Play Ball

Batter Up!

Watching the ball as it flies out into the diamond!

Ready for the next batter!

Foul Ball!  Eli is ready to catch it.

There's Buster up at bat.

Swing and it's a hit!

 

Way to go teams!

Whether batting or catching, Eli plays baseball with conviction.  He watches every move made out there and is ready.  As catcher he is often ready to yell out in a gruff voice where the play is.  "Plays on first.  Runner on second.  Batter up!"  Makes me laugh out loud.  He loves to play pickle as a runner and catch them as catcher.  

 A few days this week he came home with tears in his eyes, not even came home but out of the dugout.   He thought they could have done better.  Then when they do well he is flying high.  They're heading into the playoffs.  They have had a great season with a great coach.  After every game they gather in the dugout to give accolades to one another and the coaches.  Their hands fly up and they jump up and down wanting to be called on.  They all have so many compliments to say.   This season they have learned about teamwork, strategies, kindness and compassion.  They are all winners!      

Tule Boats

When we went to the local Natural History Museum a few weeks ago they had a small table where visitors could make things out of tule.  Since Eli is studying the Ohlone we decided it would be cool to harvest our own and then make those same things- a doll and a boat.  We went to a nearby lagoon and harvested the tule.  It's really easy to harvest, you just pull it out and the roots stay in.  

We hauled a small pile back home and made a few things.  A doll and a boat.  Eli was also trying to pull it apart to make it into a twine.  He said that's what they used for rope.  We were excited to try the boat and see if it actually floated.  We were pleased that it did.
  

Stage Shine

Eli has hit the stage two times in the last week.  Once, disguised as a pop singer singing with all the sincerity of himself.  I cut his hair to look like him, he wore the V neck sweater and backwards baseball cap.   Tonight he was a dwarf and pop singer impersonator.  He was a dwarf in a fractured fairy tale kind of story who had gotten mixed up with Alice in Wonderland.  His second role was providing entertainment in between set changes.  He would dance around, with a lot of emoting I must say, in between acts.  Then they would shoo him off the stage when the curtain opened. 

The students wrote, directed and acted in the plays.  Though his part was small he really shone.   He was so funny.  He has good comedic timing and the voices that he would put on were really funny.  My pictures certainly don't do his acting justice. 

Dinner Harvest

Many hands bring in dinner.  We had our first veggies out of the garden tonight.  They were delicious and fresh.  All the brassicas are starting to bolt with this warm weather.  It's okay because I have my eye on things like tomatoes and cucumbers.  Basil and zucchinis.  Even Emily enjoyed harvesting the radishes.  Saying huh, it's actually kind of fun.   Now I just have to figure out what to do with all those radishes.  I tried roasting a few and they were okay.  Perhaps with a little more seasoning, more than salt and pepper, they might be a bit more tasty.  Well,  there's lots of lettuce to go with them.  There's something about bringing in dinner from the garden that is so grounding.  I remember being in a writing class with a woman who wrote, "I like a man who can bring dinner in from the garden."     Here, here.  A good skill to have.