Full Swing

We are officially into baseball season "full swing"!  The boys have practice 2 times a week, each, and then there are games at least twice a week.  I feel like I've got a permanent seat at the baseball field these days.

Carter has had one game thus far, and Nolan has already had 2 games.  Nolan struggled a bit in his first game, but did much better on his second game, I think because he was more comfortable.  This is his first year doing machine-pitch (i.e. NON t-ball) and it's a big change!

 It sure was HOT that day!!

 Nolan up to bat.......

Carter is still t-ball age, and I tell ya, those little t-ballers are the cutest things ever!!  C loves to play pitcher or catcher--those are his favorite positions.  Here he is catching at his last game.

 This little handsome thing on the right is Carter's friend H.E.  Isn't he a DOLL?  I'm sure if his Daddy reads this he won't like me calling his son a DOLL, but he's just so stinkin' CUTE!  Look at that smile and those eyes!!  I told them I was going to use this picture as bribery one day when they were older--they both start Kindergarten this year and will go through school together..that's ONE good thing about living in a small town!  His Mama and I grew up together too!

 Carter getting ready to bat at his first t-ball game of the year.

 Hey Batter Batter.....

 I am in LOVE with this picture!  First of all, it's just cute as all get out and secondly, you can see that he's already dirty!

We are so blessed with wonderful coaches for both boys!  They are such patient and kind gentlemen.  I am not fond of coaches that yell and scream at the kids and generally act the fool on a baseball field (and I could go off on a tangent here about getting our kids to act decent when the coach doesn't, but that's neither here nor there).  I will admit I was VERY nervous about Nolan moving up this year because of the intensity of some of the games, but Nolan has a wonderful coach that is just perfect for him.


I'm off to wash some baseball pants now......

~CB~

SEA WORLD with LOTS of pictures!

A friend of ours was able to get us FREE tickets to SEA WORLD, so off we went last week during the kids' Spring Break.

These were TWO very excited little boys about their FIRST trip to Sea World! (Aunt Lynda--see their Drillers shirts?  Cute, huh?)   And I'll admit, it was my first time back to Sea World in about 22 years--it had been 23 years for Cecil!  Can you believe that?

We went to Orlando on Thursday night so we would be at the park when it opened at 9am--we were able to go to the Bass Pro Shop that night as well as a few of the outlet stores (because my children won't stop growing, and needed a few new articles of clothing).

We saw Penguins and Puffers (which the boys thought were hysterical)!

Seals were next on the list, and let me tell you, as beautiful as they are on TV, they are UGLY in person!

I recall, from when I was a little girl, walking through the shark tank, so off we went to discover more about these creatures!  The boys LOVED walking through the shark tank and we had to do so several times.

Of course, the boys had to check out the sharks in the outside tank too!

Next was a kiddie roller coaster and the boys enjoyed that as well.

One thing I loved about Sea World is that there aren't nearly as many people there as there are at other theme parks AND the kids can go on the rides by themselves!  Not only that, but you can put them in line by themselves, and wait at the Exit side and still see them the entire time!


The boys LOVED riding Ocean Commotion and did so about 6 or 7 times that day!  They rode it over and over again!

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures--you can see the sheer JOY on their little faces!  I LOVE IT!

You can't go to Sea World without seeing the STAR of the show!  SHAMU!  The boys really liked the Shamu show too!

After the show, we took a quick break, had a snack and rested our feet......

The stingrays were close by at this point, so we took the boys over to "pet" them.  I definitely had NO desire to do such, so I remained the photographer!  ha!

The dolphin show was one of the last things we did/saw on Friday and WOW!  I remember it being fun when I was younger, but they have really vamped up the show!  It was AWESOME!  The boys enjoyed the dolphin show WAY more than the Shamu show--I think because it had more action and such.

Before we left the park, they saw one more ride they wanted to do--some sort of Critter Crawler or something like that...it was a kiddie ride, but looked like it made your tummy still go topsy-turvy!  They wanted to ride it by themselves (which was fine with me!)--


Getting ready for the ride....

 The ride went rather high-up in the air too--I was surprised!  But they LOVED every second of it!

 Again, these pictures are PRICELESS--the expression on their little faces says it all! 

 Overall, it was a GREAT day at Sea World, and a great day to spend time with each other!

~CB~

Weekly Deals!

I said in my post earlier this month that I wanted to give you a weekly update on my "deals of the week"!  I missed last week's post, but plan to get back on track TODAY!  Here's what I've got for you.....and hopefully my memory serves me correct because I can't find one of my receipts!

The Irish Spring deodorant was 2/$5 at Walgreens and I had 2-$1.00 off coupons, bringing the total down to $3.00.  That's not FREE, BUT...I got $3 back in Register Rewards, so that means FREE.  The TheraFlu was .99c and I got a .99 Register Reward back, so that means FREE!  The Dial NutriSkin lotion was on sale, and I had a coupon, and I received Register Rewards, so my total on the lotion (a BIG bottle) was only .99.  I can't even buy the off brand lotion for .99c!  The Purex Crystals fabric softener were on sale for 3.99? and I had a $2.00 coupon, so that made them 1.99.  However, I received 2.00 in Register Rewards for each of them!   Whoo-Hoo!

This is my lot from PUBLIX and WAL-MART.

The Shout wipes were FREE.  They are .99c and I had 2, $1.00 coupons for ANY Shout product!  HELLO TRIAL SIZE!  THere are 4 or 5 wipes in each of those packages!  The Secret Clinical is 2.47 for that size and I had a 2.00 coupon, so I only paid .47 for the deodorant and it's a great size to travel with!  The Lysol was on sale at Publix BOGO at 2.79 each, and I had coupons that brought all those down to FREE plus overage!  WHOO HOO for FREEEEEEEEE!

~CB~

Bittersweet

I got something very bittersweet the other day when I picked up Carter from school/daycare (he does VPK in the mornings and then after-school care in the afternoons).  Can you read what it is?  See the top line on the form?

It's a Kindergarten Enrollment Form.  Moment of silence please.  I didn't think this day would come so soon!  My "baby" is going to school! 

I'm very excited for him, but it's also marking the serious passage of time (and age, but I'm going with time here, ha-ha)!  No more preschool......

Bittersweet.

~CB~

The RACE

Remember the post last month (for Cecil's birthday) where I said I'd post about what we REALLY did on his birthday???? 

Well, WAIT NO MORE!  Here's what we did!!

We went to the BUD SHOOTOUT!!  We were guests of Sprint in their Sky Tower Suite!  We have gone to the Bud Shootout as guests of Sprint several times through the last few years, and it's ALWAYS a GREAT time!

We have a charter bus that meets us in Gainesville, drives us to the track, drops us off right up front, and we have a Sprint person that stays with us the whole time taking us on tours and such.  We always get to do a pit tour, and this years tour was the BEST yet!

We can go behind the scenes into "pit row" (is it pit row or pit road?  I can never understand the people when they say that), and this year, we were able to tour the inside of a hauler.

We get to see cars go through inspection and we get to see them preparing for the race!

What a great night of FUN and FRIENDS!

Even one of the Sprint girls visited our suite!

It was so much fun rooting on our favorite driver and our suite was a myriad of hoots and hollers all night as drivers wrecked, drafted, and "did" NASCAR!!!

~CB~