A Day with Callahan

Today Callahan had a Kolh's shoot in Milwaukee. 

It hit me that callahan is no longer a baby in the modeling world

He had his own hair and make up artist, his own 

stylist that pinned, clipped and tucked his clothes.

You can't see it, but he has clips all the way down from neck to feet

to creat a perfect fit

The clincher was...Cal was one of 4 models in this shot.

2 beautiful college age size 1 girls flown in from California,

a young man in his  twenties and Callahan.

Cal played a peer, not a son as in years past

(see him on box)

My 10 year old!

No shoot would be complete without all the "people"

standing around

Cal also had 2 solo shots, so cute watching him work it

The foot switch, the hand change and the far off gaze

from left to right

with each click of the camera

He just turned 10

I keep flashing to Brooke Shields at 11 

in her skin tight Calvin's

"Nothing comes between me and my Calvin's"

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day was very mellow, Thank God

Tim and the boys picked fresh wild flowers in Long Grove

on Saturday. I received a beautiful floral arrangement

complete with chocolates from Tim

and Callahan surprised me with a pair of beautiful

blue/purple glass earrings. Callahan and Doug rode their skate boards to the 

Art Fair last weekend and they each bought a pair

 of earrings.

I had no idea, neither did Mona

I Love surprises.

I did get to take a long nap(what a gift)

as TJ had to be up and out by 7:30 am

Sat and Sun

The  look on Callahan's face when he gave me these earrings was priceless

He was so proud, that it made my heart melt

Congratulations TJ!

After a 3 day very intense travel tryout, the 

2009 12u Thunder Travel Baseball team

is chosen

22 kids showed up to tryout for a spot on the 2009 

team.

The competition was fierce, anyone of those kids had the skills to be on the team

I have to admit after the first day I slightly nervous for TJ

even though I knew he should be picked, you just never know.

 

My heart breaks for the kids that gave it their all

but had to go home

12u Thunder will play in 6 tournaments .

2 of those tournaments are National qualifying  tourney's

coach Ross wants us to play in the 2010 little League World Series

(there is more than one)

He coached a 13u team that won the in 2002 

AFull Moon, A New Roof and Another Home Run

TJ had an 8:00 game Friday night. We ( White Sox)

Didn't bring our game and were slaughtered by the A's

OUCH!

I blame the full moon

TJ's arm hurt while pitching (still did ok)

just wasn't amazing

He hit the fence while batting

just no home run

The entire team was off

We finally had a new roof put on Saturday

No more indoor water features

After a late night game Friday, TJ had to be at the field at 7:30 am

 for the 2 nd out of a 3 day travel tryout(Thunder travel team)

Many of the boys had 8pm games, but they gave it their all for a

chance to fill one of the coveted 11 spots.

We started with 22 and are down to 18

Final cut tomorrow after another 7:30 am start

After the 2 1/2 hours tryout, TJ had an hour and a half to eat and rest

before playing in a 12:30 game

for the White Sox

TJ will play non-stop if allowed, but he looked at me with those giant

blown eyes and said

"mom, I don't think I can play can I call in sick?"

No, TJ you can't, we'll let coach know your arm is over pitched

and to pitch someone else.

Just do your best

He looks dead

Well, my tired over pitched baby got up to bat and

SMACK!!!!

hit the ball over the fence for his 3rd home run in a week

Home Run Club

Kyle got his 1 st homer today, Tj got his 3rd and Zach got his 1st

Congrats boys!

At the top of the last inning we were up by 7 runs 

Our pitcher walks 4 guys in a row and doesn't recover

With all our reserves exhausted, coach puts in TJ

I wasn't happy, he could hurt his arm. Thank God TJ

Strikes out the next 3 batters to end the game

TJ gave up only one run in the last 12 innings he pitched

He is absolutely incredible

We won by 6

A much needed mental win

Needless to say TJ came home and fell asleep even with all the 

pounding on the roof

Just think he gets to do it all again at 7:30 am 

Sunday...Happy Mother's Day

The Ocean

Tonight was the annual Spring Fling at Callahan's school

It consisted of an open house, ice cream social and book fair.

The 4 th grade end of the year project is the

transformation of the hallway into the 

ocean.

It is their own  Rite of passage

The Friday prior to Spring Fling all 4 grades spend the entire day

painting walls and hanging their creatures of the deep

All kids are required to write an original poem

also displayed in the ocean

Spring

This morning I went to Lilacia Park for the annual
plant sale. I had the time wrong, but boy is it beautiful
What a great way to start my day

This is the park near my house

It's Lilac Time

It is lilac time in Lombard
Friday May 1st kicked off the 16 day festival with a father daughter dance
Yesterday was the Art Fair
I took Karrick after travel tryouts(TJ stayed for batting practice)
and met Cal and Doug (they skateboarded there from home)
The weather was wonderful and a great time was had by all

Lilac Fest

This time of year Lombard blooms into a
gorgeous purple village

Downtown Lombard Main Street
is closed off
I feel like we live in a small town in
the south during Lilac time

Smack and it's a HOME RUN

It was just a great night to be TJ. While up to bat he smacked the ball so

hard that it went over the Center field fence. 230 + feet.

Automatic Home Run!

His team mates went out on the field to greet him at home plate

after his celebratory jog around the bases

I love the team spirit, what a fantastic group of kids

TJ is still smiling

Mr Turtle and R.O.B. and R.O.B.

Callahan got a new turtle today

Meet Mr. Turtle

Karrick got 2 female betta fish

meet R.O.B. and R.O.B.

Aristocats Live on stage

Tonight was Pleasant Lane's annual Spring musical.

The Kindergarten class sang songs from The lion king

Grades 1-3 performed The Jungle Book

and

Grades 4 and 5 performed The Aristocats

Callahan opted not to audition for a speaking role this year

 (I think he fell prey to peer pressure)

so he just enjoyed being in the chorus

Cal's class singing. You can see his head behind R. (the girl in complete black)

Cal and Ben

The 3 Musketeers

It was very cute and can't wait until Karrick starts Kindergarten 

as the little ones always steal the show

OMG !

This is about the saddest thing I've seen in a while.

This is what is left of my lawn after raking enough

dead grass to fill 8 lawn bags.

The Lime killed my lawn!

I bought the regular ole grass seed from the store,

spread it and watered it.

Hopefully I will have grass in 2 weeks

if not I may have to call in the professionals

It's HORRIFYING

Earth

Today was Callahan's turn to pick the movie

and he chose "earth".

Loved it!

Great scenery.

There was a lot of mama/baby

relationships throughout the movie and it was

as if karrick read my mind. He climbed up on my lap

and put his little arms around my neck. We watched the remainder

of the movie all snuggled together

A Rare Occasion

Today was one of those rare days when we had

 NOTHING at all planned. 

The boys had friends stay overnight after Friday's baseball

game. They woke me up this morning by playing(yelling) in the driveway

I jumped out of bed thinking it had to be noon and staggered down the stairs

just to see 7:28 am on the clock. Are you freakin kidding me?

Not only did they wake me, but the neighbors received the

same lovely gift (sorry Mona)

As I sat on my front porch with my extra strong coffee, I noticed

a single rose had bloomed overnight.

 A sense of calm came over me

I really wanted to enjoy some sun. I

missed most of it yesterday due to work, then 

Karrick's Slinky shoot downtown. By the time we got to TJ's game at 5:30

the wind was a howling

as clearly heard in all my videos

Mother Nature had other ideas

for my Saturday

I alternated between working inside and 

lounging on the deck when the sun did peak out for 10 min intervals

Once the torrential rains came, I packed up the kids and headed to

the health club

Cal and Ben (my 4th son)

running the track

For the 1 st hour we had the pool to ourselves

Who has eyes that big?

I'm thinking the new Morton Salt Boy

Our rainy Saturday turned out to be delightful. It

was a rare treat to just hang with my boys

and have some fun

I get to do it all over again tomorrow

because we have NOTHING planned except to sleep in.

(minus the extra boys)

We won't get another free weekend until Fall

It was a rare occasion

Opening Night

The White Sox played a tough game. We were tied 3-3 going in the 

last inning. Cards had last bats and scored at the last minute 

to end the game 4-3 Cardinals.

It was a solid game with TJ pitching 

the first 2 innings. His private pitching lesson

paid off. He pitched a respectable game

Coach Mike giving TJ a "adda boy" after pitching the 1 st inning

TJ chatting with the 1st baseman...Hello, not a social call

I like this first video because on his

way back to 1 st TJ looks at me and

gives me such a cute smile

He's still my baby

Hollywood

Karrick had a booking today for Leaps and bounds catalog

which required him to miss school. 

He informed me that when I report his absence to the school,

I should just tell them  "that he'll be in a meeting"

Oh Dear...

Karrick played a cute boy walking his Slinky down the 

stairs