she was so distracted with the big sign, she nearly wrecked her car...and I believe she can remember how to get to her sister's house!

If you couldn't figure it out from the party invitation and these signs, we had a wee bit of a Sesame Street theme going...

Aunt Jane found her Cookie Monster cake pan from her nephew, Mike Casto's 2nd birthday. (For any of you who are NASCAR fans, Mike is Tony Stewart's jack man.) What may be more impressive is that Mike is my age. Cookie Monster was a hit...as were the cupcakes of Elmo, Kermit (Sean's favorite), Zoe, Oscar, and Cookie Monster (which was my favorite of the cupcakes.) Not to mention the Kermit party hats that Sean has managed to hang onto since Clint's 2nd birthday (he's now 17!)

Oh, no surprise, Alex was spoiled by all of his aunts that were in attendance: Moi, Aunt Jane, Sonnie, Carol, Cheryl, Ca-Ca, & Sarah -- that and both sets of grandparents, and uncles, and cousins,and the aunts, uncles, and cousins that weren't able to come but sent gifts makes for one spoiled but deserving two-year-old.

Elizabeth's festive pillowcase party dress was quite a hit, too!

Happy birthday, Alex!!!

******************************************************************

My cousin, Mike, was in an ATV accident yesterday. He's in ICU in Charleston. (One of apparently 15 ATV accidents that happened yesterday that was admitted to the same hospital.) Please keep him and Aunt Cathy, Rich, and his sweet girl Caylin in your prayers!

It's Party Time!

We're getting ready for Alex's 2nd Birthday party. According to Elizabeth, "we have a lot of work to do for Alex's party!" (MY work time will be somewhat determined by how much Elizabeth "helps" Mommy with the decorating of the Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster cookies, the Cookie Monster cake, and the Oscar, Cookie, Big Bird, Elmo, Kermit, etc. cupcakes, and other birthday prep.

The invite is pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself! I love getting to play in Photoshop on stuff like this!

"Daddy's Party" is a smashing success!

Congratulations - West Liberty UNIVERSITY!!!

It was quite exciting to see above the fold in this morning's paper "It's West Liberty U: School Marks New Era." (You can read the article that ran in the Sunday edition of The Wheeling Intelligencer here: http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/523579.html?nav=515.)

Reid has been saying for weeks now if the school becomes a University again next year, he is going to quit (wink, wink.) Robin has assured us this won't happen.

Elizabeth and I went up to the Hilltop yesterday for part of the festivities.

What could have been a three-ring circus, especially with needing to move the concerts indoors due to threatening weather (it was pretty cold in the evening, so even though the sun was out during the day - and the rain held, it was a good move, for more than just the threat of rain) was so well executed. (Yes, this from the hyper-critical rather objective person when it comes to events!) In the ASRC they had the bands -- all of whom were outstanding (another thing I'm rather hyper-critical of), some of the food vendors, information tables, apparel sales, and some inflatable play houses. On the quad (where the band stage was originally intended), they had several carnival rides, more food vendors, and some carnival games. Thrown into the mix of all of that was a car show (earlier in the day when Elizabeth & I were still at home), an illusionist Craig Karges (who was phenomenal -- although on the ride home Elizabeth was worried about him pulling the tape off of his eyes), and fireworks at midnight.

Elizabeth dubbed it "Daddy's Party." And it truly was a heck of a party -- one should just not to do so much work for their own party. Despite what Elizabeth might think, I believe Ron Witt, Director of Alumni Association, and Tammi Seacrest, Director of Marketing (who brought E the Mickey ears that light up -- with her name on them!), deserve some huge kudos, too! And Webmaster Jesse Gagich, who wasn't enjoying the festivities so that he could ensure that the new website went live last night while the fireworks were going on (http://www.westliberty.edu/intro.html). If you haven't seen it, it's really "pretty" -- and the welcome from West Lib's most famous alum, Brad Paisley, is quite a nice touch.

E was quite hesitant to play in the inflatable houses, although on our drive off the hill she recalled things a little differently. She did eventually manage to go through the "patapiller" a couple of times and jumped in the "tiger's bouncy house" for about 10 or so minutes. She really enjoyed the carnival rides outside -- the cars and airplanes (only riding in yellow "arrowplanes" since "yellow's my very favorite".)

Congratulations West Liberty University!

Reid is now off, as of 9:00 AM, to Glade Springs for the 2009 NCAA Division II Atlantic/East Regional and NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship until Wednesday as a member of the DII National Golf Committee...and then on the 16th he is off to Blaine, WA, (110 miles north of Seattle, 35 miles south of Vancouver, BC, Canada) for the DII National Golf Tournament.

And then...

No and then...

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

• Antibiotics, which are helping all sorts of nasty stuff go away ;-)
• Family recipes -- in this particular case, Clapper burgers (tonight's entree) and "Buddy's icing." Mmm, mmm, good! I made the mistake, though, in using a boxed spice cake mix (tisk, tisk!) There is a reason that Buddy didn't take a short cut on her raisin spice cake. Her cake is dense enough to hold the icing on the layer cake -- without splitting the top layer into thirds - having some of the icing and the top layer sliding off of the bottom layer. It's not so pretty at the moment, but satisfied my craving for a little trip down memory lane! (I have no idea how my tiny Buddy made this icing! It nearly overheated my Kitchen-Aid mixer whipping the stiff egg whites and the brown sugar syrup for over 25 minutes!) Amazing. Yummy! I could eat this stuff spread on anything -- seriously!
• Good friends who bring good beer -- thanks for the Yuengling, EJ! Delish! (Oh how I do love some of "America's Oldest Beer!")
• Elizabeth -- who has a conversation with me that goes like this: Elizabeth - "I love you, Mommy." Me - "I love you, too." Elizabeth - "I love you seven!" (Which, even by my calculation is greater than to...too...or two!)
• Reid - because he's needing a little lovin' right now. But as of this weekend, West Liberty will no longer be a college, but West Liberty University! Yea!!! We're so proud of all he has done for WLU in such a short period of time - not to mention that his other job, Small College Sports Web is broadcasting the WVIAC baseball and softball tournaments this weekend...and he's soon on his way to Glade Springs for the regional golf tourney as a member of the NCAA DII National Golf Committee. I'm getting worn out just typing about that...

CONGRATULATIONS Perrys!!!

A hearty congratulations to Kristin (Hinrichs) & William Perry on the arrival of their baby girl, Greer Auguste Perry!

Greer was goboren am ("born on" for those of you who don't speak German) April 24, 2009. Geburtszeit ("time") 12:04 PM...Kristin is likely still enjoying her national health care stay in the hospital and not yet able to confirm the time of birth...but that is for another day for yours truly to get on a soap box...in Berlin, Germany.

Greer weighed in at 3650 gramms (just over 8 pounds for those of us not on the metric system!) and is 51 cm (roughly 20").

What a cutie! I can't wait to meet her!!! (And isn't the little stuffed Strudel too adorable???)

Congratulations Chicken Noodle, Sweet William, & (Kennedy's LLBFF) Strudel!!! We ♥ & miss you guys!!! Looking forward to spending some quality time together soon!!!

Big Papi

So Reid, Elizabeth, and I are watching game 3 of the Red Sox vs. Yankees this evening when Big Papi comes up to the plate in the bottom of the 5th. (Yes, sports fans that would be shortly before Jacoby Ellsbury stole home -- first time a Red Sox player straight stole home since 1994...a beautiful sight! But I digress...) so Big Papi comes up to the plate, and Reid and I are telling Elizabeth to watch because Big Papi is at bat.

Then she starts with the questions, "What is Papi (as in my Daddy) doing at the baseball game? What's he got in his hand? Why's he swinging that bat?"

I don't know about you, but I don't really see a resemblance between Big Papi & my Daddy:


Then they show a close up of Big Papi.

Elizabeth says, "That's not my Papi - that's Baseball Papi!"

And Ortiz smacks a double line drive with an RBI...and Elizabeth cheered - gave me a high five (I need to wash the plague off of my hand.) Then when J.D. Drew hit his ground rule double scoring Big Papi...E wasn't too happy. "Where did Baseball Papi go? I want to see him!"

Let's Go Red Sox!!!!!

Recycling love

Anne, Sean, & Alex got me the maroon & white diamond patterned eye glasses case from Kim White as part of my birthday gift. I love it! It is not only recycled and vintage, but just plain cool! (That pattern is Diamond Lane 1975 AMC. Awe-some!
Kim White makes & sells handbags, too... http://www.kimwhitehandbags.com/index.html.