Memorial Day

Finally some hot, sunny, dry weather . After TJ's baseball tourney was over, Cal and Karrick played in the yard. I shot some pics from far away as my regular lens is still not focusing.

The kid is just naturally photogenic. My 12 years old is in the middle of his growth spurt, he is 5' 4 1/2. I don't know how many times I've heard from photographers that Callahan has a great editorial look

My little Kare-bear had a ball jumping, splashing and sliding into the backyard pool. Tim served fresh watermelon, pineapple, corn on the cob, steak, homemade chips with salsa and jumbo scallops for me.

We went 4-1 in our tourney. As God is my witness we should of been 5-0. We being the 1st seed team, played the 4th seed ( Mt Prospect host team) to see who advanced to the Championship. We were winning 8-6 in the 5th when of the sudden the ump took a huge turn on us.We had a 4 in strike zone and worst of all they had a man on third and the ump made up a call that allowed the 3rd base runner to advance home w/o the  batter hitting the ball. Don't ask it was wrong. 2 of the opposing teams players slammed into 2 of our basemen (you have to slide) neither was ejected. Blatant ridiculous calls cost us the game 10-8, so we had to play for 3rd place.

Our coaches were livid to say the least and everyone was yelling at the ump. 

It was not really the kids fault, except for the tackling of our players, thats just dirty baseball, the ump was dishonest. Nothing you can do except suck it up and say "thats just baseball" It is a losing game.

We won our next game to win 3rd place out of 9 teams....Mt Prospect lost to Norwood (different ump)

Can you say KARMA!

Final standings

================

Norwood

Mt Prospect

Lombard

Elmhurst

TJ played a solid tournament, excellent pitching and in the final game he hit a 3 run, home run. He tomahawked that homer. Swung at a high pitch, kinda of swing one would use in overhand tennis serve or  swinging a tomahawk to kill your prey. 5 year olds swing at that stuff

Basically he got lucky as HELL because it was a bad pitch and it was a fluke that he even hit it

Fog

The fog at 8 am this morning made for some pretty shots 

Our boys always meet 2 hours before our 1st game at our home field to hit and catch before we caravan to the tournaments

Lombard sure does look pretty

love how TJ pops against the background  

You can barely make out the trees through the fence

We are in the middle of our 1st Sliders tournament in Mt Prospect. After 3 games we are 3-0 and have given up only 3 runs which places us up at the top. We were in the 2nd inning this morning when the storm hit...all games are canceled for today. Hopefully we can finish up tomorrow.

my favorite time of year

can you see the faint lines from the chain link fence?

It is travel baseball season! TJ is on the same team, but we broke away from Lombard. We the Lombard Thunder were a part-time travel team for the last 3 years. Our team was too good to remain part-time, we already beat everyone. Lombard Baseball would not sponsor as a full-time team...politics with the Lombard Lightening. So we had fund raisers starting last November and got our own insurance. We are now the Lombard Sliders!

Our season began today after a rain out on Wed and Thur. We started a little later than most full-time teams because 1/2 of the team was owned by their high schools. A high school athlete can not step foot on another team or field. Basically,you are owned.

This year we lost 1 player and picked up 2 tough players...went with a 12 man roster for the first time in4 years. We are playing 10 consecutive tournaments (Wed-Sun) and need the extra man. TJ and 2 other players made their HS summer league team that will play Mon-Wed during the week.

LOT O BASEBALL

Today we slaughtered Elmwood Park 16-0. TJ pitched, played left, short and third. 
today he batted 666 %

Not thrilled with the white pants, but they sure do look nice.

Having them soaking as I type

Baby Jade, 10 months

          no words needed

a few shots on a nice day downtown

this shot was taken in Kohl's...TJ was trying on a hat and looking in the mirror. I was a few aisles over

TJ had a Nintendo Wii audition downtown today. For some reason he will never let me take his pictures, so I had to be creative and take them secretly. I still only have a telephoto lens so they need to be shot from a distance

TJ really liked his shots, so maybe he will allow me to take some non-incognito

the sun reflecting off a medal building

Who Knew?

Today Karrick's teacher informed me that since he had his Tonsils and Adenoids out his test scores have sky rocketed. His MAP and Benchmark tests  in math were near perfect and perfect respectively. Next year he will be put in the differential Math program for the academically talented! 

I damn near hit the floor, people who know me and karrick know how he has struggled in school....Dyslexia, processing problem and just not getting it were all discussed and discarded.

Turns out Karrick's tonsils and Adenoids caused more then the obvious trouble. To sum him up pre-surgery, Karrick was unable to: hear, breath , smell, taste food, sleep and eat properly. He had a chronic throat infection that made it almost impossible to eat, not to mention in constant pain.....he never complained. He became pale, thin and weak...he couldn't learn

His confidence level is low as he never felt like a smart kid. The smile and look of pride on his face when the teacher told us was priceless!  

He is a new kid!

Photography

The best way to get through 2 plus hours of t-ball? Candid shots with the zoom. I broke my regular lens which I need to bring into the shop tomorrow. I think the moving part of the lens for the auto focus is off the track...hopefully!

 This little boy is Karrick's coaches son. His grandma and grandpa came to the game... all I can say is precious! I printed out a few 5x7 copies to give to the coaches wife at tomorrows game

 Just a super sweet picture of Karrick

 Lombard has the most amazing parks. Baseball fields are surrounded by ponds, wildlife, and greenery. Karrick and his teammate swing on a giant willow tree. I am sitting a good 25 yards away