And so it begins...

Today was "Back to School". Summer flew by and today the boys started the school year. Blake started 4th grade and Gavin started kindergarten! Where does the time go??? It's hard to believe that we have both in school now. Gavin was so excited to start kindergarten but was just a "little nervous". He asked me if I was a little nervous when I started kindergarten too. Today was a little easier for them because the parents come on the first day and walk through a few things with them. So now we are back to earlier bedtimes, no late night ballgames, homework, packing lunches, and all the other stuff that goes with school starting. The good news I told Gavin is he only has 2,339 more days of school until he graduates!

Favorite part of the first day: Blake...Mountain Math
Gavin...cutting out an apple

Another Weiner!

Tuesday was an exciting day. It was the day that we got to find out if our baby would be a boy or girl. We found out with the other 2 and wanted to find out for this one too. Girls are hard to come by in family but I guess it is a 50/50 chance. Well no surprises here. Our third (and final) baby will be a boy. As you can tell by the second picture down it is pretty much a sure thing. I know that most of our family and friends wanted a girl, but we are really excited for another boy. First, we know boys...already have 2 of them (3 if you count me) :) Second, it will make everything so much easier with rooms, clothes, toys, etc.

When the boys found out, Blake was a little disappointed. He said he has already done the boy thing and wanted a sister. Gavin really didn't care and just said to let him know what it was. I think he is excited now that he realizes he can teach the new baby baseball.

So now we wait...January will be here before we know it!

That's right, I said new baby...we need a name. Any ideas?

Between the Lines...

Over the past few seasons, we have made friends with several baseball players that play in the Atlantic League. Most have been from our hometown Lancaster Barnstormers, but there have been a few from other teams as well. Last week the Bridgeport Bluefish played their final game in Lancaster this season, so we wanted to go say goodbye to Adam Greenberg, Antonio Alfonseca, and Luis Lopez. After the game, Adam invited us to come into the club house and hang out for a while. Blake got to try on Luis' AAA Sacramento Rivercats championship ring, and Antonio picked up Gavin for a huge hug and said, "I will miss you until next year Little Pappi". Luis Lopez then invited us to York this past Saturday to watch batting practice on the field before Saturdays game. My brother and Chad went with us early and we got to York several hours before game time or any other fans were allowed in. Antonio escorted us through the clubhouse and down the tunnel to right field. Luis greeted us and introduced us to the Manager Willie Upshaw. He played for the Blue Jays when Rick and I were growing up so it was pretty cool for us talking to him.

We got to watch them stretch, take bp, play catch, and then Louis took the boys out in left field to shag some fly balls. Anytime you can spend 6 hours at a ballpark is awesome, but Luis, Adam, and Antonio treated us to a special day at the ballpark! Thanks guys!

Summer Splash 2010

Sunday our church had Summer Splash 2010. It is a great afternoon of free hot dogs, snow cones, bounce house, and 2 200 foot slip n slides! It was a great afternoon for it and was a ton of fun! The boys are already can't wait for next year!

Ocean City, Maryland

We've had a busy August and I'm finally catching up on some posts. A couple of weekends ago we went to see some friends from college. Christi and Josh live in Salisbury, MD so of course we had to get a baseball game in. We went to see the Delmarva Shorebirds and got to see former Barnstormers Ryan Minor and Troy Mattes. The Shorebirds won 3-2 on a walk off in the 9th! Pretty exciting. We headed back to Christi and Josh's house for smores and just had a good time catching up around the fire. We got up Monday and headed to the beach. I'm not a huge fan of the beach, but the kids do love it. I did see a few guys that looked pretty intimidated by me, so I made sure to leave my shirt on! After the beach we had some overpriced pizza at Doughboys and Ritas for desert. Great weekend catching up with friends and seeing the boys play with Luke and Nathan.

Weekend in Philly

Debbie and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and decided to go away for a couple of days. We figured out it has been 7 years since we were away by ourselves and with the baby coming in January...we needed to go! We booked a room on priceline and headed for Philadelphia (no, the Phillies were not in town). The last time I was in Philly for anything besides a football, baseball, or basketball game was when I was about Blakes age! We decided to go visit the historical area and just relax.

We checked into our hotel at Penns landing and they upgraded us to a water view suite free of charge! They also brought up a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries for our anniversary! We walked around the historical area for a little bit and came upon a statue of the Philly Phanatic at the Liberty Bell. We found out it was a summer promo called "Phanatic Around Town". They had different artists paint the statues and placed 20 of them all over the city. We (yes WE) decided it would be fun to look for them on Monday.

You can't do Philly without cheese steaks, so we headed to Genos to get a steak. Didn't know they don't take debit cards, so we split one because we were starving! That did nothing for us so we went to Chikie's and Pete's for some crab fries. They were getting ready to broadcast the Phillies post game show live :) We said no baseball on the trip, but Deb was excited and they boys got to see us on TV.

Monday morning came around and we started out at IKEA. Deb said it was the quickest she'd ever been through there...1 hour? That was plenty! Now to find the Phanatics...Deb had the map in hand and we walked, and walked, and walked all over the city. We had so much fun...and it was FREE!

After we were worn out from walking we headed over to Pat's for a cheese steak! We took cash this time so we could get our own. I ordered mine "wiz witout". We both decided Genos was better steak, but Pat's had better bread and cheese. After being stuffed with cheese steak, we headed home to pick up the boys. It was a great and much needed time away! Now to get ready for the baby...