Ball, and more ball

It's been a couple of years since I took Briggs to watch the Braves play in Atlanta, and that was at the old stadium. I decided we should go again this year, with Calvin and see the new digs. We went to a day game on a Wednesday a couple of weeks ago. The trip down was a piece of cake. The trip back took forever. We were leaving at evening rush, and night-time construction held us up in SC. The game was fine, though Atlanta lost against the Cubs. The boys didn't really mind since they really didn't love either team. We spent some time roaming the stadium. On the way back we stopped for supper in Clemson, and took a drive through the university.

 

Early in the season, friends took Calvin to a Tourists' game. Somehow he got a coupon for a free package of 4 GA tickets for later in the season. We cashed those in this weekend. The weather was glorious, which is the only way I would have consented to a daytime game in the middle of summer. The Tourists lost, but the boys had a great time. One of the perks of day games is that children can run the bases after the game. Briggs and Calvin also stood in line to get autographs afterward. We used only 3 of our 4 tickets, so I gave one away to a guy in line with us. He couldn't stand it, and slipped me a few bucks as we walked in. I bought Calvin a mini-bat. Briggs snagged a fistful of balls during the game. Those were the items they got signed.

 

Birthdays and sports in winter 2017

Here are a few pictures from winter-time birthdays and sports. It's a fun season of the year.

Pirate days

Calvin has been on a pirate kick for a while. But it seemed to jump into overdrive of late. Last night we watched The Princess Bride. As we watched I asked Calvin questions about what was about to happen, and he nailed everything! This morning for his Lego noodling time, the focus was on Princess Bride scenes and characters. I voluntarily took the first few photos, but as morning wore on, Calvin was asking me to shoot each new thing he created. He was desirous of watching the movie again this evening using our VHS. Sadly it has deteriorated, ("glitchy" according to Calvin) and we weren't able to watch. Herewith, a photo essay of the story using his Lego creations, in no particular order.

Count Rugen and Westley in the Pit of Despair

The Albino and Westley in the Pit

Prince Humperdinck

Pit of Despair again

Westley

Humperdinck

Westley in the Fire Swamp

Inigo Montoya

Dread Pirate Roberts

Inigo Montoya and Roberts on the Cliffs of Insanity

Westley bests Humperdinck, "to the pain"

Roberts in a small boat

Inigo gets his revenge on Rugen

Rugen and Humperdinck at the site of the sword battle

Sword fight at the cliffs

Battle of wits with Vizzini

The day I fell in

This was December 2015. I took Briggs and Calvin to Cawtawba Falls, which is near us in Old Fort. I seem to recall it was a fairly warm day. We were all wearing shorts. We had a great time and made it all the way to the top of the falls. We had exercised caution on the way up when we had to cross the creek: uneventful. Not the case coming down. I slipped on a rock and the left side of my whole body landed in the creek. I happened to be holding my new phone/camera in my right hand. Luckily we really were on our way out and I didn't suffer very long with the cold water on me. Still a fun day and lessons learned.

2017 Soccer

Calvin has played both soccer and basketball in years past during the winter season. This year it was soccer. This year he seemed to believe that soccer was "his" sport. He had a good team with friendly kids and a decent mix of abilities. They didn't win much, but still had a good time. Instead of professional team pictures his team opted for in-house photography mid-season. This was the result: one silly, one serious. Last year Calvin's team was the "Speedy Turtles." This year somehow it was "Turbo Turtles." Hmmm. The day of his last game a couple of weeks ago was the same day as the training session for summer baseball!

Lego Camp

 

Calvin attended Lego camp right after school finished at the beginning of summer. The theme was "Star Wars," so it was a perfect fit. He attended the half-day camp for a week. The group of a dozen or so was all boys except for one very brave girl. Calvin had a blast getting his nerd on all week. They didn't get to bring much home, but Calvin did enjoy working with the robotic Lego components.

Reading

It may be that Calvin, of the three boys, is the one who most enjoys reading in and of itself. Today getting off the bus, traffic came to a halt in front of the church as usual. Calvin got off with book in hand, and nose buried deep in the pages. Usually he charges on across the street and up the front steps, but today was different. A utility truck was stopped forward of the bus. Calvin made his way across the street much slower than usual, wrapped up as he was in his reading. He finally made it to the sidewalk, and taking two more steps bumped into the handrail for the front steps of the church. He bounced backward a little, finally looked up, and adjusted his trajectory up the steps to where I was sitting waiting on him. I took my eyes off him to wave to the bus driver, who was chuckling. I spotted the truck driver as he began to drive past: he too was grinning. Calvin was oblivious to the humor he had inadvertently provided us all. He remained engrossed in the book, barely acknowledging me and headed straight to my office to finish the book. This picture captures those remarkable final moments.

Winter 2015

A couple of random shots from last season. We had very little snow. But there were a couple of really cold snaps. Mostly however it was a mild winter for us. Briggs did manage to cobble together a snowman from the one measurable snow we had. We were stuck inside quite a bit because of the cold, and I caught 2/3 of the brothers behaving nicely at one point.

Calvin's birthday 2015

Like most of our birthday celebrations this one carried over to several days: special meal and dessert one night, presents from us a different time, from Ganny yet another, and from Uncle G even another, plus whatever comes in the mail. Doesn't matter; got presents.

I was pretty proud of the cake. It was store-bought, but I decorated it with stuff Calvin enjoys

and did the lettering.

Gratuitous cat pic

Winter basketball

Both Calvin and Briggs played basketball this winter. Briggs' team had a rough season, not winning anything. The younger teams don't keep score. Both boys seemed to enjoy the season however. Briggs got new shoes from his uncle, so he was very happy about that.  Most often Briggs would go to Calvin's games just to see who else was there. Once we took a buddy of his who had spent the night.