All-Stars - 2017 & 2018

I started this post a year ago and never finished it - oops!

Both Carter and Rylan made the all-star baseball team last spring (2017)! 

Our league does a game for each age group.  Carter was an all-star for the 8-year-old league and Rylan was for the 7-year-old league.

I watched Carter's game and Brian watched Rylan's game.  I know Brian took some pictures but I'm not sure if he still has them.  Here is one of both boys though I took after the game with their trophies.

The 8 year-old all-stars:

Carter and Drew were the two players from their team.

Carter and Drew with Coach Jeff:

Coach Jeff's kids (who are both Carter's teammates) made signs and cheered on Carter.

This season (spring 2018) Rylan was officially on the all-star team and Carter was an alternate.  Coach Jeff got to pick 4 all-stars this season.  He had to decided between Carter and another kid for the fourth spot.  He had trouble deciding and asked us if we'd mind if he let the other kid be the official all-star since Carter was one the previous year.  We were fine with that and we asked Carter and he really wanted his teammate to have the opportunity (sweet boy!). 

Brian is Rylan's coach.  He picked Rylan and two of his teammates as the all-stars.

The game was on Friday night.  Unfortunately the game was rained out after just a few minutes.  It was rescheduled for the next morning but overlapped with Carter and Rylan's last soccer games of the season so Rylan didn't get to play.  Luckily he was okay with that!

The boys have both improved a lot this year and really enjoy playing baseball!  We're really proud of how hard they have worked!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Rylan had his "winning-est" week ever last week!

On Friday (5/11), he got 2nd place in his age group in the TryBoro 5K.

On Tuesday (5/15), his baseball team finished runner-up in the Brentwood Ball Club 8YO tournament.

On Friday (5/18), he played in the All-Star game for Brentwood Ball Club 8YO division.

Luckily none of that goes to his head - ha!

Colt Bolt

Carter did running club this year at school.  It's offered for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in the fall and spring for about 2 months each time.  The boys running club is on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is run by two of the PE coaches.  And it's free :)

Most semesters the coaches have the kids sign up for a local 1-mile fun run at the end of the session if they are interested.  This year though the coaches organized a race at school called the Colt Bolt.  It was open to 3rd-5th graders at our school (the kids didn't have to be in running club).  The race was one mile long, started on the track at school, did a loop in our neighborhood, and ended back on the track.  It was timed, included a shirt and participation medals, and trophies were given for 1st-3rd places.

Even though our Saturdays are usually really busy, the date for the race actually worked for us because the boys didn't have soccer games due to a local tournament using their fields and their baseball games were later in the day.  Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and the race got postponed a week because of rain.  And Carter could not do the new date because it overlapped with his baseball tournament.

However, Carter has the BEST PE coach in the world.  He loves Carter's effort and attitude so he asked if Carter would like to run the race course with him the Sunday after school ended and get his participation medal.  Yes!

So Carter and Coach Clark ran yesterday morning.

Coach Clark pushed Carter at the finish and he had a one-mile time of 7:23.  We looked it up and that put him in 14th place overall (more than half the kids in front of him were 5th graders).

Thanks Coach Clark!

Yearbook Cover

They did it again!  Both boys got on the cover of the school yearbook!  They are both on the back cover this year.  Including the front cover, back cover, and title page, only eight drawings are chosen.  Not all kids submit something, but there are still a lot that do.

Carter's drawing:

Rylan's drawing:

The yearbook:

We are so proud of our artistic boys!

TryBoro 5K

Carter and Rylan ran the TryBoro 5K last Friday evening.

This was Rylan's first time running the 5K (he's done the 2.5K the past two years).

And it was Carter's fourth time doing the 5K.

Carter ran by himself while I ran with Rylan.

Carter ran the 5K in 26:14 and finished 4th in his age group (8-9 year old boys).  He ALWAYS finishes 4th - he misses getting a trophy by one all the time.

Rylan ran the 5K in 28:57 and finished 2nd in his age group (boys 7 and under). 

Gray was a great cheerleader (along with Brian) as we ran.

Plus the boys got a nice shirt and participation medal.  We love this race and hope it continues for a long time!

We Will Rock You

Just singing while working on a puzzle ...

Game Ball

Rylan got the game ball at his game on Thursday night.  Actually, he and Jackson both got game balls.  They both had multiple great plays. 

Rylan's stand out play though was a fly out he caught in left field.  It was a big hit and those hits are rarely caught in this age group still.

Jackson's stand out play was when he was catcher.  There was a hit that stopped just fair in front of the plate.  Jackson got to the ball and threw it to first before the runner got there.  We have done very little work with the catchers this season on making plays like that so it was awesome for him to have that awareness.  None of us had seen a kid make that play in this age group before.  Carter did it once last season in the 9-10 age group and we were amazed then.

Nashville Zoo

Jen and I took Lofton and Gray to the zoo on Friday (along with the rest of middle Tennessee).  It was crazy crowded and there were a ton of field trip groups there that day, but since we both only had one kiddo to keep up with it, it was fine.

We let the littles feed the turtles ...

The zoo is finally adding some new animals and some fun things to do.  Like this rope bridge by the new spider monkey exhibit.

Gray looks so happy!  It's hard to get a good smile in a picture lately.

NCS - Game 3

It rained for the first two Nashville Soccer Club games and then it was FREEZING for game number three on Saturday.  Game time was 7:30 pm and I think the temperature was 34F.  Brrrrrr!  We are hoping for warm weather at the next home game which isn't until May!

We bundled the boys up and no one lost any fingers or toes!

We were glad we went too because NSC played the best we'd seen yet that night.  They won 2-0 and had much improved defense.

Rylan even "caught" a shirt at the end of half time (the girl tossing them was standing right next to us and pretty much handed it to him - benefit to sitting in the front row!).

We are looking forward to many more games this season!

Game Ball

Carter received the game ball for his team on Monday!

So far, Carter has played catcher for 100% of all his team's games this season.  So he's getting a ton of playing time and a lot of action compared to most of the kids on the team.  Catcher is a hugely important position, especially in the 9-10 year old age group, since there are still very few hits and a lot of crazy pitching.  Carter is loving it and doing a great job.

Since moving to kid pitch, Carter has struggled to hit much (like most kids).  But on Monday, he went 3 for 3!!!  Two of those hits were huge line drives to outfield.  The third was a little dud that he outran to first and was safe.

Carter also got 2 outs at home on wild pitches when runners tried to steal home and he tossed the ball back to the pitcher who was covering home.

Carter's been so close to throwing out kids stealing other bases.  He's had great throws but our infielders need to catch the ball (and remember to tag the runner!).

Here was Coach Jeff's speech when giving Carter the game ball on Monday ...