My first professional photo shoot

Hilary

2011 College graduate

catch up with the McGinty boys

Summer is here and  the boys are busy which makes me busy.

TJ plays High School summer ball as a Sophomore coached by the sophomore coach, which goes like this:

Mon, Tue and Wed: 2 back to back 5 inning games (each day)

Thur: 1 seven inning game

Summer ball is fun, we have pulled together as a team and have more wins then loses, which is unlike our freshman team

It's really weird that TJ is a Sophomore...slow down time! and weird because he is still only 14.

There are maybe 4 weeks left, then it is football season. TJ also has a lot of summer home work, he needs to read a book for English and has 3 jumbo packets for AP European History. I gave him a homework vacation until July 1st

 On the rare occasion that TJ is home, his darling girlfriend Alexis comes over. Karrick is in love with her and asked TJ if they could share her. I calmly explained that you don't share girlfriends, nor do you ever try to steal girlfriends, especially from your brother. While not happy about it, he accepts it.

TJ and Alexis will play board games with karrick and include him a lot

We are also smack dab into travel season with a minimum of 4 games a week Wed-Sun, but mostly just Sat and Sun. If you do the math TJ plays on average 9-11 games a week (we have had rain-outs)

Many nights TJ is exhausted and too tired to eat, he is down 3 pounds

the wavy lines on the above picture is from the chain linked fence I shot through

On the plus side TJ is one of the starting pitchers on both teams, which was his goal. He has always been a 3rd baseman or shortstop, but has become an outfielder on both teams because he has an  incredible arm. Now that he is at the high school level, the pitchers mound and bases are at the major league distance and the outfields are 360 feet +. You need a strong arm

 Callahan is relaxing this summer hanging with friends until IMSA starts July 11th. My little Cal is smack dab in the middle of his growth spurt, measuring at 5' 5 with no end in site. I feel like I don't spend enough time with Cal, thank God Tim is able to spend a lot of time with him and take him away almost every other weekend
Once HS ball is over I can devote much more time to taking Callahan to different places this summer

Karrick has been playing with friends and playing baseball

Grandma's  house in Long Grove

Karrick played in his 1st all-star game and it was the 1st time he played under the lights. The whole family went to cheer on little Sand Gnat. Karrick is always so proud when his big brothers come to his games

My least favorite child

‎"Mom, why don't you exercise really hard so you're not so fat, then get that stretch mark stuff on tv...then you can wear those bra things that are shirts and be really cute"

I shit you not, that is verbatim what came out of the 7 year olds mouth...the bra thing lady gaga was wearing on SYTYCD and karrick thought it was a "cute dress"

Lady Gaga can kiss my flat white ass!

I also have a little blond boy for sale, awe Hell I will give him to you!
and it would appear that he finds women that wear trampy bondage attire cute

A smart karrick!

I opened the mail to find Karrick's latest test scores. 

OMG!

The 1st line represents Spring of 2011 99 % in Math and 91% in reading. The Spring test was taken after he had his Tonsils and Adenoids out. I ask myself over and over

How freakin sick and miserable was my kid at school?

Answer?

Pretty freakin sick and miserable, enough so that he couldn't learn or concentrate

this little boy went from "struggling academically"  to "academically talented" in a matter of months. The only change was his surgery

Big Sleeping Grizzly Bear

I want this beanbag chair

on Etsy......

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