Making forever memories

Yesterday I took Elena to two parks to play.  When she is not at school she always wants to go to a park.  It was a perfect day so off we went.  This is my last year to have Elena home with me.  I am super sad about that and plan the make the most of these last two months of school.  She and I will be making lots of special memories together before the next stage begins.

Elena is the most imaginative of our kiddos.  She can create play scenarios in her head like it's nothing.  I so enjoy watching her play.  Yesterday she was saving the universe from the people trying to steal all the guns.  Can you tell her brother is Samuel who tends to play similarly. She was busy playing in this imaginative world for two and a half hours!! It is a good thing for me that sitting at a park watching her is something that I love to do.

She was very interested in this cross being in a park

This girl

She was filthy and exhausted so she needed a quick minute to rest.

Elena has also become quite good at the monkey bars.  For being just five I am super impressed every time I watch her go across them.  This was the longest set she has tried and she made it look way too easy.  The craziest part is she doesn't just do it once.  It is like a challenge to Elena to see how many times she can go across which yesterday was at least 10 times!

After a day of making memories with Elena, I spent the evening making memories with Samuel.  As everyone knows we are big Rice baseball fans.  And, most everyone probably knows that Samuel is not a fan of Texas A&M.  However, Samuel has the Rice schedule pretty much memorized and he checks it regularly.  There is a 2015 season poster in his room.  So, he knew A&M and Rice were playing last night in College Station.  Drew and I decided it would be a fun experience for Samuel so I took him.  I became the "best mom ever" when Samuel was told I was taking him to the game! 

Watching this game in College Station was an experience.  Blue Bell Park is a nice baseball stadium and very fan friendly.  On a Tuesday night, it was packed like 5,000+ people packed.  Because Samuel really, really, dislikes A&M Drew and I spent a bunch of time talking with him about the game.  The chance of Rice winning was pretty slim.  A&M is having an amazing year losing only 2 games so far and they are the #1 team in college baseball at the moment.  We wanted him prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.  All these games we attend are fun, but we also use the time to talk with Samuel sportsmanship.  It is just another way he is learning to be a good sport on his playing field.

Yep, that is a train right next to the field....interesting!

The game was great....lots of hits, great pitching, no errors in the field, perfect weather.  Rice played the best game they have all year in my opinion until the very end.  Rice was winning for most of it.  Unfortunately, they blew it big time in the 7th and 8th. Rice lost 4-3.

Goofing off during one of the many A&M pitching changes

Love that he loves baseball as much as I do

Samuel was crushed.  But, to his credit he did a really good job of keeping his emotions in check.  He did not verbally lash out which is generally what he does.  He just sat in my lap for a while and cried silent big tears.  I was really proud of him as my heart broke for him.  It was especially tough because he is 7 and he doesn't understand the rowdy, slightly inappropriate college crowd.  Some of those fans weren't so nice to Rice, but again another lesson for Samuel.  We talked about the game and the next ones coming up for Rice to distract him some.  It worked and it was finally time to head back home.

Yes there were tears

Samuel was back to being kind of happy by the time we left.  However, with 5,000+ fans we were stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes.  Samuel did take that opportunity to say "aren't we outta here YET!"  It was kind of funny.  He also told me that A&M was "poop" which again made me laugh.  I decided not to tell him how Rice could have prevented him from feeling that way about A&M...another time perhaps!

75 miles later we made it home.  It was a late night for sure, but so worth it.  Even though Drew watched the game, Samuel recapped it for him.  The boy missed nothing!  When I was kissing him goodnight Samuel thanked me for taking him to his very first away baseball game.  Be still my heart!  Of course he said that with his awesome happy smile.  Man, I love making these memories with Samuel!  I think he'll remember this one for a long time to come and so will I.